®

http://youtu.be/-yA6oTU1emM

Key points

• Schooling was designed for a different kind of world in regards to work and information access.

• To redesign schools, we have to start with what we want students to be able to do and then write the curriculum.

• He doesn’t sound like a fan of standards…but they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Pragmatically speaking, how can we move in a direction of improvement?

Steps for Change *I’m an optimist!+

1. Articulate what we want students to be able to do.

2. Assess how well/poorly our standards are preparing students for the new information and work context.

3. Identify what is irrelevant. Throw those standards out or look for successful models to help in revision.

4. Re-align instruction, assessments, teacher training, policies, and other structures.

How would we pick a model?

• Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA): USA ranks 14th

• Gross Domestic Product per Capita: USA ranks 6th

• Countries consistently out-performing the USA in these measures include:

– Norway

– Switzerland

Norwegian Schools Overview• Significant improvements in PISA 2009 scores• Mandatory education up to completion of year 10 (typically

16 year olds) curriculum.• Upper secondary education is an additional 3 years.• Very very few privately funded schools• Schools are selective and offer specialties• Annual standardized tests are both written and oral.

Individual teachers and teacher panels are trusted to grade.• Purpose “Every student should be able to think for

themselves.”• Staunch cultural value of social justice and equity that

drives the design and practice of mandatory education.

Step 1: What do we want US students to be able to do?

• Goal of the Common Core: “college and career readiness” (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2010)

• Goal of Georgia Schools: preparation for employment (Georgia Department of Education, 2009)

• Less than 6% of jobs in the United States are low-skill jobs of the Agricultural and Industrial eras, and most employers of today’s Knowledge Economy are looking for high-skilled creative workers. (Kopczuk and Saez, 2004)

Why am I not focusing on “college readiness”? (Bui, 2013)

Work in the Knowledge Economy (see YELLOW codebook/rubric)

• Creativity• Digital Literacy• English Language Literacy • Information Literacy• Interpersonal Participation in Learning Society• Intrapersonal Skills of Life-Long Learning• Media Literacy• Numeracy • Problem-Solving• Systems Thinking

The Curricula• GPS (Georgia Performance Standards)

– English Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies– 8th grade

• CC (Common Core)– English Language Arts and Math– 8th grade

• CCGPS – English Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies– 8th grade

• NOR (Norwegian National Curriculum)– Norwegian, English Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies– 10th grade

• NOR-E/M– English Language Arts and Math– 10th grade

Step 2: Assess our curriculum

Curriculum alignment research including the Curriculum Audit (English & Steffy, 2001, p.88) and the Balanced Curriculum (Squires, 2009, p. 88) evaluate the relationships between the written, taught, and tested curricula. The terms intended, enacted, and assessed are also similarly represented in the literature (Porter & Smithson, 2001).

Goal-Curriculum Alignment Measures (G-CAM)

• Building on Andrew Porter’s Surveys of Enacted Curriculum (2001) and Fenwick English’s Curriculum Audit (1988)

• Content Analysis (Neuendorf, 2002)– Rooted in hypothesis testing (Krippendorf. 1980)

• Multiple Coders (2-5)• Tested for Reliability (Pearson’s r>0.70)• Publication of G-CAM (in submission)• Presenting at AERA 2013 in San Francisco

• Further methodological explanation available through request to avega4@kennesaw.edu or LokeyVega@CurriculumRD.com

G-CAM Table

GPS CC CCGPS NOR NOR_EM

Balance 0.8306 0.9635 0.8220 0.831251021 1.0000

Relevance 0.6142 0.8720 0.4890 0.605095541 1.0000

G-CAM Model: Norway vs. Common CoreEnglish/Math Curricula

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How are we doing?

“The Common Core State Standards provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers. With American students fully prepared for the future, our communities will be best positioned to compete successfully in the global economy.” –CCSS mission statement

First, Let’s Celebrate!

• We are doing pretty good with information literacy!

• Our English and Math Curricula could be stronger, but they are NOT full of irrelevant material like other subjects.

Why does it matter how standards are written?

• Look at your ASCD session titles…

• If its not explicitly in the standards, is on the tests? Is it taught?

• How do teachers interpret curriculum standards in order to plan instruction?

– Sample (green handout)

– Audience (assumed), Behavior, Condition, Degree

If you add it after the later = LACK of alignment

Step 3: Now, Let’s Get Better!• Reduce the amount of irrelevant content found in

other subject areas.• We need all curricular subjects to address more

of the skills/themes necessary to prepare student for careers in today’s economy. We have big gaps!

• We have far more curriculum standards for the whole curriculum than Norway. Why is this so? They are addressing more skills than we are in fewer standards. CCGPS (n=364) NOR (n=157)

Creativity (see YELLOW codebook/rubric)

• CC: Develop the topic with relevant, well-chosen facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples. (68WSHT2.b)

• NOR: use various media, sources and aesthetic expressions in personal texts relating to the Norwegian subject curriculum and interdisciplinary texts (NN10.C02)

Continuous Improvement of the CC

If we were to revise this [68WSHT2.b] CC standard to better prepare students to be creative, what language might we use based on what we learn from Norway’s example?

Develop a student-initiated topic with relevant, well-chosen facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples using various media, sources and aesthetic expressions .

How might the taught curriculum look different?How might the tested curriculum look different?

Work in Small Groups

• Time: TBA

• Handout: “Learning from Norway to Revise the Common Core” (OFF-WHITE/Beige)

• Select a spokesperson to share

Digital Literacy• CC: Understand that a two-dimensional figure is

congruent to another if the second can be obtained from the first by a sequence of rotations, reflections, and translations; given two congruent figures, describe a sequence that exhibits the congruence between them. (8.G1.2)

• NOR: analyze, including digitally, characteristics of two-and three-dimensional figures and use them for constructions and calculations (NM10.G01)

Interpersonal Participation in Learning Society

• CC: Write arguments focused on discipline-specific content. (68.WSHT1)

• NOR: give simple lectures, presentations and readings with interpretations, and participate in role play and dramatization, adapted to different recipients (NN10.O07)

Intrapersonal Skills of Life-Long Learning

• CC: Spell correctly (8.L2.c).

• NOR: describe and assess his/her own work in learning English NE10.L05); identify important linguistic similarities and differences between English and the native language and use this knowledge in his or her own language learning(NE10.L02); give grounds for personal choices of literature and reading material based on knowledge of reading strategies (N10.W06)

Media Literacy

• CC: Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical texts. (68.RST1)

• NOR: search for and select sources, assess them critically and show how different sources might present history differently (NSS10.H04); use texts taken from libraries, the internet and mass media in a critical manner, discuss and elaborate on the texts and acknowledge the sources used (NN10.W14)

Problem-Solving• CCGPS: Follow precisely a multistep procedure when

carrying out experiments, taking measurements, or performing technical tasks. (68.RST3)

• Describe the rights and responsibilities of citizens. (SS8CG1.c)

• NOR: plan, carry out and present problem-oriented sociological surveys and assess the work process and the results (NSS10.S01); make a plan for starting and operating an enterprise based on a survey to determine the basis for such an enterprise (NSS10.S03)

Systems Thinking

• CCGPS: The student will explain the benefits of free trade (SS8E2)

• NOR: describe the universe and different theories of how it has developed (NS10.U01); describe the main characteristics of the Norwegian economy and how our economy is connected to the global economy (NSS10.S13)

Let’s raise the bar: Digital Literacy, Information Literacy, & Numeracy

• CC: Know that straight lines are widely used to model relationships between two quantitative variables. For scatter plots that suggest a linear association, informally fit a straight line, and informally assess the model fit by judging the closeness of the data points to the line. (8.SP1.2)

• NOR: carry out investigations and use databasesto search for and analyze statistical data and demonstrate source criticism (NM10.SP01)

Let’s try 3rd grade CC Math…

CC: Tell and write time to the nearest minute and measure time intervals in minutes. Solve word problems involving addition and subtraction of time intervals in minutes, e.g., by representing the problem on a number line diagram (3MD.A.1)

Interpersonal Skills of Participating in a Knowledge Society (?)

Problem-Solving (?)Systems Thinking (?)

Curricular Supplements

What key patterns do you notice between the instructional practices and materials of the original standard and our revised standards? How would the revised standards affect mastery of the originals?

Feedback and Thoughts?

How might the revised standards affect our bar graph?

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Would the revised standards better support the CCSS mission?

“The Common Core State Standards provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers. With American students fully prepared for the future, our communities will be best positioned to compete successfully in the global economy.” –CCSS mission statement

Step 4?

Re-align instruction, assessments, teacher training, policies, and other structures.

I Propose REVISION of the CC for Continuous Improvement of College and Career Readiness

“‘Rapid iteration,’ ‘living in perpetual beta,’ and other ideas related to quickly trying things, getting feedback to see if they worked, and adjusting course accordingly are all extremely important, particularly in a rapidly-changing world.” –Scott McLeod, 2013

Detailed Reference List Available• Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2010• Georgia Department of Education, 2009• Kopczuk and Saez, 2004• Bui, 2013• Schweizer Medieninstitut furBildung und Kultur, 2011; Ministry of

Education and Research, 2011• English & Steffy, 2001• Squires, 2009• Porter & Smithson, 2001• Neuendorf, 2002• Krippendorf. 1980• Scott McLeod, 2013

Special ThanksDr. Geir Moen

Toyen Skole

of Oslo, Norway

And the many teachers and administrators of Oslo’s public schools for welcoming me to Oslo

and for their contributions in assisting in the data collection process to ensure accurate

representation of Norway’s curriculum.

Contact Information

Anissa Lokey-VegaAssistant Professor of Instructional Technology and

Consultant

Kennesaw State University

AVega4@kennesaw.edu

Or

Curriculum Research and Development

LokeyVega@CurriculumRD.com