Pinellas County Schools

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The Florida Standards Florida Standards
AssessmentWhat Every Parent Should Know

• Pinellas County Schools

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Improving Instruction TodayPreparing for
Tomorrow
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Intended Outcomes

• What are the Florida Standards?
• What is the Florida Standards Assessment?
• How did this national movement get started?
• Who is impacted by the standards change?
• What are the implications for teachers and
  students with this transition?
• How can you support your child in this journey?
• Where can you find additional information?

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Are we preparing our students?
Student achievement is drastically low. Our
nation is at a moment of crisis when it comes to
preparing our students for the rigors of college
and the demands of the increasingly global
workplace.
Source http//www.act.org/research/policymakers/c
ccr11/pdf/ConditionofCollegeandCareerReadiness2011
.pdf
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Common Core Overview How did all of this come
about?

• So what is the big deal?

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Were the Florida Next Generation Sunshine State
standards rigorous enough?

• What type of thinking is involved?
• How deeply do you need to understand a topic to
  interact with the content being presented?
• What kinds of cognitive tasks are being asked of
  students? Simple recall of facts? Analyze a
  complex argument?

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Why did we need a change in Floridas
Standards?

• Low Levels of Rigor
• NGSSS featured large amounts of knowledge and
  recall learning targets
• Under-developing critical thinking abilities
• Disadvantaged in college and the workplace

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Why did we need a change?

• Lack of Clarity
• Write for a variety of purposes.
• Respond to variety of literary/informational
  texts.
• Competently use money.
• Were these standards clear to teachers, students,
  and parents?

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Why did we need a change?

• Inconsistencies
• Different districts set different learning
  targets
• Different classrooms learning different topics
• We must expect high achievement from all students
  in all classrooms
• Florida chose to include more standards than
  those outlined in Common Core

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How are Florida Standards different?

• Increased complexity of texts
• Focus on foundational math skills and application
  in novel, real-world situations
• A return to depth as opposed to breadth
• Increased focus on justifying and presenting
  results and methods
• Critical reading and writing infused across all
  curricular areas
• Re-ordering of math content to reflect
  research-based path to college and career
  readiness

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Benefits of Florida Standards

• Preparation
• The Florida Standards will prepare students for
  both college and the workplace and emphasizes
  higher-order, critical-thinking skills instead of
  knowledge and recall.

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Benefits of Florida Standards

• Competition
• The Florida Standards have been influenced by
  internationally-benchmarked standards, ensuring
  that our students are prepared to be competitive
  in the global job market.

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Benefits of Florida Standards

• Clarity
• The standards are focused, coherent, and clear.
  Everyone knows what is expected of our students.

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Benefits of Florida Standards

• Collaboration
• The Florida Standards are a foundation for
  teachers across districts to work together from
  the same blueprints. This facilitates the sharing
  of best practices.

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What are the standards?

• English/Language Arts (ELA) (Reading and Writing)
• Mathematics

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Who is impacted?

• K-12 students
• Current 3rd 11th graders will take the new
  Florida Standards Assessments (FSA)

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When is this happening?

• NOW!
• Have been working towards the instructional
  shifts over the past two years.
• Fully implemented and assessed in 2014-2015

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What are the implications?

• The Florida Standards and their accompanying
  assessments will provide a valid comparison to
  other districts across the state, and to some
  degree to other states.
• Promotion
• Graduation
• College Admission

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FCAT v. FSA Reading Writing
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FCAT vs. FSA

• FCAT Writes Prompt Example
• Everyone has a hero or someone they look up to.
  Think about a hero or someone you look up to in
  your life. Now write to explain why this person
  is your hero.

• FSA Writing Prompt Example
• You have read about the causes of the American
  Revolution. Why was independence from Britain
  important to many colonists? Write an
  informational essay explaining why independence
  from Britain was important to many colonists.

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FCAT vs. FSA Reading Questions

• FCAT (old)
• 1. With which sentence would the author agree?
• A. Learning is exciting no matter how you do it.
• B. All students should go to school on the
  Internet.
• C. Thousands of students in the same class are
  too many.
• D. Online classrooms are a good alternative.

• FSA (new)
• 1. With which two sentences would the author
  agree?
• A. Learning is exciting no matter how you do it.
• B. All students should go to school on the
  Internet.
• C. Thousands of students in the same class are
  too many.
• D. Online classrooms are a good alternative.

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1. What is the main idea of paragraph 4?
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FSA 2 Part Question Example

• 5.
• Part A
• How has learning from a distant place changed
  over time?
• A. Students can ask questions faster.
• B. Students can hear their teacher during the
  same class time.
• C. Students use the mail to receive and send
  work.
• D. Students live far apart from their
  classmates.
• Part B
• Select one sentence that supports the answer in
  Part A.
• A. The students can live in one country, and
  the teacher can be from another country.
• B. All the children could hear their teacher at
  the same time, but were hundreds of miles apart.
• C. They got their lessons in the mail, did
  their homework, and mailed it back to the
  teacher.
• D. Everyone can see and hear everything thats
  being said as it happens.
• E. Sometimes, they dont have to have a class
  where everyone is together all at once.

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So what might these tests look like?

• http//www.fsassessments.org/training-tests

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Where can I go for more information about the
assessment standards?

• Resources
• Parent Guides to Student Success
• www.pta.org/common_core_standards.asp
• By grade level
• Sample of what your child will be working on
• Activities included for you to support at home
• FSA Portal
• http//www.fsassessments.org/students-and-parents

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Instructional CHANGES

• Attention to Text Complexity
• Emphasis on Student Tasks (especially writing)
• Responsibility for Reading Writing Instruction
• - Every Teacher, Every Subject, Every Day!

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NGSSS v. FSA Mathematics
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Mathematics

• Standards for Mathematical
• CONTENT (Familiar)
• Define what students should know and be able to
  do (The What)
• Standards for Mathematical
  PRACTICE (New and Different)
• Describe ways in which the mathematical content
  standards should be approached (The How)

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Instructional CHANGES in Math

• Promote deep student discussion on the content
• Emphasis on Student Tasks (performance-tasks)
• Include PRACTICE Standards at all grade levels
• Expanded use of technology

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Mathematical Practice Standards

• 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.

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Beyond the Classroom

• PCS website www.pcsb.org
• Online learning tools
• Digital Learning
• Beyond the Classroom

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Additional Resources

• Other useful websites to search for information
• www.fldoe.org
• www.cpalms.org

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For More Information

• You may contact
• Holly Slaughter, Pinellas County Schools
• slaughterh_at_pcsb.org