Leadership magazine Nov/Dec 2015 V45 No 2 | Page 18

Preparing for
accountability
The questions on the minds of many
teachers and administrators are: “How
do we best prepare our students for
the Smarter Balanced Tests and the
California Assessment of Student
Performance and Progress?” and
“How do we prepare our school
and district to meet accountability
measures?” The answer: frameworks.
Implementing frameworks and
state standards will be one of the
new accountability indicators.
Thoughtful, extended professional
development and collaboration around
full implementation of California
Standards frameworks, with their
focus on access and equity, is the best
CAASPP preparation for the success of
all of California’s students.
18

Leadership

larities in practice across ELA, math and
Next Generation Science Standards; and
Bloom’s Taxonomy and Webb’s Depth of
Knowledge.
In the Mathematics Framework, the
overview chapter demonstrates alignment
of mathematics content domains (K-8) and
conceptual categories (higher mathematics). A sample of the alignment using specific
standards is available. Using this information as a starting point, K-8 teachers can
observe their grade level’s role in developing
skills for higher mathematics, and teachers of
higher mathematics courses can understand
the foundational skills students must have in
order to be successful in their courses.
Furthermore, for each grade level or
course, the framework includes examples
that help educators form a deeper understanding of the role of major, additional and
supportive cluster emphasis. The chapter
“Supporting High-Quality Common Core
Mathematics Instruction” contains a link to
the progressions work from the University
of Arizona and suggested content areas for
each grade level band.

Developing content PD
Content Knowledge, one of the five key
themes in the ELA/ELD Framework, is
defined carefully in Chapter 2. Time spent
doing professional reading and discussion
on this section is critical to the implementation of ELA/ELD across the disciplines.
Content can be developed in multiple
ways through the frameworks. The ELA/
ELD framework integrates the standards
into five key themes: making meaning, language development, effective expression,
content knowledge and foundational skills.
Within the themes, many districts have
chosen to focus on “close reading,” under
making meaning, and “discussion,” under
effective expression.
The framework provides resource materials, including reading material and
samples for questioning during close reading, strategies for academic discourse and
assessment, and information specific to the
themes in each grade span chapter. Furthermore, these themes are explored specific to English learners in Chapter 2 and
again in each grade span chapter.

Additional professional development
could focus on specific strategies, such as
communication guides and developing academic vocabulary. Each grade span chapter
has specific recommendations for clustering standards within the five themes of
the ELA/ELD framework. Chapter 11 of
the ELA/ELD framework contains critical content for professional development in
ELA/ELD.
As previously noted, the chapter on
“Supporting High-Quality Common Core
Mathematics Instruction” contains links
to a number of resources that demonstrate
approaches to implementation and specific
content suggestions for professional development by grade level.
The overview chapter as well as the individual grade or course chapters provide ideas
for professional development on content and
ensure that teachers understand expectations
for mastery at each grade level or course.
There are several references to mathematical
practices, beginning with the overview and
specific examples in each grade level/course
chapter, as well as sample questions for each
practice in the overview chapter.

Designing effective lessons
The frameworks also serve as a companion guide for lesson planning. Having completed the CCSS backward mapping process, teachers and administrators
should proceed to bring standards together
in clusters across strands – reading, writing,
speaking and listening, and language – in
the design of lessons and units. Using the
five themes to guide this work, this new
lesson-design paradigm scaffolds teachers
to design lessons at higher depths of knowledge levels and provides built-in opportunities for frequent formative assessment to
guide instruction.
The ELA/ELD Framework also provides careful guidance and multiple examples of the vision of ELD instruction
in California. After designing lessons,
teachers are provided guidance on how to
include support for English learners. These
supports include those integrated into ELA
lesson time, as well as lessons that support
the ELA and content lessons in the designated ELD time. Snapshots and vignettes