Today our San Joaquin Valley Council for the Social Studies had their big planning meeting. One thing that came out of that was the need for a one page FAQ sheet for the Common Core Standards for Social Studies teachers in particular – to quell their fears of the unknown. This is all I got done this afternoon. See what you think of it, and tell me what else you thing should be on it.
KNOWN ASSESSMENT FAQs
• Common Core Assessments for ELA and Mathematics begin field testing in spring 2014.
• Common Core Assessments for ELA and Mathematics begin testing in spring 2015.
• There will be History-Social Studies reading and writing tasks included in the test for language arts.
• These assessment tasks will NOT be aligned to the California History Standards, but the reading complexity, or lexile levels, will be appropriate for the grade level of the student.
• The CST for ELA, mathematics, history-social science, and science will be given until 2014 when it will sunset.
• There are sample test items on both the Smarter Balanced and the PARC websites.
WHAT WE DON’T KNOW
• We don’t know what will replace the CST tests for History-Social Science and Science
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT HISTORY-SOCIAL STUDIES STANDARDS
• We know a consortium has been working on Common State Standards for History-Social Studies.
• We know the standards will be presented at the National Council for the Social Studies Conference, November 16-18 in Seattle, WA
• We know that the one of the primary developers will present these standards at the California Council for the Social Studies, March 6-8, 2013 in Burlingame, CA
Come and join us if your on the left coast this year. We are going to have a major Common Core Conference within our regular California Council for the Social Studies Conference – 8 hours of intensive training in the Common Core Standards and how they pertain to teams of History-Social Studies/English Language Arts teachers.
Here is a FAQ sheet from Sacramento County Office of Education http://www.scoe.net/castandards/multimedia/common_core_faq.pdf
The Source, Journal of the California History Project which published an article of mine. http://www.ccss.org/Resources/Documents/CommonCore_Source.pdf
“Preparing Students for College, Career and CITIZENSHIP:
A California Guide to Align Civic Education and the Common Core State
Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies,
Science and Technical Subjects”, a white paper by Dr. Michelle Herczog, Los Angeles County Office of Education http://www.ccss.org/Resources/Documents/Herczog-CCSSNCSS%20Journal%20Article%20for%20Matrix.pdf –
Now I know who’s doing all the hard work when it comes to social studies curriculum. Well, most of it anyway… : )
Wishing you all the best in the new school year!
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Thanks for the nice compliment. Actually I retired from my consulting position of almost 11 years on Aug. 31. So now I have time to research for FUN!!! Yikes. Are you a social studies teacher or person? I am very active in social studies organizations at all levels local-national. I recommend National Council for the Social Studies to start. Thanks for dropping in!! 🙂
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