Common Core: Higher Expectations

Anyone who has looked over the Common Core State Standards is aware that they call for much higher expectations. This has naturally led to some concern about how students will fare with the new accountability tests coming in the 2014-2015 school year.

A good example of the increased expectations can be found by comparing the new assessments with the state tests from previous years. In Colorado, for example, third grade students were expected to be able to write one paragraph in response to a writing prompt. The response was to be written by hand, so no keyboarding skills were required. Students were not expected to cite a source of information for their writing. By contrast, the new Common Core assessments will require third graders to type a multiple paragraph response and cite two sources. The sources will be given to the students, and they will have two sessions in which to complete this task. Clearly, this is a dramatic jump in grade level expectations.

How will this affect younger grades? Working backwards, it seems that students should leave second grade with the ability to write a well organized paragraph. It's probably a good idea if younger students can enter third grade with keyboarding skills well in place, so that the third grade year can be devoted to the hard work of helping students organize essays that contain multiple paragraphs and cite sources. Some practical suggestions can be found here.