The Common Core and PARCC Assessment

This past week, I was invited to be a part of a leadership cadre representing the State of Rhode Island with about 20 other great teachers, administrators and the Rhode Island Department of Education to learn about the new Common CoreStandards and the PARCC assessment that will be replacing the NECAP in 2015. 

I learned quite a bit and I am enthusiastic for the 21^st century thinking presented for education in the United States.  I wanted to share some advisories on what I learned so that we keep the awareness level high and information coming to all stakeholders.  I have divided what I learned into three parts.  Summaries were developed with our partners PARCC and Achieve.  

For the next three weeks, I will post information on mathematics, literacy and information on the PARCC assessment itself.  I hope this information helps.  Please do not hesitate to let me know if there is anything that you would like to learn more about.  I will work with our cadre to answer those questions.  Thank you again. 

The main differences in Mathematics: 

Focus strongly where the Standards focus:

The Standards call for a greater focus in mathematics.  Rather than racing to cover topics in today’s mile-­‐wide, inch-­‐deep curriculum, teachers use the power of the eraser and significantly narrow and deepen the way time and energy is spent in the math classroom. They focus deeply on the major work* of each grade so that students can gain strong foundations: solid conceptual understanding, a high degree of procedural skill and fluency, and the ability to apply the math they know to solve problems inside and outside the math classroom. 

Coherence: think across grades, and link to major topics* within grades

The Standards are designed around coherent progressions from grade to grade. Principals and teachers carefully connect the learning across grades so that students can build new understanding onto foundations built in previous years. Teachers can begin to count on deep conceptual understanding of core content and build on it. Each standard is not a new event, but an extension of previous learning linking to major topics. Instead of allowing additional or supporting topics to detract from the focus of the grade, these topics can serve the grade level focus. For example, instead of data displays as an end in themselves, they support grade level word problems. 

Rigor: in major topics* pursue conceptual understanding, procedural skill and fluency, and application with equal intensity.

Conceptual understanding:   The Standards call for conceptual understanding of key concepts, such as place value and ratios. Teachers support students’ ability to access concepts from a number of perspectives so that students are able to see math as more than a set of mnemonics or discrete procedures.

Procedural skill and fluency: The Standards call for speed and accuracy in calculation. Teachers structure class time and/or homework time for students to practice core functions such as single-¬‐digit multiplication  so that students have access to more complex concepts and procedures.

Application: The Standards call for students to use math flexibly for applications. Teachers provide opportunities for students to apply math in context. Teachers in content areas outside of math, particularly science, ensure that students are using math to make meaning of and access content.

Sequestration

Portions of this  Blog post is courtesy of Amanda Karhuse @akarhuse (Director of Government for the National Association of Secondary School Principals)


This past June, I was fortunate enough to attend an orientation at the national headquarters of @NASSP.  My principal colleagues in Rhode Island have nominated and voted me President-Elect of the Rhode Island Association of School Principals @riasp6 #riasp and the first part of my new responsibilities was to become acclimated with the priorities of the organization.  I met with the RI delegation and was able to advocate for education on behalf of all of our students.  One of the newest vocabulary words that I learned was sequestration.    The following briefing addresses the word and what it means for K-12 education as of January 1, 2013.  I believe that it is an important issue that needs to be addressed between now and the end of the calendar year.  I personally fear that if this issue is not dealt with by Congress, we will have a disruption of great magnitude to the type of education our students need.  Please read below and feel free to act in a manner that best suits you.    

(As a reminder, sequestration is the drastic, across-the-board cuts to education that are scheduled to occur on January 2, 2013. These across-the-board cuts will occur-unless Congress acts to stop it-as stipulated in the August 2011 Budget Control Act. Congress put this measure of sequestration in place in case a 12-member Congressional committee was unable to approve a plan to reduce another $1.2 trillion from the federal deficit; this committee failed, triggering sequestration.

Sequestration would impose the largest education funding cuts ever, chopping funding for programs in the Department of Education by roughly $4 billion, or 8.4%, which would have a devastating impact on state and district budgets.)

In May, the House passed H.R.5652, the Sequester Replacement Reconciliation Act of 2012 in a near party-line 218-99 vote. The bill was supported by nearly all Republicans — only 16 opposed it, and no Democrats supported it.

As The Hill explains in a May 10 article, “The House voted Thursday to override steep cuts to the Pentagon’s budget mandated by last summer’s debt deal and replace them with spending reductions to food stamps and other mandatory social programs.

While doomed in the Senate and opposed by the White House, the legislation, which would reduce the deficit by $243 billion, is a Republican marker for post-election budget talks with the White House.”

NASSP is strongly opposed to this bill and feels that this legislation does not come anywhere near the balanced deficit reduction approach we must take to address our federal deficit.

NASSP encourages you to tell your legislators that sequestration is unacceptable by signing this online petition at www.cef.org/action. Join with thousands of other education stakeholders and sign this petition! NASSP Government Relations staff is also leading the efforts around grassroots activism to urge Congress to not let sequestration occur, and will be implementing key grassroots activities in the next quarter to attempt to stop the sequester. Please look for our emails in the coming months on ways we ask you to advocate against sequestration, and we thank you in advance for your participation.