Introducing

1. STANDARDS Aligning Schools around State StandardsDr. Ronald S. Thomasrathomas@towson.edu 410-704-5770 Center for Leadership in Education at Towson University

2. Introducing Dr. Ronald S. Thomas Associate Director Center for Leadership in Education Towson University Former Assistant Superintendent for Educational Accountability Baltimore County, Maryland, Public Schools

3. The Big Picture In this session, you will learn how several components of curriculum, instruction, and assessment can be aligned around state content standards.

4. Standards What Is Alignment? Assuring that all components of the school converge to support students learning the state’s content standards at a high level

5. Shifting the Focus to the Standards “Standards have created a kind of vacuum. In the main, this vacuum is being filled by tests – obsessions about tests, preparation for tests, and fears of test results. So long as teachers are ambivalent toward standards and passive about them as a catalyst to improve instruction, tests and accountability will fill the vacuum….” Hayes Mizell Edna McConnell Clark Foundation

6. Shifting the Focus to the Standards “This does not have to be the case. When teachers take action by using standards to focus on improving their performance and that of their students, they shift the focus from testing to learning, from accountability to responsibility, and from obligation to opportunity.” Hayes Mizell Edna McConnell Clark Foundation ASCD Education Update, January 2002

7. A Pause to Chat Talk with a colleague or two around you: What are the implications of these ideas for you?

8. The Most Essential Question in a Standards-Based School • What are the characteristics of • the curriculum, instructional • strategies, and assessments • (CIA) at our school that • contribute to our student • achievement results?

9. It is Essential Because . . . • The most important influence on • student • learning: • Is what is happening daily in classrooms

10. Building the Capacity of Staff to Align around the Standards Educators need to: • Understand the curriculum indicators and objectives • Teach to the indicators and objectives • Assess the indicators and objectives with the same content, format, and rigor as the important assessments • Monitor individual student progress in relation to the indicators and objectives • Target intervention programs to the indicators and objectives on which students are not succeeding

11. What Does It Mean to “Understand” the Curriculum Standards? When educators “understand” the curriculum indicators and objectives, they can“unpack” or “unwrap” them and will know exactly the specific knowledge and skills students need to learn in their grade or course.

12. Standards may need to be “unpacked” because of the way they evolved. 1983: A Nation at Risk 1989: Six National Educational Goals (Expanded to 8 goals in 1994) Early 1990s: Subject matter standards from virtually every subject matter organization Mid 1990s: 49 of 50 states developed standards, independent of each other 2001: Assessments must be linked to standards for NCLB test www.MCREL.org

13. Maryland Voluntary State Curriculum (Grades PreK-8) Standards Indicators Objectives (with Assessment Limits)

14. High School Standards Core Learning Goals Expectations Indicators (With Assessment Limits)

15. Unpacking State Standards To unpack standards, indicators, or objectives means to identify the knowledge and skills embedded in them. “Unpacking content standards is a proven technique to help educators identify from the full text of indicators and objectives exactly what they need to teach their students. ‘Unpacked’ standards provide clarity as to what students must know and be able to do.” - Ainsworth (2003)

16. Unpacking State Standards • This is important so that we can: • Identify the prerequisite knowledge and skills that might stand in the way of learning. • Know what to re-teach when students don’t learn.

17. Unpacking State Standards • What does this indicator/objective mean? • How can it be written in “student friendly” language? • What knowledge and skills are “embedded” in it?

18. Example of Unpacking Indicator: Collect, organize, and display data. Objective: Collect data by conducting surveys to answer a question. Objective: Organize and display data in double bar graphs. Assessment Limit: No more than 20 data points and whole numbers (0-100)

19. Unpacking State Standards How could you write this indicator and objective in language that a student would understand? How would you “unpack” it to identify the embedded knowledge and skills?

20. But can the students master all the VCS indicators and objectives? Maryland’s Reading, Writing and Language VSC

21. A National Perspective • A problem is that we have too many standards. • MCREL analyzed 116 standards documents from across the country. They found that, when all subjects are counted, there are an average of: • 200 different standards, broken into • 3,093 specific topics (often called benchmarks or indicators) in these documents. • MCREL estimated it would take about 5 hours of instruction for students to learn most indicators. • Needed: Total of 15,500 hours • Marzano and Kendall, “Awash in a Sea of Standards” (1998)

22. Students can’t learn all the standards at a high level. We must prioritize. In the most optimistic scenario, schools currently have less than 10,000 hours of instruction over 13 years. Therefore, to teach and reinforce all the benchmarks, we would need to increase schooling to 20-21 years, instead of 13, if time each year is not increased. Marzano and Kendall, “Awash in a Sea of Standards” (1998)

23. How do we prioritize? Douglas Reeves talks about the concept of “Power Standards.” In Maryland, we would call them “Power Indicators or Objectives.”

24. What Does It Mean to“Teach to” the Curriculum Standards? First, this means that educators focus instruction on the indicators and objectives that are: • Assessed on national, state, and district assessments in which achievement data indicate students are weak • Most needed by students for success in future grades and in life (have endurance) • Most useful in more than one academic discipline (have leverage).

25. How to Begin to Identify the Power Indicators • Arrange for two faculty conversations about reading or math. • First, teams ask teams from the grade above them, “Using the criteria, what indicators and objectives should we be sure our students know by the end of this year?” • Then, teams meet with teams from the grade below them and list for them (using the criteria) the indicators and objectives that students should be sure to know when they get them next year.

26. What Does It Mean to“Teach to” the Curriculum Standards? Second, this means that all students are taught grade-level work every day. 12 Content standards 8 Assignment level 1 1 8 12

27. The Instructional Gap The difference between the rigor of the state content standards and the rigor of student classroom assignments Average Assignment Level Gap Grade 1: 0.9 - .1 Grade 3: 2.7 - .3 Grade 5: 3.9 - 1.1 Grade 8: 5.8 - 2.2 Grade 12: 7.8 - 4.2 Curriculum Calibration Study by DataWork Educational Research of 192,252 assignments from 174 schools in 62 school districts

28. Why is teaching on grade-level important? • Students can perform no higher than the assignments they are given. • State tests assess grade-level content. • Students cannot learn what they are not taught. • All students learn more when taught at a higher level than at a lower level.

29. How can you know if your instruction is not on grade level? Analyze the verbs in the indicators and objectives. Be sure that you are asking your students to demonstrate these skills at the level called for.

30. Aligning Instruction with VSC Grade-level Objectives For example, when indicators and objectives call for students to analyze, this means assignments should ask students to examine a reading closely, study it, pull the material apart, and find its sub-parts or components in order to understand it better. Terms in blue in the VSC are hot-linked to their definitions on www.mdk12.org.

31. Aligning Instruction with VSC Grade-level Objectives

32. What Does It Mean to “Assess” the Curriculum Standards? When educators “assess” the curriculum standards, they align the content, format, and grading rigor of their classroom assessments with the expectations of the indicators and objectives and with sample questions from the important assessments.

33. Alignment of Assessment Content withCurriculum Standards When teachers “assess” the curriculum standards, they center the content of their classroom assessments on the objectives from the VSC with assessment limits.

34. Alignment of Assessment Format withCurriculum Standards When teachers “assess” the curriculum standards, they use in some of their class assessments the same format and routines as the most important assessments so that students become familiar with responding in these ways and within strict time frames.

35. Why is classroom assessment alignment important to analyze? Pedulla (2001) found that: • About 80% of 12,000 teachers from 47 states reported that they felt pressure from their principals to raise student scores on state tests. • But, only 50% of these same teachers reported using the content and format of the state tests in their everyday classroom assessments.

36. Alignment of Assessment Rigor with Curriculum Standards When teachers “assess” the curriculum standards, they grade their classroom assessments with the same level of rigor as that used by the state in grading the tests.

37. To Align the Rigor of Classroom Assessments with the Rigor Expectedby the State: Use the state rubric to score sample papers from the state web site and compare your scores with scores given by the state’s scorers.

38. Which aspects of your classroom assessments need the most work to align them with the state assessments? • Content? What have you done? • Format? What are your next • Rigor? steps?

39. What Does It Mean to “Monitor Individual Student Progress in Relation to” the Curriculum Standards? When educators monitor individual student progress in relation to the curriculum standards, they can identify the indicators and objectives that individual members of their class have mastered and the indicators and objectives they need to work on more.

40. If We Tracked Student Progress on Power Indicators? What would grade books look like?What would report cards look like? Brainstorm with a colleague.

41. To “Monitor Individual Student Progress in Relation to” the Curriculum Standards: Go to: www.mdk12.org/data/course/m4w2/pr2 for data collection templates that enable educators to generate Excel spreadsheets on which they can track student progress on the VSC indicators and objectives that they identify.

42. Going to that site on the web will enable you to access the Voluntary State Curriculum. Voluntary State Curriculum English Language Arts 1087654321KPK Mathematics 87654321KPK Science  87654321KPK Social Studies  87654321KPK Click on the subject and grade you want.

43. You will then go directly to the VSC. Reading, Grade 3Please check the objectives you would like to include in the grade book. Determine important ideas and messages in informational text • Identify and explain the author's/text's purpose and intended audience (MSA) • Identify and explain the author's opinion (MSA) • State and support main ideas and messages (MSA) • Summarize the text or a portion of text (MSA) • Identify and explain information not related to the main idea (MSA) • Identify and explain relationships between and among ideas (MSA) (MSA) indicates the item is assessed on the Maryland State Assessment.Generate worksheet

44. The site will generate an EXCEL spreadsheet. Determine important ideas and messages in informational text • Identify and explain the author's/text's purpose and intended audience (MSA)

45. What are the drivers and barriers in your school to tracking student progress on Power Indicators? What could you do to overcome the barriers and put in place in your school this year a process of tracking student progress on a few Power Indicators?

46. What Does It Mean to “Intervene” with Students Not Succeeding on the Curriculum Standards? When educators intervene with students not succeeding on the curriculum standards, they focus their academic assistance on the specific indicators and objectives students need help on and vary the assistance based on individual needs.

47. Additional Alignment Questions • Do expectations increase as students move up the grades and take more advanced courses? • Are expectations consistent from teacher to teacher in a school and school to school in a region and district? Why is each of these questions important?

48. Zero to Five • 0:“I am opposed to this and will not do it.” • 1: Not Planned : “This is not on my radar screen.” • 2: Planned but Not Implemented: “I know about • it but do it only occasionally.” • 3: Implemented a Little: “I am really trying to do • this on a regular basis.” • 4: Implemented a Great Deal:“I am pretty good • at this but know that I have more to learn.” • 5: Fully Implemented:“I am an expert at this.”

49. Apply “Zero to Five” to Each of These in Terms of Your Academic Area of Interest Do you: • Understand the state indicators and objectives? • Teach to the indicators and objectives? • Assess the indicators and objectives with the same content, format, and rigor as the MSA/HSA? • Monitor individual student progress in relation to the indicators and objectives? • Target intervention programs to the indicators and objectives on which students are not succeeding?

50. Say, “Goodbye” to your “weakest link.” How could this knowledge guide you as you plan your grade level and vertical team meetings this year?