Common Core State Standards and Catholic Schools

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Common Core State Standards and Catholic Schools

• Mary Jane Krebbs, PhD
• Dale McDonald, PBVM, PhD
• Kathy Mears
• Lorraine Ozar, PhD

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Agenda Common Core

• Background- the why of Common Core Dale
  McDonald
• Impetus for developing common standards
• Implications for Catholic schools
• Implementation in a Diocese Kathy Mears
• Suggestions and cautions
• Communication with parents
• Experience with diocesan implementation
• Common Core Catholic Identity Initiative
  Lorraine Ozar
• CCCII development
• CCCII collaborations
• Common Core and Curriculum Development Mary Jane
  Krebbs
• Pedagogical approaches
• Development of unit plans

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Impetus for Developing Common Core State
Standards

• Equity imperative All students deserve a
  high-quality education regardless of where they
  attend school
• Global competition workforce requires different
  skills and education for economic growth
• Current curriculum standards vary greatly across
  states and achievement is calculated differently

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U.S. Rankings on International Assessments

• TIMSS 2007
• (Trends in International Mathematics and Science
  Study)
• Grade 4
• Math 11th in the world
• Science 9th in the world
• Grade 8
• Math 8th in the world
• Science 11th in the world

• PISA 2009
• (Program for International Student Assessment)
• 15 year olds assessed
• Reading14th in the world
• Math 25th in the world
• Science 17th in the world

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Workforce Outlook in US

• 1995 US ranked first in college and university
  graduation rates
• 2010 US ranked 12th
• American workers in blue collar and
  administrative support jobs
• 1969 56 percent
• 2009 38 percent
• Jobs requiring more education and specialized
  skills (managerial/ professional/technical)
• 1969 23 percent
• 2006 35 percent

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Countries ranked on how well their educational
systems meet the needs of a competitive economy
1 Switzerland 11 Ireland 21 Hong Kong
2 Singapore 12 Lebanon 22 Norway
3 Finland 13 Australia 23 Costa Rica
4 Qatar 14 Malaysia 24 Austria
5 Iceland 15 Barbados 25 Saudi Arabia
6 Belgium 16 Denmark 26 United States
7 Canada 17 Germany 27 Kenya
8 Sweden 18 Malta 28 Brunei
9 New Zealand 19 Taiwan, China 29 United Arab Emirates
10 Netherlands 20 United Kingdom 30 Cyprus
World Economic Forums Global Competitiveness
Report 2011-2012
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State Standards Vary

• Standards have been lowered as states try to meet
  AYP proficiency requirements by 2014
• Standard assessments focus on recall of facts and
  procedures lowest level of learning
• Percentage of students rated as proficient on
  state tests significantly higher than on NAEP
  assessments
• NAEP National Assessment of Educational
  Progress
• Nations Report Card
• largest nationally representative and continuing
  (1969) assessment of what America's students know
  and can do in various subject areas

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NAEP scale equivalents of state grade 4 reading
standards for proficient performance
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NAEP scale equivalents of state grade 8 reading
standards for proficient performance
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NAEP scale equivalents of state grade 4
mathematics standards for proficient performance
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NAEP scale equivalents of state grade 8
mathematics standards for proficient performance
California and Nebraska data not included
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Academic Preparedness for College SAT scores as
indicators of success

• 1550 score indicates a 65 percent likelihood of
  achieving a B- average or higher during the first
  year of study at a four-year college

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Overview of the CCSS Initiative

• State-led effort under direction of National
  Governors Association (NGA) and Council of Chief
  State School Officers (CCSSO)
• Develop common core standards for K-12 in
  English/language arts and mathematics
• Focus on learning expectations and outcomes for
  students not on how to teach content

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Criteria for the Standards

• Common Core State Standards should
• Be aligned with college and work expectations
• Be focused and coherent
• Include rigorous content and application of
  knowledge through high-order skills
• Build upon strengths and lessons of current state
  standards
• Be internationally benchmarked so that all
  students are prepared to succeed in our global
  economy and society
• Be based on evidence and research

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Rigorous Content and ApplicationsPrepare
students with the knowledge and skills they need
to succeed in college and work
Cognitive tasks that demand application of
thinking skills, creativity, collaboration,
communication
Critical thinking skills
Content
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State Adoption of Common Core
Greenadopted Graynot adopting BlueELA only
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Common Core State Standards Whats Next?

• State assessments are developed to match
  standards
• Curricula developed to match standards
• New textbooks, software and instructional
  materials are produced
• Professional development to assist teachers and
  administrators with the implementation and
  application of standards to teaching and learning
  practices

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Concerns and Controversies

• Differing political and philosophical agendas
  related to local v. federal control of education
• Driving forces behind the standards movement
• business interests
• competiveness
• Common core standards equated to a national
  curriculum
• Curriculum materials hinder the ability to
  teachers to decide how/what to teach
• Federal government control of a national testing
  program
• Race to the Top program requirements of standards
  adoption
• Department of Education grants to develop
  assessments

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Implications for Catholic Schools

• Can Catholic schools participate in CCSS?
• Adopt standards
• Adopt testing
• Should Catholic schools participate?
• Pros
• Cons
• Impact on curriculum, instruction and teaching
  materials
• National curriculum?
• Access to commercial materials tests, media
  teaching tools
• Ability to use new media materials
• Impact on students future
• Transfers across systems
• College acceptances
• Workforce readiness

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Diocese Implementation

• Look for your early adapters
• Provide professional development focused on
• Differences between old curriculum and new
  standards
• Read closely to determine what the text says
  explicitly and to make logical inferences from
  it cite specific textual evidence when writing
  or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the
  text.
• Use picture clues and context to aid
  comprehension and to make predictions about story
  content.
• Decompose numbers less than or equal to 10 into
  pairs in more than one way, e.g., by using
  objects or drawings, and record each
  decomposition by a drawing or equation (e.g., 5
  2 3 and 5 4 1).
• Model subtraction by removing objects from sets
  (for numbers less than 10).

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Diocese Implementation

• Provide professional development focused on
• Vertical alignment of standards
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.1 Read closely to
  determine what the text says explicitly and to
  make logical inferences from it cite specific
  textual evidence when writing or speaking to
  support conclusions drawn from the text
• Make sense of problems and persevere in solving
  them.
• Use of technology in teaching the standards
• Technology is our tool to assist teachers and
  students in the teaching and learning process.
• Reliance on higher level thinking skills
• Analyze, evaluate, determine, justify, represent,
  interpret, assess, create
• Integration of our faith into lessons

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Diocese Implementation

• Focus your efforts
• Grades K-2
• Math
• Problem solving
• Building skills
• English Language Arts
• Nonfiction and fiction
• Basic reading skills
• Content area teachers
• Teaching reading
• Teaching communication skills

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Diocese Implementation

• Parent Communication
• Standards
• How are they different?
• Why they are different?
• Reporting progress
• Report cards
• Archdiocese of Chicago
• Diocese of San Diego

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Diocese Implementation

• Concerns
• Finding time and funds for ongoing, applied
  professional development of teachers
• Locating solid resources
• Locating textbooks that truly support students
  and teachers
• Trying to do too much too fast
• Getting started!

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Common Core Catholic Identity Initiative
Overview
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WHAT?

• Project Goal
• To develop and disseminate frameworks,
  guidelines, and resource guides that will assist
  local educators in infusing Catholic values and
  principles of social teaching into all subjects
  and integrating the Catholic worldview and
  culture into curriculum and instructional design
  using the Common Core Standards.

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WHY?

• Catholic schools need to pay attention to the
  fact that the common core standards and
  assessments are here and it is important to get
  on board.
• Principals and teachers often need and welcome
  assistance in understanding and implementing
  standards-based curriculum and instructional
  design.

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WHY?

• National Standards and Benchmarks for Effective
  Catholic elementary and Secondary Schools
  (2012)
• Defining Characteristic
• Distinguished by Excellence
  

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WHY?

• National Standards and Benchmarks for
  Effective Catholic elementary and Secondary
  Schools (2012)
• Standard 7
• An excellent Catholic school has a clearly
  articulated, rigorous curriculum aligned with
  relevant standards, 21st century skills, and
  Gospel values implemented through effective
  instruction.

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WHY?

• National Standards and Benchmarks for
  Effective Catholic elementary and Secondary
  Schools (2012)
• Benchmark 7.1
• The curriculum adheres to appropriate,
  delineated standards, and is vertically aligned
  to ensure that every student successfully
  completes a rigorous and coherent sequence of
  academic courses based on the standards and
  rooted in Gospel values.

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WHY?

• National Standards and Benchmarks for
  Effective Catholic elementary and Secondary
  Schools (2012)
• Benchmark 7.2
• Standards are adopted across the curriculum,
  and include integration of the religious,
  spiritual, moral, and ethical dimensions of
  learning in all subjects.

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WHO?

• Original Committee
• Nicholas Wolsonovich, Lorraine Ozar, Mary Jane
  Krebbs, Michael Rush, Patricia Weitzel-ONeill,
  Sr. Leanne Welch, PBVM (2010-2011)
• Joined by
• Sr. Dale McDonald, Br. Robert Bimonte, FSC,
• William Dinger, Laura Egan, Carole Eipers, Susan
  Abelein, Anthony Manley, Ron Valenti (February
  2012)

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WHO?

• Collaborate with Catholic school teachers,
  curriculum experts, catechetical experts,
  principals, and superintendents in the field
  (beginning June, 2012)
• Partner with Companies and sponsors who support
  Catholic school excellence

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How?
Create resources to assist K-8 Catholic educators
around the country in using CCSS for ELA in
Catholic schools.

• Show how to develop ELA Units using CCSS.
• Show how to infuse the ELA Units with Catholic
  Identity elements.

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How?

• Create sample CCCII ELA Units in grade level
  bands (K-2, 3-5, 6-8).
• Develop written guidelines and narrative
  explanations that provide a think aloud of how
  to create the Units.
• Identity a substantial number of ELA Unit Topics
  that teachers are likely to use and provide
  Catholic Identity connections/ideas.

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• Important Distinction
• The CCCII Project is not about Catholic
• Identity it is about how we teach with Catholic
  Identity.

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• Catholic Identity Elements include
• Catholic Worldview
• Culture and Tradition
• Gospel Values
• Church Social Teachings
• Moral/Ethical Dimensions

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• Catholic Identity Elements
• How can we legitimately integrate these
  elements into ELA units while ensuring rigor in
  keeping with the CCSS?

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WHERE?
Online at Catholic School Standards Project
website www.catholicschoolstandards.org In
print through NCEA In use by Dioceses and Vendors
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JUNE 2012

• Explain and use the CCCII ELA Unit template to
  create exemplar units for assigned grade level,
  using topics identified. (Project leaders and
  field-based teacher and diocesan practitioner
  teams)
• Units Developed Grades 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 7, 8, 8
• 2. Brainstorm ELA topics/themes/concepts by grade
  
• levels for future units.
• 3. Document and review this pilot process for
  developing school level, grade level units based
  on the Common
• Core standards and infused with Catholic
  identity
• elements.

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Common Core Catholic Identity Initiative
Unit Design
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• We ask the schools to teach children to
  think, to socialize them, to alleviate poverty
  and inequality, to reduce crime, to perpetuate
  our cultural heritage, and to produce
  intelligent, patriotic citizens.
• Ornstein and Levine
  Foundations of Education 2000
• We need to fix our schools to teach
  entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity so
  students can emulate the new untouchables in
  our workforce today.
• Thomas Friedman
  New York Times, Oct. 2009
• The trend is that for more and more jobs,
  average is over just doing a job in an average
  way will not return an average lifestyle any
  longer We need to help every American understand
  the connection between educational attainment and
  what will be required to perform the jobs of the
  future.
• Thomas Friedman
  New York Times, Aug. 2012

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• We ask the Catholic schools to do all this
  and
• The integration of religious truth and values
  with the rest of life is not only possible in
  Catholic schools, it distinguishes them from
  others. (p.3)
• Teach Them
  National Conference of Catholic Bishops 1976
• The task of the Catholic School is
  fundamentally, a synthesis of culture and faith,
  and a synthesis of faith and life the first is
  reached by integrating all the different aspects
  of human knowledge through the subjects taught,
  in the light of the Gospel the second in the
  growth of the virtues characteristic of the
  Christian. 37
• The Catholic School
  Revised Translation NCEA Summer 2009

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• Instructional Shifts For The Common
  Core
• Six Shifts in ELA/
  Literacy
• Balancing Information and Literacy Text
• - Students need a true balance of information
  and literary texts.
• Building Knowledge in the Disciplines
• - Content area teachers outside of the ELA
  classroom emphasize literacy experiences in their
  planning and instructions.
• Staircase of Complexity
• - In order to prepare students for the
  complexity of college and career ready texts,
  each grade level requires a step of growth on
  the staircase.

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• Text-Based Answers
• - Students have rich and rigorous conversations
  which are dependent on a common text. All
  opinions require evidence.
• Writing From Sources
• - Writing needs to emphasize use of evidence to
  inform or make an argument rather than the
  personal narrative and other forms of
  de-contextualized prompts.
• Academic Vocabulary
• - Students constantly build the vocabulary they
  need to access grade level complex texts.

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Instructional Shifts for the Common Core in
Mathematics

• Focus
• Coherence
• Fluency
• Deep Understanding
• Applications
• Dual Intensity
• www.engageNY.org

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Unit
Planning Template www.catholicschoolstandards
.org Common Core Catholic Identity Initiative

• Unit Plan
• Title/Theme
• Grade/Subject
• Length of Unit/Time Frame
• usually from three to nine weeks
• Description
• one sentence about the content
• Overview
• one paragraph about the learning
  students will do in the unit

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The Big Picture

• Essential Question
• formulate a question that provides focus for
  learning and leads students to make deeper sense
  and meaning of the significant content in the
  unit.
• Catholic Identity Elements
• indicate Catholic values, teachings,
  references, etc. that will be integrated into
  the unit.
• Common Core Standards
• Key Objectives Linked to Standards
• students will be able to
• Summative Assessment(s)
• describe the product(s)/performance(s) by
  which students will show they have achieved the
  objectives linked to the standards.

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Unit Readings and Vocabulary

• Fiction
• balance with non-fiction consider text
  complexity
• Non-Fiction
• balance with fiction consider text complexity
• Essential Unit Vocabulary
• consider three levels of vocabulary and include
  vocabulary associated with Catholic Identity

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Instructional Activities

• Catholic Identity
• Reading
• Writing
• Speaking/Listening
• Language
• Vocabulary
• Viewing
• Critical Thinking

A numbered list which should be in the intended
order of the lessons. Consider formative and
summative assessment alignment, differentiated
instruction and Catholic Identity.
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Instructional Resources

• List all the instructional resources
  (materials and technology) to be used in the
  unit. Examples include
• Internet
• Primary and Secondary Sources
• Books
• Magazines
• Museums
• Videos
• Movies
• Bible
• Dictionary

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Cross-Curricular Links

• Integration of
• Science
• Social Studies
• Religion
• Math
• Literature
• Social Sciences
• Technology
• Visual Arts

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WHAT NEXT?

• Fine tune unit structure/template and resource
  materials for use by teachers and dioceses.
• Develop a means of replicating the unit
  development process and CCCII training for use in
  dioceses and schools.
• 3. Identity LOTS of resources to connect
  Catholic identity
• elements with additional ELA topics by grade
  level.
• 4. Develop additional exemplars -- full infused
  units -- for
• each grade level, using topics identified.
• Sustain an ongoing dialogue and sharing of units
  across the country.
• Extend CCCII to mathematics.
• Extend CCCII to secondary schools.

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