This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Ya Mo, C. E. Davis, Joshua Wilson, Natalie G. Olinghouse, Stephanie Grote-Garcia, Andria Walker, Emily R. Fagan, Victor Mateas, Kenneth Kunz, and Jack Cassidy.
(2016). Debunking Myths about the Standards for Mathematical Practice, Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School. The adoption of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) (CCSSI 2010) has caused a shift in the expectations for student learning, with implications for teaching. It has also introduced a new kind of standard focused on the way that students think about content in the form of the Standards for Mathematical Practice (SMP). The SMP presents both an opportunity and a challenge to rethinking the kind of teaching practice that will develop mathematically proficient students. This article sheds light on five myths regarding the SMP: (1) Every lesson must incorporate all eight SMP; (2) Students can engage in only one mathematical practice as they work on a task; (3) The mathematics task alone determines which mathematical practices students will use; (4) Only specialized tasks can be used to develop mathematical practice; and (5) Mathematical practice can be taught separately from mathematical content. This article provides suggestions to help teachers align instruction to the SMP in ways that are productive, manageable, and true to the intentions of CCSSM. [More] Descriptors: Mathematical Applications, Mathematics Education, Educational Practices, Misconceptions
(2016). The Framework for 21st Century Learning: A First-Rate Foundation for Music Education Assessment and Teacher Evaluation, Arts Education Policy Review. Federal laws and funding initiatives, such as the No Child Left Behind Act and the Race to the Top campaign, have created an increasing incentive for schools nationwide to document student progress, standardize assessment practices, and evaluate teachers according to student success. In response, the Common Core State Standards, a popular yet controversial policy, has emerged. Implemented at the state level, these standards focus heavily on the areas of English language arts and mathematics, subjects not traditionally incorporated to a great extent in music classrooms. In order for music to maintain a role as an essential subject in the school curriculum, it is imperative that music educators be able to associate themselves with a complementary initiative that allows them to demonstrate how students are meeting benchmarks required at the state and national levels without sacrificing the integrity of music instruction itself. Of the existing models available, the Framework for 21st Century Learning provides the most appropriate structure for determining music teacher effectiveness and for organizing learning objectives that can be assessed to show student growth in music education classrooms. [More] Descriptors: Music Education, Educational Assessment, Teacher Evaluation, Common Core State Standards
(2016). What's Hot: Texas and the Nation, Texas Journal of Literacy Education. For two decades the International Literacy Association (ILA) has published the "What's Hot, What's Not in Literacy Survey." In the last five years, the hottest topics featured on the lists have largely been connected to the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards (ELA CCSS)–a publication produced by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers (2010). This consistent relationship with CCSS remains true for many of the "very hot" topics on the 2016 list. With so much focus being placed on the ELA CCSS, some Texas educators are wondering how the "hot" and "very hot" topics relate to Texas classrooms. In this article, the authors first look at how the survey is constructed and conducted. They then look at how some of these "hot" and "very hot topics" relate to Texas educators. [More] Descriptors: Literacy Education, Literacy, Surveys, Academic Standards
(2016). Responding to the CCSS for Literacy Research and Instruction, Literacy Research and Instruction. In "Beyond the Common Core: Examining 20 Years of Literacy Priorities and Their Impact on Struggling Readers," Cassidy et al. (2016) suggest that the emphasis on the Common Core State Standards (CCSS, National Governors Association [NGA] Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers [CCSSO], 2010) has had unexpected consequences. These consequences often include prioritizing college and career readiness over meeting the needs of struggling readers. This article discusses these issues through the lens of the authors' experiences with their state's interpretation and implementation of the CCSS. The authors discuss the idea that struggling readers seem to be neglected. One area that should receive increased attention is how the CCSS are being implemented. It is the authors' shared belief that the following questions lend themselves to a more thoughtful focus on what to teach, and how to orchestrate the tools necessary to meet the needs of all learners, including struggling readers: (1) What strategies should be used to meet the literacy standards outlined in the CCSS?; (2) In what ways does a focus on grade-level specific literacy strands provide insight into possible avenues for differentiating instruction for students who struggle?; and (3) Does "what's hot" in the research match the needs of the students in your classroom? [For "Beyond the Common Core: Examining 20 Years of Literacy Priorities and Their Impact on Struggling Readers," see EJ1093820.] [More] Descriptors: Literacy, Educational Research, Reading Instruction, Common Core State Standards
(2016). Common Core Implementation in California: A Snapshot of Districts' Progress. CenterView. It has been six years since California adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). District leaders have been busy building capacity and developing infrastructure to support effective CCSS implementation, while teachers have been working hard to implement standards-aligned instruction that supports academic success for all students. In a state as vast and varied as California, what exactly does CCSS implementation look like, and what sort of progress are districts making? This issue of "CenterView" is the first in a special three-part series that describes the insights California district leaders have to offer about California standards implementation. To get an accurate snapshot of where California districts are in their standards implementation, the Center for the Future of Teaching & Learning (CFTL) at WestEd interviewed superintendents and instructional leaders from 42 districts and charter school management organizations from urban, suburban, and rural areas across the state. This report discusses the internal capacity districts have built over time to support CCSS implementation, teacher proficiency in CCSS-aligned instruction, how district leaders select CCSS-aligned curricula, the use of combinations of funding sources to support their particular CCSS implementation expenses, and the need for new kinds of support. [More] Descriptors: Common Core State Standards, School Districts, Program Implementation, Interviews
(2013). Investigating Pre-Service Candidates' Images of Mathematical Reasoning: An In-Depth Online Analysis of Common Core Mathematics Standards, Journal on School Educational Technology. This paper details the outcomes of a qualitative in-depth investigation into teacher education mathematics preparation. This research is grounded in the notion that mathematics teacher education students (as "degree seeking candidates") need to develop strong foundations of mathematical practice as defined by the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics' (CCSSM). In this investigation mathematics Pre-Service Candidates ("PSCs") participated in an online 15-week methods course that infused writing prompts. This research activity probed the PSCs images of mathematical reasoning. It is based on the idea that in mathematical teacher education, teacher preparation requires teaching mathematical standards. In teaching the standards activities are required that infuse mathematical reasoning. This will aid PSCs in further infusing mathematical reasoning in their teaching both now and in the future. [More] Descriptors: Mathematics, Mathematics Instruction, Preservice Teachers, State Standards
(2016). College and Career Ready: Preparing Students in Fitness and Health Literacy, Strategies: A Journal for Physical and Sport Educators. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for English language arts have been adopted by many states across the country in an effort to prepare students for life after high school, whether that be going to college or joining the work force. The anchor standards of the CCSS, known as the College and Career Ready Standards, describe the literacy skills of college and career-ready individuals. Physical educators, as well as classroom teachers, have a role in preparing students to be literate, independent and knowledgeable adults who are able to make informed decisions as they go through life. Students' abilities to make informed choices about their health and fitness as adults depends on the knowledge and skills developed in both physical education and the regular classroom, making collaboration between these teachers essential to college and career readiness. This article describes strategies that physical educators can use to support literacy development and promote critical thinking skills for K-12 students while meeting SHAPE America's National Standards for K-12 Physical Education. [More] Descriptors: Health Promotion, College Readiness, Career Readiness, Critical Thinking
(2016). Seventh-Grade Social Studies versus Social Meliorism, Social Studies. The Wake County Public School System (WCPSS), in the state of North Carolina, has gone through considerable recent effort to revise, support, and assess their seventh-grade social studies curriculum in an effort to serve three goals: comply with the Common Core State Standards (Common Core), comply with the North Carolina Essential Standards (Essential Standards), and create a curriculum that best serves students. Meanwhile, the curriculum theory of social meliorism was conceived of over a century ago. Since its inception it has influenced curriculum development and provided a foundation for many other curriculum theories that all start from an assumption that social meliorism holds to an accepted truth that the purpose of education is to improve society and address its injustices. Given contemporary discussions about how to achieve social justice, this is a philosophy that seems particularly meaningful when thinking about the ways that schools can help to accomplish the goals of social justice. I intend to investigate the seventh-grade social studies curriculum of WCPSS in 2014 and juxtapose it with the goals and ideals of social meliorism, determine how well the curriculum addresses the goals of that curriculum theory, and make suggestions for how a social meliorist might suggest modifying the curriculum to better serve the needs of society. [More] Descriptors: Grade 7, Social Studies, Public Schools, Common Core State Standards
(2016). A Vehicle for Bivariate Data Analysis, Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School. Instead of reserving the study of probability and statistics for special fourth-year high school courses, the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) takes a "statistics for all" approach. The standards recommend that students in grades 6-8 learn to summarize and describe data distributions, understand probability, draw random samples, make inferences, and describe associations. In response to the growing needs of the nation in the area of data literacy, changes to the mathematics education landscape require that students be given the opportunity to use statistics to create mathematical meaning from data. This article addresses this challenge by presenting a "vehicle" to meet many of the Common Core's expectations. Many eighth graders eagerly look forward to the freedom and social status that accrue from driving an automobile. The author has found that many eighth graders, in spite of being on the verge of driving in his state of Montana, know little about cars. They hold misconceptions about which models are best sellers, how fuel economy varies, how engine power differs, and how much cars cost. In this article, the author provides a data set that is an ideal environment for an exploration of bivariate quantitative data. [More] Descriptors: Data Analysis, Probability, Statistics, Mathematics
(2016). Methods and Strategies: Beyond the Textbook–But Not Just "Hands On". Using High-Quality Informational Texts to Meet the "Next Generation Science Standards", Science and Children. Science teaching continues to move away from teaching science as merely a body of facts and figures to be memorized to a process of exploring and drawing conclusions. The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) emphasize eight science and engineering practices that ask students to apply scientific and engineering reasoning and explanation. This does not mean only using science experiments and labs; informational text is also essential since many concepts address topics not accessible to most students (volcanos, earthquakes) or topics that occur over great timespans (weathering, evolution, geological time). The science and engineering practice of Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating information specifically refers to using texts along with observations to communicate new information (NGSS Lead States 2013). The NGSS have several standards that explicitly call for students to use informational text and media. Additionally, the Common Core State Standards (NGAC and CCSSO 2010) call on schools to follow the recommendations of the NAEP Reading Framework (U.S. Department of Education 2008) for students to be reading 50% informational text in grade 4, 55% in grade 8, and 70% in grade 12. This article discusses strategies to help students meet all of these goals. [More] Descriptors: Science Instruction, Textbooks, Academic Standards, Common Core State Standards
(2016). A Process for Reviewing and Evaluating Generated Test Items, Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice. Testing organization needs large numbers of high-quality items due to the proliferation of alternative test administration methods and modern test designs. But the current demand for items far exceeds the supply. Test items, as they are currently written, evoke a process that is both time-consuming and expensive because each item is written, edited, and reviewed by a subject-matter expert. One promising approach that may address this challenge is with automatic item generation. Automatic item generation combines cognitive and psychometric modeling practices to guide the production of items that are generated with the aid of computer technology. The purpose of this study is to describe and illustrate a process that can be used to review and evaluate the quality of the generated item by focusing on the content and logic specified within the item generation procedure. We illustrate our process using an item development example from mathematics drawn from the Common Core State Standards and from surgical education drawn from the health sciences domain. [More] Descriptors: Test Items, Test Construction, Psychometrics, Models
(2016). Targeting Instruction with Formative Assessment Probes, Teaching Children Mathematics. This article introduces the formative assessment probe–a powerful tool for collecting focused, actionable information about student thinking and potential misconceptions–along with a process for targeting instruction in response to probe results. Drawing on research about common student mathematical misconceptions as well as the former work of author Cheryl Rose Tobey (2011), the authors developed a series of probes and supporting resources to help teachers assess students' understanding of key rational number concepts from the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) (CCSSI 2010). These probes are a central feature of three professional development (PD) courses that they created and tested as part of five-year project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The project focused on helping teachers build math content knowledge, diagnostic approaches, and instructional practices for teaching rational number topics. In this article, the authors first help readers get to know more about what a probe is by exploring an example in depth. Then they use information gathered from a probe to illustrate a process for planning and implementing targeted instruction for a class of students. To support teachers in using this approach, the article provides examples of probes, student work, and classroom activities as well as a link to a set of probes with accompanying resources. [More] Descriptors: Formative Evaluation, Individualized Instruction, Mathematics, Mathematics Instruction
(2016). Writing to the Common Core: Teachers' Responses to Changes in Standards and Assessments for Writing in Elementary Schools, Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal. This multiple case study investigated how the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for writing and teacher evaluation system based in part on CCSS assessments might be influencing writing instruction in elementary schools. The sample included nine schools: Six achieved above-predicted performance on English Language Arts (ELA) as well as prior ELA assessments (called "odds-beating"), and three demographically similar schools that achieved predicted outcomes on the same assessments (called "typically performing"). Interview and focus group transcripts (N¬ =¬ 30), classroom observations (N¬ =¬ 24), and documentary data were collected and analyzed. Findings from this study revealed that teachers in the majority of schools were using evidence based practices such as peer collaboration, prewriting/planning/drafting, using rubrics, and writing to learn. They focused on comparison/contrast and writing based on research tasks. Teachers shared a generally positive view of the CCSS for writing. However, typically performing school teachers expressed a more negative view regarding the paucity of emphasis on creative writing in the CCSS. The study offers considerations regarding aligning CCSS instruction to evidence based practice highlighted in the research and providing teachers with guidance on scaffolding writing in an effort to develop engaged, motivated, and independent young writers. [More] Descriptors: Case Studies, Common Core State Standards, Writing Instruction, Evaluation Methods
(2016). Finding What Fits, Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School. Statistical association between two variables is one of the fundamental statistical ideas in school curricula. Reasoning about statistical association has been deemed one of the most important cognitive activities that humans perform. Students are typically introduced to statistical association through the study of the line of best fit because it is a natural extension of their study of linear equations in mathematics. This is predominantly true for students in the United States; for example the authors of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) ask that students in eighth grade learn about linear equations, linear functions, and the line of best fit. A learning trajectory for linear regression study begins with students finding and studying an informal line of best fit, which refers to the idea that students are fitting a line, by eye, to data displayed in a scatterplot, without making calculations or using technology to place the line. In this article, the author presents how students can explore six tasks to develop criteria for finding an informal line of best fit. [More] Descriptors: Secondary School Mathematics, Middle School Students, Statistical Analysis, Statistics
(2016). The Common Core Writing Standards: A Descriptive Study of Content and Alignment with a Sample of Former State Standards, Reading Horizons. Many students do not meet expected standards of writing performance, despite the need for writing competence in and out of school. As policy instruments, writing content standards have an impact on what is taught and how students perform. This study reports findings from an evaluation of the content of a sample of seven diverse states' current writing standards compared to content of the Common Core State Standards for writing and language (CCSS-WL). Standards were evaluated for breadth of content coverage (range), how often content was referenced (frequency), the degree of emphasis placed on varied content elements (balance), and the degree of overlap between one set of standards and another (alignment). The study addressed two research questions: (1) What is the nature of the CCSS-WL and the sample states' standards for writing with respect to content breadth, frequency, and balance? (2) To what degree do the states' writing standards align with the CCSS-WL? Results indicated that CCSS-WL are succinct and balanced, with breadth of coverage in some aspects of writing but not others. The seven states' standards represented varying degrees of breadth, frequency, and balance with few patterns across states. None of the states' standards had strong alignment with CCSS-WL, indicating a potential mismatch between prior curricular materials and instructional methods developed with former standards as guides to help students meet grade-level writing expectations in the new CCSS. [More] Descriptors: Common Core State Standards, Writing Achievement, Writing Instruction, State Standards