Sean C. Morgan
Common Core standards are not really anything new, Director of Student Achievement and curriculum director Cathy Hurowitz told attendees at a recent community forum.
Oregon has had standards since 1995, she said. Common Core just increases the standards to a “world-class” level, she said.
Hurowitz said she wanted to dispel the abounding myths about what Common Core is and its relationship to the Smarter Balanced assessment test that students will begin taking this year across School District 55.
Some 42 percent of new four-year college students and 49 percent of students at two-year institutions take remedial courses, due to inadequate high school preparation, Hurowitz said at the forum held Dec. 8. Of recent high school graduates with no further education, 46 percent are inadequately prepared for the work habits they will need on the job.
Of 100 freshmen who enter high school, 75 graduate in four years, Hurowitz said, and 35 will enroll in college. Some 23 will still be enrolled their sophomore year of college, and 16 will earn a degree.
Thirty-five years ago, just 12 percent of U.S. jobs required some post-secondary training or an associate’s degree, Hurowitz said. Sixteen percent of jobs required a bachelor’s degree or higher degree.
In the future, she said, only 22 percent of job openings will be low-skill and accessible with a diploma or less education. Some 45 percent will be middle-level occupations requiring at least some post-secondary education, and 33 percent will be high-skilled occupations requiring a bachelor’s degree or more.
In response to this situation, educators, parents and experts across the country developed the Common Core standards to reflect the expectations for college and career readiness, Hurowitz said. In 2010, the Oregon State Board of Education adopted Common Core standards. A total of 46 states have adopted the standards.
The state adopted the Smarter Balanced assessment test in 2013, field testing it last year. A limited number of Sweet Home students took that test last school year.
“Oregon’s new standards focus on building and applying real-world skills students need to be ready for college and work, so they can be more competitive in the new global economy,” Hurowitz said.
With so many college students taking remedial classes, the standards are too low, she said. The Common Core provides clear, focused standards teachers can use to better understand the progress of their students and where they are in their path to college or career readiness.
The standards build on one another, and help students apply their skills and knowledge to real-life situations, Hurowitz said. The standards go deeper into fewer topics and focus on developing understanding of key concepts.
Before Common Core, all 50 states had different sets of expectations, Hurowitz said. Common Core provides a consistent set of standards and expectations for all students no matter where they live.
In the past, reporting on how states compare to each other have been flawed because the standards have been so different, she said. Common Core ensures students graduate at world class standards.
The standards set goals for each grade in each subject. For example, in kindergarten math, a student must be able to count to 100 by ones and 10s.
Common Core is not curriculum, Hurowitz said. It doesn’t tell educators how to reach the standard.
“It just tells us what students should be able to do at each grade level,” she said. Assessments are given in grades three through eight and 11th grade to find out if teachers are getting their students to those standards.
The assessment Smarter Balanced is brand new, Hurowitz said. The Common Core standards are much older, created in 2007, but the test is new and should not be confused with the standards. If the test doesn’t work or large numbers of students fail to meet the standards, it doesn’t mean the standards are the problem.
“The test is relatively new – if there’s a lot of kinks, people will say, Oh, Common Core is bad,” she said. “We don’t want to throw out the baby with the bathwater.”
At this point, teachers are participating in ongoing professional development and districts continue to develop curriculum aligned to meet the standards, Hurowitz said. Last spring, 80 percent of teachers reported that what is taught in their schools aligns with the new standards.
The state Department of Education is determining what numbers on the new test will constitute meeting the standard in comparison to the existing OAKS assessment test. Tests will be taken near the end of the school year, the last 12 weeks for elementary students or the last eight weeks for junior high and high school students.
Unlike the OAKS, results will not be available immediately. Some questions must be scored by hand, and scores won’t be available until September.
On the OAKS test, questions are primarily multiple choice, Hurowitz said. It tests low-level cognitive ability.
The Smarter Balanced test asks a variety of open-ended questions. Questions often follow up on previous questions, requiring students to write an answer.
“The requirements are higher-order thinking,” Hurowitz said. Students are asked to make inferences, compare and contrast and more. It tests not only content but teaching expectations.
“It is a lot deeper thinking, and it’s very challenging,” she said.
All of the teachers are expected to take the tests at their grade level, she said. The test is really about aligning to and teaching to the rigor of Common Core. Educators want to know their students are capable and moving to the next grade level ready to learn.
“We want them to think critically and think deeply,” Hurowitz said. Instead of asking them to talk about their feelings after reading a passage of text, for example, they’re asking them to dig into the texts.
A passage may talk about “what’s in your backpack,” she said, but it’s really focused on the science of forests and the many forest products that reside in an average backpack.
“Students have to make sense of what they’re reading,” Hurowitz said. “Teaching to this type of test, you’re teaching to the depth of knowledge a student needs to be successful.”
Grading at the junior high and high school levels will continue using traditional letters, while incorporating the new standards, Hurowitz said. Colleges still use grade point averages to determine admission qualification.
Meeting the standard on the test is not required for students to graduate, she said. Students must show essential skills to graduate from high school. They can do that in several ways, including alternative tests or work samples related to their courses.
The test is one way, Hurowitz said, “but it’s not the only way to prove you have the essential skills to graduate. There’s a variety of things kids can do to get that diploma.”