The winning states are making dramatic changes in how they do business — adopting
common standards and assessments, building data systems that measure student growth and success, retaining effective teachers and principals, and turning around their lowest performing schools.
Chief among these were
common standards and the assessments to go with them, and increased teacher accountability through new evaluation systems that included student test scores.
I'm increasingly of a mind that the current «tight - loose» approach (
common standards and assessments but state / local control of just about all else) was a good post-NCLB opening bid but ultimately inadequate.
Archived: Listen to an in - depth discussion of the pros and cons of the new push for
common standards and assessments.
This year's special focus on state efforts to develop
common standards and assessments, featured elsewhere in the report, also draws...
But based on that 2010 language, the $ 330 million it spent on the consortia, and its weaving of
common standards and assessments into other programs, I suspect it was the Department's wish that all or nearly all states participated in the consortia.
Perhaps now that the Every Student Succeeds Act has settled that fight by curtailing the federal role, and the Common Core State Standards are now just the state standards, policymakers can recognize that
the common standards and assessments are not antithetical to states» rights after all.
Implemented correctly,
the common standards and assessments can vault education over the barrier of low - level test preparation and toward the goal of world - class learning outcomes for all students.
Major points were awarded for developing, adopting and implementing
common standards and assessments throughout the state.
Not exact matches
Its principle is to conduct equivalence
assessments of each
standard against a single international reference: the COROS -
Common Objectives
and Requirements for Organic Standards (also called «IFOAM Standards Requirements»).
And yes, you want your
assessments to reflect the
standards that you are teaching, but the
Common Core isn't about testing.
Educators
and parents have complained about secrecy surrounding Albany's testing program since the first new
assessments based on national
Common Core academic
standards were administered in spring 2013.
As that process unfolds, the task force recommended that the state declare a ban on using state growth scores to evaluate students or teachers until the 2019 - 20 school year while it reviews
and alters the
Common Core Learning
Standards, develops curriculum aligned to the updated
standards and tries out new
assessments.
The task force appointed by New York governor Andrew Cuomo to overhaul the
Common Core
standards the state adopted in 2010 issued a set of recommendations on Thursday that, if adopted, will see school curricula
and assessment standards move further away from the
Common Core, the New York Times reports.
The New York State Board of Regents is expected to act on two committee reports Tuesday, calling for a delay the impact of
Common Core - related state
assessments on educators
and students
and reducing the level of local school district testing associated with the new teacher evaluation law
and higher
standards for teaching
and learning.
Family health history risk
assessment has long been recognized as
standard of care in preventative medicine,
and is a useful tool for identifying risks of
common diseases such as diabetes
and cardiovascular disease, in addition to hereditary risks.
There's a
common misconception that the new Common Core standards and assessments will lead to more schools being identified as «failing.&
common misconception that the new
Common Core standards and assessments will lead to more schools being identified as «failing.&
Common Core
standards and assessments will lead to more schools being identified as «failing.»
The power of that approach was amplified by another school - improvement effort: Skandera's department had also been reworking the state's end - of - course exams
and early - grade
assessments, as part of its efforts to implement
Common Core
standards.
The report — which also features a webinar
and online chat — shows how professional development programs are now blending face - to - face
and online training, incorporating social networking tools, offering administrators more flexible ways to hone their skills,
and developing online PD to prepare educators for the
common - core
standards and assessments.
And with ongoing implementation of Common Core standards and assessments, Skandera pursued what she calls «truth telling,» or being honest about school and student performance after too many years of failing to acknowledge a painful reali
And with ongoing implementation of
Common Core
standards and assessments, Skandera pursued what she calls «truth telling,» or being honest about school and student performance after too many years of failing to acknowledge a painful reali
and assessments, Skandera pursued what she calls «truth telling,» or being honest about school
and student performance after too many years of failing to acknowledge a painful reali
and student performance after too many years of failing to acknowledge a painful reality.
It was no surprise when, this weekend, education historian
and vehement
Common Core - opponent Diane Ravitch railed against the
standards and assessments — again — this time in a New York Times op - ed.
All states surveyed had developed
and disseminated plans for implementation; nearly all had conducted analyses comparing the
common core
standards to previous state
standards; 29 had developed curriculum guides or materials aligned to the
common core;
and 18 had revised
assessments to reflect the
standards (another 15 planned to do so in the 2013 — 14 school year).
Share with us your thoughts
and ideas about the
Common Core
standards and assessments,
and implementation, in the comment section below.
The state contracted with private, nonprofit organizations to develop new curricula aligned to the
common core, developed a web site that included sample lessons
and professional - development materials,
and then developed a new
assessment tied to the
standards and administered it in the spring of 2013 — two years before most states had planned to put new tests in place.
curricular
standards for all its children, at least in core subjects,
and it needs
common assessments, too.
The pushback against
Common Core includes teachers who believe they should have a voice in defining the
standards, curriculum,
and assessment.
The level of activity states are engaged in, the possibilities offered by technology
and cross state collaborations,
and the extraordinary effort to develop new
assessments all suggest that the
common core
standards might generate some real changes in classroom instruction.
Providing a more honest
assessment of student performance was one of the goals of the
Common Core initiative
and the new tests created by states that are meant to align to the new, higher
standards.
The authors of the
Common Core Standards wisely anticipated this misconception
and they caution against it: «While the Standards delineate specific expectations in reading, writing, speaking, listening,
and language, each
standard need not be a separate focus for instruction
and assessment.
In addition to developing the
assessments, the two consortia are supporting states
and districts in the implementation of the
common core
standards.
Westerberg: Time should be provided for teachers to get together at the course or department level on a regular basis to identify big - picture course learning goals, rubrics, or scoring guides that delineate expected student performance
standards; that is, what good work looks like for each goal,
and common assessment items or tasks that evaluate student performance vis — vis key elements of each rubric.
An article in the Fall 2016 issue of Education Next, «The Politics of the
Common Core
Assessments,» by Ashley Jochim
and Patrick McGuinn, looks at political pressures within the states that are affecting state involvement with the
standards and tests.
This performance - based conception of
standards lies at the heart of what is needed to translate the
Common Core into a robust curriculum
and assessment system.
We picture a powerful
Common Core governing board — probably via a new compact among participating states — to oversee the
standards,
assessments,
and many aspects of implementation, validation,
and more.
But additional traction for the organization's current agenda would be bad for the country, bad for the new «
Common Core»
standards and the
assessments being developed around them,
and possibly bad for CCSSO as well.
Aided by a highly misleading New York Times article, the anti-
Common Core crowd is pushing the narrative that Massachusetts's recent testing decision (to use a blend of PARCC
and its own
assessment rather than go with PARCC alone) spells the end for the
common standards effort.
Another big goal of the
Common Core initiative was to help states make the shift to «next generation»
assessments — the kind that would encourage better teaching
and learning in the classroom, tap the advantages of online testing,
and remain faithful to the higher
standards.
For comparison, the
Common Core
standards are new
and more rigorous than existing
standards, but they're only one component of the full accountability apparatus,
and all the states that have adopted the
standards are relying on either one of the two
assessment consortia or ACT to create
assessments for them.
The decision to move NAPLAN online provides a unique opportunity to shift the focus of
assessment from
common year - level tests
and low national minimum
standards to the monitoring of each student's progress against challenging personal targets.
Developing
and implementing a new
assessment system is much more complicated than adopting
common standards.
That's a daunting challenge for any test maker, but it's further complicated by widespread fears of soaring failure rates
and their political consequences, as well as by Arne Duncan's stipulation (in the federal grants that underwrite the
assessment - development process) that the states belonging to each consortium must reach consensus on those passing scores (in government jargon, «
common achievement
standards»).
In most states, far fewer students were rated «proficient» on the
Common Core — aligned tests than on the old
assessments, which was by design — the
standards were raised to better indicate «college
and career readiness.»
(Fans of
Common Core
and PARCC specifically,
and tough
standards and assessments generally are probably particularly gratified.)
The absence of a
Common Core management mechanism for the long term — for the
standards and especially for the
assessments — is a problem
and creates a vacuum that the «Brussels technocrats» may well be tempted to fill.
That undertaking became steadily more controversial, however, as the
standards were implemented
and tests were devised to measure student performance against them (see «The Politics of the
Common Core
Assessments,» features, Fall 2016).
There are no rallies for
common standards,
assessments,
and the «instructional shifts» they require.
Popham provides a pithy
and highly readable treatment of key challenges in
standards, testing,
and assessment, one that is particularly timely as governors
and influential supporters move to embrace some version of
common standards (with hundreds of millions in federal dollars pledged to finance the ensuing tests).
Even though they still haven't seen the light of day in draft form, much less been joined by any
assessments, the evolving «
common core»
standards project of the National Governors Association (NGA)
and Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) is already being laden with heavier
and heavier burdens.
Prodded by Bill Gates, Eli Broad,
and other veteran private - sector reformers, the Obama administration has lent unexpectedly forceful support to such causes as
common standards, better
assessments, charter schools, merit pay, refurbished teacher preparation,
and the removal of ineffective instructors.
A video roundtable discussion focused on the
Common Core state
standards and their related
assessments, in conjunction with Ed.