Getting to the Core of the
Common Core State Standards
What they are! & How they came to be!
Implications for Policy and Practice
Advanced Literacy Panel
Princeton University
Dorothy S. Strickland. Ph.D.
Professor Emerita
Rutgers. The State University of New Jersey
2.22.13
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Overview
Why Common Core State Standards?
Issues! Concerns! Goals!
Implications for: Curriculum;
Assessment; Educator Evaluation;
Professional Development
Challenges & Cautions: Do No Harm!
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Why Standards?
Why Common Core State Standards?
Standards provide a shared vision of
what students, teachers, and policy
makers responsible for supporting
educational infrastructures should know
and be able to do.
Common Core State Standards
establish consistency across the states
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Concerns about “current” standards
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Equity
Efficiency
Expectations
International standing in
student achievement
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The Goals
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State initiated and developed; Voluntary
Research-based
Address knowledge and skills necessary
for college and careers
Benchmarked against standards from
high performing nations
Rigorous! Clear! Focused
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Anchor Standards
Students Who are College and Career Ready
in Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening, and Language
Characteristics  They demonstrate independence.
 They build strong content knowledge.
 They respond to the varying demands of
audience, task, purpose, and discipline.
 They comprehend as well as critique.
 They value evidence.
 They use technology and digital media
strategically and capably.
 They come to understand other perspectives
and cultures.
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The CCSS do not define -
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How teachers should teach
The entire spectrum of instructional content
The nature of advanced work beyond the
core
The interventions needed for students who
may need them*
The full range of support for English language
learners and students with special needs*
*supplementary materials now available in these areas
Shared vision! Multiple pathways!
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The CCSS for English Language Arts/Literacy in
History/Social Studies, Science, & Technical Subjects
Implications for Curriculum
CCSS design considerations for curriculum include:
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An integrated model of literacy.
A cumulative model of expectations.
Shared responsibility for students’
literacy development.
Research and media skills blended into
the standards as a whole.
Greater use of on-grade-level texts.
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The CCSS for English Language Arts/Literacy in
History/Social Studies, Science, & Technical Subjects
Assessment -
Enter the Federal Government
Two CCSS-based Assessment Consortia (funded by Fed. Gov.):
• The Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for
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College and Careers (PARCC)*
The SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium
(SMARTER)
Implementation begins 2014-2015 school year
*New Jersey has adopted PARCC & is a Governing State
PARCC and SMARTER focus on
the application of skills and strategies.
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Implications:
Linking Instruction to Assessment
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Instructional activities should be designed to
provide information about students’
knowledge and application of what they are
learning.
Periodic, formative assessments patterned
after prototypes available from the
assessment consortia as an integral part of
curriculum planning and instruction is an
important component of an effective CCSSbased curriculum.
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Example: PARCC, Grade 10 Evidence-Based
Selected-Response Item
Part A
What does the word vanity mean in these lines from the text “Daedalus and
Icarus”?
“Proud of his success, the foolish Icarus forsook his guide, and, bold in
vanity, began to soar” (lines 345-349)
a.arrogance*
b.fear
c.heroism
d.enthusiasm
Part B
Which word from the lines from the text in Part A best helps the reader
understand the meaning of vanity?
a.proud*
b.success
c.foolish
d.soar
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The CCSS for English Language Arts/Literacy in
History/Social Studies, Science, & Technical Subjects
Implications for Educator Evaluation
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The CCSS will influence the evaluation
of Teachers and Principals
Concerns:
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Accountability measures; weights
Non-tested grades and subjects
Training of observers
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The CCSS for English Language Arts/Literacy in
History/Social Studies, Science, & Technical Subjects
Implications for
Professional Development
Professional Development should:
 be linked to CCSS-based curriculum & grounded in
children’s learning processes;
 reflect a school’s vision for reform; shared by all in
the school community; encourage the formation of
study groups in which educators discuss their goals,
needs, and perceptions of student needs;
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be designed to attend to individual teacher/educator
needs and encourage reflection on practice;
outcomes of educator evaluation;
be long-term; embedded; focused.
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Challenges to Implementation:
Applications & Misapplications of Research
Common Core State Standards require Effective applications - Research to Practice!
Too often, the findings of major research reports
have been distilled and disseminated in ways that
foster teaching and learning that is devoid of
meaningful application to situations where students
must retrieve and successfully apply the appropriate
skills and/or strategies from a repertoire of those
they have learned.
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Do No Harm!
Harm is done when:
 Students, including our youngest learners,
are not taught in ways that encourage
independent application of skills and
strategies.
 Students are not taught to think analytically
and critically with oral and written texts,
whether traditional print or technology-based.
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Do No Harm!
Harm is done when:
 Students are not provided with opportunities
to build the background knowledge required
to understand and apply literacy skills to a
variety of content, both known and new.
Harm is done when:
 Students are denied opportunities to engage
in reading and writing that emphasizes
thinking as a way of learning, because of
their socio-economic or linguistic
backgrounds.
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Warning: Do No Harm!
Keep in mind that the choice is not about
whether or not to teach skills and strategies,
but how to teach and assess them to insure
that they are truly learned and applied
effectively by the learner.
Warning! Literacy learning and teaching that is
devoid of thinking may do harm and that harm
may be both grave and cumulative for ALL
students, especially those considered at risk .
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The Vision -an unprecedented opportunity
Policy makers and Educators at the
state, district, and school levels -will provide the leadership and guidance
needed for the successful implementation of
the ELA Common Core State Standards.
This effort has the potential to serve as catalyst
for reform, leading to a more coherent and
highly effective system of literacy education
for all children.
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