Are You Ready to Leap Into the
21st Century?
Because you ll have to!
Sam J. Zigrossi
Program Director, MEd, MBA
samz@austin.utexas.edu
512-232-2274
www.utdanacenter.org
2011
1
Are You Ready to Leap Into the 21st Century?
Because you ll have to!
Agenda:
• Focus on college and career readiness skills and
21st-century skills
• Why these new focus areas
• Explore some ideas to consider as we move to the next
level of mathematics expectations for our students
2011
2
Are You Ready to Leap Into the 21st Century?
Because you ll have to!
Learning objective:
To consider some ideas that you can pursue in your
teaching strategies that will help students move to a
higher level of learning mathematics.
2011
3
Are You Ready to Leap Into the 21st Century?
Because you ll have to!
The 2012 STAAR assessment
•  Will focus on college and career readiness
•  Will be more strongly aligned to the TEKS through
the designation of some TEKS statements as
Readiness or Supporting TEKS
•  Will be more rigorous
•  More griddable (open-ended) items
•  More items
•  Readiness TEKS will be always be assessed and
will be assessed multiple times
•  Test will be timed—4 hours
2011
4
The Changing Nature of the Test
STAAR EOC (2012)
Algebra I
"
2011
5
Are You Ready to Leap Into the 21st Century?
Because you ll have to!
What is going on?
Some history in Texas
2011
6
A Look Back
"
1980–1985
Texas Assessment of Basic Skills (TABS)
1986–1990
Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills
(TEAMS)
1990–2002
Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS)
2003–2011
Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS)
2011 &
beyond
State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness
(STAAR)
2011
7
Are You Ready to Leap Into the 21st Century?
Because you ll have to!
So, how well have we been doing?
Exit-level mathematics passing rates more than
doubled since 2003, rising from 44 percent in 2003
to 90 percent this year, even as standards rose
steadily over the same period. Extraordinary gains
were made by every grade level tested.
2011
8
Are You Ready to Leap Into the 21st Century?
Because you ll have to!
Looking at data from the National Assessment of
Educational Progress (NAEP), which is the best objective
measure we have, Texas 8th-graders from from 2000 to
2009 have progressed more than students in over 40 other
states, with the largest percentage of economically
disadvantaged students performing well, and with the cost
per pupil at or slightly below the national average.
Other grade levels have seen similar performance results.
YOU HAVE BEEN DOING A GREAT JOB.
2011
9
Are You Ready to Leap Into the 21st Century?
Because you ll have to!
The real problem in public education is
POVERTY
Not TEACHERS.
Our current system of schooling promotes lower
achievement with poverty.
2011
10
Are You Ready to Leap Into the 21st Century?
Because you ll have to!
For almost every type of assessment
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2011
11
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2011
12
This and the following slide are taken from The Future: Next Exit, a PowerPoint presentation
by Dr. Peter Bishop, Associate Professor of Futures Studies at the University of Houston, at the
February 28, 2011, meeting of the Texas Business and Education Coalition (TBEC).
Available via tbec.org/vipbriefing.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/146108/Least-Educated-LikelyFind-Jobs-2010.aspx
This and the preceding slide are taken from The Future: Next Exit, a PowerPoint presentation by Dr.
Peter Bishop, Associate Professor of Futures Studies at the University of Houston, at the
February 28, 2011, meeting of the Texas Business and Education Coalition (TBEC).
Available via tbec.org/vipbriefing.
Are You Ready to Leap Into the 21st Century?
Because you ll have to!
To be successful in the job market, students must be
prepared for job skills that are
nonroutine interactive and
nonroutine analytic.
2011
15
Are You Ready to Leap Into the 21st Century?
Because you ll have to!
My opinion is
Our goal is to prepare students to contribute to making
the world a better place while pursuing their dreams.
That means getting them ready for the 21st century.
2011
16
Are You Ready to Leap Into the 21st Century?
Because you ll have to!
To attain college and career readiness skills in
mathematics, students must learn math in a more
conceptual way, such that they can apply mathematics in our
ever-changing world to address demands that have become
increasingly quantitative in nature.
Through mathematics, people become more able to make
well-informed decisions by formulating conjectures and
testing hypotheses.
Mathematics cannot be viewed solely as a series of standalone courses or set of specific skills.
Texas College and Career Readiness Skills, 2009
2011
17
Are You Ready to Leap Into the 21st Century?
Because you ll have to!
College and career readiness standards???
Consider the following regarding the Texas CCRS:
Academic Skills and Knowledge
Nonacademic Skills and Knowledge
2011
18
Are You Ready to Leap Into the 21st Century?
Because you ll have to!
Nonacademic skills
Cross disciplinary such as:
•  Cognitive Skills
•  Intellectual curiosity
•  Reading
•  Writing
•  Reasoning
•  Research
•  Problem solving
•  Analysis and use of
data
•  Self monitoring
•  Academic tenacity
2011
19
Are You Ready to Leap Into the 21st Century?
Because you ll have to!
Nonacademic skills
Build some opportunities into your curriculum for some of
these types of activities when working with other teachers.
Start slow,
•
one per year, maybe, at the elementary level
•
One per semester in middle school
•
Moving to one per six weeks for seniors in high school
2011
20
Are You Ready to Leap Into the 21st Century?
Because you ll have to!
Academic knowledge and skills
Increasing the rigor of learning mathematics???
Some myths about rigor . . .
2011
21
Are You Ready to Leap Into the 21st Century?
Because you ll have to!
Myth 1: If you have rigorous standards, you have a rigorous
course. Rigor isn t as much about the standards as it is about how
you ask students to learn the knowledge and skills described in the
standards.
Myth 2: Rigor means more work. While rigorous instruction may
require that students put forth more effort, the level of rigor is not
determined by the volume of work students complete.
Myth 3: Rigor means harder. Rigorous classrooms do present
more challenges to students, but there is a difference between
challenging and difficult.
2011
22
Are You Ready to Leap Into the 21st Century?
Because you ll have to!
Myth 4: Rigor is a matter of content. Just because you focus on highly
rigorous content does not guarantee a highly rigorous learning
experience for students. How you ask students to engage in the content
is the key.
Myth 5: Younger students cannot engage in rigorous instruction.
Even young children can think and interact with material in highly
rigorous ways.
Myth 6: In order to engage in rigor, students must first master the
basics. Rigorous thinking is involved in learning even the most basic
material.
Myth 7: Rigor is for the elite. All students can and should have access
to rigorous instruction and learning.
2011
23
Are You Ready to Leap Into the 21st Century?
Because you ll have to!
Academic knowledge and skills
Increasing the rigor of learning mathematics???
Consider the RIGOR AND RELEVANCE FRAMEWORK
2011
24
Are You Ready to Leap Into the 21st Century?
Because you ll have to!
Summary:
Working with your colleagues . . .
•
Determine the culture you want to develop in support of
your students
•
Study the TEKS (readiness and supporting)
•
Modify your existing curriculum materials to align them
with the intended rigor of the TEKS
•
Develop a few student activities that support your culture
and that will move your students toward learning at a
higher level of rigor and relevance (the D quadrant).
2011
25
Are You Ready to Leap Into the 21st Century?
Because you ll have to!
Quadrant D could include activities like:
Writing a paper on how mathematics connects with
another content area
Using appropriate mathematical models for a natural,
physical, or social science application
Analyzing and using data for a given topic
Developing a presentation and teaching other students
something about mathematics (e.g., Fibonacci numbers)
2011
26
Are You Ready to Leap Into the 21st Century?
Because you ll have to!
Consider reframing your job
Prepare students to be ready for a specific step after
high school, such that they can have the knowledge
and skills to improve the world while pursuing their
dreams.
2011
27
Are You Ready to Leap Into the 21st Century?
Because you ll have to!
Resources:
Texas College and Career Readiness Standards. (2009). Available
on the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board website,
www.thecb.state.tx.us
Academic Youth Development learningandtheadolescentmind.org
Achieving Academic Excellence through Rigor and Relevance.
(Willard R. Daggett, September 2005). www.leadered.com/pdf/
academic_excellence.pdf
2011
28
Are You Ready to Leap Into the 21st Century?
Because you ll have to!
Resources:
A project-based yearlong activity that deals with $.
guide2digitallearning.com/blog_grant_zimmerman/
easily_managed_project (A project on the website Digital Learning
Environments: Tools and Technologies for Effective Classrooms)
Seven Myths About Rigor. (January 13, 2011). mindstepsinc.com/
2011/01/seven-myths-about-rigor
The Future: Next Exit. A PowerPoint presentation by Dr. Peter Bishop,
Associate Professor of Futures Studies at the University of Houston,
at the February 28, 2011, meeting of the Texas Business and
Education Coalition (TBEC). Available via tbec.org/vipbriefing.
2011
29
Are You Ready to Leap Into the 21st Century?
Because you ll have to!
Learning objective:
To consider some ideas that you can pursue in your
teaching strategies that will help students move to a
higher level of learning mathematics.
2011
30
Are You Ready to Leap Into the
21st Century?
Because you ll have to!
Sam J. Zigrossi, Program Director, MEd, MBA
samz@austin.utexas.edu
512-232-2274
2011
31