Evaluating Common Core Math Materials

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Evaluating Common Core Math Materials

• What "Aligned to CC" Really Means

john meinzen Edwardsville High School October 5,
2012
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How this presentation fits in to Illinois
Teaching Framework

• Domain 1 Planning and Preparation
• 1d Demonstrating Knowledge of Resources
• For classroom
• To extend content knowledge
• For students

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Intro to the Tri-State Rubric

• Short History
• In 2010-11, the Common Core State Standards
  (CCSS) adopted by many states (Illinois among the
  leaders)
• circa 2015, students (and educators?) will begin
  to be evaluated according to CCSS
• Current problems
• CCSS are well-known but not well-understoodespeci
  ally the Practice Standards
• Task-based lessons are the new buzz words for
  student performance but they are showing up a bit
  too early to be carefully aligned with the PARCC
  tests (how can anyone be correctly aligned to
  something that doesnt exist yet?)
• CC-Aligned materials are commonplace but few
  people really understand the definition of
  aligned (hint it has not been defined)
• Solution
• In 2010-11, 3 states (New York, Rhode Island, and
  Massachusetts) were awarded a large grant to
  create a usable and free rubric to help educators
  understand classroom/coursework unit (or chapter)
  materials alignment and rigor to the CCSS.
• The result was the Tri-State Rubricthe focus of
  this presentation

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Tri-State Rubric Goals

• What it is useful for
• Educators
• Curriculum decision-makers to help evaluate or
  select CC course material
• teacher professional development
• K-12 grades
• today will be training on Algebra 1 (somewhere
  in 7-10th grades)
• Math alignment with CC
• a rubric is available for English as well
• evaluating Unit/Chapters
• training will focus on Functions - usually part
  of Chapter 1
• CC standard F.IF.1

• What it is not
• Not a guideline for the test
• though Tri-State Rubric designed along with PARCC
  support
• Not for daily lesson plans
• though Unit/Chapter will contain such plans
• Not for the faint-hearted
• make sure you have detailed-oriented people
  involved who are not afraid of being critical
  lets call these people critical thinkers
• Not a lecture
• except for this PowerPoint

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Noteworthy items on the Tri-State Rubric

• The Tri-State Rubric refers to a Lesson in the
  same way as that most Illinois educators think of
  as a Chapter or Unit (apparently, a Lesson in
  other parts of the country refer to materials
  covered in a week to several months)
• We (about 150 educators around the country) spent
  two 8-hour days training on the rubric in May
  2012we didnt find a single excellent unit
  plan but we did learn a great deal about how
  high the expectation is.
• The rubric is open source. It can be modified
  by any group. The only requirement is that you
  give credit to the Tri-State Collaboration

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Tri-State Math Rubric Single Page
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Tri-State Math Rubric with Comment Blocks (page
1/2)
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Tri-State Math Rubric with Comment Blocks (page
2/2)
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Follow-up Info

• Tri-State Rubric
• http//engageny.org/resource/tri-state-quality-rev
  iew-rubric-and-rating-process/
• (currently at Version 4but only minor
  differences)
• PowerPoint
• www.meinzeit.com/ROE/Oct2012