Curriculum Use and Assessment in the Context of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics

• In Event: 49.078 - Exploring Middle School Teachers' Use of Curriculum Materials in the Context of the Common Core

Abstract

Purpose and Theoretical Perspectives
Due to the increased role of standards-based accountability evidenced through both state and national education policy, it is widely viewed that “measurement of outcomes using achievement tests drives education policy and practice today” (Hamilton, Stecher, & Yuan, 2012, p. 157). In this paper, we explore the following questions related to the role of CCSSM-related assessment in teachers’ use of curriculum resources:
1. How do teachers perceive CCSSM as represented in formative and summative assessments?
2. What aspects of assessment-related curriculum resources influence teachers’ ability to design instruction that is aligned with CCSSM?
We see these questions as informing and informed by our theoretical perspective related to the relationships between the official and the operational curriculum (Remillard & Heck, 2014).

Methods
Using HyperRESEARCH, a qualitative research analysis software program, reports were generated from both the participants’ background interviews and staged lesson planning interviews using the specific code of “Testing.” This code encompassed testing and/or assessment as both a component of teacher practice and as an administered test. “Testing” also captured teachers’ perceptions of alignment between CCSSM, other standards, and assessments. From these data, a secondary level of analysis was conducted to extract themes from the data related specifically to testing and/or assessment.

Results
Our secondary analysis yielded two themes related to assessment, curriculum use, and CCSSM. These findings are described briefly below and will be expanded in the full paper.

1) Teachers use state assessment and CCSSM-aligned assessment items as planning resources. Teachers used assessment items from both state and national tests in their lesson planning. Some participants expressed that they used assessment items to inform their instructional goals. For example, one teacher explained that “having the assessment materials helps understand where you want the students to go”. Participants also expressed how assessment items could be used to help students become familiar with the vocabulary, format, and content used in the summative assessments.

2) Teachers view state assessments and CCSSM-aligned assessments as representations of the CCSSM. As teachers described the process of enacting CCSSM in their classrooms, many participants expressed views that state and CCSSM-aligned assessments were representations of the standards. Some teachers described mismatches between their own interpretation of the standards, a lesson’s representation of a standard, and the focus of an assessment item. Other teachers raised questions about who was writing the assessment items or, in other words, about whose interpretations of CCSSM were represented in the assessments.
 
Significance
These findings suggest that understanding teachers’ use of curriculum materials in the context of CCSSM requires understanding how teachers perceive assessments related to CCSSM. In particular, many participants viewed assessment items as representations of CCSSM that guided their own interpretations of CCSSM and their curricular decision-making related to CCSSM. These findings have particular significance for researchers, professional developers working with teachers to implement curriculum, and curriculum and assessment designers, as the findings point to teachers’ use of assessment tasks as representations of the standards to guide curricular decision-making.

Authors

• Corey Drake, Michigan State University

• Amy Ray, Michigan State University

• Joanne Philhower, Michigan State University