Standards Review English Language Arts ELALiteracy and Mathematics

Standards Review: English Language Arts (ELA)/Literacy and Mathematics Motion for the Board to vote on proposed revised standards.

Why is this so important? Reason #1: The standards define the expectations for what teachers should teach and what students should learn for the nearly 1 million students in our schools. Reason #2: The standards are based on the premise that if students are successful in attaining the knowledge and skills defined by the standards, they will be successful after high school. Reason #3: The standards should be a cornerstone of all of our work across the agency. For example, we should be asking ourselves, “How does my work link to ensuring students access and achieve these ambitious goals for their learning? ” Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 2

Reminder: How did we approach revisions? We asked: Will this proposed revision…. Increase coherence? Increase rigor (ambition)? Increase clarity? 3 Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

Acknowledgements We are grateful to the hundreds of Massachusetts pre-K– 12 educators, higher education faculty, and other stakeholders who contributed hundreds of hours of time and thoughtful feedback to build Massachusetts’ standards for ELA/literacy and mathematics— the highest-quality standards in the nation. 4 Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

Process: Three Phases Phase 1 (January–July 2016): Gathered recommendations for revisions. Phase 2 (July–October 2016): Completed proposed revisions; updated Board on progress. Phase 3 (November 2016 – Spring 2017): Conducted public comment period; made final revisions. Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 5

Sources of Public Comment Online public comment survey (997 full or partial responses, 78% pre-K– 12 teachers, 10% pre-K– 12 administrators) 10 public regional meetings hosted by the Department (473 participants) Student Advisory Council meeting (60 participants) 4 public conference calls hosted by the Department (162 participants) Principal and Teacher Advisory Cabinets (~75 participants) Additional correspondence related to the draft frameworks Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 6

Public Comment Survey: ELA/Literacy Item Agree or Somewhat Agree Disagree or Somewhat Disagree The revisions improve or maintain the clarity of the Framework. 91. 5% 8. 5% The revisions improve or maintain the coherence of the Framework. 90. 8% 9. 2% The revisions improve 89. 5% or maintain the rigor of the Framework. 10. 5% Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 7

Department Responses to Public Comment: ELA/Literacy Examples: Public Comment Action Removing “with prompting and support” from the pre-K– 2 standards risks causing confusion about expectations for young learners. Phrase restored in grades pre-K– 2. Changing “research projects” to “research” References to projects signals that students no longer need to conduct restored; expectations for and present rigorous academic research clarified and strengthened. Expectations for writing poetry in the elementary grades are not sufficiently explicit. Progression specific to writing poetry added in grades K– 5. Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 8

Public Comment Survey: Mathematics Item Agree or Somewhat Agree Disagree or Somewhat Disagree The revisions improve or maintain the clarity of the Framework. 90. 6% 9. 4% The revisions improve or maintain the coherence of the Framework. 85. 7% 14. 3% The revisions improve 89. 7% or maintain the rigor of the Framework. 10. 4% Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 9

Department Responses to Public Comment: Mathematics Examples: Public Comment Action Removing the phrase “explain a proof” Standard edited to clarify that of the Pythagorean Theorem in the grade 8 students must be able to standards for grade 8 resulted in lost “analyze and justify” theorem. rigor. Edits to model course standards in the two high school pathways (traditional and integrated) resulted in different expectations for student learning. Edits made to high school model course standards to ensure consistent expectations across pathways. The model course standards were edited, but not the Conceptual Category standards, causing misalignment. Conceptual Category standards edited to reflect the learning expectations of both pathways. Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 10

Literacy Across the Curriculum ELA/Literacy: More attention to abbreviations and symbols related to content areas (e. g. , kg. , B. C. E. , #, >) References to mathematics where other content areas are mentioned, as appropriate New Speaking and Listening strand in standards for Literacy in the Content areas Instructional examples, sample student writing, and guidance related to various content areas Mathematics: Strengthened introductory language to stress importance of literacy skills to effective communication about mathematics Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 11

Civic Learning and Engagement Introductory material reflects new definition of college, career, and civic readiness adopted by Boards of Elementary and Secondary Education and Higher Education in 2016. Civic content knowledge Civic intellectual skills Civic readiness Civic participatory skills Civic dispositions Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 12

Improved Glossaries The glossaries included in both Frameworks have been improved for clarity. New or improved definitions have been added for terms such as: ELA/Literacy: audience read closely allusion verb Mathematics: fluency know from memory algorithm standard algorithm 13 Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

Next Steps Copyedit Transmit to the Joint Committee on Education Make available statewide Provide implementation support to districts— examples: Regional networks & professional learning for educators Extensive guidance materials (e. g. , cross-walks between revised and previous standards) Links to current resources (e. g. , videos of teaching, model curriculum) Align the Next-generation MCAS with the revised standards for the spring 2018 administration Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 14

Thank you for your support of this work.