A room-temperature mess
All I'm trying to do is identify the Massachusetts state standards to make sure my curriculum objectives this year aren't omitting anything essential for English 7.
I'm used to California, which was well along in its Common-Core-ification (I was trained on "new standards" and we have been testing with what we called CAASPP or SBAC, the Common Core test, for years).
Massachusetts... much to my surprise, I thought socially and politically they were the same state, only Massachusetts has a shorter New England temper and more unpleasant New England winter... likes its old standards and is only tentatively adopting a state-developed "new" test (with Common Core elements).
I'm a bit confused right now. It's not a concern, in a few weeks I will have this stuff coming out of my ears, but I am damn glad I looked it up in advance of orientation tomorrow.
* Much like ACA, MA "already did this" in education before the feds got around to it (during a time with a Republican governor and Democratic legislature, no less). The "grand bargain" of 1993 was the No Child Left Behind precursor: schools got more money in exchange for high-stakes testing.
* They refer to the new Common Core test as PARCC out here (technically, I think this is because there are rival testing Common Core consortia, it's not just that they are arbitrarily calling it a different name, it's actually a different test. But I like to pretend that they are just being difficult because it amuses me.)
* The NYT article said the new state test will be out this spring 2017. We'll see just how far along that actually is soon enough...
* My new principal and district are very keen on state testing and what "programs" different schools are in based on the scores. I don't know how they plan on comparing this year to last, though. (In CA, we simply haven't really done much with scores the past couple of years. 2017 will be the second "live" year in a row, however, so I'm sure the bureaucrats back there are figuring out all sorts of delightful new categories as we speak.)
Anyway, these are it.
I'm used to California, which was well along in its Common-Core-ification (I was trained on "new standards" and we have been testing with what we called CAASPP or SBAC, the Common Core test, for years).
Massachusetts... much to my surprise, I thought socially and politically they were the same state, only Massachusetts has a shorter New England temper and more unpleasant New England winter... likes its old standards and is only tentatively adopting a state-developed "new" test (with Common Core elements).
I'm a bit confused right now. It's not a concern, in a few weeks I will have this stuff coming out of my ears, but I am damn glad I looked it up in advance of orientation tomorrow.
* Much like ACA, MA "already did this" in education before the feds got around to it (during a time with a Republican governor and Democratic legislature, no less). The "grand bargain" of 1993 was the No Child Left Behind precursor: schools got more money in exchange for high-stakes testing.
* They refer to the new Common Core test as PARCC out here (technically, I think this is because there are rival testing Common Core consortia, it's not just that they are arbitrarily calling it a different name, it's actually a different test. But I like to pretend that they are just being difficult because it amuses me.)
* The NYT article said the new state test will be out this spring 2017. We'll see just how far along that actually is soon enough...
* My new principal and district are very keen on state testing and what "programs" different schools are in based on the scores. I don't know how they plan on comparing this year to last, though. (In CA, we simply haven't really done much with scores the past couple of years. 2017 will be the second "live" year in a row, however, so I'm sure the bureaucrats back there are figuring out all sorts of delightful new categories as we speak.)
Anyway, these are it.