Core Progress for Reading

Integral components of STAR Early Literacy Enterprise and STAR Reading Enterprise Core Progress for Reading Empirically validated learning progressions

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Contents Executive Summary...iii Introduction... 1 What are learning progressions?... 2 Stage One: The development of Core Progress for Reading... 3 Stage Two: Early literacy skills added into Core Progress for Reading... 8 Mapping Core Progress for Reading to the Common Core State Standards... 10 Stage Three: Building a new learning progression specifically for the Common Core State Standards... 12 Core Progress: An integral component of STAR Reading Enterprise and STAR Early Literacy Enterprise... 14 Conclusion... 20 References... 35 Appendices Core Progress for Reading Learning Progression Appendix A: Grade-Level Domain Expectations for Analyzing Literary Text... 21 Appendix B: Organization of Skill Areas within the Five Domains... 23 Appendix C: Progression of Skills for Identifying Author s Purpose... 25 Appendix D: Example of how skills serve as prerequisites for other skills... 26 Appendix E: Common Core State Standard mapped to Core Progress skills... 27 Core Progress Learning Progression for Reading - Built for the Common Core State Standards Appendix F: Grade-Level Expectations for Informational Text: Craft and Structure... 28 Appendix G: Organization of Skill Areas within the Four Domains... 30 Appendix H: Progression of Skills and Mapping to CCSS for Inference and Evidence... 32 Appendix I: Example of how skills serve as prerequisites for other skills... 34 Figures Figure 1: Core Progress for Reading... 3 Figure 2: Progression of grade-level skill statements within a skill area... 4 Figure 3: Interrelationships between skills across domains... 5 Figure 4: Correlation of STAR Reading Enterprise to Core Progress... 7 Figure 5: Core Progress for Reading with the addition of early literacy skills... 9 Figure 6: Correlation of STAR Reading Enterprise to Core Progress Reading built for CCSS... 13 Figure 7: STAR Enterprise provides a student s entry point into Core Progress... 16 Figure 8: STAR Early Literacy links with Core Progress for Reading to provide instructional planning resources... 17 Figure 9: STAR Record Book... 18 Figure 10: Kindergarten example of Core Progress tool and instructional resources... 19 i

Tables Table 1: Examples of how skills serve as a prerequisite for other skills... 5 Table 2: Common Core State Standard maps to Core Progress skills... 11 Table 3: Headings within the Domains of Core Progress Learning Progression for Reading - Built for the Common Core State Standards... 12 Table 4: STAR Reading Enterprise item mapped to a third-grade-level skill statement... 14 Table 5: STAR Early Literacy Enterprise item mapped to a Kindergarten-level skill statement... 15 ii

Executive Summary Learning Progressions are descriptions of how students typically advance their learning in a subject area. Several views of how learning progressions can be developed have been set forth (for example, Alonzo and Steedle, 2008; Anderson, 2008a; Corcoran, Mosher, and Rogat, 2009; Confrey and Maloney, 2010; Pellegrino, 2011; Smith et al., 2006). Common to these perspectives is the idea that the development of learning progressions is an iterative process. It begins with a hypothesis, informed by what we know about student learning, which undergoes empirical testing and subsequent refinement based on the data. Core Progress for Reading was developed according to this iterative model. Renaissance Learning first developed the Core Progress Reading learning progression taking into account the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), as well as other standards and research. In July, 2013, a second learning progression built explicitly for the CCSS was released. The skills and understandings in the new Core Progress Learning Progression for Reading - Built for the Common Core State Standards provide the intermediate steps necessary to reach the levels of expertise identified through the standards. It progresses to the level of reading competence required to be college and career ready. To reflect the organization of the standards, Core Progress Reading built for CCSS has four domains, including 1) foundational skills, 2) language, 3) literature, and 4) informational text. This paper describes the Core Progress learning progressions developed by Renaissance Learning. It begins with the explanation of what learning progressions are, and then describes a new empirically validated approach used to develop the original Core Progress learning progression for reading. Next, it demonstrates how learning progressions support the intent of the Common Core State Standards with its new Core Progress Reading built for CCSS. Finally, it explains how learning progressions support instruction and assessment. iii

Introduction Over the last decade, much of the focus of educational reform in the United States has been on the creation and improvement of standards of learning. In 2010, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for learning in math and English language arts were released. As the CCSS mission statement explains, The Common Core State Standards provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. At the same time, within the field of education, the idea of learning progressions has received increasing attention (for example, Alonzo and Gearhart, 2006; Corcoran, Mosher, and Rogat 2009, 2011; Heritage, 2008, 2009; Leahy and Wiliam, 2011). One of the reasons for this interest is the desire to provide precise descriptions of the incremental steps of learning than can be represented in any standards statements and that can be effectively used in guiding the design of instruction and assessment. While the Common Core State Standards represent a clear step toward providing a more coherent pathway to meeting educational goals than many prior standards, by their nature, the CCSS do not describe a fully formed pathway along which students are expected to progress. The next step, clarified and largely made possible by the Common Core State Standards, is the development of fully formed learning progressions. The next step, clarified and largely made possible by the Common Core State Standards, is the development of fully formed learning progressions. 1

What are learning progressions? Pellegrino (2011, 9) defines learning progressions as descriptions of successively more sophisticated ways of thinking about key disciplinary concepts and practices across multiple grades which outline the intermediate steps toward expertise. Leahy and Wiliam (2011, 1) view learning progressions as descriptions of what it is that gets better when someone gets better at something (2011, 1). They reflect what is known from research and experience to tell a reasonable and comprehensive story of how students move from naïve understanding to mastery in a domain (Anderson 2008b as cited in Heritage 2011). Masters and Forster (1997, 1) describe progressions as a picture of what it means to improve in an area of learning. Confrey and colleagues suggest that learning progressions assume a progression of cognitive states that move from simple to complex and, while not necessarily linear, the progression is not random, but rather is sequenced and ordered as expected tendencies or likely probabilities of how learning develops (Confrey and Maloney, 2010). Finally, Heritage (2011, 3) suggests that learning progressions provide descriptions of how students learning of important concepts and skills in a domain develops from its most rudimentary state through increasingly sophisticated states over a period of schooling. The benefit of progressions is that they lay out a continuum to guide teaching and learning over time so that student competence in the domain can be advanced coherently and continuously. Inherent in these views of progressions is the idea of a coherent and continuous pathway along which students move incrementally through states of increasing competence in a domain. Every incremental state builds on and integrates the previous one as students accrue new levels of expertise with each successive step in the progression. It is important to note, however, that while progressions may provide clear descriptions of how learning develops in a domain, they are not developmentally inevitable. Rather, they are dependent on good curriculum and instruction (National Research Council, 2007; Pellegrino, 2011). As Herman (2006, 122) observes, whether and how children are able to engage in particular learning performances and the sequence in which they are able to do so are very much dependent on previous opportunities to learn. The benefit of progressions is that they lay out a continuum to guide teaching and learning over time so that student competence in the domain can be advanced coherently and continuously. 2

Understanding Author s Craft Stage One: The development of Core Progress for Reading Phase one: Qualitative analysis to determine structure, content, and instructional order During the first phase, the content analysis drew on reading theory, knowledge derived from previous product development, and review of national documents such as the National Assessment of Education Progress Reading (NAEP) framework, Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, state standards, and the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Through this analysis, the organizational structure for the reading learning progression that emerged was domains (5), skill areas (36), and grade-level skill statements (more than 650). The learning progression is comprised of five (sub) domains: 1) word knowledge and skills; 2) comprehension strategies and constructing meaning; 3) analyzing literary text; 4) understanding author s craft; and 5) analyzing argument and evaluating text. 1 The five domains are each represented by a different color in Figure 1. For each grade pre-k through 12, grade-level domain expectations were identified to describe the desired level of student understanding by the end of the year. These expectations form the foundation of the learning progression. The learning progression then goes a step further to identify the intermediate skills and concepts necessary for students to move toward those expectations. See Appendix A for a list of the grade-level domain expectation statements for Analyzing Literary Text. Figure 1: Core Progress for Reading Analyzing Argument and Evaluating Text Analyzing Literary Text Comprehension Strategies and Constructing Meaning Word Knowledge and Skills Kindergarten Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5 Grade 6 Grade 7 Grade 8 Grade 9 Grade 10 Grade 11 Grade 12 Core Progress for Reading is an empirically validated continuum to guide teaching, learning, and assessment over time so that student competence in reading can be advanced coherently and continuously. 1 Note that the five domains are all technically subdomains of the overall domains of reading. 3

The skill areas represent the various skills and understandings that students gain as they progress in their reading development. After the first stage of development, Core Progress included 36 skill areas. A complete list, including the original 36 skill areas, can be found in Appendix B. The grade-level skill statements identify the incremental steps students take as they progress in acquiring specific skills and understandings. These statements begin in the early grades and run through twelfth grade. In phase 1, there were more than 650 grade-level skill statements identified. The grade-level skill statements provide specific examples of relevant words and texts, but do not specify reading content or identify the activities students should be able to perform to reflect attainment of a skill. They are intended as statements of the skill itself, which serves to advance reading competence. The skill statements reflect levels of relative difficulty of skills and understandings identified in the progression from their most basic, foundational states through increasingly sophisticated states of competency. Figure 2 illustrates that in the domain of Comprehension Strategies and Constructing Meaning, the skill area identifying author s purpose begins with grade 2 students developing an understanding that authors write texts for different purposes. Having established this understanding, students move incrementally through successive steps of increasing competence so that by the middle grades they are able to evaluate the appropriateness of the form chosen by the author in light of the author s purpose, and in the upper grades they analyze and critique how the author s use of language, organizational structures, techniques and rhetorical devices further or detract from the author s purpose. Each step of the progression subsumes and builds on the previous one, describing a pathway of increasing expertise within the skill area. (For the full progression of this skill, see Appendix C.) Figure 2: Progression of grade-level skill statements within a skill area Identifying Author s Purpose Understand that authors write texts for different purposes Evaluate the appropriateness of the form chosen by the author in light of the author s purpose Analyze and critique how the author s use of language, organizational structures, techniques and rhetorical devices further or detract from the author s purpose In addition to identifying the progression of skills within a domain and skill area, content-area experts identified a sub-set of skills, across domains, which are the key skills to students development at each grade level. These are referred to as focus skills. 4

The focus skills and prerequisites act as building blocks, each representing a specific level of competency of a skill or understanding that rests on prior development and that also provides a foundation for the next level of learning. Moving toward increased understanding over time requires continually building up and building on a solid foundation of knowledge, concepts, and skills. For each focus skill, the associated prerequisites necessary to understand that skill were identified across grades, skill areas, and domains. To illustrate the interrelated nature of the skills and how they serve as prerequisites to each other, see Table 1. In this example, the 10th Grade focus skill, Analyze the cumulative impact of figurative language on wider themes and meanings of the text, from the domain Understanding Author s Craft, has five prerequisite skills that span two grades and three domains. For an additional example, see Appendix D. Table 1: Example of how skills serve as a prerequisite for other skills Prerequisites across domains and grades for the skill: Analyze the cumulative impact of figurative language on wider themes and meanings of the text (Domain: Understanding Author s Craft) Grade Grade Level Skill Statement Domain Grade 10 Grade 9 Grade 9 Grade 9 Grade 9 Elaborate on ideas in text in order to clarify them and understand their impact Analyze how subtle themes are revealed (e.g., how characters affect its development) Analyze the cumulative impact of figurative language on the text as a whole Analyze how the author's choice of words and use of language appeal to the senses and impact mood, tone, theme, and aesthetic quality Recognize the meaning of patterns of imagery and symbolism in literary text Comprehension Strategies and Constructing Meaning Analyzing Literary Text Understanding Author s Craft Understanding Author s Craft Understanding Author s Craft To further illustrate how grade-level skill statements weave across the domains, see the example in Figure 3. Student ability to recognize themes in a story that are stated directly or indirectly, in fifth grade builds on earlier learnings about theme within the same domain of Analyzing Literary Text. Recognizing themes also builds on earlier acquired skills within the domain of Comprehension Strategies and Constructing Meaning, including identify main ideas and implied messages (main ideas, Grade 4) and use prior knowledge and textual details to draw conclusions about information or events in texts (draw conclusions, Grade 3). Figure 3: Interrelationships between skills across domains Recognize themes in a story that are stated directly or indirectly As the progression of skills and understandings within each domain was written, multiple drafts and revisions went through expert review. The emphasis of the review process was to ensure adequate and realistic advancement of skill statements within and across domains. Use prior knowledge and textual details to draw conclusions Identify main ideas and implied messages 5

After the qualitative analysis and subsequent creation of the learning progression, Renaissance Learning then conducted a quantitative analysis and cross check by calibrating items that assess specific comprehension skills on the STAR Reading Enterprise 1,400-point scale. Phase two: Quantitative analysis to determine where skills fall on the STAR assessment scale Method In the second phase, the order of skills in the learning progression was re-examined quantitatively through a calibration process used to analyze assessment items. This analysis compared the empirically observed order of skills (i.e., where skill difficulty falls on a measurement scale) to the pedagogically determined order of skills (i.e., the most productive order of skills for learning a particular skill). Between February 2010 and July 2011 over 3,400 items were field tested, calibrated, and analyzed using a process called dynamic calibration. In this process, a small number of experimental items (one to three) were added onto each student s STAR Reading Enterprise assessment nationwide. Response data from thousands of students were collected for each of these experimental items, and the items were then calibrated by fitting a logistic regression model (the Rasch model) to the relationship between scores on each item and a student s Rasch ability scores on STAR Reading. The result was to calibrate the difficulty of each new item on the same Rasch scale that is used for adaptive item selection in STAR Reading. Following the calibration process, the average of the calibrated Rasch response functions for each of the items assessing a skill was determined; the average is a skill characteristic curve. For each skill, a skill difficulty parameter was then calculated: the point on the Rasch scale at which a student of the same Rasch ability would have an expected percent correct of 70 if tested on all of the items that measure the skill. This parameter is designated SD70, or Scaled Difficulty 70. Finally, the relationship between the empirically calibrated SD70 skill difficulties and the sequential order of STAR Reading skills in the learning progression was evaluated, as a means of validating the Core Progress for Reading learning progression. Results Figure 4 on page 7 is a scatter plot of the scaled difficulty parameters (SD70) of a sampling of the 716 skills against the school grade and month that characterize its instructional order in the learning progression. Best-fitting linear functions relating SD70 to instructional order have been calculated for each of the five domains of STAR Reading. These are plotted as color-coded straight lines superimposed on the scatter plot. For each domain, the parameters of the linear function are displayed, along with the squared correlation between the skill difficulty parameters and instructional order. These squared correlations range from 0.81 (for analyzing argument and evaluating text) to 0.95 (for word knowledge and skills). The square roots of those values 0.90 and 0.97 are the low and high ends of the range of correlation coefficients between skill difficulty and instructional order. These may be thought of as measures of the validity of the Core Progress learning progressions for describing the developmental sequence of the hundreds of skills that make up the STAR Reading domains. 6

Figure 4: Correlation of STAR Reading Enterprise to Core Progress The high correlation between the scaled difficulty of STAR Reading Enterprise skills and their instructional order in Core Progress provides empirical evidence of the direct link between the assessment scores generated by STAR and the instructional direction then provided by the Sample Items and other educator helps within the software. Because of the correlation between STAR items and Core Progress, a student s scaled score (representing his or her location on the STAR scale) can be mapped to the learning progression, enabling research-based inferences about which skills that student has likely already developed, which skills are ready to be developed, and which skills will likely develop soon. Core Progress learning progression for reading was initially released as an integral part of STAR Reading Enterprise, in June 2011. After the initial release, development of the learning progression continued. The next stage incorporated the early literacy skills measured by the STAR Early Literacy assessment into the same Core Progress learning progression. 7

Stage Two: Early literacy skills added into Core Progress for Reading During the second stage of development, early literacy skills were added to the Core Progress learning progression for reading. The same mixed-method approach was used in stage two. Content-area experts determined the organization, content, and instructional order of the early literacy skills using qualitative methods, including a literature review and analysis of standards. Then a quantitative analysis using calibration data from STAR Early Literacy Enterprise items was conducted in order to determine the empirical order of the early literacy skills on the STAR scale. Phase One: Qualitative analysis In 2007, Renaissance Learning began an extensive literature review that spanned the next four years. The purpose was to distill the research base for early literacy development to identify a realistic, sustainable learning map for K 3. Key research reports and resources from the National Early Literacy Panel (NELP), National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE), Mid-Content Research for Education and Learning (McREL), SEDL and others were used to help identify skills that are important and most predictive of later success in reading. The skills list was then compared to McREL s Content Knowledge Compendiums, McREL s Early Literacy Standards and Benchmarks, multiple state standards, and most recently the Common Core State Standards. After this qualitative analysis, a preliminary order of early literacy skills was formed. Phase Two: Quantitative analysis As in the initial stage of development, the next step was to reexamine the order quantitatively using calibration data from STAR Early Literacy assessment items. Through dynamic calibration, researchers and developers add one to three experimental items into students STAR Early Literacy assessments nationwide. Response data from a minimum of 300 students are collected on each item. Over 3,500 items were field tested, calibrated and analyzed. Examination of the item calibration results confirmed and informed the rank order of the early literacy skills added to the learning progression. The final result was a list of early literacy skills that were used to expand the Core Progress learning progression for reading. The early literacy skills fell neatly into two of the five established domains, word knowledge and skills, and comprehension strategies and constructing meaning, and followed the same organization structure of domains, skill areas, and grade-level skill statements. An additional 27 skill areas were added within the word knowledge and skills domain. A complete list of Content-area experts determined an instructional order of the early literacy skills using qualitative methods, including a literature review and analysis of standards. The early literacy skills fell neatly into two of the five established domains, word knowledge and skills, and comprehension strategies and constructing meaning. the skill areas by domain is available in Appendix B. At the most specific level, 67 grade-level skill statements were added to new and existing skill areas within these two domains and six existing skills were deemed to also be early literacy skills, making 73 early literacy skills in total. The early literacy skills span grade levels Pre-Kindergarten through 2nd grade. 8

Understanding Author s Craft Core Progress for Reading includes five domains, 63 skill areas, and 716 grade-level skill statements that range from Pre-Kindergarten through 12th Grade. Each domain is represented in Figure 5 by a different color. The boxes represent groups of skills within the domain at each grade-level and shows how the skills are generally connected within the domains and often across domains. The highlighted area shows where the learning progression was enhanced with early literacy skills. Figure 5: Core Progress for Reading with the addition of early literacy skills Analyzing Argument and Evaluating Text Analyzing Literary Text Comprehension Strategies and Constructing Meaning Word Knowledge and Skills Pre-Kindergarten Kindergarten Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5 Grade 6 Grade 7 Grade 8 Grade 9 Grade 10 Grade 11 Grade 12 The early literacy skills span grade levels Pre-Kindergarten through 2nd grade within the Comprehension Strategies and Constructing Meaning and Word Knowledge and Skills domains. 9

Mapping Core Progress for Reading to the Common Core State Standards The Common Core State Standards represent a clear step toward providing a more coherent pathway to meeting educational goals than many prior standards. At the same time, standards do not describe a fully formed pathway along which students are expected to progress. The next step, clarified and largely made possible by the CCSS, is the development of fully formed learning progressions. Core Progress for Reading was designed to take the foundation laid by Common Core State Standards and apply the intermediate steps and prerequisite skills necessary to reach the levels of expertise identified through the standards. They begin with emergent reading and progress to the level of reading competence required to be college and career ready. Core Progress for Reading was designed to take the Common Core State Standards to the next level by mapping the intermediate steps and prerequisite skills necessary to reach the levels of expertise identified through the standards. The process of analyzing and mapping the Common Core State Standards began before the final draft of the standards was even released. As the movement to create the Common Core State Standards was getting underway, Renaissance Learning was already reviewing and learning from the work of independent educational organizations such as Achieve. Then, as the Common Core State Standards entered into various stages of completion, Renaissance Learning carefully monitored them in draft form and provided public commentary. Core Progress was developed with a deep understanding of the CCSS. Renaissance Learning has long been recognized for excellence in standards analysis and alignment. For over ten years, the company has maintained a dedicated team of standards experts. This committed team often consults with content-area experts and regional educational laboratories such as the Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL) and Education Northwest. To illustrate the mapping of a Common Core standard, consider the following performance statement from the Common Core in Table 2: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. Through a rigorous analysis process, this statement was mapped to the Comprehension Strategies and Constructing Meaning domain in the learning progression. Within that domain, it was further analyzed to reveal two main reading skills: identifying details and drawing conclusions. These skills were then mapped to the grade-level skill statements for first through fourth grade. For an example of how Core Progress is mapped to the CCSS foundational skill, Distinguish long from short vowel sounds in spoken single-syllable words, see Appendix E. The contribution of Core Progress for Reading is identification of the embedded antecedent foundational steps within Common Core performance statements. The Common Core State Standards do not propose the foundational understanding and skills related to making inferences and drawing conclusions below fourth grade (focusing solely on identifying and understanding details in the early grades). The contribution of Core Progress for Reading is identification of the embedded antecedent foundational steps within Common Core performance statements. 10

Table 2: Common Core State Standard maps to Core Progress skills CCSS College and Career Readiness Anchor Standard Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text maps to the following Core Progress skills for identifying details and drawing conclusions for Grades K-4. Domain Skill Area Grade Skill Comprehension Strategies and Constructing Meaning Comprehension Strategies and Constructing Meaning Comprehension Strategies and Constructing Meaning Comprehension Strategies and Constructing Meaning Comprehension Strategies and Constructing Meaning Comprehension Strategies and Constructing Meaning Comprehension Strategies and Constructing Meaning Comprehension Strategies and Constructing Meaning Comprehension Strategies and Constructing Meaning Comprehension Strategies and Constructing Meaning Comprehension Strategies and Constructing Meaning Identify Details K Draw Conclusions 1 Identify Details 1 Identify Details 1 Draw Conclusions 2 Ask and answer questions about a text s details (e.g., What is the cow doing in Good Night Moon?) Answer leading questions to draw conclusions about text (e.g., Why do you think Max was sent to his room in Where the Wild Things Are?) Answer who, what, where, when, why, and how questions Understand that details support the main idea in an informational passage Draw simple conclusions about a text using evidence and details from text and illustrations Identify Details 2 Identify supporting details in informational text Identify Details 2 Draw Conclusions 3 Locate details in text and determine what they describe or explain Use prior knowledge and textual details to draw conclusions about information or events in text Identify Details 3 Explain how details support the main idea Draw Conclusions 4 Identify Details 4 Draw multiple conclusions about information, events, or characters in text, and cite textual details that support the conclusions Use main and supporting ideas and details to understand text Common Core Standards are end-of-grade expectations. The Core Progress learning progression provides the prerequisite and intermediary steps for reaching the standards. 11

Stage Three: Building a new learning progression specifically for the Common Core State Standards As more states implemented the Common Core, the need for a learning progression built specifically for the new standards was recognized. In July 2013, the Core Progress Learning Progression for Reading Built for the Common Core State Standards was released. This progression includes incremental steps of learning that fulfill the intent and specifics of the standards, culminating in college and career readiness. To create a learning progression built on the CCSS, the content team at Renaissance Learning started with a close analysis of each standard. They identified the skills inherent in the standard and its intent, as well as key terminology used to describe the standard. Developers also immersed themselves in the literature and resources available regarding the Common Core to determine how the standards were being interpreted and implemented by states and relevant consortia. From the deep study of the standards, the order of the new learning progression emerged. To reflect the organization of the standards, Core Progress Reading built for CCSS learning progression has four domains, including 1) foundational skills, 2) language, 3) literature, and 4) informational text. 2 (This is a significant change from Core Progress for Reading, which has five domains.) The Informational Text domain emphasizes the importance the CCSS place on nonfiction text. Within each domain, the headings match those in CCSS and are shown in Table 3. Grade-level domain expectations were identified for each heading. See Appendix F for a list of the grade-level expectation statements for Informational Text: Craft and Structure. Using the framework of the four domains, the content team began the process of identifying skill areas and skill statements for each standard within each grade and from grade to grade for Kindergarten through grade 12. To track the skill statements, the team used spreadsheets, to provide a visual representation of how skills support the standards, progress from Kindergarten through grade 12, and how they collectively described standard skill sets at each individual grade. As they identified skill statements that fulfilled the intent of each standard, the team could look vertically at the document to see how skills fit within a given grade. Looking horizontally, it was easy to see how skill areas developed in sophistication from grade to grade while ensuring there were not gaps in skills. A complete list of domains, headings, and skill areas can be found in Appendix G. Many of the skill statements from the original Core Progress for Reading learning progression were perfect matches to the standards in the Common Core. These skill statements had been quantitatively analyzed in the calibration process (see Phase Two Quantitative Table 3: Headings within the Domains of Core Progress Learning Progression for Reading - Built for the Common Core State Standards Domain Foundational Skills Language Literature Informational Text Heading - Print Concepts - Phonological Awareness - Phonics and Word Recognition - Fluency Vocabulary Acquisition and Use - Key Ideas and Details - Craft and Structure - Integration of Knowledge and Ideas - Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity - Key Ideas and Details - Craft and Structure - Integration of Knowledge and Ideas - Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity analysis to determine where skills fall on the STAR assessment scale earlier in this white paper) so they were known to be accurate grade-level descriptions of learning. Figure 6 (next page) shows a sampling of the skills plotted by their difficulty level on the STAR Reading Enterprise assessment scale and their instructional order according to Core Progress Reading built for CCSS. This chart is organized by CCSS domain headings. 2 Note that the domains in the learning progressions are all technically subdomains of the overall domain of reading. 12

Figure 6: Correlation of STAR Reading Enterprise to Core Progress Reading built for CCSS 1400 1200 Core Progress Reading built for CCSS: Skill Difficulty (June'13) Key Ideas and Details Craft and Structure Scaled Difficulty 70 1000 800 600 400 Integration of Knowledge and Ideas Range of Reading/Text Complexity Vocabulary Acquisition and Use y = 87.805x + 34.663 R² = 0.867 The correlation between STAR Reading Enterprise and Core Progress Reading built for CCSS provides empirical evidence of the bridge between assessment and instruction. 200 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Grade Equivalent Order While adding skill statements into the learning progression, the team also identified bridges and gaps. Bridges are skills that may not be explicitly stated in the CCSS but are nonetheless necessary to acquire the skills represented in the standards. Gaps describe skills that are not emphasized in a particular grade-level standard but are given importance in the grades before or after. In many instances, these bridges and gaps were filled with existing skill statements from the original Core Progress for Reading learning progression. In other cases, the content team drafted entirely new skill statements, drawing on their knowledge of the standards while analyzing information from multiple states. Whether using existing skill statements or creating new ones, each skill statement was reviewed from the perspective and stated philosophy of the Common Core. See Appendix H to view a progression of skills for Inference and Evidence. After the content of the Core Progress Reading built for CCSS learning progression was completed, focus skills were identified skills that underpin the ability to grasp and demonstrate other skills at the current or future grades and/or are especially central to the intent of a given standard. Focus skills address the shifts in focus and priority at each grade as defined by CCSS and addressed in the Publishers Criteria for Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts and Literacy, Grades 3-12. When using the Core Progress Reading built for CCSS learning progression, educators will be able to easily identify focus skills and then access additional information pertinent to the teaching and learning of the skill, such as content-area vocabulary, conceptual knowledge, linguistic competencies, and ELL support. See Appendix I for an example of how skills serve as prerequisites for other skills. As with the earlier Core Progress for Reading learning progression, Renaissance Learning consulted with Dr. Margaret Heritage, an academic expert on learning progressions. Dr. Heritage reviewed each section of the Core Progress Reading built for CCSS learning progression and provided suggestions and guidance. Dr. Heritage considered the adequacy of each skill in addressing the standards, the progression of skills from grade to grade, and the language used to describe skills. With the Core Progress Reading built for the CCSS learning progression, educators can feel confident they are accessing a continuum of interrelated development of strategies, skills, and behaviors. The progression incorporates the core ideas of each domain from their least to most sophisticated manifestation. It includes skills that may not be explicitly stated in the CCSS standards but are nonetheless necessary to address the skills represented in the standards. In learning the skills in the Core Progress Reading built for CCSS learning progression, students will be on the path to achieving the common goal of attaining college and career readiness. 13

Core Progress : An integral component of STAR Reading Enterprise and STAR Early Literacy Enterprise In their landmark report Knowing What Students Know, the authors clearly establish learning progressions as the foundation for assessment. As they state, Models of student progression in learning should underlie the assessment system, and tests should be designed to provide information that maps back to the progression (National Research Council, 2001, 256). More recently, James Pellegrino, one of the authors of Knowing What Students Know, has suggested that learning progressions can guide the specification of learning performances, which in turn can guide the development of tasks that enable educators to infer students level of competence for the major constructs that are the target of instruction and assessment (Pellegrino 2011). If assessments are developed from a progression, they can provide a continuous source of evidence about students learning status as their learning evolves toward increasingly sophisticated levels of understanding and skills. Core Progress learning progressions are an integral part of STAR Reading Enterprise and STAR Early Literacy Enterprise assessments. The test items from both assessments are based on the learning progression and the assessments dynamically adjust for difficulty according to the student s successive responses. After a student completes the test, teachers view the placement of the student on the learning progression, including specific skills and understandings students are prepared to acquire next. Through the learning progression, STAR Enterprise items enable teachers to monitor student progress within specific reading domains. To see this in action, see Table 4, which illustrates how a STAR item is mapped to a domain, skill area, and grade-level skill statement (third grade). Table 4: STAR Reading Enterprise item mapped to a third-grade-level skill statement Domain: Analyzing literary text Skill Area: Identify characters and understand characterization Grade-level skill statements: 2nd Grade Identify and describe major and minor characters and their traits Identify and describe main characters traits, motives, and feelings, and recognize how characters change. 3rd Grade STAR Reading Enterprise Item 3rd Grade 4th Grade Understand the relationship between a character s actions, traits, and motives 14

The item in Table 4 (previous page) is designed to assess a student s ability to understand characterization in literary texts at a specific place within the learning progression. It reflects a level of skill and understanding beyond the ability to identify and describe major and minor characters and their traits (Grade 2), but not yet at the level of sophistication needed to understand the relationship between a character s actions, traits, and motives (Grade 4). While the item is designed to offer feedback specifically on a student s understanding of characterization, it also necessarily requires the student to draw a conclusion from the narrative a reading skill that is tracked in another skill set within the progression. In the example illustrated in Table 4, the level of sophistication of the conclusion being drawn in a third-grade skill-level identify characters and understand characterization item falls within the range of the second-grade skill-level of the drawing conclusions progression. A student s performance on the question is thus more likely to be a reflection of his understanding of characterization than of his ability to draw conclusions at grade level. At the same time, the item demonstrates the web of interrelation that informs the development and progression of individual reading skills. In the same manner that STAR Reading Enterprise items align to the skills within Core Progress, STAR Early Literacy Enterprise items also align. See Table 5 for an example. Table 5: STAR Early Literacy Enterprise item mapped to a Kindergarten-level skill statement Domain: Word Knowledge and Skills Skill Area: Blending word parts Grade-level skill statements: Understand that blending phonemes produces words (e.g., blend the sounds sh- and -ip and choose the word s picture from a ship, a shower, and a lip) and that the sounds in words can be segmented Kindergarten STAR Early Literacy Enterprise Item Kindergarten Listen carefully to what I say. H-ook. Pick the picture whose name I say. H-ook... H-ook. Kindergarten Identify 2- and 3-syllable patterns in spoken words by blending, counting, and segmenting syllables (e.g., tar-get makes the word target) 15

Bridging Assessment and Instruction with STAR Enterprise Core Progress learning progressions inform instruction within STAR Reading Enterprise and STAR Early Literacy Enterprise. The STAR Record Book bridges assessment and instruction by using a STAR scaled score to suggest skills to focus on in order to advance group or individual students from one level of understanding to the next. These suggested skills can also be viewed using the Instructional Planning reports. To further expand understanding of skills and support instruction, educators find sample items and teacher activities associated with each skill in the Record Book. Each tool also highlights prerequisite mapping and provides a skill elements table for each focus skill that identifies vocabulary, conceptual knowledge, and linguistic competencies needed to understand the skill, along with suggestions for supporting English language learners. Instructional Planning using Record Book A student s STAR Enterprise score is the entry point into the learning progression. Both STAR Reading Enterprise and STAR Early Literacy Enterprise map to the same continuous learning progression. Using the Record Book or Instructional Planning Reports, educators can find a student s location on the learning progression and identify skills they have partially mastered and are ready to learn next. (See Figure 7) Figure 7: STAR Enterprise provides a student s entry point into Core Progress 1400 College & Career Ready Skills Remaining to Learn 680 Skills Ready to Learn 900 0 Skills Mastered 300 Early Literacy Based on item response theory, the STAR Enterprise assessments have a robust, vertical scale that together span grades Pre K 12. Because of the vertical nature of the scales, student scores are related to previous scores both during one school year and longitudinally. In addition, because the STAR scales are linked to the learning progressions, there is continuity of skill-based recommendations for instruction. All skills and items sit on one robust, vertical scale. 16

3. Understand vocabulary in context The result of this process is that learning is not conceived of as a series of discrete, disparate chunks, but rather as a connected, integrated framework of understanding and skills. Such a framework enables students to apply what they have learned in novel situations, as well as to acquire related new learning more quickly (Bransford, Brown, and Cocking 2000). Figure 8: STAR Early Literacy links with Core Progress for Reading to provide instructional planning resources College & Career Ready Instructional Planning Report for Lisa Carter Printed Monday, September 12, 2011 11:22:38 AM School: Oakwood Elementary School Teacher: Mrs. C. Rowley Class: Mrs. Rowley s Class Grade:1 STAR Early Literacy Test Results Current SS (Scaled Score): 475 Test Date: 09/08/2011 1 of 1 Literacy Classification: Early Emergent Reader Est. ORF: 0 Projected SS for 06/10/12: 695 Based on research, 50% of students at this student's level will achieve this much growth. Lisa s Current Performance School Benchmark Current Current Projected Skills Remaining to Learn Scaled Score 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 Urgent Intervention Intervention On Watch At/Above Benchmark Skills to Learn Projected Skills listed below are suggested skills Lisa should work on based on her last STAR Early Literacy test. These skills should be challenging, but not too difficult for Lisa. Combine this information with your own knowledge of the student and use your professional judgment when designing an instructional program. Use Core Progress learning progression for reading to find additional information for each skill, teacher activities, and sample items. Word Knowledge and Skills This score suggests Lisa has an understanding that sounds paired with letters represent spoken speech in print. Based on this score, Lisa should practice sounding out simple printed words and blending two-syllable words. Skills to Learn 1. Understand that sounds that are paired with letters represent spoken speech in print 2. Understand that words are read from left to right and top to bottom 3. Distinguish between the shapes of different letters (e.g., pick the letter that is different in S, S, C; pick the letter that is different in E, f, f ) 4. Understand and identify rhyming sounds (e.g., The sound is /arn/. Look at pictures of a heart, a card, and a barn. Pick the picture that has the /arn/ sound.) 5. Know all the letters of the alphabet and recognize their lower- and uppercase forms (e.g., Pick another way to write the letter G from q, g, j.) 475 Skills Ready to Learn Comprehension Strategies and Constructing Meaning This score suggests Lisa should practice the following emergent reading strategies and skills: identifying directly stated main ideas and supporting details. Skills to Learn 1. Make predictions based on the cover, title, and illustrations 2. C Identify a book's front and back covers; recognize where to find the names of the author and illustrator Early Literacy Skills Mastered 4. C Identify the topic of a text 5. Ask and answer questions about a text's key details (e.g., what is the cow doing in "Good Night Moon"?) Designates a focus skill. Focus skills identify the most critical skills to learn at each grade level. The STAR Record Book provides a streamlined way for educators to plan instruction for individuals or a group of students, by providing details on students current performance, projected growth and suggested skills that they are ready to focus on. Figure 9 on page 18 shows a class broken out into small instructional groups and then the suggested skills from Core Progress that a teacher can focus on, to advance the first group of students in their understanding of the Literature domain. In Instructional Resources, educators will quickly find the Teacher Activities and Sample Items available for selected skills. The Suggested Skills Page in the Record Book not only provides a way to view the prerequisite skills, but it also shows the skills that lie ahead in the progression. Educators can reference the grade-level domain expectations to help see how the discrete skills form the foundation to help move students between the different levels of understanding. 17

Figure 9: STAR Record Book STAR Reading Karen Jones, Teacher 2012-2013 Home > Record Book Manuals Help Log Out Return to Home Go To Screening, Progress Monitoring & Intervention Reports Record Book School: Pine Hill Middle School Class or Group: Grade 7, Mrs. Jones class Benchmark: School Benchmark Legend Sort by: Instructional Groups Edit Instructional Groups Sorting by Instructional Groups shows Enterprise test scores only Create Instructional Groups Group 1 - Median Scaled Score: 804 View Suggested Skills Student Scaled Score Percentile Rank Test Date Instruc tional Groups Rice, Heather 1342 97 9/13/2012 1 Curtis, Jason 1193 85 9/13/2012 1 Hunger, Stephanie 1165 83 9/13/2012 1 Clark, Darius 804 53 9/13/2012 1 Johnson, Tim 784 51 9/13/2012 1 Reyes, Christina 719 45 9/13/2012 1 Mackowski, Gregory 696 42 9/13/2012 1 Group 2 - Median Scaled Score: 574 View Suggested Skills Student Scaled Score Percentile Rank Test Date Instruc tional Groups Dubaz, Taylor 664 38 9/13/2012 2 Atkinson, Rebecca 579 26 9/13/2012 2 Major, Jasmine 568 24 9/13/2012 2 Farrens, Cathy 538 20 9/13/2012 2 Group 3 - Median Scaled Score: 442 View Suggested Skills Student Scaled Score Percentile Rank Test Date Instruc tional Groups Rivas, José 481 13 9/13/2012 3 Locke, Kimberly 459 10 9/13/2012 3 Daniels, Noah 425 7 9/13/2012 3 Okada, Casey 304 1 9/13/2012 3 View Suggested Skills Connotation and Denotation Teacher Activity Find Instructional Resources Sample Item 18

Instructional Resources Instructional resources, teacher activities, and sample items are continually being developed and added to Core Progress for Reading. Many of the initial teacher activities, available after the first stage of development, use a standard lesson plan format, and include the objective, materials, and overview of the lesson (see Figure 9 for an example). These instructional resources can be either printed or used with an interactive white board. The most recent teacher activities created for early literacy skills consist of three stand-alone components, each centered on the same skill. Each component is designed for small group instruction and may serve the differentiated needs of students at a range of ability levels: 1. Core Activity: (Includes a Questions for Reading feature): This component is designed for students who need specific instruction and practice in a given skill. The core activity is intended to be facilitated by the classroom teacher, rather than an aide or adult volunteer. 2. Writing or Fluency Activity: This component is for students who have some proficiency in the skill and can benefit from additional focused practice. The activity is designed such that a classroom aide or adult volunteer may facilitate the instruction. 3. Practice and Extension Activities 3 : This optional component is designed for students who have mastery of the skill and require practice activities that offer a different way to explore the skill. These activities may incorporate art, movement, games, and other means of exploring a given concept or skill. The format of the teacher activities for the early literacy skills was designed after consultation with experts who are active in the classroom. In addition to the new format, the early literacy teacher activities now include references to the Common Core State Standards that the lesson and skill address. (See Figure 10.) Figure 10: Kindergarten example of Core Progress tool and Instructional resources Teacher Activity Sample Item Common Core State Standards Copyright 2010, produced by NCA and CCSSO CC RP.K.3 - Know and apply grade level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. CC RP.K.3.d - Distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the letters that differ.. 3 Practice and Extension Activities are still under development and will be released periodically as they are completed. 19