The Common Core State Standards & Student Diversity

The Common Core
& Student

Making them w

!"

Lily Wong
University of Cali

e State Standards
t Diversity

work for everyone

"

g Fillmore
ifornia at Berkeley

Will the CCSS mak

Depends on educato
needs to be changed t

ke a real difference?

ors recognizing what
to make them work...

The CCSS––a realign
goals and societ

! The CCSS raises the bar substa
our schools, and on the skills &
expected to learn during their K

! This is a crucial correction for a
confidence of the society it serv
to botch.

! The implementation of the CC
thoughtful planning, or the CC
reforms before it––well-intentio

! It calls for major shifts in our th
learning, and about the profess
for the kind of teaching implied

nment of educational
tal expectations

antially on what is to be taught in
& knowledge students are
K-12 education.

a school system that’s losing the
ves––it’s a reform we can’t afford

CSS requires careful and
CSS will end up like so many
oned, but unworkable.

hinking about teaching and
sional development teachers need
d by the new standards.

A crucial questio
heading out: how

! The CCSS require us to analyze a
to understand how our schools ha
fallen on such hard times.

! How did we end up with a 4 year
between where students should be
the end of the 12th grade, and wh
they need to be on entering colleg

! There are gaps galore––between
majority and minority group stud
between our students and student
elsewhere in the world, between w
our schools used to be, and what
are now.

on to ask before
w did we get here?

and
ave
r gap
e at
here
ge?
dents,
ts
what
they

How all English speaking students
Grades 4, 8, 12 by readin

Below Basic Basic
50

40 44

30 35% 24%
31%

26%

20

10 G

8%

0
Grade4

s performed in 2009 NAEP Reading
ng achievement level (NCES)

Proficient Advanced

4% 37%
29% 32%

25%

3% 5%
Grade8 Grade12

How did our sch
mojo these past s

!

!

hools lose their

several decades?

Student diversity is often
blamed: schools in Finland or
Singapore do not have to deal
with the student diversity that is
so prevalent in U. S. schools, the
argument goes.

There are educators who
wonder whether the CCSS are
realistic, given the considerable
student diversity in our schools,
and the disparity between
ethnic/“racial” groups in
academic performance.

Expectations a

! Disparities between student gro
and educational outcome const
confronting our schools today.

! We know the importance of ex
relationship between high expe
long as the school provides the
need to meet those expectation

! But what about ELs and other
students? We expect them, alon
toward full proficiency in ELA
meet high expectations when n
capable of learning what kids t

and outcomes

oups in academic achievement
titute the most pressing problems

xpectations in schooling: there is a
ectations and school outcome, as

instructional support students
ns.

language and cultural minority
ng with all students to work
A and Math, but how are they to
no one seems to believe they are
their age should be learning?

But is diversity

! The problem has never been tha
background, couldn’t handle the
curriculum––they could, and wo
that educators have doubted tha
or motivated to do the work the

! The school’s curriculum is not w
group kids, and ELs especially a
curriculum, with materials that
value than their mainstream clas

! Sad to say, it’s because they are
different, or look different from
teach.

y the problem?

at the kids, whatever their
e rigors of the school’s
ould have––the problem has been
at all of their students are prepared
e curriculum required.

what it should be, but poor minority
are getting an even less rigorous
are considerably lower in level and
ssmate are getting in school. Why?

poor, culturally and linguistically
the ones educators know how to

d

su
u
su

I’ll return to the
question of

diversity at the end

I begin with a premise:
All children come to school
expecting to learn, hoping to
ucceed. As educators, it’s up to
us to provide the instructional
upport they need to fulfill their

expectations and goals,
& to never give up on them.

Our schools are a

! How we handle the challenge re
either strengthen our schools, o
many forces in our society just

! Done thoughtfully and well, the
education system that has been
prosperity and growth.

! Done poorly––say, if the CCSS
that will go away like all the oth
schools, or if schools decide to
well in our schools out of consi
“they are having enough troubl
another nail in the coffin that th
hoping to bury the American pu

at a turning point

epresented by the CCSS will
or strengthen the resolve of the
waiting to bring them down.
ey could restore faith in the public
n the foundation of our nation’s

S are treated as yet another reform
hers that have been visited on our
leave students who have not done
ideration for change because
le as it is”––the result will be
he advocates of privatization are
ublic schools in.

What do the C

! The Standards require the use of
more challenging texts at every
grade level, and greater rigor and
depth required in student
understanding of such materials.

! They emphasize reading and
writing as crucial means for the
learning of critical content across
the curriculum.

! They call for students to show the
understand what they are learning
by constructing effective argumen
explanations, & presentation of
information in writing.

CCSS call for?

s
ey
g
nts,

That’s what’s expec

irrespective of back

How do we mak

cted of all students,

kground. Question:

ke that happen?

That’s what this s

! We will first take a close look
are implied by the CCSS;

! We will discuss our efforts ov
language and literacy outcom
show you some instructional
be quite effective for doing th

! That was before the CCSS ca
approaches map so well onto
had an advance peek!

! And we will share with you o
terms of planning, administra
development to implement su

session addresses

k at the curricular changes that

ver the past 5 years to raise
mes at some NYC schools, and

strategies that have proven to
hat;
ame along, but our goals &
o the CCSS, you would think we

our thinking on what it takes, in
ative support, and professional
uch a program elsewhere.

So what will th

! Students are expected to work
with more complex texts from
K-12, and to develop the more
robust literacy and thinking
skills required learning across
the curriculum––but what will
that mean instructionally?

! What will teachers need to
know and do to support
student learning through more
complex texts, especially in the
case of ELs & LM students?

he CCSS mean?

What makes a

! First question to ask is this:
for whom?

! Something I might regard is
complex and therefore
demanding, might be easy for
you.

! Better way to frame this
question: what are some of
the factors that can make a
text difficult for someone to
read and comprehend?

text complex?

! One possible source of
difficulty might be the use of
words the reader does not
know, or which refer to
complex ideational structures
that are themselves difficult
to understand.

! An example: “Chinese
languages are tonal and
analytic.”

! Chinese languages? Tonal?
Analytic?

These are language
thus, language devel

! The language called for, however
variety, but specialized registers c
structures, forms, and rhetorical
from those used in non-academic

! No one is a native speaker of aca
who have been read to a lot in th
with it, and will have an easier tim
such language than kids who hav

! Academic language is developed
make real progress in school with
registers required for reading and

e dependent skills––
lopment is essential

r, is not your ordinary, everyday
characterized by grammatical
devices that are quite different
c oral communication.

ademic language, although kids
heir early years are already familiar
me learning to read & acquiring
ve not had such experiences.

d through literacy, and no one can
hout acquiring the various
d writing across the curriculum.

An example––an info
as exemplar for Grad

first look at time and cl

ormational text listed
des 4-5. About Time: A

locks by B. Koscielniak

¶1 Sometime around 1440, the spring-
powered clock was invented. Instead of
depending on the pull of weights for
power, this type of clock used a flat
metal spring wound tightly into a coil.
The escapement allowed the spring to
unwind by turning one gear tooth at a
time. With the use of a spring, smaller,
truly portable clocks could be made.

¶2 The first well-known watches, made
in Germany around 1510 by Peter
Henlein, were so named because guards
or “watchmen” carried small clocks to
keep track of how long to stay at a
particular duty post.

¶3 Many different skills went into
making a clock, and new tools and
methods were constantly being
invented to make ever smaller, more
complicated mechanisms that
worked with greater precision.

¶4 Founders melted and poured
metal into a mold to make clock
parts.

¶5 Spring makers hand-forged
(heated and pounded into shape) and
polished steel clock springs.

¶6 Screw makers cut screws used to
fasten clocks together by using a
small lathe devised by a German
clockmaker in 1480. Earlier, only
wedges or pegs were used.

¶7 Gear-tooth cutting had been done
by hand until the mid-1500s, when
Giannelo Torriano of Cremona,
Italy, invented a machine that could
cut perfect gear teeth.

¶8 Brass replaced iron for clock
making. Engravers, gilders, and
enamellers decorated clock cases and
dials. Glass -making shops made and
cut glass. Woodworkers made clock
cases.”

¶1 Sometime around 1440, the spring-
powered clock was invented. Instead of
depending on the pull of weights for
power, this type of clock used a flat
metal spring wound tightly into a coil.
The escapement allowed the spring to
unwind by turning one gear tooth at a
time. With the use of a spring, smaller,
truly portable clocks could be made.

¶2 The first well-known watches, made
in Germany around 1510 by Peter
Henlein, were so named because guards
or “watchmen” carried small clocks to
keep track of how long to stay at a
particular duty post.

¶3 Many different skills went into
making a clock, and new tools and
methods were constantly being
invented to make ever smaller, more
complicated mechanisms that
worked with greater precision.

¶4 Founders melted and poured

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¶1 Sometime around 1440, the spring-
powered clock was invented. Instead of
depending on the pull of weights for
power, this type of clock used a flat
metal spring wound tightly into a coil.
The escapement allowed the spring to
unwind by turning one gear tooth at a
time. With the use of a spring, smaller,
truly portable clocks could be made.

¶2 The first well-known watches, made
in Germany around 1510 by Peter
Henlein, were so named because guards
or “watchmen” carried small clocks to
keep track of how long to stay at a
particular duty post.

¶3 Many different skills went into
making a clock, and new tools and
methods were constantly being
invented to make ever smaller, more
complicated mechanisms that
worked with greater precision.

¶4 Founders melted and poured

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“The escapement allow
unwind by turning one

! What’s an escapement?

! Not a word we know, right?
Does the description of how
it works tell us anything about
its function or purpose? Did
we miss something?

! A clue in this sentence tells
us to look for an explanation
in the pages preceding the one
with this paragraph.

wed the spring to
e gear tooth at a time.”

And sure enough...

• We find the following explanation a

couple of pages back:

It is the invention of the
“escapement” that made mechanical
clocks possible. The escapement is
so called because it allows the pull
of the weights to “escape” through a
check and release system––by one
gear tooth at a time...

• What was the clue?
• The use of the definite article. It tells

the reader that it was previously
mentioned. Had the indefinite article
been used, we would have thought it
was a word we should have known.

.

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a

¶1 Sometime around 1440, the spring-
powered clock was invented. Instead of
depending on the pull of weights for
power, this type of clock used a flat
metal spring wound tightly into a coil.
The escapement allowed the spring to
unwind by turning one gear tooth at a
time. With the use of a spring, smaller,
truly portable clocks could be made.

¶2 The first well-known watches, made
in Germany around 1510 by Peter
Henlein, were so named because guards
or “watchmen” carried small clocks to
keep track of how long to stay at a
particular duty post.

¶3 Many different skills went into
making a clock, and new tools and
methods were constantly being
invented to make ever smaller, more
complicated mechanisms that
worked with greater precision.

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¶1 Sometime around 1440, the spring-
powered clock was invented. Instead of
depending on the pull of weights for
power, this type of clock used a flat
metal spring wound tightly into a coil.
The escapement allowed the spring to
unwind by turning one gear tooth at a
time. With the use of a spring, smaller,
truly portable clocks could be made.

¶2 The first well-known watches, made
in Germany around 1510 by Peter
Henlein, were so named because guards
or “watchmen” carried small clocks to
keep track of how long to stay at a
particular duty post.

¶3 Many different skills went into
making a clock, and new tools and
methods were constantly being
invented to make ever smaller, more
complicated mechanisms that
worked with greater precision.

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¶1 Sometime around 1440, the spring-
powered clock was invented. Instead of
depending on the pull of weights for
power, this type of clock used a flat
metal spring wound tightly into a coil.
The escapement allowed the spring to
unwind by turning one gear tooth at a
time. With the use of a spring, smaller,
truly portable clocks could be made.

¶2 The first well-known watches, made
in Germany around 1510 by Peter
Henlein, were so named because guards
or “watchmen” carried small clocks to
keep track of how long to stay at a
particular duty post.

¶3 Many different skills went into
making a clock, and new tools and
methods were constantly being
invented to make ever smaller, more
complicated mechanisms that
worked with greater precision.

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