An Overview of the Race to the Top

InitiativeAngela Stockman

WNY Education AssociatesFall 2011

$4.35 billion United States Department of Education program designed to spur reforms in state and local district K-12 education

Funded by the ED Recovery Act as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

Announced by President Barack Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on July 24, 2009

Race to the Top

Great Teachers and Leaders

Improving teacher and principal effectiveness based on performance

Ensuring equitable distribution of effective teachers and principals

Providing high-quality pathways for aspiring teachers and principals

Providing effective support to teachers and principals

Improving the effectiveness of teacher and principal preparation programs

State Applications for Funding Attended to:

State Success Factors

Articulating State's education reform agenda and LEAs' participation in it

Building strong statewide capacity to implement, scale up, and sustain proposed plans

Demonstrating significant progress in raising achievement and closing gaps

Standards and Assessments

Developing and adopting common standards (from the Common Core State Standards Initiative)

Supporting the transition to enhanced standards and high-quality assessments

Developing and implementing common, high-quality assessments

Turning Around the Lowest-Achieving Schools

Turning around the lowest-achieving schools

Intervening in the lowest-achieving schools and LEAs

Data Systems to Support Instruction

Fully implementing a statewide longitudinal data system

Using data to improve instruction

Accessing and using State data

Aligning to a common set of standards

Improving teacher and leader effectiveness

Creating and leveraging structures for data-driven instruction

What Does this Mean for NY?

Our Charge:

Teaching with the Common Core

Standards

Common Core State Standards

Federally Endorsed National Standards Document coordinated at the State level by the National Governor’s Association and the Chief Council of State School Officers in collaboration with teachers, administrators, and content experts

Endorsed by the Federal Race to the Top Initiative, which provides monetary reward to states and districts who commit to improving conditions relevant to student, teacher, and administrator performance.

CCSS

Common Core Learning StandardsThe New York State Common Core Standards

Fully aligned to the CCSS

Inclusive of 15% more content, articulated as 2 additional standards:

1 in Reading for LiteratureMulticultural and

varied in form1 in Writing

Using varied media to respond to and connect with text

CCLS

Mission of the Common Core Initiative:

The Standards set requirements not only for English language arts (ELA) but also for literacy in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects. Just as students must learn to read, write, speak, listen, and use language effectively in a variety of content areas, so too must the Standards specify the literacy skills and understandings required for college and career readiness in multiple disciplines. Literacy standards for grade 6 and above are predicated on teachers of ELA, history/social studies, science, and technical subjects using their content area expertise to help students meet the particular challenges of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language in their respective fields.

CORE COMPONENTSThree main sections• K−5 (cross-disciplinary)• 6−12 English Language Arts• 6−12 Literacy in History/Social Studies,

Science, and Technical SubjectsShared responsibility for students’ literacy development

Three appendices• A: Research and evidence; glossary of key terms• B: Reading text exemplars; sample performance tasks• C: Annotated student writing samples

READING Including Foundational Reading Skills

WRITING

SPEAKING AND LISTENING

LANGUAGE

Core Components:

Internationally Benchmarked

Scaffolding of skills

RIGOROUS

College and Career Readiness:

• Backwards design

• Scaffolding and alignment

• Consistent expectations across content areas

Shifting Our Thinking in 6 BIG Ways

Shifts in Thinking

1. PK-5, Balancing Informational & Literary Text

Students read a true balance of informational and literary texts. Elementary school classrooms are, therefore, places where students access the world – science, social studies, the arts and literature – through

text. At least 50% of what students read is informational.

Shifts in Thinking2. Grades 6 – 12 Knowledge in the Disciplines

Content area teachers outside of the ELA classroom emphasize literacy experiences in their planning and instruction. Students learn through domain specific texts in science and social studies classrooms – rather than referring to the text, they are expected to learn from what they read.

Shifts in Thinking3. Staircase of Complexity

In order to prepare students for the complexity of college and career ready texts, each grade level requires a “step” of growth on the “staircase”. Students read the central, grade appropriate text around which instruction is centered. Teachers are patient, create more time and space in the curriculum for this close and careful reading, and provide appropriate and necessary scaffolding and supports so that it is possible for students reading below grade level.

Shifts in Thinking4. Text-Based Answers

Students have rich and rigorous conversations which are dependent on a common text. Teachers insist that classroom experiences stay deeply connected to the text on the page and that students develop habits for making evidentiary arguments both in conversation, as well as in writing to assess comprehension of a text.

Shifts in Thinking

5. Writing From Sources

Writing needs to emphasize use of evidence to inform or make an argument rather than the personal narrative and other forms of decontextualized prompts. While the narrative still has an important role, students develop skills through written arguments that respond to the ideas, events, facts, and arguments presented in the texts they read.

Shifts in Thinking6. Academic Vocabulary

Students constantly build the vocabulary they need to access grade level complex texts. By focusing strategically on comprehension of pivotal and commonly found words (such as “discourse,” “generation,” “theory,” and “principled”) and less on esoteric literary terms (such as “onomatopoeia” or “homonym”), teachers constantly build students’ ability to access more complex texts across the content areas.

Common Core Implementation

1. Balancing Informational and Literary text

2. Building knowledge in the Disciplines3. Staircase of Complexity4. Text-based Answers5. Writing from Sources6. Academic Vocabulary

1 & 2

Non-fiction TextsAuthentic Texts

3 Higher Level of Text ComplexityPaired Passages

4 & 5 Focus on command of evidence from text, rubrics, and prompts

6 Academic Vocabulary

Common Core Assessment

Created by Angela Stockman stockmanangela@gmail.com

REFLECTION:

These are the most important thing that I learned……

This is what surprised me…….

This is where I need clarification……

I used to think….but now I think…..