Core Standards are built in large part on California’s current standards. 2. The California Standards Test was de-
veloped by Educational Testing Service, one of the premier testing organizations in the country and author of the SAT, GRE and the NAEP, to name a few. Although multiple- choice, the items are written at various lev- els of cognitive demand, requiring a high degree of higher-order thinking skills to reason out “the best answer.” 3. Finally, our cut-points for “proficient”
are in the top 10 percent of all other states (Durant et. al., 2011). Yes, the Common Core and its assess-
ments promise to be more enlightened, but what we have now cannot be easily dismissed. Indeed, barring cheating, it does seem that the kids who score the highest on the CST are the ones who seem to know the most.
Back to our “eyes on the prize” Including 2011-12, we have three more
school years with the current accountability system in California. That means with an
average of 25-35 API point-gains per year, many heretofore low-performing, minority schools can close the achievement gap for their students by 2014. Who wouldn’t like to give that to their students sometime before they retire? Isn’t that a higher-order “pur- pose” worth working for, however inconve- nient, uncomfortable or risky? My caution is to my colleagues who want
to get too deeply involved in work on the Common Core Standards now. Remember, we may not even have textbooks or tests by the time these standards come online in 2014-15. There is precious little time each year for educators to spend outside of the classroom in professional development. If that time begins to distract teachers from their journey toward mastery of teaching the state’s existing standards and assessments, then the “prize” of closing the achievement gap will certainly be compromised. If we can find a healthy balance between
focusing on being successful with what we have now and our preparations for the fu- ture, we can make a transition to the new
system at the top of our game. And that will mean unprecedented success for our most vulnerable children, too! n
References
Durant, S. & Dahlin, M. (July 2011). The state of proficiency. Northwest Evalu- ation Association, Kingsbury Center: Portland, OR.
Finn, C. (2006).The State of State Standards. Thomas B. Fordham Foundation: Wash- ington, D.C.
Pink, Daniel. (2009). Drive: The Surprising Truth about what Motivates us. Riverhead Books: New York, NY.
After 20 years with the California Department of Education, Dennis Parker retired to become an education consultant. With his model, Strategic Schooling, he has spent the past decade working
with underachieving schools, mostly in California. In 2011 he worked with more than 100 schools,
helping most make significant gains that surpass current state and federal accountability targets.
34 Leadership
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