Free Daily Headlines :

  • COVID-19
  • Vaccine Info
  • Money
  • Politics
  • Education
  • Health
  • Justice
  • More
    • Environment
    • Economic Development
    • Gaming
    • Investigations
    • Social Services
    • TRANSPORTATION
  • Opinion
    • CT Viewpoints
    • CT Artpoints
DONATE
Reflecting Connecticut’s Reality.
    COVID-19
    Vaccine Info
    Money
    Politics
    Education
    Health
    Justice
    More
    Environment
    Economic Development
    Gaming
    Investigations
    Social Services
    TRANSPORTATION
    Opinion
    CT Viewpoints
    CT Artpoints

LET�S GET SOCIAL

Show your love for great stories and out standing journalism

Getting ready for the new common core curriculum

  • Education
  • by Carole Collins-Ayanlaja
  • March 21, 2013
  • View as "Clean Read" "Exit Clean Read"

Public education in Hartford and across Connecticut is about to enter a new dimension that will test the resolve of many urban school districts.

Forty-five states, including Connecticut, four U.S. territories and the District of Columbia have embraced Common Core State Standards, which aim to create an across-the-board consistency — by subject and grade — in what all students in the country are expected to learn and how they are expected to learn it.

The standards were developed to respond to the U.S. decline in educational achievement compared with that of other countries, and they are aligned with the college and career-readiness expectations of U.S. employers. The Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, who developed the standards, aim to get students across the country to be on the same page with their peers.

Concurrently, Connecticut will be replacing the CMT/CAPT tests in 2014-2015 with what is called the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium test (SBAC), a web-based examination that asks students at all levels to analyze, solve complex problems, and craft informed, well-reasoned opinions that show they have mastered the goals of Common Core instruction.

Smarter Balanced assessments will go beyond paper-and-pencil multiple-choice questions to include extended response and technology enhanced items, as well as performance tasks that allow students to demonstrate critical-thinking and problem-solving skills.

So, as districts prepare teachers and principals to incorporate the new standards, they must also prepare students for a new and more complex generation of assessments. This most important transition is not going to be an easy task. Some educators in the state are already anticipating drops in standardized testing scores during the initial implementation of SBAC, as school staffs and students adjust to the changes.

Hartford Public Schools is taking to the challenge with the same intensity that the district did seven years ago, when it defied convention and introduced a series of progressive education reforms — reaping positive results — that are widely accepted today. They include student-based budgeting, an all-choice system of schools, school governance councils and school autonomy based on performance.

Understanding that we must expose our students to the rigors of SBAC before it arrives, the district and the Board of Education have ushered in the Northwest Evaluation Association’s Measured Academic Progress (MAP) assessment, a computer adaptive test that is Common Core aligned and is being administered three times this year to all students in grades 1-12. The district piloted the test with ninth-graders last year and was pleased with the results.

Our adoption of the NWEA’s MAP program is being funded as part of the $5 million that the district received from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in December to advance college readiness through deeper collaboration with charter schools.

Hartford’s preparation has included extensive training for teachers and administrators and a technology readiness survey to determine the resources available at each school to administer the test and ensure that all schools are fully equipped when the time comes to administer the SBAC.

The MAP provides detailed action-oriented data about each learner.  Students engage with the computer, as they will on the SBAC. The testing results are used to identify the areas of progress and the areas of need for each student.

After the first test was administered in September 70 percent of principals agreed that MAP data would be very valuable in monitoring student growth from fall to spring.  More than half of the teachers endorsed MAP data as an effective way to place students in courses, identify strengths and areas of need, and determine necessary interventions.

Schools are already beginning to speak the language of Common Core through the MAP assessments. District personnel, principals, and teachers are benefiting from MAP’s comprehensive professional development feature that includes test administration training, test interpretation, differentiation, and laddering instruction. Teachers share MAP reports at parent conferences and explain how students are progressing.

Hartford is not alone among Connecticut districts in recognizing that principals, teachers, students and parents need the weapons to prepare for Common Core.  Sixteen other districts in the state, including Waterbury, New Britain, Bristol, New London and Bloomfield, have all adopted the NWEA MAP assessments in some degree.

Using existing tools, such as integrating sample questions into classroom instruction, sending packets home to study and hosting afterschool review sessions that do not align with the Common Core, will place our students at a distinct disadvantage when the SBAC is implemented.

We are doing our very best to prevent that from happening.

Sign up for CT Mirror's free daily news summary.

Free to Read. Not Free to Produce.

The Connecticut Mirror is a nonprofit newsroom. 90% of our revenue comes from people like you. If you value our reporting please consider making a donation. You'll enjoy reading CT Mirror even more knowing you helped make it happen.

YES, I'LL DONATE TODAY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Carole Collins-Ayanlaja

SEE WHAT READERS SAID

RELATED STORIES
New Haven’s school challenge: How to spend all that federal money
by Thomas Breen | New Haven Independent

How does it spend $136 million in federal pandemic relief without getting hooked on the short-term dough?

J&J vaccine ‘pause’ complicates campus clinics, but the big question remains: Should colleges require vaccinations?
by Adria Watson

The COVID vaccines are authorized for "emergency use," making the legality of mandates murky

Cardona taps a top Lamont staffer to join him at the U.S. Department of Education
by Jacqueline Rabe Thomas

Nick Simmons was director of strategic initiatives in Lamont's office for nearly two years.

Hartford schools re-opening for in-person learning without teachers union buy-in
by Frankie Graziano | Connecticut Public Radio

Teachers favored returning after April break when they will all be vaccinated.

CT tax fairness debate heats up with new pandemic relief on the way
by Keith M. Phaneuf

Connecticut’s tax fairness debate shifted into high gear as state officials eye $2.6 billion in new pandemic relief from Washington.

Support Our Work

Show your love for great stories and outstanding journalism.

$
Select One
  • Monthly
  • Yearly
  • Once
Artpoint painter
CT ViewpointsCT Artpoints
Opinion Redistricting in Connecticut 2021: It is worth your attention
by Patricia Rossi

This is the year for redistricting in the United States. Maps drawn in 2021 will define which voters can vote for which candidates for the next ten years.  That means ensuring that the 2021 maps are fair and representative of their communities is critically important.

Opinion Lembo: Legislators should let constituents share the success of their health plan.
by Comptroller Kevin Lembo

The health care crisis in Connecticut continues. Bills under consideration in Connecticut expand subsidies, attempt to lower prescription drug costs and address long-standing health care inequities. There is room to incorporate the best of each if it helps make health care in our state more affordable, equitable and accessible. But Senate Bill 842 is the only bill that provides short and long-term help for small businesses, nonprofits and certain labor unions.

Opinion Will the Comptroller open the state-run healthcare plan’s books?
by Wyatt Bosworth

What choices do you have when you cannot defend a policy issue on its merits? One path is that chosen by former New Britain Democratic Town Committee chair Bill Shortell in his April 14 Viewpoints opinion piece, “Debunking the CBIA’s takedown of the public option healthcare bill.” Instead of defending any perceived merits associated with the proposed expansion of state-run healthcare in Connecticut, Shortell attacks the messenger. In this case, two organizations that have raised legitimate —and unanswered— questions about that proposal.

Opinion Climate action now to insure Connecticut’s future
by Commissioners Andrew Mais and Katie Dykes

Connecticut has had nine weather-related federal disaster declarations in the past 11 years, totaling more than $362 million in damages. For Storms Irene, Sandy, and the 2011 October Nor’easter, insurers paid out more than $1 billion to cover insured damages in Connecticut. The climate crisis is upon us. The science is clear. We must act now.

Artwork Grand guidance
by Anne:Gogh

In a world of systemic oppression aimed towards those of darker skintones – representation matters. We are more than our equity elusive environments, more than numbers in a prison and much more than victims of societal dispositions. This piece depicts a melanated young man draped in a cape ascending high above multiple forms of oppression. […]

Artwork Shea
by Anthony Valentine

Shea is a story about race and social inequalities that plague America. It is a narrative that prompts the question, “Do you know what it’s like to wake up in new skin?”

Artwork The Declaration of Human Rights
by Andres Chaparro

Through my artwork I strive to create an example of ideas that reflect my desire to raise social consciousness, and cultural awareness. Jazz music is the catalyst to all my work, and plays a major influence in each piece of work.”

Artwork ‘A thing of beauty. Destroy it forever’
by Richard DiCarlo | Derby

During times like these it’s often fun to revisit something familiar and approach things with a different slant. I have been taking some Pop culture and Art masterpieces and applying the vintage 1960’s and 70’s classic figures (Fisher Price, little people) to the make an amusing pieces. Here is my homage to Fisher -Price, Yellow […]

Twitter Feed
A Twitter List by CTMirror

Engage

  • Reflections Tickets & Sponsorships
  • Events
  • Donate
  • Newsletter Sign-Up
  • Submit to Viewpoints
  • Submit to ArtPoints
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Commenting Guidelines
  • Legal Notices
  • Contact Us

About

  • About CT Mirror
  • Announcements
  • Board
  • Staff
  • Sponsors and Funders
  • Donors
  • Friends of CT Mirror
  • History
  • Financial
  • Policies
  • Strategic Plan

Opportunity

  • Advertising and Sponsorship
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Use of Photography
  • Work for Us

Go Deeper

  • Steady Habits Podcast
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Five Things

The Connecticut News Project, Inc. 1049 Asylum Avenue, Hartford, CT 06105. Phone: 860-218-6380

© Copyright 2021, The Connecticut News Project. All Rights Reserved. Website by Web Publisher PRO