 Thanks so much for coming this morning. My name is Kevin Carey. I'm the Director of the New America Foundation's Education Policy Program, and I'd like to welcome all of you on behalf of the foundation We have a great discussion this morning focused on the Common Core State Standards and the assessments that go with them It has been a it's been interesting to watch the Conversation here in Washington, DC and around the country about k-12 education. What should be done about it? How we should change federal policy. Are we ever going to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act? And as an observer I detect I suppose a little bit of a sense of weariness in some of this conversation As if we tried all the things that we know how to try and none of them worked and We're not quite sure what to do next But as Paul Glastres the editor-in-chief of Washington Monthly we'll talk about in just a moment What's fascinating if you pay attention is that there actually is a really important thing new thing that's already happening With the support of Foundations like the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and a number of other philanthropic sponsors organizations like the Alliance for Excellent Education Achieve there has been a concerted effort to build essentially a new foundation for education policy in the United States of America a foundation built on legitimate world-class academic standards and as we will hear as we will hear much more about today Assessments high quality assessments to go with them This I think the conversation that we're going to hear this morning will be the center of Education policy in the United States going forward for for I would say the foreseeable future. So it's it's very important We at New America are very pleased to host this conversation today We have a terrific panel this morning. We have Barbara Chow from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. She is the Education program director. She's certainly is experienced in the ways of Washington, D.C. and the Hewlett Foundation was the generous supporter of this event and the Special issue of the Washington Monthly which is available outside that has articles written by some of the people here today We have Laura McGifford-Slover from PARC PARC which is one of the two big consortiums of Testing providers that are working very hard with the support of both philanthropies and the federal government to develop these high quality Assessments that will be matched to the Common Core Standards Bob, Bob Rothman from the Alliance for Excellent Education who I think has written certainly the best book On the Common Core Standards really if you just read Bob's book, you know a lot of what you need to know about this Available for sale on Amazon I assume Bob a little plug for you there And Bob was also an author of one of the articles in the college guide And then two of my former colleagues Bill Tucker deputy director at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Susan Heddon Senior writer at Education Sector will talk about the articles they've written. So again, this is going to be a terrific conversation Thanks again to all of you for coming And with that I will turn it over to my friends and colleague Paul Glasters Thank You Kevin. Thank you everyone for coming really appreciate it Thanks to New America and and Education Sector and The Alliance and all those who helped us here today and especially to the Hewlett Foundation It's now a very quick story before we start in 2000 Germany learned that their schools which were long assumed to be first rate ranked below average when compared to other countries on the The PISA test the international test of high-order thinking skills This was largely because the poor of the poor quality of the schooling offered to less advantaged Members of citizens and the shock of the news led to a series of reforms including the creation of common national academic standards and a new assessments tied to those standards the results from 2003 to 2009 was that Germany added ten points to its math scores and six points to its reading scores on these PISA PISA tests on a scale of 500 Where 500 is the international average now six points ten points doesn't sound like a lot But over time such progress can deliver huge economic gains a study by two economists at Stanford and the University of Munich found that differences in PISA scores and similar measures of cognitive skills Explain a great deal of the difference in the growth rates among advanced economies From 1960 to 2000 and they further calculated. This is very interesting that if the United States could raise its average PISA score 25 points by 2030 it would increase the GDP of the United States by 45 trillion dollars over the lifespan of children born in 2010 It's 45 trillion dollars now at this point. I should be bemoaning the fact that we have a broken political system and that Though Germany proves that a large advanced country democracy can in fact improve its higher-order thinking skills that Washington is too broken for us possibly to get there Even in a presidential election year where the future of a seemingly bleak economy is the number one issue But as Kevin pointed out, we're done. We've got this thing going And it hasn't been talked about in Congress. You haven't read about it in the Washington Post or the New York Times or It's so very rarely it's happened because of a series of State compacts organized by some very devoted and clever people and with the help of some Quiet funding from the Obama stimulus that everyone said didn't do anything As a result of all that we have now standards that are being implemented and For the first time two tests similar in nature that most students will be using Relatively soon my son up freshman in high school will take this test before he graduates and it's going to change fundamentally the classrooms of the United States and I don't think there's one in ten thousand people know this thing is coming so When I I didn't know it was coming either a couple of years ago and I was sort of shocked and With the support of Barbara Chow at the at the Hewlett Foundation We put together a team of writers to go figure this out right about it and and the end result is this Special report that we've done and I urge you if you haven't read to dive into it's it's I think the most Easy comprehensive and detailed examination of this what I would think fairly could be called the next stage of American school reform so I want to just get the discussion going and I want to be would like to begin by Having Barbara Chow speak and then we'll just go down the line and afterwards we'll have a Discussion and some some questions from the audience. So thanks for coming Barbara Let's see. So I think Just try to do this from here Thank you for that and I actually I think I'm just going to be a little bit more rhetorical And framing to start things off We've got an incredible set of people here who actually understand the details of the assessment consortia and that kind of broader political framework But I thought I just described a little bit about it how we ended up here just to start Hg hg wells have you heard this quote before I love it anyway once said that human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe and I think you know if you think about it the signs of catastrophe are very evident today Everything from rising sea levels to thousands of endangered species if you read the New York Times over the weekend a global fiscal challenge That will actually test the fabric of our world order our massive federal debt persistent structural unemployment Lots and lots of signs of distressing things I think in the world So what can education do about all this? I think put more specifically how can we prepare children for economic success and Democratic participation in an uncertain world of exponential change So we had the great fortune at the Hewlett Foundation in being able to delve into this question a Few years ago to ask dozens of experts to come through the research base To talk to school leaders and teachers and policymakers And the conclusion of this research I think was pretty straightforward and not very surprising Children need to think critically and solve complex problems. They need to communicate clearly both in oral and written form They need to work in teams and they need to learn to learn all applied to the mastery of rigorous academic content These skills are not new and our best schools have always delivered them But in the 21st century knowledge economy the research I think is very clear that they will be required of anyone who aspires to a living wage job We're calling this deeper learning and it's our goal that the US education system We reorient itself towards these more ambitious expectations for students Since the conclusion of this research, I've had the opportunity over the past few years to talk to lots of people about Deeper learning and I'll tell you that the reaction is really very at some kind of gut level Teachers particularly are very enthusiastic. I think about this this idea, but there's a lot of reform fatigue There's a lot of skepticism and I think there's this, you know There are certainly our folks who think that this is naive or elitist or actually just maybe not possible in This today sort of fraught educational environment Well, I worry a lot about that too, but I have I guess a couple of responses to that First I think if we're to remain globally competitive as Paul kind of alluded to earlier We really don't have a lot of choice about this in today's connected world The US doesn't have the luxury of singularly setting The bar for educational excellence the global economy really is setting the standard And there's actually very little disagreement amongst high performing nations that these higher-order skills are that the ones They are gunning for Paul alluded to this before but during the last round of international Assessments we clocked in at 30th in math and 17th in reading We don't significantly improve the quality of our educational system our ability to attract high-wage jobs and Industries in the global marketplace. I think we'll be significantly diminished Second on a more optimistic note. I really think we are at this inflection point in our nation's education history For one thing the era of no cell left behind is over Replaced by new common core standards that really embody this form of deeper learning requiring the application of knowledge and Fostering a deep conceptual understanding Similarly the new federally funded assessment consortium, which you'll hear more more more about in a moment Have the opportunity to reset the bar on testing to replace current low-level bubble tests with new assessments that are more demanding and measure complex skills But as we know standards and assessments are not enough Teachers are the key to this the successful transformation of school systems And I think the good news here is there's also a lot of support along the way Sort of fueled by millions of race to the top dollars and an unprecedented state Collaborations made possible for the first time by common standards We need proof points. There are hundreds of schools around the country from the new tech network to expeditionary learning who are delivering deeper learning in Some of our most challenged communities with spectacular results for students Finally technology is really beginning to weight make its way into the education system with the potential to scale the best teaching and Personalized learning in ways that have simply never been possible before Witness the rise of the MOOCs massive open online courses that are delivering MIT engineering courses or Stanford artificial intelligence courses and Certification to hundreds of thousands for free. I Think these trends actually make this this deeper learning possible But of course we're at the earliest stage in this journey and its fragility cannot be overstated There are many many ways That things can go wrong the common course standards if they're simply treated as just another set of requirements With no change in instruction. I think that's a huge wasted opportunity If the tests don't make a significant leap forward in terms of their demand and rigor Will simply reinforce low-level expectations if states don't set their Sights higher towards a higher bar for college and career readiness We'll fall below behind the standards set by the international community But despite all this I'm really hopeful right now and I'm not a hopeful person always My institutional home as Paul and others know is the office of management and budget so We're not giddy people, but I believe in this time I mean, I think this way forward is is becoming more clear all the time and Education has a real shot at recharging our future prospects But the first most critical test of this is whether it will come in the form of these new assessments that you're here You'll hear more about You know as a country and as a school system We measure what matters and will never have a better opportunity than the one in front of us To measure the higher-order skills that our children in our country need for success in the global economy So that the rest of the panels are going to really dive into the new test and much greater depth So let me leave it at that but I'd like to simply thank That Paul Glastres and Washington Monthly for their terrific work on bringing this really critical issue to the forefront Thanks Barbara and thank you Paul and Kevin and thanks for the opportunity to be here today One of the most overused phrases in Washington is game changer and But I think that if there were a game changer in American education the Common Core Standards are a game changer and They really have the potential to transform the way education is practiced in Tens of thousands of schools over the next few years and if you if you wonder about the potential of standards to really Make significant changes consider railroads and in the early 19th century Railroads were local they were built to transport goods that where Canals couldn't reach and they they differed in the way. They were constructed Particularly the the width of the gauge the distance between the rails and so if you wanted to transport Something from Baltimore to Ohio you had to go through several different Rail systems take the goods off put them on again on a different train made it impractical and Not very useful for long-distance Transportation President Lincoln recognized that this was a problem during the Civil War Because he wanted to transport more material and troops across the country and So he and Congress agreed to establish a common standard for Rail gauge which became four foot eight inches the standard that was used in most of Europe This made possible the transcontinental railroad Which made possible the rise of American industry and made the United States the leading industrial power in the world Standards in education Have been around for for some time And for the most part they have been local the way the rail standards have been had been they started Standards started in the late 80s And started at the national level actually with the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and other subject matter organizations developing what they Consensus ideas about what should be taught in each subject With the intent that states would adopt these for their own students This idea hit some rough political shows particular around US history where there was a Significant controversy over the standards that had been developed by a senator at UCLA The Senate voted 99 to 1 to denounce the standards. That's the era of bipartisanship you hear about And so the idea of national standards fizzled out and The idea was that states would develop their own standards and no child left behind In enshrine this into law by requiring each state to develop its own standards And its own definition of proficiency and its own measures of whether students were meeting that definition But this system quickly Posed problems that became quickly evident and the idea of setting a common standard grew Despite the the political challenges during the early part of the 21st century and there were a number of factors that that led to this One was the as quickly became evident there were wide variations in state standards as most evident by the results from the national assessment of educational progress, which was administered in each state and it Quickly became clear that some states Showed that Large proportions there students were proficient on the state tests, but much smaller proportion on on Nate the national assessment so this Made clear that there were wide variations in what states expected of their students At the same time there were there was concern about high remediation rates that student Students would be able to meet state standards and go on to college But they weren't prepared for first-year courses and had to take remedial courses and were more likely to drop out of college there was a growing concern as Barbara mentioned about the global economy and Tom Friedman's book the world is flat became Kind of lightning rod for policy makers showing that students in Boston and Baltimore were competing with their peers from Bangalore and Brazil and so the differences among states didn't seem to matter that much and These were underscored by the international comparisons that Paul mentioned that show that On these international measures US students were not looking very good particularly in math So faced with these concerns a number of organizations my organization Laura's organization and others Look for a way to Develop common standards as the foundation for a new system They recognized that it couldn't be done the way it was in the 90s with national organizations imposing them on the states it had to be done commonly through states working together and so organizations representing state leaders the National Governors Association the council of chief state school officers took the lead and Brought together some of the leading experts in the nation to develop a set of common Standards in English language arts and mathematics They established some clear criteria in doing so that would make them stronger and serve us a better foundation for the The new system that they envisioned One was that the goal of these standards would be to ensure college and career readiness that students who meet these standards would be ready for first-year courses in college and worker training programs and in order to do that they made sure to include the deeper learning competencies that Barbara mentioned the Problem-solving critical thinking Communication learning how to learn and these are in the standards in in many ways Another criterion was international benchmarking concerned about the US standing Against other countries. They wanted to compare these standards with what the best performing countries expected of their students And the third criterion was a mantra the standards writers used based on a Document that to the lead writers had written Fewer clear higher they wanted fewer standards so that Schools could focus on what was most important instead of trying to dance across a long list of topics Clearer so that students teachers parents Curriculum makers could understand them and use them effectively and higher so that they really would match the expectations that students needed to reach The standards were released two years and three days ago in Georgia and We're quickly adopted by most states have now been adopted by 46 states the district of Columbia and this year the school district of Anchorage, Alaska and Just last month the Department of Defense schools. They truly are transcontinental education this The system holds promise for a number of reasons The most obvious is that now the expectations for all students in virtually every state are the same and that the Expectations are that students will learn what they need to learn in order to be prepared for college and careers This is a a historic step That I don't know has been fully appreciated The common standards also make possible Some really innovative and useful Steps for for improving the education system you'll hear in a moment about One of the most significant the assessments that Will excuse me Truly measure what we really want students to be able to know and do The common standards also make possible new curriculum materials Traditional textbooks new technologies that are possible now Because of cross-stake collaboration that Barbara mentioned and the potential for a near national market Also new technology makes possible in the ease of entry into the industry that wasn't possible before and The common standards make possible ways to empower teachers now teachers can Share lessons with their peers across states across the nation Because they're all Working from the same playbook And through technology, this is already happening With a couple thousand teachers who are nationally board certified Now as a journalist, I'm supposed to say to be sure These are all potentials a lot of things has to have to happen in order for these potentials to be reached But like Barbara, I'm I'm optimistic. I'm confident that The challenges Can be overcome because I think The fact that 46 states have stepped to the plate and said we want to do this They're showing a level of commitment and so far have shown a level of activity that really demonstrates Sincere effort and I look forward to seeing it develop. Thank you very much Good morning, is this on That was a great Historical walk, and I'm really glad to follow Bob. I've read his book. It's very good recommend it And as someone who was very immersed in the work of writing and developing the standards in 2009 and into 2010 I can I can attest to the the whirlwind pace and the Incredible changes and the engagement of real Players from across all of the states and that was another hallmark of the development We had these incredible high bar that we set for ourselves in terms of the fewer clear or higher And another bar was to really base this in state engagement And so to really come out of this process not with a a document that was written in the shadows But really a document that had been out there and really Formed and shaped by state leaders and state educators And so that was one of the roles that a chief played was to really engage and help CCSSO and NGA engage state leaders in that process I'm going to start by talking a little bit about the standards and then jump into the assessments because in fact The assessments are going to be built to measure with fidelity the standards And so it's important to know what those standards say and I'm going to focus just on a few key shifts between standards As we currently know them and that sort of the history and the tradition in in states over the last 20 years and some of the real Cutting-edge aspects of the Common Core standards. So I'm going to start with English language arts literacy. So first of all, there's an emphasis in the English language arts literacy standards on literacy and literacy across the topic areas across Disciplines not just in literature and I think that is one of the hallmarks of the standards That's so different 80% of what people read in college and read in the real world Isn't just literature. It's informational text. It's graphics. It's science. It's social studies And technical subjects and one of the shifts in the standards is that emphasis moving from About less than 20% of what is currently taught in English language arts classes to a real emphasis on literacy across the disciplines Another real shift is the emphasis on the kinds of writing students are going to be asked to do in the standards Again moving away from what is typically taught in English language arts classes and as a former English language arts teacher I can attest to the fact that most of what I did with my students particularly my youngest students was a focus on narrative So-called creative writing although all writing is creative. We really focused on stories by the end of High school students should be focusing much more on writing based on evidence using evidence to martial claims reading across text to compare contrast and Synthesize and to really bring that evidence to bear to make a claim to make a reasoned argument and to present information And so the shift in the standards are not to get rid of narrative But to really add the richness of research and inquiry and synthesis Really to follow a chain of logic and do some critical thinking as one writes and puts pen to paper And then lastly this idea of really Infusing literacy throughout the content areas. This is an effort actually when I was back in graduate school in the early 90s We talked about literacy across the content areas. It's not a new idea. It's just that it didn't really get any traction We're hoping this time around that really the standards will be embedded in students in students Lives not just in their English classes, but across the curriculum And so the standards include a piece that is literacy for history science and technical subjects that help teachers of those other Disciplines really think about how literacy plays out in their classrooms In mathematics there are few key areas and and Bob really alluded to that when he talked about fewer clear or higher The big shifts in mathematics are not so much what is there, but what isn't there They are very carefully honed on what are the most important building blocks for a progression of knowledge and skills through the grades starting in kindergarten and leading up to and Really focused on preparing students for that first-year credit-bearing course in college And credit-bearing being the key word we want students to enter into Credit-bearing courses prepared so that they don't need remediation and Bob alluded to the fact that so many at least a third of our students enter directly into Post-secondary institutions having done quite well in their mathematics courses in high school Passing exit exams and still finding themselves unprepared for credit-bearing courses and having to take expensive for medial courses So the whole idea of the standards is to set up students on a trajectory for success in their In their college years or in high-skills jobs depending on where they decide to go there's a balance in the standards between procedural and Conceptual ideas and going back all the way to Barbara's comments about the importance of application the standards really place a premium on what are called mathematical practices which Help students focus on applying what they know applying the mathematics from their bag of trip tricks reasoning through multi-step problems and then modeling solutions and so the kinds of items we'll see on the assessments that I'm about to talk About really will reflect Those kind of shifts in the standards and again, they're all Moving towards the goal of Anchored being anchored in college and career readiness. So really preparing students for that for that goal So just a brief word on the assessments that we have and sort of one of the The premises of the need for next-generation assessments, of course is that the assessments we have aren't really working And I'd say that in a large to a large extent that that is the case There are certain assessments in some states that are functioning quite well But on the whole we have assessments that include a clue to an array of tests that are often disconnected with a whole bunch of purposes that include student Student movement and really looking at instruction and the impact of instruction Tests that are used for accountability tests that are used to signal readiness for both entry into College and then placement into credit-bearing courses. There's a number of test kids take If you're in a district, you often probably are taking benchmark tests All of these tests are given with no clear sense of how they are connected and What is in it for kids? And so the idea is to shift to a system that really is very very grounded In the standards completely aligned and articulated and then clearly connected to the goals we have for our students In many cases the tests we have are not challenging enough Barbara talked about kind of low-level tests that measure Wrote learning kind of the easy things to measure as opposed to the deeper learning and the deeper knowledge and skills that are the most Important things for kids to have they don't measure the full range of things like research analysis critical thinking a collaboration Problem-solving all of those things that college professors and employers say are critical in incoming students and workers And they fail to generate enough information for educators about where their students are falling short what they Continue to need and how and they're not really returned quickly enough so by the time Teachers get that information half the summer has passed and it's really too late to to provide any information back to improve their instruction Lastly, but certainly not least I think for this effort results are state-based There's no way really to compare state by state by state except for the nape results Which are done every two years and certainly are only given to a sample of students so there's really no way of knowing how a student in Massachusetts is doing compared to a student in Maryland and that is the kind of Background and backdrop into which the consortia are entering into today So the goals for the next generation assessments are to kind of counter all of those challenges that I just laid out They're designed to measure students mastery of the Common Core standards, which as Bob said were designed explicitly to Prepare students for college and careers and we're also designed to be internationally benchmarked And so the assessments will will do that as well They're designed to provide a common measure Across states so results can be compared Not just for the sake of shaming and I want to be really clear about that It's for the sake of driving improvements Creating a little bit of healthy competition across states So if Massachusetts is doing something really great other states can look and see what that is that they're doing with their students to get those results The assessments will be designed to include much higher order think much more higher order thinking a range of item types Including including some selected response, but also extended response and then longer performance based assessments that I'll talk about in a moment They're going to be designed to be delivered online and this is going to be a big shift. They'll be computer based really harnessing the Possibility and the potential of technology enhanced items to create items that are much richer much more engaging for students To create an opportunity for data to come back much more quickly so that teachers and students actually know how they did almost immediately And to create data that is comparable and transportable across states and across state lines To help mitigate challenges associated today with student mobility moving from one state to another the Common Core standards have created a real opportunity to have consistent data across states and the Assessments will house that data so that if a student moves from Maryland to Massachusetts They can bring that data with them So that's some of the the background. I want to shift to the Particular consortium that achieve works with which is the partnership for the assessment of Readiness for college and careers, which is a mouthful. So we call it fondly Park Just as a brief reminder to those of you who may not remember the US Department of Education put 350 million into a competitive grants and Was awarded those those grant dollars were awarded to to consortia Park and Smarter Balanced Park has 24 states including the District of Columbia that that are participating as partners And Smarter Balanced I think at last count had 30. There is a little bit of overlap in the states And most states are sort of what we call going steady and have joined one Consortium, but there are a few states that continue to date around and they are participating in both and sort of watching and waiting to see Which way ultimately they'll go and in fact they've had an opportunity to participate in item development and discussions in both consortium So the idea behind the park assessment is to really build the pathway from all the way from kindergarten To college and careers and so there are a number of tools that the park states are building I'm going to give you a brief overview and I'm happy to take questions after but first of all some k2 formative tools now When we think of assessment and we think of sort of large-scale Assessment we get a little bit nervous when we think about k1 and 2 These tools are going to be designed to be as flexible as possible as a let as Instructionally Similar as possible in other words kids are not going to be sitting down Behind a computer all at once taking what feels like a very serious test They'll be much more game oriented or students are clicking through a computer trying to identify patterns etc to really give them some Opportunity to engage what I see Jerry shaking his head We'll have to come back to you later to engage with the content But not in a highly stressful way in third through eighth grade There will be a set of assessments that I'm going to talk about in a moment a series of assessments a system of assessments that include a Diagnostic set of assessment that are very flexible and students and teachers can use them at any time in the year a mid-year Assessment that will really give an opportunity for some rich performance-based hands-on learning not be Scored in a in a summative way But really provide opportunities for teachers to get their hands dirty see how their students score and then to give students results back very quickly Three-quarters of the way through the year. They'll be a very robust performance Assessment and by a performance assessment. I mean the following so think about in writing students will be asked to actually Compose they'll be asked to produce a piece of writing based on reading a series of Documents of texts One or more texts and they'll be asked to as I said earlier compare contrast those texts glean the big ideas build using evidence building a case and and using that to write an essay or a composition that Will then be scored in Mathematics it'll be a multi-state excuse me a multi-step problem. Well, they'll be asked to actually graph their answers talk about Change Look at a problem from the multiple standpoints and not just do one kind of quick equation So these assessments are going to be Building over the course of a number of of items and and a number of Experiences there'll be an end-of-year assessment that will be delivered on the computer, which will be a range of item types And will come as close to the end of year as possible those two scores the one from the performance based assessment and the one from the end of year assessment will be compiled to be the Total score for a student the total summative score So the score will be derived both from that end of the year and from the earlier performance based assessment And that's quite different than it currently is happening in many many states in which there There's a once in the once at the end of the year assessment that is you know mostly multiple choice if not entirely multiple choice and Given in a pencil paper version these will be much more flexible and Provide much more data in High school there'll be assessments at in the first three years of high school in English language ours It'll be ninth grade tenth grade and eleventh grade and in mathematics the assessment consortium is actually developing two pathways one in a Traditional sequence of algebra one algebra two and geometry and another in a sort of more internationally Integrated approach math one math two math three so that students will be taking assessments in each year of high school Because these data are going to be really important for information for teachers to know how they are doing and have students are mastering the content on their on their way to college and careers Paul told me I had five minutes, so I know I'm pushing the edge of of that I wanted to give a little bit of a flavor of the other things that Park is working on because at it at the heart This is of course a technical It's a technical exercise to develop a high quality assessment. It's also really a game changer in terms of policy and politics in the states It's a it's very importantly As states think about building the instrument They're also thinking about transitioning their policies to be ready for that instrument And so Park is also providing some support around transition There are a number of technical issue working groups that are working on educator engagement educator evaluation on Thinking about actually how you build in a new system From a current assessment and how you use that in a brand new accountability system So there are a lot of accountability and policy questions that are being asked and Park is taking those on as well There's also a number of Instructional challenges and Bob really alluded to that the incredible opportunity that the Common Core allows for Collaboration across states in terms of instructional materials Park has developed one of the first things Park came out with was a set of content frameworks and really the goal was to take the Common Core and Break it down not change it but break it down and really emphasize what was most important Where teachers should start as they implement the Common Core and where the assessments were gonna come along and really focus their attention So I think that's the best document Park has put out to date that in terms of the the clarity around the expectations the park will measure and That actually will be going out for review after it's been out in the field for a year We'll be going out for review and have an opportunity for teachers to provide input on those a couple other really important developments In just in the last six months are that Park has put out a number of solicitations for actually building items We've been working to date on building prototype items And have learned probably learned the hard way how hard it really is to build these items that are going to be next-generation Items will be coming out in the summer with some of those prototype items in mathematics and English language arts And some scoring protocols and rubrics And I will say we've Park has been working with some of the the best research universities in the country to develop these Prototypes and have still the the conversations have been very rich And and there has still been it's been hard to develop these items that really measure the conceptual depth and The problem-solving and the kind of different aspects of the standards that I talked about at the beginning Item development will start for real this summer based on some of those prototypes, but also taking the next step And contracts are about to be signed for those field testing will happen starting next year in the spring and going into 2014 and This summer will be launching educator leader cadres with educators from across the 24 states to really dive in to look carefully at what the standards say and what those prototype items look like and then what they can do in their states in Terms of professional development and outreach to really bring people along to help them be ready for this incredible potential game changer in their policy spheres. I think I'm going to stop there One other thing I want to talk about that is that is really a different and a hallmark of this effort is the way that Park states are engaging their higher education communities. This is an incredible Shift in the way we think about building k-12 assessments in that in the past that was done at the sea level in Kate in the k-12 world educators came to the table to review items, but really it was a closed system It was thinking about what what is taught. What are we going to measure? Within that k-12 system for the first time There's the development of this assessment is really taking the higher ed community as a partner and has really been Bringing the higher ed partners along from the beginning both in terms of engaging them on what the standards say and what the implications are for higher ed courses for example and also now as we move into assessment development putting higher ed faculty on all of the assessment review committees thinking about Really focusing on what the expectation is at the higher ed level and infusing that back into the k-12 assessments So that partnership has been quite rewarding and as you can probably imagine quite challenging The higher ed community in this country is very diffused There's not a clear way that we organize higher ed and it's different in every state so thinking about the policy and Political challenges both at k-12 and at higher ed and then bringing those two sectors together has been Both challenging and exciting so I think I'll stop there and I'm happy to take specific questions as we go along It is hard to follow you Laura such an energetic and articulate speaker and Very very informative. I wanted to start first by thanking Paul glass dress to the extent that my piece was even remotely Engaging it has a great deal to do with Paul and I think we can agree that that story did not exactly write itself It's a tough subject to to to make come alive for the general reader Anyway, I am a journalist and Unlike the rest of the folks on the panel and I've spent, you know, most of my career Writing about what's wrong with stuff. I mean, that's that's what we do. I mean, that's what makes for the good stories, right? and Concentrating on education only in the last couple of years Although we write about Mostly stuff that try to write about mostly about stuff that works. I I have Spent a lot of time getting really depressed about the state of a public education and have just come to realize in the last couple years that it's That it's a little more depressing than I even thought and Barbara gave us, you know plenty of other stuff to get depressed about So it was really really really satisfying To to be able to write about the Common Core and the new assessments Because I think this is a fabulous initiative that Really could work. I think it is a game changer and I think we're finally, you know doing something that could be really meaningful and lasting and I think it's just amazing That this was not a federal effort. I mean, we really need to stress that this was 50 or 46. Pardon me in Alaska whatever Coming together and Diverse politically Economically racially states coming together and agreeing on this and so I just think that is phenomenal And I think that's something that we really want to celebrate and I just feel really great about that So I just wanted to say that As far as testing I don't know Didn't really know anything about testing before I wrote this piece and still don't feel like I know that much about testing But it's it's an enormous complicated areas as Laura could tell you And so what I knew about assessments was in my opinion of assessments It was pretty much the the same opinion that to think other critics have which is that the existing assessments are too easy and They narrow the curriculum and I think really dangerous ways and I have to say that my opinions about testing were only reinforced by really revealing a couple of visits that I made to the classroom of a DC 6th grade teacher at the Charles Hart Middle School in Anacostia Karen of Voskal who unfortunately can't be with us today But you can sort of call this a tale of two weeks in the teaching life of Karen Voskal The first week this was back into March She's teaching This little novel a nice little novel about an inner city garden and how it Transformed a neighborhood and the kids are loving the kids have a lot of these kids have never read a book from start to finish in in their in their lives and So they're talking about character development and narrative logic and you know making connections between ideas and characters you know and making emotional connections learning about you know literary devices and All along the way Karen's you know working on grammar and usage vocabulary all that good stuff Anyway, she's really getting through to these kids. They're into it. She loves Teaching this way. This is why she became a teacher Shift to the next week the following week Karen needs to start preparing for the DC cast which is the standardized assessment given that at the end you're here in DC and Her teaching style dramatically changes. She starts by literally Rearranging the classroom So she takes all of the kids who are just below Proficiency and put some front and center in the middle of the room in the room She takes the kids who are below basic the kids who are really really really struggling over here by the window She takes the kids who are Forget what kids they were above other kids Thank you and put them around the perimeter of the room and focuses on that Middle group that she's trying to get over over the hump The kids around the perimeter So she goes on for about an hour the kids around the perimeter are supposed to be doing quiet work on their own They're not doing anything And so Karen literally has a stopwatch that she works under this very very tight agenda And she starts and they go over a a short passage about penguins, which is taken out of context And starts drilling them with multiple choice Questions and one of the things she has to do is kind of undo the teaching of previous teachers who Taught the students to read the questions before they read the passage So that this this naturally forces the students to kind of you know Hunter the answer so that they can't really understand the whole context of the passage So she's teaching some basic reading comprehension Identifying the the the main idea recognizing patterns and stuff like this in other words. This is just narrow test prep And she hates it So we all know the problems with these sorts of tests we know that they're not rigorous enough We know that They're largely asking students to just read and recall. They're not diagnostic. They can't pinpoint what Exactly students know and don't know and and and and why where they're falling short As Laura mentioned they occur too late in the year for educators to do anything about it by the time they teachers find out These students can't do long division. They're they're off to summer camp And they're virtually useless for students who are working Below grade level and this is highly significant in the case of car and bus skills class because This is these are six graders. Half of them are reading below the third grade level So a basic skills test like this is only going to tell car and that her students are failing They're just it's going to show her, you know degrees of failure So why do we have these these lousy tests? There are lots and lots of reasons, but it's largely because the market is is is so fragmented we have, you know, 50 states and and Almost as many tests They're they're cheap and Cheap largely because they started out as the no stakes sorts of tests that we we took You know, I owe a basic skills and then when states were held accountable under NCLB They found that they needed to Use assessments and so they mainly just use the low stakes tests that that they already have But we've also shown that we can do better That with advanced placement and international baccalaureate Programs are essentially year-long exercises and teaching to a test and these are not for the most part multiple choice tests They're they're they're much more rigorous tests along the lines of The assessments that that Laura was talking about these are these are tests that ask students to analyze and interpret texts construct logical Explanations and put facts in into context and they do this by asking students to write essays and give short constructed responses instead of, you know, selecting from Existing responses and in other nations they've been they've been using these sorts of tests for years and and the difference is that these other nations have Essentially national standards and they're high standards And so they have good tests that basically require teachers to teach to these these higher standards I had an opportunity to get a sort of a sneak peek at at what some of these tests might look at an ETS has a program known as assessment of Of by and for learning which which is really important because when a test is done Really well it actually serves as a learning tool In itself for example on the math test. I think this this was a might have been an eighth grade algebra test Students who asked to to to do a to perform an exercise they were asked to To to try to decide whether water conservation measures were going to be needed in this particular drought situation and so they were presented with a photograph of Lake Mead with dropping dangerously low water levels And it showed a dam and a spillway in the river and how the river came, you know was dammed and and then adjacent to that it had a diagram of a Sink with the faucet and a stopper and asked the students to draw analogies between The sink and the lake and a stopper and the dam and so forth so that the students were Had to show that they could make these sorts of connections it had so this was all computerized It had it had the student The student clicked on something and the water actually, you know, virtually flowed out of the faucet the student was asked to to to measure volume and slope and flow and then explain literally had to write a short Narrative about why that the slope was what it was and how we figured this out so In order to do well in a test like this obviously a student really has to understand the material English language arts I looked at an item having to do with it asked the student to to write about whether Junk food should be sold in schools And it gave the student various arguments for it against it actually had the student do do some research Had the student make judgments about other people's writing Deciding, you know, whether whether or not this argument was was logical and that sort of thing The idea being that these were fewer fewer deeper items So it was really really promising to see that we could have Test like these But I also think that there are a lot of Challenges ahead if we're going to meet this deadline this 2014 deadline and that's like tomorrow So Technology obviously is the big one. I think we can assume that students will be comfortable Taking These new assessments on a computer. I guess the the bigger question is whether we're going to have enough States and districts have enough computers whether they're fast enough whether they're powerful enough And as my friend Bill Tucker has noted we it's being We're being forced to guess about what the state of technology is going to be and in 2014 and if we assume Too much then states aren't going to be able to meet the challenge And if we assume too little then that's going to stifle innovation I Think this a big challenge is And how to score the test now that the the new tests Are going to be much harder to score than the fill in the bubble test But the plan is to do most of the scoring now by computer And studies have shown the computers can be as reliable as human scores when those humans agree and We know that that is not always the case And in judging a piece of writing obviously that's very challenging and computers can do some amazing things I mean they can judge, you know whether you know spelling and grammar and Punctuation and that sorts of things in some programs. I think can can also judge semantics in some cases But apparently they're not so so great at some some pretty big stuff like whether you follow the line of argument or whether you have accurately or reasonably Described a concept Another challenge for the states is going to be agreeing on a single cut score or a single range of cut scores So you've got 20 odd states, you know in each each of the consortia having to agree on on What is prepared what is proficient that seems to me to fair to me to be a pretty tall order especially when you consider the the the wide range of Proficiency definitions on existing tests, I mean they are just absolutely all over the map And we also know how very different they are from proficiency Scores on the date So and then once they once and hope Laura can talk to this, but Once each of the consortia Agree on these cut scores then they've got to find a way to make these scores Compatible or comparable so that you know This score in a park test is equivalent to that score on a s-back test sort of like the ACT in the ACT in the SAT Funding obviously is you know big cloud on on the horizon that the stimulus money is is going to run out And then states are going to have to find ways to to to keep this going in a really nasty Economy so so What can we in the education community and and In the journalism community due to help this initiative. I think raising public awareness as Paul mentioned earlier I mean, I think it is really amazing that that the public is Not aware of this big big train Heading heading their way. They don't realize how radically things are going to change and They don't realize what incredible positive potential this initiative Has so I think it's it's up to us to to help raise that awareness and Because I think the better the public understands the potential of the common core and these these new assessments then the more likely they'll be to to support it and To to help make it everything that it it can and and should be So thanks Bob and Susan and Barbara and Laura As Paul was Paul as you were talking about your daughter I was reflecting that my oldest son will be in second grade in the 2014 school year. So he will be Taking the park formative assessments And then third grade taking the the real thing in the 2015 school year. So this is a tremendous accomplishment. This is a I think you see this throughout the panel a sense of wow I can't even believe that we've gotten states to agree to do all of these things Not over yet. None of it has actually happened and in terms of real live teachers They're beginning in some states to teach to these standards and using really remarkable tools So this is a remains to be seen and this is why it's so important that all of us Do what we can to make sure that it fulfills its promise And that that may mean being critical friends at sometimes and it may mean Being being real supporters at other times. So so this is this is a tremendous lift and and that said it's it's not It's maybe not where we want to stop when we think about assessment There may be entirely different ways to think about assessment And this was the article that I got to write for the Washington Monthly issue And when I was thinking about it, I think one way to think about it is just a change in less less about any particular item or Computer versus paper based but really some changing paradigms And so I'll give you an example my best friend from college found out that he was diabetic in his 20s And so what that meant a lifestyle change immediately and that meant that Periodically he had to stick his finger Take a test Put it in a little measurement device figure out what his blood sugar was and then we you know if we were out Skiing or something like that. He would have to stop go in inject himself So all of his activity stopped he'd have to inject himself. He'd have to guess You know Less than a decade later. He now wears a continuous glucose monitor, which basically in the background Silently without him doing anything is constantly monitoring his blood sugar level and that feeds that information to an insulin pump and It alerts him says hey, you know, we need to we need to make an adjustment here There's still a little bit of manual control on it He sets the ranges and and helps it to know but he can also guide very much. So so these things essentially Sticks and glucose monitor these are assessments. These are assessing the level of his blood sugar And then the actions that he takes are responses to those assessments It's different than teaching right that it's teaching is much more complicated But this idea that assessment could take place in the background So it doesn't stop testing but it's it's it's it doesn't excuse me It doesn't stop teaching and learning But is something that sort of continually goes along is adjusted to the individual student and really helps Promote actions that increase the learning things that teachers can do things that students themselves can do and changes to the types of problems and Challenges that are presented to students. That's really the big paradigm shift that I was sort of looking at in my article and There's a great term for it that some of the researchers have coined and this is While there are types of things that are that are going on in the world That you know, most of what I'll talk about is not going to show up on park tests in 2014 I think there are ideas that are feeding it But this is maybe sort of the next the next thing coming the next generation, but it's coming quickly particularly since Many of these things are putting on are being put online for free and teachers are just snapping them up and students are doing them On their own so so there's this whole underground thing that may happen and the researchers that they call it stealth assessment So can it sort of happen in the background and ongoing and so a couple of In the article I talked to a number of the researchers and a few companies that are working on this mostly mostly university researchers and So a few examples there's this really fascinating guys Warren Popovic at the University of Washington up in Washington state and this guy is amazing. He's working on not just educational work, but really looking at at crowd sourcing and thinking about how Different types of technologies can bring to bear people to work together on problems that were Unimaginable that were hard to be solved on their own. So so one thing he did was They It turns out that to when you're attacking viruses You need to think about different types of proteins And so how you fold proteins and they're like millions and billions of combinations of folding proteins So you can have some individual researchers sitting in labs Or you can crowdsource it and get all sorts of people to challenge against this game to try to fold proteins better and it turns out they're creating proteins that the researchers couldn't create before which These are the basic building blocks to develop all sorts of cures for things like cancer And so he's taking these ideas and and creating and thinking about okay Well, are there similar types of games that students can play? where The challenge is just right so there's sort of continual assessment in the background How how did this student one game is called refractions? It's this fun little these these animals are trapped in their spaceships And they need to get powered up and some some of them need half a half a laser beam Some of them need a third of a laser beam and the students have to figure this out and along the way They're they're learning about partitioning and various elements of fractions And so the game is able to not only keep track and help provide the right challenge at the individual level So constantly figuring out what the student did and and providing the right level of challenge But really taking that sort of crowdsourcing idea that he did with the Folding games and thinking about well if you have 5,000 10,000 20,000 students playing these games you're learning a lot about how they go about solving problems You're learning a lot about different types of mistakes that they make You're learning a lot about oh, what are the paths that the most successful students take to solve this problem? What are some meandering paths? What are some incredibly creative solutions? and all of that can help inform How we think about helping students to to get to different levels of learning so it's these are these are really exciting ways to just think totally differently about not only assessment itself, but What we learn at kind of the macro level about how students learn The kind of kind of Continual adjustment ongoing assessment and providing just the right challenge. I mean that's what great teachers do So this is Laura. I think you said like some of this is is is old stuff And what we're trying and what these researchers are trying to do is think about well How do we not replace teachers? But how can how can technology? And understanding of systems about how students learn how can this better? Augment what teachers can do and do things that teachers can't do so an individual teacher may be able to do this for a Certain amount of students, but how do we know that those 20 students? How do we get the gleaning's and the learnings from what happened with? 100,000 students So so these are some pretty remarkable Experiments really and thinking very differently about assessment and how it might happen a Few just quick insights, and then there's obviously questions and I go into more detail in the articles And I want to touch on these because I think that when we think about Anything that has technology involved and immediately kind of provokes certain frames in our public discussion And and there are two that that aren't necessarily true and at least as I talked to these researchers One is that we've got this fear and again. I've got a I've got little kids, right? So I don't want them plugged in matrix like they they like to play with blocks and do all sorts of fun stuff So there's this sense that that these technologies will replace teachers and and it's interesting talking to the researchers They they think about it less of an either or and think of it more as you know Teachers are like pilots that don't have navigational computers They're like trying to crunch all the numbers and do all the stuff at the same time And so we really need better tools to help You know for a pilot there's Navigational computers that do all the calculations real-time again constantly assessing conditions providing more information and the pilot can adjust And so I think it's better to think about these tools in this way if we think about them as teachers versus tools That that's that's really not a good Place to be those aren't good choices. We're either left with teachers without tools or tools without teachers So the these sort of experiments are really thinking about how can What tools can we use individual teachers? But then what can we learn the the second that was pretty neat and kind of surprising to me most of these Research that I talked to were really progressive educators So I think we think about technology as oh, this is like a drill and kill thing when I was little it was like math Blaster right you just constantly solve the problems and you got to Last it but um You know Another research that I talked to Valerie shoot who actually coined the term stealth assessment. She's working on this really interesting project thinking about how do we make sure that students learn the conceptual aspects of physics and She's using a game environment called crayon physics deluxe And is really the students can manipulate the different aspects to solve problems. So if you've got Forget the the metaphor in the game, but there's like an item here And you need to get it here and you have to figure out a series of ramps or springboards and ways to get it there And again students can approach the problem in in a hundred different ways They're given crayons to sort of draw ramps and springboards. So there's there's no preset answer here But the idea is that she's trying to teach the the conceptual understanding that doesn't mean that the equations and and all of the more Automatic types of things are unimportant. This is one tool to help teach that and then in the background. What's also really neat is That she's really interested in in what people sometimes call non-academic or non-cognitive skills like you know That hard problem. Did the student try a lot of different things? Did they persist through it? How creative were they? We don't know how to measure these perfectly, but they're not Unmeasurable or we or it's not that we can't get some ideas of how to approach these and Give that information not only teachers, but back to students themselves And so that they can be knowledgeable about their learning really interesting ideas really thinking not only and I think this Barbara goes back To what you're saying not only about the you know really getting to the conceptual understanding of physics But also these things that we know matter a lot tenacity persistence grit Can we can we get a better sense of them so we can provide that information to students and teachers? So really so that's the second thing not teachers versus technology and not necessarily These things don't have to be sort of narrow and combined when we think of technology like this They can actually enable more progressive things The third that was really interesting and I think whenever you think about games The researchers all warned me. They said We don't want to see this as being just gamification and what they meant is This isn't just sort of layering bells and whistles on top like wow that's a cool crayon physics game and kids Will like that and they'll be more engaged That that's not what they're going for what they're going for is the technology is used as a way to provide really interesting and challenging problems and That's where students really learn because they're provided with challenging problems that are at the level that they can take And and they work through them So there's a meaningful accomplishment that they see and that again that happens every day in traditional classrooms So again, this is a different way to think about it, but another tool that might help us so I Mean going into this article. I was thinking well, this is interesting if if if you think about the the glucose monitoring example That that could be the end of you know, the little pricks that the little testing it could be the end of you know Really, that's the end of end of End of a whole paradigm. I mean could could these new tools really be the end of testing, you know You know ten years from now, maybe, you know our park and smarter balanced out of business Are they doing something entirely different and there's a There's a There's a there's an element of that that I think is very promising in that If we think about assessment, we do want to not just you know Moving from this paradigm of there's just this one-shot deal how you happen to perform on a particular day That's it to really collecting more and better evidence over time and getting more and more fine on the types of again At the student level of the assessments provide supposed to provide information that helps us understand where the student is and where he or She needs to go and how they got where they are This is incredibly promising That said there's a again. There's a paradigm shift I think a lot of these things are at least in the research are more what we would call formative Thinking about things that teachers use day-to-day and are less Really not really ready for prime time and making big summary judgments across populations of students Some of the comments about you know, how are kids in Mississippi doing in general compared to how our kids in Maryland doing it? So that's that's a real question of whether we can use these tools in that way, but it's it's amazingly promising and I think what we'll see is over the next few years We're gonna see a you know a huge a huge leap with the new tests And at the same time we need to do that knowing that there might be even more interesting in different paradigms coming along And how do we how do we make sure to do these brand-new things and accommodate the the things that could really change the way? We think about assessment Thank you. Thank you so much, and thank you panel. This was great. You all went over your time That's okay because it was It flowed I thought very nicely we got the information out that I wanted to I Want to I was gonna just engage a little bit in questions among us But I think we don't have a lot of time and I do want to open it up I think directly to questions from the audience And I know people are often shy, so I'll provide the first question for you Being the moderator so so we've really done a lot of focusing on the promise of this thing And I really wanted that to be the focus there are some huge huge challenges coming up and People who know this world very well and who wish it very well are deeply worried that the implementation phase of this stuff is where it's gonna it's gonna crash on the shoals And so I'd like to ask there's funding issues there's training of teachers there's Political issues as I said most people don't know this is coming. We have a country in which Many conservatives are our have turned against Any kind of national effort they want local control you have liberals who have never been comfortable many of them some of them with High-stakes tests who have gotten more uncomfortable with it and here we're about to hit them with this giant high-stakes test So I think politically we have some problems Just very briefly from each of you what what keeps up at night. What do you most worry about? Going wrong Barbara Yeah, sort of a budget person So I worry most about the the costs of the assessment in this you know very fraught fiscal climate I think that's gonna be a real challenge It's gonna require Political will and it's gonna require some very innovative uses of technology that we've just not been able to deploy before Just one note on the sort of automated scoring something that we had a chance to take a pretty hard look at and it does actually a pretty good job of predicting what people do that's what it does well and That actually can be enormously helpful. I think as one way of actually helping to reduce the cost of these things So a couple things many things keep me up at night Because it's a very tight timeline Susan's right. It is like tomorrow Yesterday well it makes that it makes that yeah, it makes the standards development process Which was only 18 months actually seem reasonable because of the world of assessment and how quickly things move so on the standards themselves I think Barbara hit it exactly right that this the potential for this not to reach its potential Keeps me up at night and it is all about teachers and how well they are able to implement the standards And I will tell you I think that we did a I think adoption was the easy part and even that wasn't so easy although 47 states later it seems like it could have been easy the actual understanding the deep understanding of the shifts in Student expectations expectations for students and what that means for teacher practice I think are tremendous and we haven't scratched the surface So it worries me that we will put all this energy and effort into it and we really won't change practice But that's of course the goal To be the game-changer that we need it to be in terms of the assessment I Have every confidence that the timeline will deliver an excellent assessment on the timeline. It seems Hard to say that now when when the clock is ticking but but I am very confident about that I worry about the technology and that the state readiness for an online assessment and already states are thinking about well What is this what is this transition really going to look like how are we going to get the money the political? Will what is the technology going to really look like where do we hedge our bets? Are we going to go tablets? Are we going to go? You know regular laptops what do we do and in this environment of very tight budgets making those decisions now when the technology world is shifting? So quickly Makes it hard and states and districts really don't know what to do Park and Smarter Bounds have collaborated on it and what's called a gap analysis tool Which is a tool that enables districts to go in and actually Survey their schools and identify what their tech now their current technology looks like so that they can begin to plan and chart a Path for moving forward Even that which is a great step because I think a lot of places don't even know what they have and what their current state is That enables to states and districts to plan but they need to know what they're planning towards and given how fast it's changing My worry is that we'll build a beautiful assessment that a states won't be ready to deliver or be the technology will be to the point Where we'll quickly have to regenerate into assessment 2.0 Which hopefully will open up doors to do the kinds of stealth game kind of stealth assessment things that you're talking about the other thing that Strikes me as very important is to think about assessment not just in a way that is connected to grade levels and student Years where they are in school, but to think more flexibly about assessment because in the future we're going to think more flexibly about schooling and To create assessments that don't lock us into particular courses or particular grades, but are much more flexible and much more Able to allow kids to show their competency Wherever in their schooling they are so that it can be much more tailored to individual student success So I see that as a as it doesn't keep me up It excites me about the possibilities in the future for that One thing that worries me is that computer scoring because if a computer has truly figured out how to Determine whether a writer has has has followed a logical line of narrative and I am so out of business That really worries me I am concerned as I mentioned before that the about public awareness I'm concerned about Public misunderstanding of this initiative. I'm concerned that the public is going to think we're having that we're going to have a national curriculum and I'm concerned that the public's not going to be in many states It's a public's not going to be prepared for what's about to hit them in terms of Some scores that are going to look a lot different than what they're used to on that on their on their less ambitious State tests So I'll take off on that. We need to remember again. This is a group of states working together on each of Both on the Common Core state standards and on the consortium assessments So there are two things that the states are going to have to come together around both of which have been mentioned today But I think are going to be particularly difficult. One is around cost. It's not just the absolute cost of the new tests By be by working together across states you get some economies of scale And so that's how you're able to actually do more high quality types of things both by working together and by using technology in new ways The problem is is right now states spend such are so variable in their actual spending You know, you've got states that spend less than ten dollars per student and states that spend more than thirty dollars per student So even if the cost kind of comes in right around, you know Average or at the aggregate about the same and these are the ongoing costs what states have to spend each year And remember they're already doing this. So it's it's not like these are the you know This is money that's already being spent Even if if the tests come in at that same level, you're gonna have some individual states that said hey We were only spending ten bucks per student now you want us to spend 20 So where the consortia come out on those decisions will make a huge difference This is where the public awareness matters too because we have a lot of pushback against high-stakes testing And there's a sense that wow testing costs so much But we're getting what we pay for And so the worst thing possible that could happen and and the irony here is that folks who are most concerned about poor tests Driving poor instruction and all sorts of bad things in our schools Would focus on the cost element and we'll end up with all of this work for new tests But then we'll end up with you know, but give us the cheap stuff at the very end So there's a in some ways There's this real sense that we actually do and some states will need to spend more To get high quality and that's gonna be a big decision among among the states I'm sure that are figuring out the second piece is is this issue of where the standards are actually set again, if the goal here is that Thinking about we really mean that you're ready to go on and succeed after high school in Many if not most states that means that the expectations are gonna be higher than they are now we're actually gonna tell the truth to children about where they sit and whether they're ready for Entry-level classes in college workforce preparation many of these same things that you need to succeed in in Post-secondary and I mean broadly not just for your college, but community colleges technical programs apprenticeships Right now We're not testing at that level. So so inevitably things are gonna look bad, right? Like Scores are gonna look go down We're gonna tell the truth for once and and eventually we're gonna set the expectations so students can get there But that again each state and in some states it's gonna look much worse than others And so how the states together? Navigate that I think if the states are working together and look at this is okay, you know if I'm You know if I'm Georgian I'm surrounded by five states and I know I'm gonna take a big hit But Florida is doing it too and South Carolina is doing it too That's gonna be easy. So if these consortia can hold together on these issues. It'll work if they start Really getting too individually focused. It's not gonna work. So those are two big issues around the cooperation Great. Thank you Lauren at the back has has the microphone. So Lauren this young lady right here in the second row I was at a common-core standard session and At George Washington University just down the street a few weeks ago. It was put on by the fine dean there and He had Mike Cohen and another gentleman who served on the control board for DC public schools Serves on the ACT testing board and also was supertenant Long Beach, California highly distinguished and He said being on the ACT board He has really interesting insight on this assessment business we're into now with the common-core state standards and These consortia and then when he's out and about in sessions like this. He hears this optimistic Tone and feeling they're going to meet this deadline But when he goes to the headquarters of ACT They dismiss it and Say no, they're nowhere near and they're being way overly optimistic and it's been suggested It's been overly optimistic from the get-go and I You kind of wonder where in lies the truth I guess I'm on the hot seat so achieve serves as the project management partner for For park and so we manage all the timelines and we are I mean I tell you honestly We are on track and where we need to be on our timeline now a lot can happen between now and spring 2015. There are Technology infrastructure issues that that need to be worked through and there is a technology infrastructure to be built There are items to be developed. There's field testing to be done There is political will to garner and there are cut scores to set which will be a process actually that we've already started through an engagement and outreach project process and will be Moving forward to start building the evidence-based unlike some standard-setting processes in the past this one will be Highly infused by evidence. So what do other countries do what do college students do when they get there? What do kids who score at X level on park actually do in their first year credit bearing courses? What grades did they get so building of that evidence needs to start early? But to date we are on track check-in with me in six months, and we'll hopefully tell you the same story. I recognize you You know what After the race What I like to do we went a little bit over time, but we start a little late so we can have a few more questions I'd like to do a lightning round have three or four questions. So Lauren if you don't mind there's a gentleman who's on the third row right behind it and Very very brief questions, and we'll get two or three in one and then try to have some mass answers. Okay Gary Ratner citizens for effective schools Just a distinction a question the high common standards, you know good Assessments that measure them deeper thinking you know good, but then you talk about high stakes So I'd like to know You know what are the high stakes, which is a completely separate Concept that doesn't it's not inherent in the first two and you've talked about teachers and the critical importance of teachers And what goes on in the school none of this is necessarily going to improve that at all What are you guys doing to to address that great and the gentleman that yeah, please hi good morning Craig Perry from the Department of Defense schools on the social studies coordinator there I suppose some clarification hoping for from both park and smarter balance First is is there definitely not going to be multiple choice questions on the assessment and number two is can you can you talk to? Student choice student options On the assessments for both consortium. Okay, great some some from the back there Lauren, can we Ask this lady right right there, please This is specifically for Laura and following up on that young ladies question over there And we talked about being overly optimistic for these on these tests and I think it's important to be clear about who we're being overly optimistic for And you spoke a little bit to field testing and I'm interested in what plans you have to do field testing particularly in low-income Communities of color and in urban areas in rural areas too that are under resourced Because I think those are the communities that are going to be most affected by these tests and have the most The highest bar to raise great and then right behind that the her there's a gentleman who had his hand up and what will be the last question I was once a mathematics teacher many many years ago, and I wonder whether the the structure of these tests that's built on these wonderful computer models that you know show water flowing over dams and things well that Affect the way students learn say basic Mathematics will they still be able to sit down with a pencil and paper and work out a problem Or are they going to become dependent on a lot of technology stuff that they have to learn along with the actual substantive Material in the discipline great question. Okay, so I hope somebody's been writing all this down, but it's I can remember we We had questions about Well somebody else Brought these down, right Laura I think you had a couple and Susan there was something about teachers Maybe you or Barbara could take one of those or So so the idea is that The way in which you do assessment shouldn't be different from the way instructions taught if it is that it's not fair So if you never see a computer in class and you have Tests that that involve using computers that that's going to cause problems. I don't think anyone's proposing that Again, I think it's best not to try to put these in either or frames And so the sense that students would never work out problems that that's I don't think that's going to happen In fact what I think will be more likely to happen is that because technology allows You to have a better to get beyond just scoring right or wrong and to look at the process by which a student solved a problem You'll actually get at that conceptual understanding and the product You'll be able to have a better view on both the process and the answer and that will improve assessment, but but it's not an either or and I think we should try to really move away from from some of the the kind of dichotomies that that aren't good for us Yeah, I'll just add to that that the idea is not to do every item in a technology enhanced way In other words, we want to optimize the use and maximize the use of technology when it advances the mathematical thinking and reasoning when it Allows students to do something More better different that actually matters not just because it's cool and has bells and whistles So I just want to make that clear there will still be solving of problems That don't require technology and technology enhancements They will be loaded onto a computer and they will be computer delivered states are also thinking in the transition period, of course In cases where there's not enough technology or they're not ready to deliver at full scale on technology That there'll be an interim possibility for pencil and paper based assessments So I should have said that earlier Let's see some of the other questions One question was about the field testing design and the field testing does actually the RP has just gone out and you could actually look at the Tentative field testing design It's gone out through the state of Indiana and is on their website and is also on the park online Dot org website, but yes The idea is to sample all communities and over sample where necessary to make sure we're getting a good read on Particular communities. I will say in regards to communities of color and particularly underserved populations that park has a Group called a technical working group called Accessibility accommodations and fairness with a real focus on students with disabilities and students who are English language learners But also this issue of equity and students who in the past have maybe not well been well served by Curriculum and assessment because they are in high needs areas They're not getting access and they have different kinds of learning challenges And so park has made that a priority One of the other questions that was asked about I think was high stakes and So states that have signed up to use this assessment and that continue to be governing states and use this assessment starting in 2015 and beyond will use this and have committed to using this in place of whatever assessment They currently use for their no child left behind state accountability measures the stakes that they attach to those whether they become a graduation requirement or a Promotional bar that's a state decision. It's not a consortium decision. So states will May make different choices about that. So many states have exit exams today. Some don't I can see in the future that states May want to coalesce around those decisions, but that's not a requirement of the grant and so that's ultimately in the state's hands Multiple choice there will certainly be some selected response items Then we're not doing away with the selected response items The idea is to really use other kinds of items when they're important to use to get at some deeper kind of thinking To give students opportunity to solve problems that require multiple steps It isn't to say that all selected response multiple choice items are bad And you can't glean anything about student learning and student understanding through them It's it's really when is it appropriate to use what kind of item and some of the standards actually Call for different kinds of items in order to really get at the deeper learning behind the standard. So it's really Not a blanket statement. It's what's best to get at different kinds of standards and different kinds of information about student learning Like on the performance so on the performance-based test So the way that performance-based assessment has been envisioned and there's a lot of room for For trying these out is that students would let's focus on English language arts literacy It's not going to be the case that I have an example here that a student will be asked to talk about Of course, I'm not going to be able to find it student might not be asked us to talk about Most people have a special hobby or activity. This is a real example from a real estate Write a composition describing what you enjoy doing explain why that activity is fun for you That is the kind of prompt that we see on a lot of assessments. There's nothing wrong with it per se It just doesn't really tap the standards that require students to read multiple tests texts draw information Etc. So what you might see is a student go into a staged Google site where there are two three four source documents where they're asked to Read some documents Make some judgments about the credibility of those documents the relevance of those documents and then choose from among those in Order to write a cogent essay. That's a different way of thinking about choice Because it's constrained the choices are constrained It's not like right about whatever you want But it allows students to really think about the kinds of evidence they want to use and why that evidence is appropriate And why some other evidence isn't helpful to them as they make their case If there are other questions, I encourage you all to come up afterwards. I just want to thank again the panel This was as good as I could Hope Thank you so much want to thank new America for hosting this I want to thank our friends at education sector And my staff and colleagues at Washington Monthly. Thanks everybody