Design and Organization of the Common Core State Standards

One of the most salient accomplishments in design considerations of the ELA Standards document are the learning pathways that a student follows as they advance from one grade-specific standard to the next, leading to proficiency in each of the College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards. While the anchor standards taken together serve to provide focus on what matters most for College and Career Readiness in the area of English language arts, coherence is accomplished by the explicit articulation of knowledge and skills along the learning progressions. The specificity of the content within the learning progressions makes visible and clear the expectations for student learning (CCSSO & NGA Center, 2010). In other words, the grade-specific standards clearly define competence at every level of schooling.

The “spiral effect” is a useful metaphor relating to the ascending level of difficulty embedded in the content of each grade-specific standard as it approaches the College and Career Anchor Standard. The CCR serves as the central point or significant learning expectation toward which all grade-specific standards aspire. As students move along the plane of a particular learning trajectory they study the same expectation each year at ever increasing increments of complexity and sophistication. The gradual cycling through repeated exposure to iterations of the same concepts and processes each year breaks complex learning expectations into manageable teaching and learning targets.

I welcome your thoughts on how the design and organizational features of the Common Core State Standards actually promote access and acceleration for advancement of higher levels of thinking and comprehension for all students.