This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Dana Islas, Educational Leadership, Jennifer Merriman Bausmith, Jason Amos, Carol Barry, Elfrieda H. Hiebert, Carmen Whitman, Diane Stark Rentner, Inc. ACT, and Center on Education Policy.
(2011). Beyond Single Readability Measures: Using Multiple Sources of Information in Establishing Text Complexity, Journal of Education. The "Common Core State Standards/English Language Arts" include the ability to become increasingly more capable with complex text over the school career, redirecting attention to the measurement of text complexity. While suggesting multiple criteria, the Standards offer a single measure of text complexity–Lexiles. Additional quantitative data, including the two components of a Lexile rating, can provide more comprehensive views. The two "intra-lexile" measures and two others (referential cohesion and an index of words predicted to be "hard.") were applied to sets of exemplars for grade bands 2-3 and 4-5 within the CCSS/ELA. Analyses suggest that conclusions about text complexity vary considerably when multiple quantitative measures, rather than a single, omnibus index, are used. [More] Descriptors: Readability Formulas, Readability, Information Sources, Difficulty Level
(2011). Affirming the Goal: Is College and Career Readiness an Internationally Competitive Standard?. This report examines how performance standards in reading and math on PLAN[R], the organization's college and career readiness assessment for 10th graders, compare to performance on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a worldwide assessment of 15-year-old students' academic achievement. The results show that the performance standard of college and career readiness–and therefore the new Common Core State Standards, which were designed to help all U.S. students become ready for college and career–is internationally competitive, falling well within the range of the highest-performing countries on PISA Reading and Math. (Contains 7 figures, 2 tables and 35 endnotes.) [For the "Affirming the Goal: Is College and Career Readiness an Internationally Competitive Standard? Executive Summary," see ED520012 and "Affirming the Goal: Is College and Career Readiness an Internationally Competitive Standard? Advance Brief for State Policymakers," see ED520013.] [More] Descriptors: State Standards, Grade 10, Career Development, Academic Standards
(2011). Profile of State High School Exit Exam Policies. Oklahoma. This individual profile provides information on Oklahoma's high school exit exam standards and policies. Some of the categories presented include: (1) State exit exam policy; (2) Type of Test; (3) Purpose; (4) Major changes in exit exam policy since the 2009-10 school year for financial reasons; (5) Subjects tested on exam; (6) Grade exam first administered; (7) Is the exit exam used for No Child Left Behind (NCLB) accountability purposes?; (8) Alternate paths to graduation specifically for English language learners; (9) Alternate paths to graduation specifically for students with disabilities; and (10) State participation in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). [For the full report, "State High School Tests: Changes in State Policies and the Impact of the College and Career Readiness Movement," see ED530163.] [More] Descriptors: Academic Achievement, Academic Standards, Accountability, Alignment (Education)
(2011). Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress. Volume 11, Number 2, Alliance for Excellent Education. "Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) State of the Union Preview: In Email to Supporters, Obama Highlights Economy and Jobs, Education, Deficit Reduction, and Bipartisanship; (2) Education Among Americans' Top Priorities for 2011: Education Ranks Fourth, Ahead of Reducing the Budget Deficit, According to New PEW Poll; (3) "States' Progress and Challenges in Implementing Common Core State Standards": New Report Reveals States' Progress and Plans for Implementing the Common Core; and (4) State of the State Addresses 2011: Governors Recognize the Importance of Investments in Education. [More] Descriptors: State Standards, Academic Standards, Public Education, Federal Government
(2011). How to Assess while You Teach Math: Formative Assessment Practices and Lessons, Grades K-2, Math Solutions. "How to Assess While You Teach Math" is the ideal resource for further understanding the process of formative assessment in addition to improving your teaching of mathematics. All lessons are correlated to the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics and Standards for Mathematical Practice. In this multimedia resource, award-winning teacher Dana Islas takes educators into her Pueblo Gardens' classroom for a seeing is believing look at seven successful formative assessment practices, demonstrating them in action through 14 video clips and 19 engaging lessons. You'll find: (1) individual assessments and student-led conferences filmed in actual classrooms; (2) questions to help guide teachers' observations of students as they engage in each lesson; (3) suggestions for supporting students who struggle; (4) teacher and student checklists for guiding formative assessment in each lesson; (5) a rubric to help teachers scaffold the order of student work shared in a whole-group discussion; and (6) ready-to-use reproducibles; and more. [More] Descriptors: Formative Evaluation, Mathematics Instruction, Elementary School Mathematics, Early Childhood Education
(2011). Double Take. What's the best estimate of student performance on the Common Core State Standards? ACT, an organization involved in developing the standards, wanted to know how well today's students are meeting them. To find out, it analyzed the test results of 256,765 11th graders who took selected forms of the ACT test in spring 2010. In its report, "A First Look at the Common Core and College and Career Readiness," ACT found that across all Common Core domains, strands, and clusters, only one-third to one-half of 11th graders are reaching a college- and career-ready level of achievement. The report recommends specific instructional strategies and interventions as well as steps policymakers can take to improve student achievement. [More] Descriptors: Educational Strategies, Test Results, State Standards, Academic Achievement
(2011). Profile of State High School Exit Exam Policies. New Jersey. This individual profile provides information on New Jersey's high school exit exam standards and policies. Some of the categories presented include: (1) State exit exam policy; (2) Type of Test; (3) Purpose; (4) Major changes in exit exam policy since the 2009-10 school year for financial reasons; (5) Subjects tested on exam; (6) Grade exam first administered; (7) Is the exit exam used for No Child Left Behind (NCLB) accountability purposes?; (8) Alternate paths to graduation specifically for English language learners; (9) Alternate paths to graduation specifically for students with disabilities; and (10) State participation in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). [For the full report, "State High School Tests: Changes in State Policies and the Impact of the College and Career Readiness Movement," see ED530163.] [More] Descriptors: Academic Achievement, Academic Standards, Accountability, Alignment (Education)
(2011). Preparing Now for Common Core: A State and Local View, Techniques: Connecting Education and Careers (J1). Forty-four states, the District of Columbia and U.S. Virgin Islands have formally adopted the Common Core State Standards (Common Core), and implementation is scheduled to begin in 2014–not that far away when one thinks about all that needs to be put in place. It's important for local educators and administrators to actively engage in the Common Core discussion to ensure that career and technical education (CTE) is included as states and school districts work on plans. While some states and school districts have included CTE in the Common Core implementation discussions, many have not. This article looks at how Colorado is incorporating CTE in its planning, and how one school in Maryland is faring as it undertakes its Common Core integration. [More] Descriptors: State Standards, Vocational Education, Program Implementation, Educational Planning
(2011). Revisiting Professional Learning Communities to Increase College Readiness: The Importance of Pedagogical Content Knowledge, Educational Researcher. For over a decade, professional learning communities (PLCs) have been touted as an effective way to build upon the knowledge and skills of experienced teachers, yet much of the evidence base is derived from self-reports by practitioners. Although several generations of school reform (the standards movement, No Child Left Behind, and now the Common Core State Standards) have cited improving teacher effectiveness as key to improving student achievement, little change has occurred in the nature of professional development. This article argues that professional development generally, and PLCs in particular, would benefit from the insights gleaned from the extensive literature on teacher expertise that focuses on how well teachers understand the content they teach and how well they understand how students learn that content. [More] Descriptors: Expertise, Evidence, Teacher Effectiveness, Educational Change
(2011). Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress. Volume 11, Number 9, Alliance for Excellent Education. "Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) "Engineering Solutions to the National Crisis in Literacy": Alliance Brief Calls for Alignment Between Literacy Plans and Common Core State Standards; (2) "ESEA Briefing Book": New Fordham Report Identifies Ten "Big Issues" in ESEA Reauthorization; (3) "Education for Employment": New Report Focuses on Educational Challenges in the Arab World, Finds Similarities to U.S., but Recommends Vastly Different Solutions; (4) "Winning the Future": New White House Report Stresses Importance of Better Educational Outcomes for Latino Students to Nation's Future Success; and (5) "Plugged In": Report Offers Lessons Learned from a Latino-Serving, Workforce Development Program. [More] Descriptors: Educational Policy, State Standards, Outcomes of Education, Public Education
(2011). It's All Connected: The Power of Proportional Reasoning to Understand Mathematics Concepts, Gr. 6-8, Math Solutions. "It's All Connected" provides teachers of mathematics the support they need to improve their instruction. This in-demand collection of lessons for grades 6-8 explores proportionality, proportional relationships, and proportional reasoning, acknowledging that the ability to reason proportionally is crucial in the middle school mathematics curriculum. The lessons support teachers and students in thinking of proportionality as the big idea that connects across all strands. Each lesson features: (1) Common Core State Standards correlations; (2) connections to the five content strands of middle-school mathematics; (3) engaging themes, from Zapping Zombies to Downloading Music; (4) carefully detailed teaching suggestions; (5) three sets of question types to ask students as they progress through lessons–questions for struggling students, students on task, and students who need extensions; (6) reproducible student recording pages; and (7) "Check for Success" assessment ideas. [Foreword by Cathy Seeley.] [More] Descriptors: Mathematical Concepts, Grade 6, Grade 7, Grade 8
(2011). Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress. Volume 11, Number 21, Alliance for Excellent Education. "Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) Nation's Report Card Reveals Modest Increases in Math and Reading: Report Shows One-Quarter of Eighth Graders Reading Below Most Basic Level; (2) Senate Committee Holds Hearing on Legislation to Rewrite No Child Left Behind: Senators Harkin and Enzi Outline Pros, Cons of Legislation; (3) Common Core State Standards Initiative: Alabama Reaffirms Support for Common Standards as Montana Becomes Forty-Sixth State to Adopt; and (4) "Generation Jobless": "Wall Street Journal" Spotlights Young Individuals Hit Hard By Economic Recession. [More] Descriptors: State Standards, Employment Patterns, Public Education, Grade 8
(2011). Using Multiple Sources of Information in Establishing Text Complexity. Reading Research Report. #11.03, Online Submission. A focus of the Common Core State Standards/English Language Arts (CCSS/ELA) is that students become increasingly more capable with complex text over their school careers. This focus has redirected attention to the measurement of text complexity. Although CCSS/ELA suggests multiple criteria for this task, the standards offer a single measure of text complexity–Lexiles. In this paper, I propose that additional quantitative measures are available–including the two components of a Lexile rating–that can provide more comprehensive views of text complexity. I apply these two "intra-Lexile" measures and one additional measure, referential cohesion, to sets of exemplars for grade bands 2-3 and 4-5 within the CCSS/ELA. The analyses suggest that conclusions about text complexity vary considerably when multiple quantitative measures are used, rather than a single, omnibus index. [More] Descriptors: Reading Research, State Standards, Information Sources, Achievement Rating
(2011). Profile of State High School Exit Exam Policies. Ohio. This individual profile provides information on Ohio's high school exit exam standards and policies. Some of the categories presented include: (1) State exit exam policy; (2) Type of Test; (3) Purpose; (4) Major changes in exit exam policy since the 2009-10 school year for financial reasons; (5) Subjects tested on exam; (6) Grade exam first administered; (7) Is the exit exam used for No Child Left Behind (NCLB) accountability purposes?; (8) Alternate paths to graduation specifically for English language learners; (9) Alternate paths to graduation specifically for students with disabilities; and (10) State participation in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). [For the full report, "State High School Tests: Changes in State Policies and the Impact of the College and Career Readiness Movement," see ED530163.] [More] Descriptors: Academic Achievement, Academic Standards, Accountability, Alignment (Education)
(2011). Preliminary Findings about Waivers: CEP Survey of State Education Agency Officials, October-November 2011, Center on Education Policy. In the fall of 2011, the Center on Education Policy conducted a survey of state education officials to learn more about the fiscal condition of the states, their efforts to meet the assurances under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and the progress of states that have adopted the Common Core State Standards in transitioning to the new standards. Included in this survey were a few questions about U.S. Secretary of Education Duncan's new flexibility in the form of waivers that was announced in late September 2011. A total of 36 states and the District of Columbia participated in the survey. This paper presents the results from the questions about these waivers. [More] Descriptors: State Departments of Education, State Surveys, Educational Legislation, Federal Legislation