FARMINGTON — Have you ever thought of flying an airplane that wasn’t built yet?
That’s the analogy educators use about implementing Common Core State Standards in mathematics, especially at the high school level.
At A Glance
What Is PARCC?
The assessment for Algebra II is in development by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers. The partnership is a consortium of 23 states plus the U.S. Virgin Islands to develop a common set of K-12 assessments in English and math. The assessments will build a pathway to college and career readiness by the end of high school, mark students’ progress toward that goal starting in third grade, provide teachers with timely information for instruction and provide student support. The assessments will be ready for states to administer during the 2014-15 school year.
Source: www.parcconline.org/about-parcc
“There are still a lot of questions,” West Fork Superintendent John Karnes said after listening to a recent presentation at a superintendents’ meeting at the Northwest Arkansas Education Services Cooperative.
The Common Core State Standards are written to take students to a deeper level of content in each core subject. The same set of standards has been adopted by at least 44 states and the District of Columbia.
In Arkansas, the standards were launched last school year for kindergarten through second grade and are being implemented this year in grades three through eight.
High school standards are to roll out next school year.
One of the biggest changes is that all high school students in Arkansas will have to pass an end-of-course assessment in Algebra II to be considered college- or career-ready.
However, the new assessment won’t roll out until the 2014-15 school year. Until then students will continue to be tested on Algebra I under the old Arkansas frameworks.
Tommy Coy, assessment program manager at the Arkansas Department of Education, said Friday the Algebra I end-of-course exam is the high stakes test for graduation “as of right now.” Action by the state Legislature would be required to change that test, he said.
Some students may have difficulty passing Algebra II, local educators said. Some mathematics courses are going away, others are changing and new ones are being developed.
A set of courses in Algebra 1 and geometry, each labeled A and B, likely will be phased out as part of the Common Core math implementation. The subjects are divided in half so the course is spread over two years and students have a better chance to pass the classes.
Coy said there will be significant shifts in content in the math courses at the secondary level.
For instance, eighth-grade math will include linear algebra and Algebra I in the ninth grade will add concepts. Geometry will have more emphasis on logic and proof, Coy said.
Algebra II will include more pre-calculus concepts as well as reaction to content changes in the earlier courses, Coy said. Additional math courses above algebra II have been developed in keeping with the rigor and relevance of Common Core, he said.
Students now choose the Smart Core track or the Core track to graduation. Superintendents are also concerned about the continuation of both tracks.
“It’s not like flipping a switch,” said Siloam Springs Superintendent Ken Ramey, who said the new math requirements could adversely affect the state’s graduation rate.
The transition from teaching under the math standards in the Arkansas frameworks to the Common Core math standards could take as long as five years, Linda Griffith told the superintendents. Griffith, a University of Central Arkansas math professor, is on leave to develop a new professional development program for math teachers for the Arkansas Department of Education.
Districts need to start the transition now to get teachers, administrators and parents on board with the new standards, a tougher curriculum and the high stakes Algebra II test, she said.
Marsha Jones, assistant superintendent in Springdale, said helping parents understand the new mathematics standards is a major piece in the transition, especially as school districts prepare for student-parent conferences to plan courses for next year. Those conferences are held in the spring.
“What parents need to know is that we will have the scope and sequence in math to meet their child’s needs,” Jones said.
Frustration among educators stems from not knowing anything about the assessment while trying to plan curriculum for the future, said Fayetteville Superintendent Vicki Thomas. Teachers have to have professional development and they need to have high expectations that every student can make it through, she said.
“There are a lot more unknowns than knowns at this time,” Thomas said. “We worry about struggling learners in math. Are we going to get kids through and what happens if we don’t?”