The document summarizes Kentucky's adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), renamed as the Kentucky Core Academic Standards (KCAS). It outlines key differences students and parents will notice, such as an increased focus on non-fiction reading and earlier introduction to mathematical concepts. It describes how KCAS will be assessed through new state tests administered in spring 2012. Parents are encouraged to stay involved by communicating with teachers and referring to informational guides.
1. Kentucky Core Academic
Standards, the National
Common Core Standards and
Jefferson County Public
Schools
The Gheens Academy for Curricular
Excellence and Instructional Leadership
Jefferson County Public Schools
2.
3.
4.
5. Background of the Common Core
State Initiative
The Common Core State Initiative
is a historic, bipartisan state-led effort by the
National Governor’s Association and the
Council of Chief of State School Officers along
with education groups such as ACT, College
Board (SAT) and Achieve to make US schools
globally competitive.
6. What Are Common Core State
Standards?
• Common Core State Standards are national standards
that provide a consistent, clear understanding of what
students are expected to know and be able to do at
each grade level.
• Common Core State Standards are NOT
a curriculum.
Example:
Grade 3: Reading Standards for Literature
Describe characters in a story (e.g. , their traits, motivations, or
feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence
of events.
7. More About Common Core Standards
• Common Core State Standards have been
developed in English/Language Arts and Math
for kindergarten through twelfth grade.
• Common Core State Standards are rigorous
and challenging. They reflect knowledge and
skills needed in college and career/job
readiness for the 21st century.
8. Why Common Core Standards?
• Common core standards will help ensure
consistent quality in education nationwide.
• Common core standards will provide a venue
for individual states to compare student
progress with other states.
• By 2014, 64% of jobs will require post-
secondary training. Common core standards
will ensure that America’s students can
compete in a global job market.
9. Common Core State Standards in
Kentucky
Kentucky was one of 44 states to adopt the
Common Core State Standards. While the
standards remain the same, Kentucky chose to
rename the standards ...
Kentucky Core Academic Standards (KCAS)
10. Kentucky’s Commitment
Unbridled Learning – Senate Bill 1 (2009)
Requires the adoption of new academic
standards (KCAS)
Requires the adoption of
new assessments
Provides a unified plan for improving
college/career readiness
11. What Do KCAS English/Language Arts
Standards Look Like?
English/Language Arts consists of five
areas:
Reading
Writing
Speaking and Listening
Language
Foundational skills – phonics, word
recognition and decoding words
12. What Will I Notice As a Parent?
• You will notice a significant increase in the
amount of non-fiction reading and writing
your child will be doing.
• In the new standards it is clearly specified
that students will experience:
• 50 percent fiction (Ex. Charlotte’s Web)
• 50 percent non-fiction (Ex. The Diary of
Anne Frank)
13. What Do KCAS Math Standards Look
Like?
Kindergarten – Grade 8
Grade by grade standards
with a concentration in
geometry and algebra in 7 th
and 8th grades.
14. What Will I Notice As a Parent?
• In the former standards, students repeated
specific math skills at several grade levels. In
KCAS the repetition is eliminated.
• In KCAS students will be learning new math
skills every year. The math skills that they
learn in grade 1 will be needed as they
progress through the math skills for grade 2.
15. Summary of KCAS:
What Will be Different for My Child?
Your child may be introduced to skill at an
earlier grade level than in the past.
Concepts moved from grade 3 to grades listed below:
Kindergarten: Attributes of three dimensional shapes are
introduced
Grade 1: Time to the nearest half hour
Grade 2: Skip count by 5’s, 10’s and 100’s
Odd and even numbers to 20 are introduced
Time to the nearest five minutes
16. Summary of KCAS:
What Will Be Different for My Child?
Your child may be introduced to concepts that
are new to their grade level.
Sample Concepts new to grade 3
* Fractions with denominators of 2,3,4,6 and 8.
(in prior standards fractions at the grade level were
limited to halves, thirds and fourths)
* Concept of area and the formula for area,
recognizing that area is additive
17. How Will My Child Be Assessed on the
KCAS Standards?
• Students in grades 3-12 will be assessed each
spring.
• Kentucky is currently in the process of
adopting a new assessment based on the
KCAS standards in English Language Arts and
Math to be administered in spring, 2012.
• Kentucky will be the ONLY state in the nation
to assess students using the new KCAS
standards in spring, 2012.
18. Summary of Proposed Kentucky State-
Required Assessments Spring 2012
Grade Reading Writing Mathe- Science Social EPAS
(KCAS) (KCAS) matics (CC 4.1) Studies
(KCAS) (CC 4.1)
3 CRT/NRT* CRT/NRT*
4 CRT/NRT* Editing/ CRT/NRT* CRT/NRT*
Mechanics*
5 CRT/NRT* On-demand* CRT/NRT* CRT/NRT*
6 CRT/NRT* Editing/Mechanics CRT/NRT*
& On-demand*
7 CRT/NRT* CRT/NRT* CRT/NRT*
8 CRT/NRT* On-demand* CRT/NRT* CRT/NRT* EXPLORE
9
End of On-demand End of End of End of PLAN
10 Course Writing* Course Course Course (Used to meet
required testing)
English II Algebra II Biology U.S. History
On-demand
11 ACT Writing* ACT ACT ACT ACT
19. Proposed Types of
Assessment
Third Grade Assessment will include:
• Multiple Choice
• Short Answer
Fourth through Twelfth Grade Assessments will
include:
• Multiple Choice
• Short Answer
• Extended Response
20. How Can I Support My Child’s
Learning?
• Refer regularly to your Parent’s Guide to Student Success
brochure published by the National PTA.
• Talk with your child. Ask questions about what he/she is
learning in class.
• Check for homework. It is most often an extension of what
your child is doing in class.
• Read with your child nightly and visit the public library often.
• Communicate regularly with your child’s teacher through
notes, emails, phone calls and parent-teacher conferences.
• Stay INVOLVED and be an advocate for your child!
21. Why PTA????
• National PTA adopted a position statement
supporting clear, high standards in 1981.
• PTA is the leading voice speaking on behalf of
parents.
• PTAs have the ability to be the vehicle of information
as Kentucky begins the implementation of the KCAS
Initiative.
• You can help us inform others and our community.
Ask your presenter how you can schedule
additional PTA workshops free of charge.
22. Together We Can Do It!
15 District PTA, JCPS Gheens Academy for
Curriculum and Instruction and JCTA are
partnering to share information and
learning about KCAS and helping our
students graduate college and career
ready.
23. Looking Toward the Future
• Common core state standards will be developed
in the subject areas of science and social studies.
• A national assessment based on the common
core standards will be adopted by 2014.
24. Where Can You Go For More
Information?
• www.pta.org
• www.15thdistrictpta.org
• http://www.jefferson.k12.ky.us/departments/
gheens/Index.html
• www.pta.org/parentguide
• www.education.ky.gov/KDE/
• www.achieve.org
• www.commoncore.org
Editor's Notes
Thank you for joining us to learn more about the nation’s Common Core Standards Initiative and how if affects your child. I am_______ from your 15th District PTA and we are so glad you are here. Your 15th District PTA has received a grant from National PTA to share and support our district in working with our children on the Common Core Standards. We are partnering with the JCPS Gheens Academy for Curriculum and Instruction and the Jefferson County Teachers Association to roll-out this information to our parents and community.PLAY THE CLIP FROM NATIONAL PTA NEXT!!!!!
As you heard in the video, most new jobs of the future for our children will require some kind of after graduation or post-secondary education or career skills. Of course, we all want our children to have better lives than we do because we love them more than anything and that is why we are here tonight. We are here to talk about the importance of providing our children with the best education with world-class curriculum built on high standards.
Let’s take a look at the current reality of our world and economy. The data in the graph above shows us who in our society and even our Louisville community is employed and what degree or non-degree status they have.Looking at the small red bar at the top of the page shows us that only 1.9% of individuals who hold a doctorate degree are unemployed at this time. Now let’s look a the longest red bar at the bottom of the graph, what does that tell us? (Have someone share that those members of our society who do not graduate or have dropped out are the largest group unemployed and struggle the most with basic needs in life).
What do our students say about what they discovered after they graduated about life? Their comments are interesting in that only after it is too late – like all of us learn those hard lessons- do the students say they should have worked harder while they were in school.
Just as we looked at the data on unemployment and what our students learned about the hard reality of going to college or going to work, our nation learned the same lesson. The United States of America had always been number #1 in the world when our students were compared to the students in other countries. But in the last 10 years, the United States has dropped to number 14 when compared to other economically progressive countries and that is not good enough!!So our governors and the Council of Chief School Officers from around the nation decided to do something about it. They decided that we needed a set of standards that were challenging for ALL students and that we could use not only to compare state to state, but nation to nation. They decided we needed to be able to compare every district and state to each other so we would know where we stand in educating our students.
The common core standards outline what students should know and be able to do at each specific grade level as shown in the example from the third grade English/Language Arts standards. However, they are not the curriculum. The curriculum is the specific content or what is taught in the teacher’s lesson to meet the standard.
Common core standards were designed to be more challenging for students than prior standards in Kentucky and other states to ensure that students are ready for jobs and/or college following graduation. At this time common core standards have been developed for k-12th grade in the areas of English/Language Arts and Math.
The truth is that, currently, standards in every state across our nation are different and cannot be compared to each other. The Common Core standards will be used in every state and allow us to get a true picture of how every district and every state is doing and how our kids are doing.This is important to you and me, because I want my child to be able to go to any college in the country and not struggle or have to have make-up remediation and/or secure a job that will ensure every opportunity possible for his/her a secure and happy life.
Every state was allowed to modify the standards a little if they chose to and Kentucky chose to change the name of the Common Core Standards to the Kentucky Core Academic Standards or KCAS. The KCAS are exactly the same as the national Common Core standards.
What is Kentucky doing about the new Common Core standards and specifically, what is JCPS doing? Well, in 2009, our Kentucky legislators passed Senate Bill 1 making the new standards into law along with other elements that support the Common Core.Kentucky was the first state in the nation to adopt the new standards. While there are about 43 other states who have now adopted, only Kentucky students and schools will be held accountable for mastery of the new standards beginning with statewide testing next Spring 2012. Jefferson County Public Schools is the only large urban district in the country leading the way in rolling out the new Common Core standards in English/Language Arts and Math for accountability this year. All eyes are on us!!
Let’s take a look at some specific characteristics of the new English/ Language Arts standards. The new standards were designed to be more realistic and meaningful to students with the skills they will need to be successful either in college or in the workplace. Students will learn reading, writing, speaking and language in every course they have…like we do in life. We use all these skills when we interview, read the paper or the internet and make decisions where we must use our persuasive skills in order to make a point in a conversation.
As a parent you will see your children reading different types of stories and books throughout the day. You will see your child reading more non-fiction books. These stories and books will be about real people, places and things such as insects, Washington D.C. or Abraham Lincoln. Prior to the new standards many of these informational books were read only during subjects such as social studies and science. In fact, the common core standards specifically state that half of your child’s reading will be non-fiction.
The KCAS Math Standards are different as well. Students in the younger grades are taught skills in depth and in completion in specific grades. There are fewer standards taught at each grade but they are taught completely.
In the former standards parents might see the same math skill repeated in several grade levels. In KCAS repetition is eliminated and students will be learning new math skills every year…. that is what they learn in first grade they will need for second grade and what they learn in second grade the student will build upon in third grade. Teachers will continuously assess students to ensure that skills are mastered at each grade level. An example of this learning may be that a child learns the fraction one-half in grade one. In grade two students may learn higher fractions such as 7/8. By grade three students may begin adding fractions together.
Because the KCAS standards are more challenging you may see skills in both English/Language Arts and mathematics introduced to your child at a much earlier grade level. An example from mathematics is shown on this slide.
While some skills may be introduced at an earlier grade level, other more challenging skills may be added to that grade level. The goal of KCAS is to set a standard set of high expectations for all students.
How will we know if our students are learning the deeper standards? A new national assessment is currently under development. The assessment Kentucky will be taking next spring 2012 will contain elements of what the final test given in 2014 will be like.
Although we do not know at this time what assessment will be adopted by Kentucky for implementation in spring, 2012, we do know that the proposed assessment is to contain both multiple choice, short answer and extended response questions (open response questions) in grades 3-5. At this point we do not know the percentages of each type of questions at a specific grade level.
KCAS-Kentucky Core Academic StandardsCC r.1-Core Content for Assessment 4.1EPAS-Educational Planning and Assessment System by ACT, Inc.*Assessments provided by NCS PearsonQuestions-KY Dept. of Ed., Division of Support and Research at 502-564-4394 or dacinfo@education.kygov.
You are your child’s first and most important teacher. Working together, we can ensure that all of our children are college bound and/or job and career ready. Here are just a few important tips to remember.
Both National PTA and your local 15th District PTA are working hard to get out the message to parents and the community because our students are so important and there is no time to waste.
As we mentioned earlier, we are partnering with the district and our teachers to learn more and share what the Kentucky Core Academic Standards are all about and how important they are to our children.
KCAS in the areas of English/Language Arts are being implemented and assessed during the 2011-12 school year. However, common core state standards are currently being developed in the areas of science and math. Meanwhile, plans for a national assessment continue with a target date for implementation in 2014.
The most important links listed here:15th District PTAJCPS Gheens Academy for Curriculum and Instruction where all the KCAS are listed and all Curriculum Maps for every grade, subject and level are listed so you can follow along with the content your child will be covering every week.JCTA link to find out more about what your teachers need.Thank you so much for joining us today. If you would like to have an in-depth workshop on the KCAS for English/Language Arts or Math, just let us know and we will arrange for that session. Please don’t forget to sign up to be a future presenter for PTA!!