WSTCSS

** Précis: **
 * ** JCC/WSTCSS/STANYS [[file:JCC WSTCSS Proposal 5 24 12.docx]] ** ||
 * ** Partnership and Collaboration for Professional Development on the Common Core State Standards ** ||
 * ** Paul Benson. Ph.D. ** ||

The Western Southern Tier Council for the Social Studies ([|WSTCSS]) conducts an annual spring conference currently serving 69 school districts in nine New York counties and has successfully offered this event for five years. The 2012 conference included the first concerted effort to provide professional development sessions specifically addressing the New York State K-12 implementation of the [|Common Core Learning Standards].[1] Based upon the overwhelming positive feedback from our audience, vendors and speakers, we are now seeking to double the size of our annual conference to include English Language Arts and Literacy, Math and Science teachers. To produce this conference, the WSTCSS proposes a partnership with the [|Continuing Education Department at Jamestown Community College] (JCC) and the Western and Southern Tier New York divisions of the [|Science Teachers Association of New York State] (STANYS). This partnership will enable the Council to produce a relevant, pragmatic and purposeful conference addressing successful teacher and student strategies, solutions, lessons, and cross-disciplinary approaches to implement the State Education Department’s current and emerging Common Core State Standards.


 * Common Core Standards: **

“Educational standards help teachers ensure their students have the skills and knowledge they need to be successful by providing clear goals for student learning.”[2] United States educators, education administrators as well as business leaders and media have noted a steady decline in student readiness for college and careers in the workforce. There is a disconnect between what is being taught in K-12 education and what is required for success in the real world. The Common Core Standards were developed to address this schism and to provide a systemic solution to the declining relevance of K-12 education. [3]

On July 19, 2010 the New York State Board of Regents [|voted] to adopt the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects; and the CCSS for Mathematics as new learning standards for New York State. The [|Common Core Learning Standards] for [|Mathematics] and [|English Language Arts] are currently in their implementation stages.

The Common Core Learning Standards are based on three principles:[4]


 * 1) College and Career Readiness
 * 2) Are Evidence Based
 * 3) Honesty about the time it takes to master the knowledge required for career and college readiness.

The CCSS also draw on the most important international models as well as research and input from numerous sources, including state departments of education, scholars, assessment developers, professional organizations, educators from kindergarten through college, and parents, students, and other members of the public. In their design and content, refined through successive drafts and numerous rounds of feedback, the CCSS represent a synthesis of the best elements of standards-related work to date and an important advance over that previous work.[5]

The website [|Common Core State Standards Initiative] summarizes the goals as follows: These standards define the knowledge and skills students should have within their K-12 education careers so that they will graduate high school able to succeed in entry-level, credit-bearing academic college courses and in workforce training programs. The standards: The Common Core State Standards represent a “shift” in instructional content and pedagogy from analogical and metaphorical subject matters, to more real-world based content and college and career readiness. Nonfiction plays a larger role in course work; mathematics works toward mastering basic concepts before moving ahead to complex issues; the standards require that students gain, evaluate, and present increasingly complex information, ideas, and evidence. The details are lengthy and involved. Summaries of the English Language Arts and Mathematics Standards are included in an appendix.
 * Are aligned with college and work expectations;
 * Are clear, understandable and consistent;
 * Include rigorous content and application of knowledge through high-order skills;
 * Build upon strengths and lessons of current state standards;
 * Are informed by other top performing countries, so that all students are prepared to succeed in our global economy and society; and
 * Are evidence-based.[6]


 * Serving the Teaching and Implementation of the Common Core State Standards: **

As the CCSS are rolled out in New York State, professional development will accompany implementation. The WSTCSS seeks to assist with this process by bringing together educators at its annual conference to focus on the CCSS. Employing the resources at its disposal and partnering with JCC and STANYS, the WSTCSS will plan, recruit for and manage this conference planned for Friday April 26th 2013.

Currently the WSTCSS primarily serves social studies teachers. The 2013 conference will expand its base to include a broad range of subject and grade level teachers in Mathematics, Science and English Language Arts. It will include sessions that provide professional development directly related to CCSS implementation. Many educators from all disciplines are interested and concerned about applying the new CCSS in their classrooms, but are unclear on implementation strategies and evaluative measures. The conference seeks to be a platform to address these concerns and to serve as a networking base for sharing strategies, concerns and solutions.

Beginning in May of 2012, WSTCSS will begin by advertising to its constituency the date for the conference (4/26/13), provide an overview of the proposed content and recommend a potential source for district funding for professional development through Title IIA grants: [].

Conference Coordinator Paul Benson will then begin work with JCC’s Continuing Education Department and the Chautauqua County STEM group to plan the conference and seek partnerships. Dr. Michael Jabot will be the lead contact with STANYS. Over the course of the summer Benson will work with these individuals and organizations to seek funding sources to expand the content of the conference, hire the personnel to manage the conference and expand the WSTCSS website to promote the conference and CCSS information, lessons and sites. The “Science Literacy and Society” grant from the Library of Congress’s Teaching with Primary Resources grant received by JCC will provide its email contact lists developed to reach Science, Math and ELA teachers in the WSTCSS service area. This list is extensive and current, making it an extremely valuable tool in promoting the conference. The Council will expand the list to include its eastern school districts that are not included in the TPS grant.

The goal of the 2013 conference will be to: a). provide between 35 and 40 sessions, some of them repeating throughout the day, on the CCSS; b). a number of Town Halls for direct discussion on CCSS and various subjects as suggested by new and current members of the conference; c). provide content and technology sessions per discipline; and, d). to acquire the financial support of current and new vendors to support the event.

At the conference itself, participants will be polled about starting a new organization called the Common Core Council for Western New York. The impetus for this reorganization is to bring together educators from a variety of disciplines to work together on:


 * Annual CCSS based conferences.
 * Expand organic, constituency-based professional development in local venues year round.
 * Create a networking website with CCSS based information, resources and lessons shared by Council educators.
 * Use said website as a community portal for sharing ideas, solutions and CCSS materials and insights.
 * Create a network of educators across WNY and the Southern Tier with mutual professional and pedagogical goals.

In seeking to promote CCSS the following topics will be considered for sessions:


 * Cross-Disciplinary Literacy Expectations
 * Common Core Shifts
 * Results Rather Than Means: Flexibility in Achieving Classroom Goals.
 * Preparing Students for the Complexity of College and Career Ready Texts
 * Writing from Sources
 * Using Academic Vocabulary
 * Research and Media Skills for College and the Workforce
 * Coherence in Instruction and Assessment

These topics reflect a number of the key principals of the CCSS and would be expanded through Council member input via an early fall 2012 survey. Sessions on Technology, History, Math, ELA and Science topics would also be included in the roster. The requirement being that the information delivered is related to the CCSS.

**Budget**:

The 2012 WSTCSS conference operated at a cost of $11,846. This included staff, facilities rental, meals, refreshments and materials. Vendors offset the cost of the event by $2,725 by renting table space and taking ads in the conference catalog. The remaining costs were acquired through registration fees by participants. As of this writing, if all remaining districts pay their invoices, the 2012 conference should break even or be within $100 of the total cost.

Doubling the size of the conference means doubling the labor. Increasing the website’s potential for more rigorous storage of resources and updating it to contain the conferences registrations and data storage will add to Council costs. Increased staff time, media marketing, cleaning and grooming contact data, partnership meetings and cooperative agreement writing, soliciting new and current vendors, planning and designing a new Common Core and tracking finances are all components of conference planning. The following is a rough estimate of the 2013 Council budget:

Coordinator: $12,000 Data Management: $2,500 Website Update $2,000 Conference Staff: $600 Conference Promotion: $1,400 Total $18,500

Funding from registrants and vendors would cover a certain amount of conference costs.

Facilities rental will be in the area of $750.00 and the cost per teacher for meals is estimated at $30.00. A estimate for next year would be around $10,000 recouped in registration and vendor dollars.

[|**Key Points In English Language Arts**]**[7]**


 * Reading **
 * The standards establish a “staircase” of increasing complexity in what students must be able to read so that all students are ready for the demands of college- and career-level reading no later than the end of high school. The standards also require the progressive development of reading comprehension so that students advancing through the grades are able to gain more from whatever they read.
 * Through reading a diverse array of classic and contemporary literature as well as challenging informational texts in a range of subjects, students are expected to build knowledge, gain insights, explore possibilities, and broaden their perspective. Because the standards are building blocks for successful classrooms, but recognize that teachers, school districts and states need to decide on appropriate curriculum, they intentionally do not offer a reading list. Instead, they offer numerous sample texts to help teachers prepare for the school year and allow parents and students to know what to expect at the beginning of the year.
 * The standards mandate certain critical types of content for all students, including classic myths and stories from around the world, foundational U.S. documents, seminal works of American literature, and the writings of Shakespeare. The standards appropriately defer the many remaining decisions about what and how to teach to states, districts, and schools.
 * Writing **
 * The ability to write logical arguments based on substantive claims, sound reasoning, and relevant evidence is a cornerstone of the writing standards, with opinion writing—a basic form of argument—extending down into the earliest grades.
 * Research—both short, focused projects (such as those commonly required in the workplace) and longer term in depth research —is emphasized throughout the standards but most prominently in the writing strand since a written analysis and presentation of findings is so often critical.
 * Annotated samples of student writing accompany the standards and help establish adequate performance levels in writing arguments, informational/explanatory texts, and narratives in the various grades.
 * Speaking and Listening **
 * The standards require that students gain, evaluate, and present increasingly complex information, ideas, and evidence through listening and speaking as well as through media.
 * An important focus of the speaking and listening standards is academic discussion in one-on-one, small-group, and whole-class settings. Formal presentations are one important way such talk occurs, but so is the more informal discussion that takes place as students collaborate to answer questions, build understanding, and solve problems.
 * Language **
 * The standards expect that students will grow their vocabularies through a mix of conversations, direct instruction, and reading. The standards will help students determine word meanings, appreciate the nuances of words, and steadily expand their repertoire of words and phrases.
 * The standards help prepare students for real life experience at college and in 21st century careers. The standards recognize that students must be able to use formal English in their writing and speaking but that they must also be able to make informed, skillful choices among the many ways to express themselves through language.
 * Vocabulary and conventions are treated in their own strand not because skills in these areas should be handled in isolation but because their use extends across reading, writing, speaking, and listening.
 * Media and Technology **
 * Just as media and technology are integrated in school and life in the twenty-first century, skills related to media use (both critical analysis and production of media) are integrated throughout the standards.

= [|Key Points In Mathematics] =


 * The K-5 standards provide students with a solid foundation in whole numbers, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions and decimals—which help young students build the foundation to successfully apply more demanding math concepts and procedures, and move into applications.
 * In kindergarten, the standards follow successful international models and recommendations from the National Research Council’s Early Math Panel report, by focusing kindergarten work on the number core: learning how numbers correspond to quantities, and learning how to put numbers together and take them apart (the beginnings of addition and subtraction).
 * The K-5 standards build on the best state standards to provide detailed guidance to teachers on how to navigate their way through knotty topics such as fractions, negative numbers, and geometry, and do so by maintaining a continuous progression from grade to grade.
 * The standards stress not only procedural skill but also conceptual understanding, to make sure students are learning and absorbing the critical information they need to succeed at higher levels - rather than the current practices by which many students learn enough to get by on the next test, but forget it shortly thereafter, only to review again the following year.
 * Having built a strong foundation K-5, students can do hands on learning in geometry, algebra and probability and statistics. Students who have completed 7th grade and mastered the content and skills through the 7th grade will be well-prepared for algebra in grade 8.
 * The middle school standards are robust and provide a coherent and rich preparation for high school mathematics.
 * The high school standards call on students to practice applying mathematical ways of thinking to real world issues and challenges; they prepare students to think and reason mathematically.
 * The high school standards set a rigorous definition of college and career readiness, by helping students develop a depth of understanding and ability to apply mathematics to novel situations, as college students and employees regularly do.
 * The high school standards emphasize mathematical modeling, the use of mathematics and statistics to analyze empirical situations, understand them better, and improve decisions. For example, the draft standards state: “Modeling links classroom mathematics and statistics to everyday life, work, and decision-making. It is the process of choosing and using appropriate mathematics and statistics to analyze empirical situations, to understand them better, and to improve decisions. Quantities and their relationships in physical, economic, public policy, social and everyday situations can be modeled using mathematical and statistical methods. When making mathematical models, technology is valuable for varying assumptions, exploring consequences, and comparing predictions with data.”

[1] April 27, 2012 conference at Holiday Valley Conference and Resort Center in Ellicottville, NY [2] [] [3] Detailed reading on the status of education in the United States with comparative data on the U.S. in relation to other countries from National Center for Education Statistics (NCES): []. For the National Report Card and a multitude of studies see NCES main site: []. [4] The following is based on a webinar presentation by Dr. David Coleman titled: “Bringing the Common Core to Life”: [], April 28, 2011. [5] Introduction: [] [6] [] [7] [] [8] []