English Proficiency Tests

Ed. Department Backs English-Proficiency Tests for Common Standards

January 10, 2011

“The federal government plans to pay for states to work together to create English-language-proficiency tests for the Common Core State Standards Initiative, according to a notice for proposed grant priorities published in the Federal Register on Friday. The plan calls for a minimum of 15 states to join together in each consortium that applies to create an English-proficiency test, prompting some observers to speculate that federal officials favor the idea of having a very limited number of such tests, if not one national test…”

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/01/10/17ellassess.h30.html?tkn=LPBF8JrIxm6UFo6jfmI3%2Bq8cvHTgulXgW/0R&cmp=clp-ecseclips

Common Core Standards Initiative - English Language Arts Standards

Common Core Standards Initiative - English Language Arts Standards

“The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects (“the Standards”) are the culmination of an extended, broad-based effort to fulfill the charge issued by the states to create the next generation of K–12 standards in order to help ensure that all students are college and career ready in literacy no later than the end of high school.

The present work, led by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the National Governors Association (NGA), builds on the foundation laid by states in their decades-long work on crafting high-quality education standards. The Standards also draw on the most important international models as well as research and input from numerous sources, including state departments of education, scholars, assessment developers, professional organizations, educators from kindergarten through college, and parents, students, and other members of the public. In their design and content, refined through successive drafts and numerous rounds of feedback, the Standards represent a synthesis of the best elements of standards-related work to date and an important advance over that previous work.

As specified by CCSSO and NGA, the Standards are (1) research and evidence based, (2) aligned with college and work expectations, (3) rigorous, and (4) internationally benchmarked. A particular standard was included in the document only when the best available evidence indicated that its mastery was essential for college and career readiness in a twenty-first-century, globally competitive society. The Standards are intended to be a living work: as new and better evidence emerges, the Standards will be revised accordingly….”

http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards/english-language-arts-standards

Common Core Standards and the New Assessment Consortia- 1/18/11

IRA Reading Group

Lunch served

Date: Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Time: 12:30 – 2:00 pm

Host: Barb Kapinus, NEA

Location:

NEA

1201 16th St. NW

Washington, D.C. 20036

(At 16^th and M St.)

Red line Farragut North Station.

(From the Orange and Blue line you can get to NEA from McPherson Square station without transferring to the Red line.)

Topic:

Common Core Standards and the

New Assessment Consortia

Background:

English Language Arts Standards:

http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards/english-language-arts-standards

RSVP! to mbell@reading.org

ALIGNING ASSESSMENTS with Common Core State Standards- Achieve

ALIGNING ASSESSMENTS WITH

THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS

“The goal of the Common Core State Standards Initiative is to ensure that states have a progression of K- 2 standards in place that ensure that students have the knowledge and skills in mathematics and English Language Arts to graduate from high school ready for college and careers.  Just as states will need to modify or create new curriculum frameworks and instructional materials to match the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), states will also need to significantly alter their assessments to ensure alignment with the CCSS. Assessments play a critical role in state education systems, providing consistent measures of whether or not students are meeting or exceeding the state’s academic standards. A coherent assessment system anchored in college- and career-ready expectations will include a combination of measures designed to meet the following goals…”

http://www.achieve.org/files/CCSS&Assessments.pdf

ETS Common State Assessments

ETS Common State Assessments

Two consortia have been awarded funding through the RTTTA competition to design new assessment systems: SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) and Partnership for Assessment of Readiness of College and Careers (PARCC). Short illustrations of their assessment system models were designed by the Center for K – 12 Assessment & Performance Management at ETS (the Center) and approved by the consortia:

·             SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium (PDF)

·             Partnership for Assessment of Readiness of College and Careers (PDF)

The Center also created a summarized version (PDF) of the two comprehensive assessment system models proposed by SBAC and PARCC.

The RTTTA funding competition has also awarded grants to two consortia to develop a new generation of alternate assessments for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities: National Center and State Collaborative Partnership and Dynamic Learning Maps Alternate Assessment System Consortium.

http://www.ets.org/s/commonassessments/pdf/SBAC_illustration.pdf

How College Readiness Narrows Achievement Gaps in College Success

Mind the Gaps- How College Readiness Narrows Achievement Gaps in College Success: ACT, October 2010 report

“A postsecondary credential offers many opportunities and benefits to high school graduates. However, not all students have access to these benefits: while the majority of high school students plan to go on to some form of postsecondary education, there are substantial gaps in college enrollment rates across racial/ethnic groups and annual family income ranges. Worse, students from racial/ethnic minority groups historically underrepresented in higher education are also much less likely than other students to earn a college degree—and this is all too frequently due to lack of preparation for college-level coursework during high school.

In the policy report Mind the Gaps, we describe the current state of college readiness of high school students and examine the contributions of pre-college indicators to improving college success specifically among underrepresented racial/ethnic minority students and students from lower income families. Although nonacademic factors also influence college success, the report examines several academic factors—including level of academic achievement, coursework preparation, and educational and career planning in high school—that contribute to students’ success during their first year in college and their likelihood of returning to college for a second year….”

http://www.act.org/research/policymakers/pdf/MindTheGapsSummary.pdf