Dear Publishers of Mathematics and Reading/Language Arts/English-Language Development Instructional Materials:
REVIEW OF SUPPLEMENTAL INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS ALIGNED TO THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS
In 2010, the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices released the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in mathematics and English-language arts. The California State Board of Education (SBE) adopted the CCSS with California additions on August 2, 2010. California has committed to implementing the CCSS and is currently part of a multistate assessment consortium that plans on having CCSS-based assessments in place by the 2014–15 school year.
It will take a number of years to develop new curriculum frameworks and instructional materials aligned to the CCSS. Earlier this year, I initiated a process for the review of supplemental materials aligned to the CCSS. Senate Bill 140 (Lowenthal), signed by the Governor on October 8, 2011, calls for the expansion of that process. Pursuant to that legislation, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction (SSPI) is inviting publishers of instructional materials in mathematics and language arts to submit supplemental instructional materials that bridge the gap between programs currently being used by local educational agencies (LEAs) and the CCSS.
Overview
This review will be conducted by California Department of Education (CDE) staff and selected instructional material reviewers and content experts approved by the SBE. The review will evaluate materials according to evaluation criteria that will be brought to the SBE at its January 2012 meeting.
The review is not a state adoption, and the supplemental instructional materials will not be added to any existing state adoption lists.
This review is entirely optional for publishers, and the results will be strictly advisory for LEAs. LEAs will not be compelled in any way to purchase the supplemental materials that are recommended as a result of this review. LEAs may use unrestricted general funds, federal funds, Proposition 20 lottery funds for instructional materials, or other funds to purchase them.
It is the intent of this process that supplemental materials include the minimum amount of additional content needed to fully address the CCSS when used in conjunction with existing adopted materials and that costs for districts to purchase and implement the supplements be kept low.
Eligibility for Participation
This review is open to all who wish to participate. There will be two types of supplemental materials programs that may be submitted.
Supplements to Specific State-Adopted Programs
Publishers of state-adopted instructional materials may submit supplements for specific kindergarten through grade seven mathematics programs that were adopted by the SBE on November 8, 2007, or for kindergarten through grade eight reading/language arts/English-language development (RLA/ELD) programs that were adopted by the SBE on November 5, 2008. Submissions of mathematics and RLA/ELD supplemental materials will be evaluated according to whether they address, in conjunction with the adopted program they are designed to supplement, all of the CCSS for a given grade level. Because the 1997 California standards and the CCSS for mathematics do not match at grade eight, supplements for grade eight adopted mathematics programs will not be a part of this review.
State-adopted publishers were invited to participate in this category of the review in June 2011. They have already submitted standards maps to the CDE that demonstrate the degree to which their current programs are aligned to the CCSS and the gaps that exist between their programs and the CCSS. Those publishers may submit supplements that address those gaps. Note that because of an amendment to SB 140, the evaluation criteria for this review must be approved by the SBE, but we anticipate few changes to the criteria that were sent to publishers in June 2011.
General Supplements to Any Program
Alternatively, any publisher may submit a general supplement that can be used with any existing instructional materials program. Those materials will be evaluated for alignment to a specific set of the CCSS that will be detailed in the evaluation criteria approved by the SBE. As noted above, that criteria will be brought to the SBE for approval at its January 2012 meeting. The standards in the Category 2 list will be drawn from third-party correlations of the 1997 California content standards and the CCSS, and will be used by CDE staff to identify those gaps between the two sets of standards that will need to be covered in the supplemental instructional materials.
Both categories of submitted supplemental instructional materials will be evaluated for alignment to the California CCSS, as adopted by the SBE on August 2, 2010. The California CCSS are available on the Sacramento County Office of Education California State Academic Content Standards Commission Web page at http://www.scoe.net/castandards/ (Outside Source). In mathematics, the California CCSS includes all of the Mathematical Practices standards. The Mathematical Practices standards must be taught in conjunction with the content standards at each grade level. In English-language arts, the standards for Literacy in History-Social Science, Science, and Technical Subjects will not be part of the review in grades six through eight.
Supplemental Instructional Materials Review: Schedule of Events
If you elect to participate in the supplemental instructional materials review, you will need to submit a completed standards map along with your materials. The date for submission of the actual supplemental materials and the accompanying standards map is May 16, 2012. More information about that submission will be provided in a later bulletin.
A schedule of significant events related to this review is provided as Attachment 2 to this bulletin. The review process will be similar to that used during a state adoption of instructional materials, with panels of teachers and content experts recruited by the SSPI and SBE that will review the submitted supplemental instructional materials for alignment to the evaluation criteria. The training of reviewers and their deliberations will be held at county offices of education (COEs) that have contracted with the CDE. The review of English-language arts materials will be held at the San Joaquin COE, while mathematics materials will be reviewed at the Orange COE. All meetings will be open to the public, and publisher representatives are welcome to attend.
A set of questions that have been received from publishers to date about the process of the review is attached to this bulletin.
Publisher Briefing
A briefing for publishers will be held on January 25, 2012. This briefing will focus on the evaluation criteria and submission process for the upcoming review. Your adoption managers and the editorial staff working on supplements aligned to the CCSS are encouraged to attend. The specific meeting information is provided below.
Date
January 25, 2012
Time
1–4 p.m.
Location
California Department of Education
1430 N Street, Room 1101 (Board Room)
Sacramento, CA 95814
RSVP
David Almquist, Publisher Liaison
dalmquis@cde.ca.gov
We ask that you please RSVP by December 21, 2011, so we can get an accurate count of materials to prepare for the briefing.
Contact Information
If you have any questions related to this bulletin, please contact Kenneth McDonald, Lead Consultant, Curriculum Frameworks Unit, by phone at 916-319-0447 or e-mail at kmcdonal@cde.ca.gov. You may also contact David Almquist, Publisher Liaison, Instructional Resources Unit, by phone at 916-319-0444 or by e-mail at dalmquis@cde.ca.gov.
Questions regarding the CCSS may also be directed by e-mail to CommonCore@cde.ca.gov. I encourage you to submit any questions in advance of the publisher briefing so we can include the answers in our presentation.
Sincerely,
Tom Torlakson
TT:kmAttachment
cc: The Honorable Alan Lowenthal, California State Senate
Michael Kirst, President, State Board of Education
Dale Shimasaki, Association of American Publishers
Alice Petrossian, President, Association of California School Administrators
1430 N Street
Sacramento, CA 95814