What are the Common Core State
Standards (CCSS) All About?
Conference for the Advancement of Mathematics Teaching
Houston, TX
July 19, 2012
Katey Arrington, Senior Program Coordinator
Brian Newsom, Program Coordinator
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Agenda
Overview
•  Why the Dana Center?
•  What are the CCSS?
•  A brief history of the CCSS
•  Structure of the CCSS
•  Assessments for the CCSS
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Texas not a CCSS State
Any questions?
We cannot answer the following questions:
•  Why hasn’t Texas adopted the CCSS?
•  Should Texas adopt the CCSS?
•  Might Texas adopt in the future?
•  Are the new TEKS similar to the CCSS?
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The Charles A. Dana Center
What we do
The Dana Center collaborates with local and national entities
to improve education systems so that they foster opportunity
for all students, particularly in mathematics and science. We
are dedicated to ensuring every student leaves school
prepared for success in postsecondary education and the
contemporary workplace—and for active participation in our
modern democracy.
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The Charles A. Dana Center
How we do it
We carry out our work by advocating for high academic
standards and by building the capacity of education systems
to ensure that all students can master the content described in
these standards. We help our partners translate research into
practice and adapt promising innovations to meet their needs.
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Geographical Scope of Our Current Work
The Charles A. Dana Center at The University of Texas at Austin
limited project work
moderate project work
significant project work
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Common Core State Standards Development
A brief history
The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a state-led
effort coordinated by the National Governors Association
Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council for
Chief State School Officers (CCSSO).
The standards were developed in collaboration with teachers,
school administrators, and other experts. These standards
define the knowledge and skills students should have within
their K-12 education careers so that they will graduate high
school able to succeed in entry-level, credit-bearing academic
college courses and in workforce training programs.
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Common Core State Standards Adoption
Participating states
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Common Core State Standards
Mission Statement
The Common Core State Standards provide a consistent,
clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so
teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them.
The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the
real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young
people need for success in college and careers.
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Authors
Many contributors
Dr. William McCallum – head of the University of Arizona’s
mathematics department and a lead author of the CCSS for
Mathematics.
Dr. Phil Daro – director of the San Francisco Field Site of
Strategic Education Research Partnership and contributing
author of the CCSS for Mathematics.
Dr. Jason Zimba – founding partner of Student Achievement
Partners and contributing author of the CCSS for
Mathematics.
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Common Core State Standards Development
Mathematics and English Language Arts Standards
The standards:
•  Are aligned with college and work expectations;
•  Are clear, understandable and consistent;
•  Include rigorous content and application of knowledge
through high-order skills;
•  Build upon strengths and lessons of current state
standards;
•  Are informed by other top performing countries, so that all
students are prepared to succeed in our global economy
and society; and
•  Are evidence-based.
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Progressions Documents
Background Information
1.  CCSS-M were built on “progressions,” which are narrative
documents describing the progression of a topic across grades.
2.  Progressions were informed by both research on children’s
cognitive development and by the logical structure of
mathematics.
3.  Progressions help explain why standards are sequenced the
way they are, point out cognitive difficulties and pedagogical
solutions.
4.  Currently there are 8 complete progressions available at
http://ime.math.arizona.edu/progressions/
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Progressions Documents
http://ime.math.arizona.edu/progressions/
Products
Draft 3–5 progression on Number and Operations—Fractions
Data part of the K–5 progression on Measurement and Data
Draft K–5 Progression on Number and Operations in Base Ten
Draft K–5 Progression on Counting and Cardinality and
Operations and Algebraic Thinking (Now includes all of K–5 OA)
Draft 6–8 Progression on Expressions and Equations
Draft 6–7 Progression on Ratios and Proportional Relationships
Draft 6–8 Progression on Statistics and Probability
Draft High School Progression on Statistics and Probability
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Common Core State Standards
The structure
The Common Core State Standards are comprised of two
corresponding and connected sets of standards:
1.  Standards for Mathematical Practice
A set of 8 standards that describe the ways in which the
mathematical content standards should be approached.
2.  Standards for Mathematical Content
These standards define what students should understand and
be able to do in their study of mathematics.
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Standards for Mathematical Practice
Ways in which content should be approached.
1.  Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
2.  Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
3.  Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of
others.
4.  Model with Mathematics.
5.  Use appropriate tools strategically.
6.  Attend to precision.
7.  Look for and make use of structure.
8.  Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
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Standards for Mathematical Content
Structure
Conceptual Category (HS Only)
•  Provides a coherent view of HS mathematics
Introduction
•  Provides important contextual information
Domain
•  Chunks a large group of related standards
Clusters/Cluster Headings
•  Identifies the primary ideas of the grade level
Standards
•  Describe what students should know and be able to do for the
cluster, domain, grade level
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✓
✓
✓
✓
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Standards for Mathematical Content
Convention for Notation
1.G.2
3.NF.2b
5.NBT.3a
A-SSE.1a
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Standards
forContent
Mathematical
Content
Mathematical
Standards
K-8Domains
Domains
K-8
Kindergarten–Grade 2
Grades 3–5
Counting & Cardinality (K only)
Operations & Alg. Thinking
Operations & Alg. Thinking
Number & Operations in Base 10
Number & Operations in Base 10
Number & Operations–Fractions
Measurement & Data
Measurement & Data
Geometry
Geometry
Grade 8
Grades 6–7
Ratios & Proportional Relationships
Number System
Number System
Expressions & Equations
Expressions & Equations
Functions
Geometry
Geometry
Statistics & Probability
Statistics & Probability
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Different
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Standards
forContent
Mathematical
Content
Mathematical
Standards
HighSchool
school conceptual
and
domains
High
Conceptualcategories
Categories
and
Domains
Number and Quantity
Functions
The Real Number System
Interpreting Functions
Quantities
Building Functions
The Complex Number System
Linear, Quadratic, and
Exponential Models
Vector and Matrix Quantities
Algebra
Seeing Structure in Expressions
Trigonometric Functions
Modeling
Arithmetic with Polynomials and
Rational Expressions
Creating Equations
Reasoning with Equations
and Inequalities
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Standards
forContent
Mathematical
Content
Mathematical
Standards
(continued)
HighSchool
school conceptual
and
domains
High
Conceptualcategories
Categories
and
Domains (Continued)
Geometry
Statistics and Probability
Congruence
Similarity, Right Triangles, and
Trigonometry
Circles
Expressing Geometric Properties
with Equations
Geometric Measurement and
Dimension
Interpreting Categorical and
Quantitative Data
Making Inferences and Justifying
Conclusions
Conditional Probability and the
Rules of Probability
Using Probability to Make
Decisions
Modeling with Geometry
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Assessment Consortias
PARCC States
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Assessment Design
Where have we been?
Standard
Task
Standard
Task
Standard
Task
Standard
Task
Standard
Task
Standard
Task
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Assessment Design
Where are we going?
Standards for
Mathematical Practice
Domain
Task
Cluster Heading
Standard
Standard
Standard
Claims
Task
Evidence
Cluster Heading
Standard
Standard
Standard
Task
Models
Task
Task
Task
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Evidence-Centered Design (ECD)
Claims
Evidence
Design begins
with the inferences
(claims) we want In order to support
to make about
claims, we must
students
gather evidence
Task Models
Tasks are
designed to elicit
specific evidence
from students in
support of claims
ECD is a deliberate, systematic approach to help
establish validity of the assessments,
increase comparability across years, and increase
efficiencies/reduce costs.
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Implementation
What’s happening
•  Standards were finalized in 2010
•  Wide variety of implementation plans in districts
•  Assessments from PARCC and SMARTER Balanced will go into
place in 2014-15
•  States and districts are sharing tools and learnings about
implementation with each other, networking across the US
“Its not the ‘standards’ that make the Common Core State
Standards special, its it ‘common’.”
-Dr. Bill McCallum, University of Arizona
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CCSS Tools
Available to the public
http://www.ccsstoolbox.com/
Charles A. Dana Center
http://Illustrativemathematicsproject.org
Institute for Mathematics & Education, University of Arizona
http://commoncoretools.me
Dr. Bill McCallum’s Blog
http://www.achievethecore.org
Student Achievement Partners
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The Bottom Line
What do we do now?
“It is time to recognize that standards
are not just promises to our children,
but promises we intend to keep.”
- Pg 5, CCSSM
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