Category Archives: Professional Development

Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium

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As most of the United States transitions to the Common Core State Standards and the Common Core Mathematical Practices, it will be necessary to administer assessments that align to the CCSS. In 2010, the US Department of Education chose to fund two consortia whose task it is to develop such an assessment. The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium is one of those.

By the 2014-15 school year, the consortium, comprised of educators, researchers, and members of community groups, will have built an assessment which will measure student readiness for college and/or careers. Currently there are 29 states who have agreed to join the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, either as a governing or as an advisory member.

In addition to being aligned to the CCSS and the CCMP, the Smarter Balanced Assessment will include more than just multiple choice responses. The test will also include short constructed responses, extended constructed responses, and performance tasks which will ask students to demonstrate and apply their knowledge to real-world situations.

The assessment will make use of CAT, computer adaptive testing, which will allow districts to get feedback much more quickly and accurately than current state tests allow, and will offer the ability to track student progress over time.

Because the test is being administered online, the Smarter Balanced Assessment will include technology-enhanced items, designed for the student to interract with the computer to solve a problem or mathematical situation.

Teachers will have the ability to give students interim tests throughout the school year as both formative and summative assessment tools. Included will be an online reporting system, which will give teachers, administrators, and parents feedback on student growth and achievement.

For more information about the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, visit http://www.smarterbalanced.org.

The PARCC Assessment

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As the Common Core State Standards are sweeping the nation, more and more teachers and parents are wondering about the assessment of the new curriculum.

PARCC, The Partnership for Assessment for Readiness for College and Careers, is a consortium of states working together to develop a common set of K-12 assessments. The goal is to dramatically increase the rates at which students graduate from high school prepared for success in college and the workplace.

It will provide students, educators, policymakers and the public tools needed to identify whether students are on track for postsecondary success and where gaps need to be addressed before students enter college or the workforce. These new assessments will assess the full range of the Common Core Standards, both content and practices.

The assessment system will be comprised of four components.

  • Two summative, required assessment components designed to:

- Make “college- and career-readiness” and “on-track” determinations,

- Measure the full range of standards and full performance continuum, and

- Provide data for accountability uses, including measures of growth.

  • Two non-summative, optional assessment components designed to:

- Generate timely information for informing instruction, interventions, and professional development during the school year.

- An additional third non-summative component will assess students’ speaking and listening skills.

Assessments will be computer based and will be graded via computer scoring and human scoring.  PARCC assessments will begin during the 2014-15 school year.

Math Practices Video Series: Mathematical Practice #8

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Our video series on the Mathematical Practices is wrapping up today as we share our video for Mathematical Practice #8. If you’ve missed any of this video series, you can catch up with our previous posts:

• Mathematical Practice #1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
• Mathematical Practice #2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
• Mathematical Practice #3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
• Mathematical Practice #4: Model with mathematics.
• Mathematical Practice #5: Use appropriate tools strategically.
• Mathematical Practice #6: Attend to precision.
• Mathematical Practice #7: Look for and make use of structure.

There are multiple parts to each practice. The parts help students develop the habit of mind that is the main practice. Remember that the practices are defined as ways to help students become mathematically proficient. As we look at each practice, think of ways we can help students to take ownership of these practices.

In the eighth video, students are learning how to describe an equation. The Essential Question asks: “How do you describe the equation y=mx+b?”

Notice how the teacher probes the students rather than supplying the students with answers. What questions does she ask? Students are making sense of the problem and planning a solution pathway. When they begin to work on problems in their groups, they will be able to use these strategies, thereby building their proficiency.

8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

• Mathematically proficient students notice if calculations are repeated, and look both for general methods and for shortcuts.

• By paying attention to the calculation of slope as they repeatedly check whether points are on the line through (1, 2) with slope 3, middle school students might abstract the equation (y – 2)/(x – 1) = 3.

• As they work to solve a problem, mathematically proficient students maintain oversight of the process, while attending to the details.

• Mathematically proficient students continually evaluate the reasonableness of their intermediate results.

As you look at your classroom, you probably see students with varying degrees of expertise in this practice. Our job, as educators, is to help students develop a habit of mind that helps them naturally think before they begin, make sense of what they are doing and persevere in their work. Ask yourself:

Do your students notice patterns in mathematics?

Are your students able to use patterns to formulate a solution?

Do they evaluate the reasonableness of their solution?

As students take ownership of their learning and develop expertise using the mathematical practices, the content standards (knowledge, skills and understandings, procedural skills and fluency, and application and problem solving) will make sense, allowing students to achieve success in mathematics.

Math Practices Video Series: Mathematical Practice #7

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Our video series on the Standards for Mathematical Practice is coming to a close, but we still have two videos left to share! Today we are sharing our video for Mathematical Practice #7. If you’ve missed any of this video series, you can catch up with our previous posts:

• Mathematical Practice #1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
• Mathematical Practice #2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
• Mathematical Practice #3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
• Mathematical Practice #4: Model with mathematics.
• Mathematical Practice #5: Use appropriate tools strategically.
• Mathematical Practice #6: Attend to precision.

There are multiple parts to each practice. The parts help students develop the habit of mind that is the main practice. Remember that the practices are defined as ways to help students become mathematically proficient. As we look at each practice, think of ways we can help students to take ownership of these practices.

In the seventh video, students are learning how to break apart a composite figure into its pieces to calculate surface area. The Essential Question asks: “How can you find the surface area of composite figures?”

Observe how the teacher activates the students’ previous knowledge. What questions does he ask? Students are making sense of the problem and planning a solution pathway. When they begin to work on problems in their groups, they will be able to use these strategies, thereby building their proficiency.

7. Look for and make use of structure.

• Mathematically proficient students look closely to discern a pattern or structure.

• Mathematically proficient students can see complicated things as single objects or as being composed of several objects.

As you look at your classroom, you probably see students with varying degrees of expertise in this practice.  Our job, as educators,  is to help students develop a habit of mind that helps them naturally think before they begin, make sense of what they are doing and persevere in their work. Ask yourself:

Can your students break composite figures into the appropriate pieces?

Are students able to make conjectures and define a strategy to solve problems?

Do they realize composite figures exist in everyday life?

As students take ownership of their learning and develop expertise using the mathematical practices, the content standards (knowledge, skills and understandings, procedural skills and fluency, and application and problem solving) will make sense, allowing students to achieve success in mathematics.

Math Practices Video Series: Mathematical Practice #6

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Today in our video series on the Standards for Mathematical Practice, Larry Dorf presents Mathematical Practice #6. If you’ve missed any of this video series, you can catch up with our previous posts:

• Mathematical Practice #1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
• Mathematical Practice #2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
• Mathematical Practice #3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
• Mathematical Practice #4: Model with mathematics.
• Mathematical Practice #5: Use appropriate tools strategically.

There are multiple parts to each practice. The parts help students develop the habit of mind that is the main practice. Remember that the practices are defined as ways to help students become mathematically proficient. As we look at each practice, think of ways we can help students to take ownership of these practices.

In the sixth video, students are learning how to use rates in real life situations. The Essential Question asks: “How can you use rates to describe changes in real life problems?”

Notice how the students are given time to discuss and write their own word problem. Notice also how the teacher questions and discusses the comparison of rates. Students are discussing situations with which they can relate and with which they will be able to explore. When they begin to work on problems in their groups, they will be able to use these strategies, thereby building their proficiency.

6. Attend to precision.

• Mathematically proficient (MP) students try to communicate precisely to others.

• MP students try to use clear definitions in discussion with others and in their own reasoning.

• MP students state the meaning of the symbols they choose, including using the equal sign consistently and appropriately.

• MP students are careful about specifying units of measure, and labeling axes to clarify the correspondence with quantities in a problem.

• MP students calculate accurately and efficiently, and express numerical answers with a degree of precision appropriate for the problem context.

As you look at your classroom, you probably see students with varying degrees of expertise in this practice. Our job, as educators, is to help students develop a habit of mind that helps them naturally think before they begin so that they can mathematically communicate clearly.

Ask yourself:

Do you promote discussion between your students?

Are students able to accurately express their answers?

Are your students able to justify their reasoning with one another?

As students take ownership of their learning and develop expertise using the mathematical practices, the content standards (knowledge, skills and understandings, procedural skills and fluency, and application and problem solving) will make sense, allowing students to achieve success in mathematics.