Ready, Set, Go
From the desk of Carol C…
I thought I knew the educational jargon: ABC’s, testing, EOG, EOC, accountability, Common Core, and the list goes on. I could talk confidently about any of these terms to anybody. Then one day a fellow educator asked me what I thought of READY. “I’m ready for it,” I tried to bluff. “It’s something isn’t it!” I followed with. “Yes it is,” my friend replied and then added, “You don’t know what it is do you?” I had to admit that I really didn’t know what READY was. He chuckled and walked away leaving me with, “You better find out”. So I did find out about READY and several other relatively new educational terms. In case you, too, aren’t READY, I’ll tell you what I found out.
Career and College Ready, Set, Go is a part of the North Carolina Race to the Top initiative. Starting in Pre K, each grade level plays an instrumental part in making sure all of our students are career and college ready.
READY is the name of North Carolina’s new accountability model. It replaces the ABC model. It’s not an acronym for anything. It just stands as a reminder that we need to increase the number of students who can read, write, and be competent mathematicians by the end of third grade. But that’s not all. We also have
SET which refers to increasing the number of students who perform at or above grade level. Finally, there’s
GO. GO stands for increasing the number of students taking college credit courses in high school; graduating from high school; going to college; and, completing their degree from a community college, college, or university.
How do we go about achieving Ready, Set, Go? By insuring that an effective, qualified teacher is in every classroom. Part of a teacher’s annual evaluation now includes Standard 6 which says, “Teachers contribute to the academic success of students”. The data for some teachers will come from the state mandated assessments in specific grades and subjects. For most of the other subjects and grades there are Measures of Student Learning (MSL) which are in essence Common Exams. MSLs show what students know and are able to do after completing a course or grade. These MSLs are required by the State Board of Education in order to secure data for teachers of non state tested grades or subjects.
Teachers will be evaluated using Standard 6 when there are three years of growth data (current year and two previous years). The categories for Standard 6 are:
- High effective
- Effective
- In need of improvement
Specifically, data from the following assessments will be used to determine the a teacher’s status for Standard 6.
- End of Grade tests: ELA, Math, and Science for grades 3-8
- End of Course tests: Algebra 1/Integrated 1 (Common Core Math 1), English II, and Biology
- Measures of Student Learning
- Career and Technical Education Post Assessments
Whenever possible EVAAS will be used to determine growth.
Each district is entitled to create their own MSLs for each grade or subject area. However, there was a push for consistency in these MSLs across the state. Consequently, the state, using input from teachers, developed common assessments to be used by all school districts. The MSLs are based on the Common Core and the NC Essential Standards. Since these assessments are not part of a school’s accountability or part of any federal reporting, there is some flexibility in how to administer them, so the MSLs are not limited to paper/pencil or computer exams. Growth in some subjects and grades, such as performing arts, will be measured through analyses of student work, the goal being to capture students’ knowledge and skills in an authentic way.
READY, MSL, Common Core, SET, GO, and Standard 6 are simply a means by which NC wants to ensure that our students are prepared for whatever they choose to do after high school: community college, four-year college, workforce, military service, job training programs, and even to be good citizens. Ready? Set? Go!