COMMON
CORE STATE
STANDARDS
OVERVIEW
JULY 25, 2012
Mr. Tony Cook
Mrs. Andrea Patterson
What is the CCSS Initiative?
 An
initiative of the National Governors
Association and the Council of Chief
State School Officers
 A significant and historic opportunity for
states to collectively develop and adopt
a core set of academic standards in
mathematics and English language arts
 Single largest enterprise wide initiative
ever undertaken in American K-12 schools
 Largest change in classroom expectations
ever
What are the CCSS?
 Aligned
with college and work
expectations
 Rigorous content requiring higher-order
thinking and application of knowledge
 Internationally benchmarked
 Evidence-and/or research-based
Rationale for CCSS
 Provides
consistency across states
 Prepares students to compete globally
 Allows for more focused professional
development
 Allows for the development of a common
assessment
 Provides the opportunity to compare and
evaluate policies that affect student
achievement across states
 US K-12 students have fallen to the middle
of the pack in global education rankings
Implementation Timeline
2011-2012
2012-2013
2013-2014
2014-2015
Grades K-2
Grades 3-8
Grades 9-12
Live Assessments
How Will Instruction Change?
 Increase
in rigor and relevance
 Emphasis on higher order thinking skills
 Move toward performance-based
learning opportunities
 More emphasis on research and writing
 Increased use of technology to present
products
SCHOOLS DO NOT HAVE SUBSTANTIAL
EXPERIENCE WITH ENTERPRISE CHANGE
 Common
Core Standards require
significant change for every teacher.
 Common Core Standards require
significant change for every principal.
 Common Core Standards require
immediate action even though
implementation is over time.
English Language Arts Shifts
 Balancing
informational text and literary
text
 Building knowledge in the disciplines
 Focusing on text complexity and what
students read
 Requiring text-based answers
 Writing about sources (evidence)
 Stressing academic and domain-specific
vocabulary
Percentage Distribution of Literary and
Informational Passages
Grade
Literary
Informational
4th
50
50
8
45
55
12
30
70
Informational Text
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Much of our knowledge base comes from informational
text.
Informational text makes up vast majority of required
reading in college and the workplace (80%).
Informational text is harder for students to comprehend
than narrative text.
Students are asked to read very little of informational
text in elementary and middle school (7-15%).
Utilize a balanced literacy approach (reader’s
workshop, writer’s workshop, literature circles).
Evidence Based
Reading and Writing
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Most college and workplace writing is evidencebased and expository in nature.
The standards in writing ask students to respond to
evidence-based writing prompts (inform/argue).
The standards in reading require students to
respond to text-dependent questions with
evidence-based claims.
Rich and rigorous conversations are dependent
on a common text.
Students develop habits for crafting arguments in
conversation and in writing.
Evaluate others use of evidence.
MAJOR SHIFT: TEXT-DEPENDENT
QUESTIONS

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
Far longer amounts of classroom time spent on
text worth reading and rereading carefully
Base answers on what has been read, not on
opinions or experience
Recent study found that 80% of the questions
students were asked when they were reading are
answerable without direct reference to the text
being read.
ARGUMENTS CONTAIN
A
general topic or main contention
 CLAIMS or elaborations on the topic
 EVIDENCE for the claims made
 EXPLANATION of HOW evidence SUPPORTS
the claims
 Anticipated response (pro or con)
To Argue…and Inform…in Writing CCSS
Requires Argument/Evidence-Based
Writing
Grade
To Persuade
To Explain
To Convey
Experience
4
30%
35%
35%
8
35%
35%
30%
12
40%
40%
20%
Complex Text

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The gap between complexity of college and
high school texts is huge!
The Common Core Standards include a
staircase of increasing text complexity from
elementary through high school
The Common Core Standards focus on
building vocabulary that is shared across
many types of complex texts and many
content areas
Teachers need to be patient. Create more
time and space in curriculum for close and
careful reading of complex text.
Expose students to text that is more complex
than their reading level suggests.
Lexile Bands
Grade Band
Current Lexile
Band
“Stretch” Lexile
Band
K-1
N/A
N/A
2-3
450L-725L
420L-820L
4-5
645L-845L
740L-1010L
6-8
860L-1010L
925L-1185L
9-10
960L-1115L
1050L-1335L
11-CCR
1070L-1220L
1185L-1385L
ACT Study- Schmeiser, 2006
 Students
who were Unprepared in
READING had a 1% chance of later
success in science and 15% chance of
success in math
 Students who were Prepared in READING
had a 32% chance of later success in
science and 67% chance of later success
in math
Acquiring Vocabulary
 Three
tiers of words are vital for
comprehension and vocabulary
development.
Tier 1-everyday speech
Tier 2-general academic words
Tier 3-domain-specific words
KINDERGARTEN ESSENTIAL
VOCABULARY IN CCSS
ELA
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Stanza
Preference
Punctuation
Collaborate
Illustrator
Brainstorm
Non-fiction
MATH
Attribute
Decompose
Decomposition
Composition
Hexagon
Dimensional
Vertices
Math Shifts
 Focus
on key topics at each grade level
 Coherent progressions across grade levels
 Fluency
 Deep understanding
 Applications
 Mathematical practices that foster
reasoning, modeling, and sense-making
Focus
 Focus
strongly where the standards focus!
 Significantly narrow the scope of content
and deepen how time and energy is
spent in the math classroom.
 Focus deeply only on what is emphasized
in the standards, so that students gain
strong foundations.
Coherence
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Think across grades, and link to major topics.
Carefully connect the learning within and
across grades so that students can build new
understanding onto foundations built in
previous years.
Begin to count on solid conceptual
understanding of core content and then build
on it. Each standard is not a new event, but
an extension of previous learning.
Standards for Mathematical Practice
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Make sense of problems and persevere in solving
them
Reason abstractly and quantitatively
Construct viable arguments and critique the
reasoning of others
Model with mathematics
Use appropriate tools strategically
Attend to precision
Look for and make use of structure
Look for and express regularity in repeated
reasoning
Math Priorities
Grade
Priorities in Support of Rich
Instruction and Expectations
of Fluency and Conceptual
Understanding
K-2
Addition and subtraction,
measurement using whole
number quantities
3-5
Multiplication and division of
whole numbers and fractions
6
Ratios and proportional
reasoning; early expressions and
equations
7
Ratios and proportional
reasoning; arithmetic of rational
numbers
8
Linear algebra
STANDARDS FOR MATHEMATICAL
PRACTICE IN A CLASSROOM
McDonald’s Claim
Wikipedia reports that 8% of all Americans eat at
McDonald’s every day. In the US, there are
approximately 310 million Americans and 12,800
McDonald’s. The average McDonald’s store can
serve 1,500 people per day.
Do you believe the Wikipedia report to be true?
Create a mathematical argument to justify your
position.
PARCC
 Mississippi
is a governing state in the
PARCC consortium; as such, Mississippi will
be on the governing board that makes
decisions about the assessment design
and development.
 The assessment design was revised in June
2011.
Two Components of the
Summative Assessment
Performance Assessment
 Given primarily on the computer; composed primarily
of performance tasks with emphasis on hard-tomeasure standards
 Results will be returned in 2 weeks
 This assessment will be given 75% into the school year.
End of Year Assessment
 Given on computer with multiple item types
 Scored entirely by computer for fast results
*These two assessments will be combined for an overall
score.
The Performance Assessment
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Over several class periods students will complete a
project-like task that draws on a range of skills.
ELA tasks will focus on writing effectively when
analyzing texts, using evidence from the texts to
support claims.
Math tasks will require students to apply key
mathematical skills, concepts, and processes to
solve complex problems of the types encountered
in everyday life, work, and decision-making
The End-of-Year Assessment
 This
assessment will consist of a range of
item types including innovative
technology-enhanced items to sample
the full set of grade-level standards.
 Expect to see multiple choice items, open
ended questions, etc.
Speaking/Listening
Assessment
 There
will be a speaking/listening
assessment. Teachers will score this
assessment using a rubric. This will not be
used for accountability.
 Scores may be used within students’
grades.
Optional Formative
Assessments
 There
are two formative assessments that
districts may choose to administer. These
will not count towards accountability.
 The first assessment would be given at the
beginning of the year, and the second
assessment would be administered at the
middle of the year.
What Can We Start Doing Now?
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Become familiar with the new Lexile
framework
Fill classrooms with informative and nonfiction
texts
Ask students to write to explain their answers
Incorporate open ended questions
Integrate the math practices in your lessons
Provide speaking/listening opportunities for
students
Classroom Libraries
 Build
your classroom libraries!
 Fill your library with a variety of genres.
Organize baskets by genre, author, or
series.
 Make sure there are a variety of levels
within each basket.
MCT 2 Assessment
The following test item is from the reading
portion of a grade 6 MCT 2 language arts
practice test.
The word daunting is used in lines 3 and 31 of
the poem.
Based upon the context clues, what does
daunting mean?
A. Clever and tricky
B. Final and endless
C. Surprising and shocking
D. Threatening and frightening
Common Core Assessment
The following is an example of what an item from
the Common Core assessment might look like.
The poet uses the word daunting several times
in his poem.
Using the context clues in the poem, what do
you think the word daunting means, and why
did the author choose to use the word daunting
to express his feelings about the new school?
Be sure to explain your answer and cite
evidence from the poem.
A KEY FEAR TO ADDRESS
As much as we fear the
NEW…We fear giving up the
OLD even more!
CCSS Resources

www.achievethecore.org

http://parcconlineorg/parcc-contentframeworks

www.pta.org/4446.htm

www.corestandards.org

www.mde.k12.ms.us (go to Hot Topics)