Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Current State of CCSS in California



Below is some information about the current state standards adoptions for all subjects with regard to CCSS. CCSS has not been developed for history/social science in California as of this date.

Beginning teachers often confuse Literacy ELA literacy standards for history with California State Content Standards for history/social science.  CCSS for content history/social science have not yet been adopted so teachers and administrators have to refer back to the old California Content Standards for history/social science because those are currently being used.


The state of the standards and some useful links are provided below:

California State CCSS and Content Area Subject Standards
at http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/

First note that not all high school (and elementary school) standards have been adopted in California. Only ELA Literacy content area standards have been fully written and adopted (see http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/finalelaccssstandards.pdf).   For social science refer to the 2005 document at  http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/

Science CCSS has been developed; however, it's also referred to as NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards). The link is below.

Again--Common Core History/Social Science content standards have not yet been adopted.
They're being reviewed. The 2005 standards are still relevant at http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/histsocscistnd.pdf

There are, however, ELA Common Core Standards for History, standards that are not content related.

For example, see http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RH/9-10/

Background on ELA for Social Studies (from http://teachinghistory.org/issues-and-research/roundtable-response/25352)

Common Core Science--Prepublication standards adopted in 2013 are referred to as
NGSS (Next Generation State Standards)  at http://www.commoncoresciences.com/common_core_standards.html

For more info about NGSS in California, see http://www.cde.ca.gov/pd/ca/sc/ngssintrod.asp

Finally, one other element, Common Core, is worth mentioning, which emphasizes that instruction based on authentic, real-life topics. CCSS developed the Standards drawing upon input from educators and educator groups, higher education stakeholders, content experts, parents and the public" (Thatcher, 2012). For this reason, the state officials who initiated the standards had relevant real-life input about what their worker's skill-sets are and how students can successfully  complete tasks related to them.

Thatcher, D. (2012). Common Core Standards: frequently asked questions for state legislators. National Conference of State Legislators. Retrieved from
https://sites.google.com/site/ncslccssupdate/home/resources-and-comments/NCSL - CCSS FAQ (June 2013).pdf?attredirects=0&d=1