By Michael Moody, Founder and CEO, Insight Education Group
There’s great potential in College- and Career-Readiness Standards (CCRS) to significantly increase our students’ academic performance, and also their chances of success beyond graduation. But none of it can happen unless our teachers are prepared and supported.
In the past, professional development for teaching with new standards was often based on building awareness of the standards and implementing aligned instructional practices. For CCRS, however, that is simply not enough.
As district and school leaders, the first step you should take in successful implementation of the standards is to ensure a common understanding among teachers of the characteristics of a college- and career-ready student and to recognize what mastery really looks like at all levels. Only then can teachers make sound instructional decisions and apply appropriate strategies.
While that sounds simple enough, there are few relevant resources currently available to educators that provide clear indicators of aligned instructional practices and student behaviors.
Based on more than a decade of experience and the Insight Core Framework, we’ve developed five Core Practices, which outline distinct, observable teacher and student actions and help you gauge the effectiveness of CCRS-implementation classrooms.
*Demonstrates precise content knowledge
*Uses academic vocabulary
*Uses resources that are high quality and appropriately complex
Observable instructional practices: The teacher has a deep understanding of the content he or she is teaching and is able to communicate it in a way students can understand.
*Responds to questions with evidence-based answers
*Uses evidence when building arguments, making claims, or explaining thinking
Observable teacher practices: Not only does the instructor need to give students opportunities to find and use evidence to support answers—she or he needs to challenge students to go beyond weak arguments and basic opinions.
*Makes connections within and across disciplines
*Applies acquired knowledge in real-world situations
*Exchanges and analyzes multiple perspectives
Observable teacher practices: The teacher facilitates connections across disciplines and provides students with the opportunity to practice applying their knowledge in authentic situations with real purposes.
*Demonstrates understanding in various contexts
*Receives, acknowledges, and incorporates teacher feedback
Observable teacher practices: Mastery is more than just tracking grades. The teacher provides timely feedback to students and structures learning activities toward relevant data.
*Feels part of a supportive and challenging learning environment
*Demonstrates academic curiosity
Observable teacher practices: The teacher gives students multiple opportunities to persist through challenges and learn from mistakes by celebrating perseverance. With the CCRS, it’s not only about getting the “right” answer—it’s about persisting and developing skills for solving challenges for later in life.
The CCRS are drastically different from standards in place even a few years ago and are unique in their focus on the student—as opposed to simply the content.
While this is an exciting and worthy vision for K-12 education, it will require a great deal of preparation, a long-term vision, and relevant supports in order to be successful. In particular, districts and schools must have a succinct, clear-cut approach to not only identifying indicators of college and career readiness in students, but also illustrating the real link between teachers’ practices and student mastery.
Michael Moody, @DrMichaelMoody, is the founder and CEO of Insight Education Group. His experiences as a classroom teacher, school and district administrator, and consultant have given him a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities in education today. The complete Insight Core Framework is available for free download, including the rubric and meta-analysis research data for each practice.