This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Amy Roth McDuffie, Louis S. Nadelson, Common Core State Standards Initiative, A+ Education Partnership, Morgan S. Polikoff, Barbara J. Reys, Heather Johnson, Lindy L. Johnson, Milan Sherman, and Chris M. Olszewski.
(2014). Connecting Research to Teaching: Evaluating and Writing Dynamic Geometry Tasks, Mathematics Teacher. The advent of dynamic geometry software has changed the way students draw, construct, and measure by using virtual tools instead of or along with physical tools. Use of technology in general and of dynamic geometry in particular has gained traction in mathematics education, as evidenced in the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSI 2010). Research has shown the potential benefit of using technology, particularly dynamic geometry tasks, to promote mathematical reasoning. The Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) high school geometry standards require students to "make formal geometric constructions with a variety of tools and methods", and dynamic geometry software is among the tools listed. Further, Hollebrands (2003) has noted that within such dynamic environments students have opportunities to consider invariant relationships through dragging as well as make corresponding conjectures and conclusions. However, little guidance is provided to teachers for evaluating the quality of dynamic geometry tasks, much less for writing their own. The purpose of this article is to introduce a framework for analyzing and writing dynamic geometry tasks that are designed to engage students in mathematical reasoning. The author begins by asking readers to compare two sample tasks, each of which is designed to engage students in developing and testing conjectures about parallelograms. He then introduces the framework and illustrates how it can be used to evaluate the potential of each task in accomplishing the desired result. [More] Descriptors: Secondary School Mathematics, High School Students, Geometry, Technology Uses in Education
(2015). Common Core State Standards in the Middle Grades: What's New in the Geometry Domain and How Can Teachers Support Student Learning?, School Science and Mathematics. The Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) is a primary focus of attention for many stakeholders' (e.g., teachers, district mathematics leaders, and curriculum developers) intent on improving mathematics education. This article reports on specific content shifts related to the geometry domain in the middle grades (6-8) mathematics curriculum. The methodology employed allows for comparisons of content across multiple standards documents. We report on some dramatic changes with regards to the geometry content taught in the middle grades. We found 52% of the middle grades geometry CCSSM learning expectations will be new to the respective grade level at which they are taught in at least six of the eight states analyzed in this study (57% in grade 6, 50% in grade 7, and 50% in grade 8). We also highlight three areas that represent "new" geometry content at the middle grades based on our analysis of CCSSM and pre-CCSSM state standards. [More] Descriptors: State Standards, Mathematics Curriculum, Geometry, Middle Schools
(2014). Educators' Perceptions and Knowledge of the Common Core State Standards, Issues in Teacher Education. As with many previous K-12 educational reform efforts, expectations that the Common Core State Standards (CCSS; National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, 2010) will assist students in learning so that they can prepare for college and the workforce are very high (American College Testing, 2012). Briefly, the CCSS "are designed to ensure that students graduating from high school are prepared to take credit bearing introductory courses in two- or four-year college programs or enter the workforce" (Council of Chief State School Officers, 2013, p. 1). There is an assumption that CCSS will provide a concise framework for increasing student learning in mathematics and English language arts, prepare students for college, and ensure that the demands of a highly skilled and internationally competitive workforce are fulfilled (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, 2010). It is the prerogative of the states to adopt the standards; however, the considerable alignment between the standards and federal grant funding, educational policy, and student learning assessments is motivational. It is anticipated that CCSS will enable students to learn more content, develop deeper content knowledge, and progress more effectively along more strategically aligned learning trajectories (Daro, Mosher, & Corcoran, 2011). However, as with any K-12 educational reform effort, the effectiveness of the CCSS is largely dependent on the knowledge and perceptions of the educators who will implement the standards (Bryk & Schneider, 2003). We contend that, if CCSS are to fulfill their intended goals, states, school districts, and educators need to implement the standards with fidelity. Thus, there is a need to understand the degree to which teachers and administrators know and perceive the standards, as their knowledge and perceptions are likely to influence their implementation of the standards. Investigations of educator perceptions and knowledge of reform efforts are rare. Moreover, our search of the literature failed to reveal any reports of educators' perceptions and knowledge of CCSS. Thus, our research addresses this gap, provides insight into potential issues faced by future K-12 reform efforts, and offers school districts useful information for guiding their implementation efforts. [More] Descriptors: Core Curriculum, State Standards, Knowledge Level, Teacher Attitudes
(2014). The Future of Professional Development Will Be Designed, Not Discovered: Response to Moon, Passmore, Reiser, and Michaels, "Beyond Comparisons of Online versus Face-to-Face PD", Journal of Teacher Education. This article represents a response to the authors' "Journal of Teacher Education" ("JTE") article (Fishman et al., 2013) by Moon, Passmore, Reiser, and Michaels (2013). The authors believe that Moon et al. have properly identified both the value in their study and the importance of moving beyond not only their study, but similar studies, to better serve the urgent need for professional development (PD) designs that are effective in helping teachers successfully enact curricular reforms, such as the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS; Wilson, 2013) and the Common Core State Standards in mathematics and English language arts (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2010; Porter, McMaken, Hwang, & Yang, 2011). Fishman, et al. agree wholeheartedly that the field would benefit from scholarship that leads to "research-based design principles to guide the ongoing development, implementation, and evaluation efforts in online PD" (Moon et al., p. 1). In this article, the authors briefly recap their study and address the issues raised by Moon et al. in their commentary. They then expand on the ideas introduced by Moon et al. for how to take advantage of the opportunity for studying teacher learning related to the NGSS presented by the Next Generation Science Exemplar System (NGSX) PD platform. [More] Descriptors: Faculty Development, State Standards, Academic Standards, Electronic Learning
(2014). The Beneficiation of Education, Knowledge Quest. When the challenge of adapting curriculum to meet the requirements of the Common Core State Standards were presented, this author immediately sought out the assistance of experts in another field: the school library staff. It was apparent that staff needed to practice the beneficiation of the current curriculum to meet the CCSS requirements. During the process of assisting students in their research, a pattern emerged. Students could easily navigate the Web to find information, but the information they reveal is not always reliable or at their ability level. A strong partnership between the departments and the library staff ensure that the students are being exposed to the most current information available. The school librarian introduced students to resources available through the library's website and had students familiarize themselves with the databases most useful for their project. The Common Core State Standards encourage educators to enrich students' learning with a vast array of resources beyond textbooks. Core content teachers will need to collaborate with the library staff to maximize potential outcomes through effective use of literature and research. School librarians' understanding of resources available to support content will supply a foundation for supporting the diverse learning needs of the students. The expanded number of resources available for classroom instruction will expose students to a greater variety of materials that address the same key content concepts but in a multitude of ways. [More] Descriptors: Academic Standards, State Standards, School Libraries, Librarian Teacher Cooperation
(2014). Common Vision–Shared Goals, Knowledge Quest. It has been only a few years since the state of Montana adopted revised standards for Information Literacy/Library Media. In the years since their adoption, the district's curriculum review team, made up of K-12 school librarians, defined the local curriculum directly from these standards. As Montana's school librarians reflect on their past implementation plans and begin planning for the future, they might ask themselves: "What are we to do with the Common Core?" In this article, curriculum director for Montana's second largest school district, Chris Olszewski, also reflects on what the vision should be for the cross-curricular collaboration between educators as they focus on specific Common Core State Standards and how these standards should impact his district's school librarians. He reviews the relationship between AASL's "Standards for the 21st-Century Learner" and the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and describes the resources available to school librarians on the AASL web site to assist school librarians in supporting implementation of the CCSS. [More] Descriptors: State Standards, School Libraries, Library Role, Library Services
(2011). Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. For over a decade, research studies of mathematics education in high-performing countries have pointed to the conclusion that the mathematics curriculum in the United States must become substantially more focused and coherent in order to improve mathematics achievement in this country. To deliver on the promise of common standards, the standards must address the problem of a curriculum that is "a mile wide and an inch deep." The Standards presented in this paper are a substantial answer to that challenge. The Standards set grade-specific standards but do not define the intervention methods or materials necessary to support students who are well below or well above grade-level expectations. It is also beyond the scope of the Standards to define the full range of supports appropriate for English language learners and for students with special needs. At the same time, all students must have the opportunity to learn and meet the same high standards if they are to access the knowledge and skills necessary in their post-school lives. The Standards should be read as allowing for the widest possible range of students to participate fully from the outset, along with appropriate accommodations to ensure maximum participation of students with special education needs. A glossary and a sample of works consulted are included. (Contains 5 tables.) [For an appendix to this report, "Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. Appendix A: Designing High School Mathematics Courses Based on the Common Core State Standards," see ED522006.] [More] Descriptors: Mathematics Curriculum, Mathematics Education, State Standards, Mathematics Achievement
(2014). Academic Standards in Alabama. Education policymakers and educators in Alabama are committed to improving the state's public education system to ensure that students gain the knowledge and skills they need to graduate from high school ready for real life. The state is on the path to implementing higher academic standards–the College and Career Ready Standards–which lay a foundation to ensure that classroom instruction across Alabama provides students with real world skills and knowledge in reading, math, and writing. There has been a large amount of conflicting information distributed about Alabama's College and Career Ready Standards based on the Common Core State Standards. This brief accomplishes the following: (1) answers numerous questions and corrects misinformation that is being spread about Alabama's College and Career Ready Standards and the Common Core State Standards; (2) clarifies the role of academic standards in Alabama and the recent adoption of the College and Career Ready Standards; (3) includes information on the committees of educators and experts that reviewed the standards with great care prior to implementation, the difference between standards and curriculum, and how the standards build a more foundational path to success with ACT assessments and college/career preparedness. [More] Descriptors: Academic Standards, State Standards, College Readiness, Career Readiness
(2014). Personalized Learning in Algebra, Mathematics Teacher. Mathematical "funds of knowledge" (Civil 2007) that students bring from their community and home lives can offer entry points for concepts such as functions and rate of change, which are important "big ideas" across all grade levels (NCTM 2000). The Common Core State Standards (CCSSI 2010) ask high school students to "interpret functions that arise in applications in terms of the context"; "build a function that models a relationship between two quantities"; and "interpret expressions for functions in terms of the situation they model". Making connections to student interests can offer teachers an avenue for introducing key concepts of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The authors conducted an experiment in which they personalized problems on linear functions according to students' out-of-school interests in topics such as sports, music, and movies. Research has shown that personalization makes key ideas in algebra more understandable, so that learning persists even when the personalization goes away. But why is personalizing of students' interests so effective, and how can teachers begin to implement this approach in their classrooms? In this article, the authors explore these two questions and reveal ways in which teachers can make connections to students' interests to make algebra ideas stick. [More] Descriptors: Individualized Instruction, Mathematics Instruction, Algebra, Secondary School Mathematics
(2014). Teaching Multiplication with Regrouping Using the Concrete-Representational-Abstract Sequence and the Strategic Instruction Model, Journal of the American Academy of Special Education Professionals. The Common Core State Standards (2010) involve the demonstration of conceptual knowledge of numbers and operations. For students who struggle with mathematics and have not responded to instruction, it is important that interventions emphasize this understanding. In order to address conceptual understanding of numbers and operations in meeting the rigorous Common Core State Standards, interventions should include the use of explicit instruction, manipulation of objects, and visual representation of numbers. The current pilot study investigated the use of such a method within a tiered intervention model, the concrete-representational-abstract (CRA) sequence and the strategic Instruction Model (SIM). Six fourth grade students receiving intervention through a response to intervention model participated. Multiplication with regrouping was taught using CRA and SIM (CRA-SIM) over the course of ten lessons as part of an intervention period. Data were collected before and after CRA-SIM instruction and statistical analysis showed that students made significant gains after instruction. The practical implications and application of CRA-SIM instruction will be discussed. [More] Descriptors: Mathematics Instruction, Multiplication, Special Education, Special Education Teachers
(2014). The Common Sense Guide to the Common Core: Teacher-Tested Tools for Implementation, Free Spirit Publishing. Based on the original source document for the Common Core State Standards and tested by 1,000 educators in diverse classrooms across the country, these research-based tools will help readers examine their current practices and adapt existing curriculum. Each of the 40 tools is clearly presented, explained, and exemplified, guiding educators through every stage of implementing the CCSS across the curriculum–from gap analysis to lesson design to assessment. Includes online access to extensive matrices for unpacking all of the standards at all grade levels. Some people call it Common Core–in reality, it's common sense. Seven groups of tools cover analyzing current standards and understanding, transitioning to, optimizing, differentiating, assessing, and administering the CCSS. Tools are simple and intuitive, based on work with over 1,000 educators across the United States. Digital download contains extensive matrices for unpacking the Common Core State Standards for all subjects at all grade levels. Ideal for use in PLCs, study groups, staff meetings, or schoolwide task forces [More] Descriptors: Common Core State Standards, Guides, Educational Practices, Curriculum Development
(2016). The Development of Writing Skills: The Use of Genre-Specific Elements in Second and Third Grade Students' Writing, ProQuest LLC. The following study was developed to investigate the development of writing skills in second and third grade students. The recent emphasis on writing, specifically writing in multiple genres, made in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS, 2010) has increased the need to further understand how students write. The NAEP (2002) reports that approximately 77% of fourth grade students have only a general grasp of writing. Despite this poor performance, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS, 2010) have increased the expectations for student writing. The goal of this proposed dissertation, using an holistic literacy perspective, is to shed light on differences in how students write in informative and opinion genres, which skills predict writing outcomes, the extent to which reciprocal effects between writing and literacy are present, and what type of student profiles exist within the classroom. It was found that students received lower scores on opinion writing compared to their informative compositions. It was also found that better reading comprehension was associated with better writing performance in both genres. High vocabulary ability predicted higher opinion essay scores and better performance on a behavioral regulation task predicted better informative essay outcomes. Reciprocal effects between writing outcomes and literacy skill were found, with higher opinion writing scores predicted higher vocabulary outcomes. Finally, students appeared to fall into four latent profiles: high achievers, average achievers, struggling students, and a group of students who have average literacy skill but scored extremely poorly on the opinion essay task. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: www.proquest.com/en-US/products/disserta… [More] Descriptors: Writing Skills, Writing Instruction, Grade 2, Grade 3
(2014). David Coleman and the Technologisation of the Common Core: A Critical Discourse Analysis, English Teaching: Practice and Critique. Drawing on sociocultural perspectives and New Literacies Studies this study uses Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as a tool to closely analyse one way the Common Core State Standards in the United States are being produced, disseminated and consumed. The analysis focuses on a section of the CCSS, a model lesson given by one of the primary architects of the Common Core State Standards, David Coleman, and a group of English teachers' reactions to David Coleman's presentation. Analysing how the CCSS have been produced, disseminated, and consumed demonstrates how policy becomes normalised through discursive events. Coleman's lesson serves as an instantiation of the ideological underpinnings of the CCSS and is illustrative of the ways in which the CCSS is working to position teachers and the teaching of reading in particular ways. Coleman's presentation can be seen as a discursive event in that it shapes what counts as teaching reading. A CDA approach was valuable in that it showed a complex interdiscursivity at play in Coleman's model lesson. Specifically, Coleman's presentation begins by positioning teachers as in conversation with the Common Core, but ultimately condemns and critiques the way teachers approach the teaching of reading. A Critical Discourse Analysis framework can provide a helpful heuristic for both English teachers and English teacher educators to examine the ideological underpinnings of standardisation by considering the production, dissemination and consumption of texts such as the CCSS. [More] Descriptors: Discourse Analysis, Sociocultural Patterns, Core Curriculum, State Standards
(2014). Common Core State Standards Assessments: Challenges and Opportunities, Center for American Progress. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were created in response to the shortcomings of No Child Left Behind era standards and assessments. Among those failings were the poor quality of content standards and assessments and the variability in content expectations and proficiency targets across states, as well as concerns related to the economic competitiveness of the nation's future workforce. The CCSS in mathematics and ELA were developed in 2009 by governors and chief state school officers in association with educators and researchers. The standards that they drafted were rapidly adopted in 45 states and the District of Columbia. In addition, two state consortia the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, or SBAC, and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC were created to develop new assessments aligned to the new standards. In general, there is a good deal of enthusiasm for both the CCSS and the assessments forthcoming from the two consortia. Both major teachers' unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, have endorsed the standards, and polls suggest that teachers are generally optimistic about the potential effects of the standards. Researchers have released a number of studies that have indicated that the standards are of higher quality than most of the state standards they replaced,more coherent from grade to grade than prior standards,10 and capture essential mathematics and ELA content.11 While the PARCC and SBAC tests have not yet been released, both consortia are planning several developments, discussed throughout this report, that would represent improvements over prior state achievement tests. Despite the keenness for the CCSS and forthcoming tests, there are a number of likely challenges to the new standards and assessment systems. The purpose of this report is to outline some of these key challenges and offer suggestions for state and federal policymakers to mitigate them. The assessment challenges addressed in this paper pertain to the following seven areas: (1) Higher proficiency levels; (2) Technology upgrades; (3) Computer scoring; (4) Content coverage; (5) Time investments; (6) Validating uses for expanded evaluation; and (7) Rollout coherence. If the standards and assessments are to produce desired improvements in student outcomes, it is essential that policymakers and the developers of the CCSS assessments attend to the seven challenges. This report also offers several recommendations for assessment and accountability systems in the CCSS era. [More] Descriptors: Common Core State Standards, Educational Legislation, Federal Legislation, Elementary Secondary Education
(2014). Lesson Planning with the Common Core, Mathematics Teacher. Planning a lesson can be similar to planning a road trip–a metaphor the authors use to describe how they applied research and theory to their lesson planning process. A map and mode of transportation, the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) and textbooks as resources, can lead to desired destinations, such as students engaging in cognitively demanding tasks and making connections between their learning and the world around them. In the authors work with teachers collaboratively planning with the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSI 2010), they have found that this metaphor is helpful in keeping track of the progressive phases of lesson planning and maintaining focus on complex decisions without losing a sense of overall goals. In this article, the authors describe key aspects of lesson planning in four phases and include an example of a lesson on linear functions taught by coauthor Estes in a ninth-grade first-year algebra class. Although lesson planning involves countless decisions beyond what could be captured in their example, the process they describe highlights important phases in planning and can be used for any mathematics lesson. [More] Descriptors: Mathematics Instruction, Lesson Plans, Algebra, Grade 9