Ready Washington
Communicating about Common Core
and Smarter Balanced
Nov. 20, 2014
www.ReadyWA.org
Today’s Agenda
• What is Common Core?
• Summer 2015: First Smarter Balanced test
scores released
• Ready WA campaign overview
• Internal communications (teacher voices)
• 5 “make-or-break” moments
• Statewide polling
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Ready Washington Coalition
• Ready Washington, a coalition of state and local
education agencies, associations and advocacy
organizations, supports college- and career-ready
learning standards and next-generation assessments:
- All students should be better prepared for
college, work and life to build the skills to compete
for the quality jobs that our state has to offer.
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Real Learning for Real Life
Washington state public awareness
campaign to:
1) Build public awareness, understanding and
support for Common Core State Standards
and their aligned Smarter Balanced
assessments.
2) Help schools/educators communicate about
Common Core and assessments.
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Real Learning for Real Life
What Is
Common Core?
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What is Common Core?
The Common Core State Standards:
• Are K-12 learning standards in math and English
language arts
• Provide a consistent set of learning standards for all
students, no matter where they live
• Set learning goals or expectations for what students
should know and be able to do by the end of a
specific section or grade level
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What is Common Core?
The Common Core State Standards:
• Build on one another, allowing students to apply the
skills and knowledge they learned in the previous
grade to real-life situations.
• Go deeper into fewer topics and focus on developing
students’ deeper understanding of key concepts
(typical state standards are thought to be a “mile
wide and an inch deep).
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Real Learning for Real Life
Smarter Balanced
assessments
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Smarter Balanced Assessments
• The new assessment system debuts in 2014-15.
• Assesses Common Core in math and ELA.
• Measurement of skills like research, listening and
communicating reasoning.
• Results will be returned faster and comparable
across states grades 3-8 and 11.
• Testing and technology innovations are used.
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Smarter Balanced Assessments
• OSPI’s State Report Card will not report past
MSP/HSPE results with Smarter Balanced
scores
– There will be new baseline scores because these
are new exams set to higher standards
– They are not comparable to previous state exams
– The tests college- and career-readiness; not basic
skills like MSP/HSPE
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Smarter Balanced Assessments
• Not just a testing system
– A tool for teachers to measure growth throughout year
• Technology based
– Students take tests on a computer
• Adaptive exams
– Adjusts questions based on student answers
• Interim exam
– Assessments throughout school year enable teachers to
use results to change instruction and monitor
understanding and academic growth
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Smarter Balanced Assessments
Smarter Balanced cut scores set Nov. 14
According to the 22-state consortium:
41% of 11th graders will show proficiency in ELA
33% of 11th graders will show proficiency in math
44% of middle schoolers will show proficiency in ELA
39% of middle schoolers will show proficiency in math
38% of grade schoolers will show proficiency in ELA
32% of grade schoolers will show proficiency in ELA
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Smarter Balanced Assessments
Will the new Smarter Balanced tests be harder
than our current exams?
Yes, but that’s because they are aligned to the Common
Core State Standards, which are more difficult than our
state’s former learning standards in math, reading and
writing. Our current state exams measure basic skills.
Smarter Balanced, reflecting the Common Core
standards, tests students at a college- and-career
readiness level.
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Smarter Balanced Assessments
Will test scores be lower on the Smarter Balanced
tests compared to our current state exams?
It’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. Student test
scores may initially be lower than what students,
parents and teachers have seen in the past. Smarter
Balanced tests set a new, measuring the skills and
knowledge students need to succeed after high school,
including problem-solving, writing and critical thinking.
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Smarter Balanced Assessments
Tests will be more accessible to all students:
• Smarter Balanced tests will have translations or
glossaries in 10 languages and dialects, and
American Sign Language.
• Tests have embedded accommodations and supports
for students with and without disabilities (such as
text-to-speech, enlarged print, color contrast).
• Interim assessments also will have same supports.
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Real Learning for Real Life
Frame the
Message
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Why Common Core?
Washington state’s economy:
• 3rd in the concentration of STEM jobs.
st
• 1 in the creation of software companies.
• 4th in the nation in technology-based
corporations.
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Why Common Core?
March 2013, Washington Roundtable report:
“Great Jobs Within Our Reach: Addressing the
Growing Job Skills Gap”
• Right now, Washington has 25,000 unfilled
jobs for highly-skilled workers – and that
number is projected to double by 2017.
• 80% of jobs in STEM and healthcare fields
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Why Common Core?
Remediation rate for WA students
2-Year Colleges
57%
enrolled in at least
one high-school
level course
Washington 2010 graduates enrolled in at least one pre-college (remedial) course in 201011 at the community college level -- State Board of Community and Technical Colleges
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Why Common Core?
Preparedness
Equity
• Requires every
student to meet
the same rigorous
college- and
career-ready
English and math
standards.
• Different starting
positions;
common
graduation
standard.
• All students –
regardless of
where they live –
will be challenged
to meet the same
expectations.
(WA one of 12
states where
achievement gap
is growing)
Economic
Future
• Common Core
was developed by
governors and
state school chiefs
concerned about
the United States’
battle to remain
globally
competitive.
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Real Learning for Real Life
Building Awareness,
Understanding &
Support
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Real Learning for Real Life
Ready WA’s target audiences
Parents (primary)
Educators (external) & educators (internal)
Opinion leaders (lawmakers, business leaders)
Note: These will be similar for any school district or organization.
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Real Learning for Real Life
Ready WA communications channels
Website: FAQs, handouts, videos
Social media: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube
Paid media: Digital advertising & radio
Ground game: Parent outreach w/state PTA
Earned media: Op-eds, editorial boards, stories
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www.ReadyWA.org
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Facebook & Twitter
www.facebook.com/ReadyWA
www.twitter.com/ReadyWA
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www.YouTube.com
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Teacher Voices/Internal Comms
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Teacher Voices
• Group of nine educators gathered in Phoenix
in January 2014 with 9 other states
• Goal was to help teachers become advocates
for what’s happening in their classroom
(college- and career-ready learning standards)
• We’re looking to double the number of
teachers this school year (any volunteers?)
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Teacher Voices
• Our WA team came away with specific
takeaways for each member:
– Teacher blog
– Talk to colleagues; build network
– Write an op-ed/participate in media
events
– Talk to local lawmakers
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Teacher Voices
What you can do
• Teachers/principals participate with PTA to
show the why and how
• Communicate internally with all staff (who
knows what, and who are advocates)
• Write blogs, engage the media (invite key
stakeholders into the classroom or training)
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Teacher Voices
Parent Outreach Efforts
• Two-year grant with State PTA to build
awareness and understanding
• Goal is to reach 75% of local PTA units this
school year and 90% in 2015-16
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Real Learning for Real Life
Five Make-or-Break
Moments
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Make-or-Break Moments
What’s a make-or-break moment?
A key time period, date or event to increase
communications efforts or initiatives.
In October 2013, a team from state education
agencies, the state teachers association and
education advocacy organizations met to
develop Washington’s make-or-break moments.
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Real Learning for Real Life
Build Timeline: When will it start and end?
Identify targets: Who’s your audience?
Set goals: What do you want to achieve?
Craft messages: What do you want to say?
Choose channels: How will you communicate?
Measure results: What does success look like?
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Make-or-Break Moments
• Spring 2014 during and post field testing
• Fall 2014 when the new school year begins
• Early 2015 before testing begins/state
Legislature
• Spring 2015 when testing is happening/ending
• Summer 2015 when testing scores are
returned
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Make-or-Break Moment No. 1
Spring 2014, during and post field testing
• 200,000 students throughout the state took the
Smarter Balanced field test.
• The field test was a test of the test; no individual
student scores were reported.
• Parents, especially in those testing districts, became
more aware of Common Core and the new
assessments.
• Ready WA developed FAQs & worked with districts to
communicate during and after the field tests.
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Common Core FAQs
Do people in WA support Common Core?
• Yes, across Washington, 70% of residents, teachers
and people like you support the Common Core.
• 68% agree that an initial drop in state test scores is
worth it if student learning increases over time.
• 75% agree the new Smarter Balanced assessments
are better geared to accurately measure what
students really know and can do.
(Partnership for Learning statewide poll, June 2014)
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Questions?
You’ve heard from us; let us hear from you.
And be sure to follow Ready WA on Facebook
and Twitter and visit www.ReadyWA.org for
resources and information.
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Contact Info
Chris Barron, Partnership for Learning
chris@partnership4learning.org
Nathan Olson, OSPI
nathan.olson@k12.wa.us
Sean Agriss, Eastern Washington University
sagriss@ewu.edu
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