Connecting Common Core to College and Career

ReadinessMalbert Smith III, Ph.D.President, MetaMetrics

Research Professor, UNC School of Education

The Goal The Problem What is The Lexile® Framework for

Reading Bridging the Readiness Gap Bending the Curve

Agenda

“If we can dramatically increase high school graduation rates, if we can dramatically increase the number of graduates who are college and career ready, that’s what this is about. Everything’s a means to that end. That’s the Holy Grail here. Are our students being prepared to be successful?” – Arne DuncanEducation Week, December 9, 2009.

Quick Facts• Each year, approximately 1.2 million

students fail to graduate from high school, more than half of whom are from minority groups.

• Percent of freshmen that enroll in at least one remedial course

Community College

Four-Year Institution

42% 20%

Alliance for Excellent Education, February 2009 edition.

Students who enroll in

a remedial readingcourse are 41

percentmore likely to dropout of college. (NCES, 2004a)

58%

17%

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%

No Remedial Course(s) Remedial Course(s)

Students Obtaining Bachelor’s Degree

in Eight Years

Alliance for Excellent Education, February 2009 edition.

“High school completion does not equal college

readiness.” – Education Week

Gewertz, Catherine. “College-Readiness Program Hard to Gauge." Education Week 30.18 (2011): 1+. Print

Common Core Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in

History/Social Studies & ScienceAppendix A: Findings Students who fall short of ACT's college

readiness benchmarks have the greatest difficulty with the test items involving the most complex text.

K-12 reading assignments have become much less demanding in the last half-century, with an especially large drop-off in high school expectations.

Weston, S. P. (2010). “The giant text complexity challenge inside the new literacy standards.” The Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence

Common Core Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in

History/Social Studies & ScienceAppendix A: Findings College reading assignments have moved in

the opposite direction, becoming a bit harder over the same fifty years.

High school teachers commonly give students many kinds of support and coaching to help them figure out the material, but college teachers expect students to pull the knowledge from the text on their own, making the gap in practical ability even wider than the gap in the texts themselves.

Text Gap

Resources on Declining K-12 Text Complexity

An Anlaysis of Textbooks in Relation to Declining SAT Scores (Jeanne Chall, 1977)

Sourcebook Simplification and Its Relation to the Decline in SAT-Verbal Scores (Hayes, 1997)

A Text Readability Continuum for Postsecondary Readiness (Williamson, 2008)

The Common Core State Standards Initiative, Appendix A (2010)

Common Core Appendix A

Distribution of Text Readability Measures for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board

(Box Plots: min, 25th, 50th, 75th, max)

700

800

900

1000

1100

1200

1300

1400

1500

1600

Community/TechncialCollege(N=37)

Community College(N=48)

Four-Year (N=52)

All(N=137)

Lexi

le M

easu

re

700

800

900

1000

1100

1200

1300

1400

1500

1600

Standard = 1015L

THECB = 1170L

Commended = 1490L

Distribution of Text Readability Measures for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board

(Box Plots: min, 25th, 50th, 75th, max)

The Lexile Framework for Reading An educational tool that links text and readers

under a common metric-a Lexile measure Characterizes reader with a measure (used at

the school level in all 50 states, and 21 states report Lexile measures statewide on their year-end assessments) and text with a measure (over 60,000 web sites, 115,000 fiction and nonfiction books, and 80 million articles)

Allows educators to forecast the level of comprehension a reader is likely to experience with a particular assessment or text

Bending the Curve: Mitigate summer loss Utilize instructional tools and

resources that promote differentiated instruction and deliberate practice (personalized learning platforms)

Tools and resources on Lexile.com and Quantiles.com

Estimated Cumulative Differences in Language Experience by 4 Years

of AgeProfessional Family

Working-Class Family

Welfare Family

Esti

mat

ed C

umul

ativ

e W

ords

Ad

dres

sed

to C

hild

(in

mill

ions

)

Age of Child in Months

50_ 40_ 30_ 20_ 10_

12 24 36 48

Mitigate Summer Learning Loss

Fairchild, R. McLaughlin, B. & Brady, J. (2006). Making the Most of Summer: A Handbook on Effective Summer Programming and Thematic Learning.

Baltimore, MD: Center for Summer Learning.

Mitigate Summer Learning Loss Cumulative Effect of Summer Loss Summer Loss Research by Dr. James

Kim “Find a Book”

White Paper: Stop Summer Academic Loss

“Find a Book”Search for books by Lexile measure, title, author, ISBN, or keyword.

“Find a Book”Search for books by Lexile measure, title, author, ISBN, or keyword.

Students who do not have a Lexile measure

can use a quick and simple

utility within “Find a Book” to estimate their

Lexile range.

Search for books by Lexile measure, title, author, ISBN, or keyword.

“Find a Book”

Utilize Instructional Tools & Resources that Promote Differentiated Instruction & Deliberate

Practice Research suggests that a novice develops into an expert

through an intricate process that includes: Targeted practice in which one is engaged in

developmentally appropriate activities Real-time corrective feedback that is based on one’s

performance Intensive practice on a daily basis that provides results

that monitor current ability Distributed practice that provides appropriate activities

over a long period of time (i.e., 5-10 years), which allows for monitoring growth towards expert performance

Self-directed practice for those times when a coach, mentor or teacher is not available.

Glaser, 1996; Kellogg, 2006; Shea & Paull, 1996; Wagner & Stanovich, 1996

Ideal Characteristics of Next Generation Instructionall Tools &

Resources Assessment and instruction are blurred – to “mine the exhaust” of the instructional experience

Computer-adaptive engines are applied to “targeted” instructional content

Assessment engines connect day-to-day progress with year-to-year summative tests

Excerpted from MetaMetrics’ white paper, “Next Generation Assessments” (www.Lexile.com)

Ideal Characteristics of Next Generation Instructional Tools &

Resources Scoring, feedback and reporting are immediate

Perspectives and monitoring are longitudinal across the development lifespan of the student for each skill

The focus is student-centric, not teacher-centric

Glaser, 1996; Kellogg, 2006; Shea & Paull, 1996; Wagner & Stanovich, 1996

Oasis

Implications of the Lexile Framework for Monitoring and Promoting Growth

Through Deliberate Practice“Nicholas Davis”(Male; African-American; Free/Reduced Lunch)

Words Read: 117,340Items Taken: 1,415Words Written: 7,149Convention Items: 1,563

Oasis – Reading Data by Cohort – Corinth School District (MS)

Data from 2007-06-01 to 2011-06-01

Oasis: Usage Report by Grade

Oasis: Usage Report by Reader Lexile

Oasis: Usage Report By Category of Article

Increase the Diet of Non-Fiction Text Duke, Nell K. “The Real-World

Reading and Writing U.S. Children Need.” Phi Delta Kappan 91, no. 5 (February 2010): 68-71.

PIRLS 2001 International Report: IEA’s Study of Reading Literacy Achievement in Primary Schools, Mullis, I.V.S., Martin, M.O., Gonzalez, E.J., & Kennedy, A.M. (2003), Chestnut Hill, MA: Boston College.

Percentage distribution of literary and informational passages

National Assessment Governing Board. Reading Framework for the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress. Washington, D.C.: American Institutes for Research, 2007.

How can we do better?

Anderson et al., 1988, Table 3, N=155

Estimating the Impact of Family and Home on Student

Achievement Single-Parent Families Parents Reading to Children Every

Day Hours Spent Watching Television Frequency of School Absences

Educational Testing Service (www.ets.org)

Percentage of Children in

Single-Parent Families,

by State, 2004

• Alaska 30%• Delaware 35%• Idaho 23%• Iowa 24%• Kansas 24%• Minnesota 24%• Montana 27%• Nebraska 23%• New Mexico 38%• North Dakota 24%• South Dakota 27%• Vermont 26%• West Virginia 29%• Wyoming 27%

Courtesy of: Educational Testing Service (

www.ets.org)* All states were listed. A sample of states were taken for this slide.

Percentage of Children Who Were Read to

Every Day in the Past Week, 2003

• Alaska 50%• Delaware 53%• Idaho 49%• Iowa 53%• Kansas 51%• Minnesota 57%• Montana 51%• Nebraska 49%• New Mexico 43%• North Dakota 47%• South Dakota 47%• Vermont 68%• West Virginia 54%• Wyoming 53%

Courtesy of: Educational Testing Service (

www.ets.org)* All states were listed. A sample of states were taken for this slide.

Percentage of Eighth-Graders

Watching Four or More Hours of Television per School Day,

2000

• Idaho 13%• Kansas 13%• Minnesota 10%• Montana 8%• Nebraska 14%• New Mexico 18%• North Dakota 10%• Vermont 11%• West Virginia 22%• Wyoming 12%

Courtesy of: Educational Testing Service (

www.ets.org)* All states that took the NAEP were listed. A sample of states

were taken for this slide.

Percentage of Eight-Graders

Who Are Absent Three Days of

More per Month, by State, 2005

• Delaware 24%• Idaho 20%• Iowa 18%• Kansas 19%• Minnesota 21%• Montana 25%• Nebraska 20%• New Mexico 25%• North Dakota 19%• South Dakota 19%• Vermont 19%• West Virginia 22%• Wyoming 27%

Courtesy of: Educational Testing Service (

www.ets.org)* All states were listed. A sample of states were taken for this slide.

Parent-Teacher Meetings, School Websites, School Bulletins, etc.

Emphasize the Importance of:– Attendance– Restricting TV– Reading / Writing at home

Courtesy of: http://picayune.uclick.com/comics/ch/1992/ch920330.gif

Malbert Smith III, Ph.D.President, MetaMetrics

Research Professor, UNC School of Education

msmith@Lexile.com

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