This document discusses analyzing and revising curriculum standards to better prepare students for 21st century skills. It summarizes a study comparing the Common Core State Standards, Georgia Performance Standards, and Norwegian curriculum standards. The G-CAM model found the Norwegian standards addressed more skills like creativity and problem-solving in fewer standards. The document proposes targeted revisions to make the Common Core standards more aligned with skills needed for college and careers by drawing on strengths in the Norwegian standards.

1. Anissa Lokey-Vega, Ph.D.
Kennesaw State University
Doug Hearrington, Ed.D.
Georgia Regents University

2. Its no secret…our world has
changed
• Scott McLeod
• Andy Hargreaves
• Michael Fullan
• Yong Zhao
• Sir Ken Robinson

3. Scott McLeod at TEDxASB
http://youtu.be/-yA6oTU1emM

4. Key points
• Schooling was designed for a different kind of
world in regards to work and information access.
• To redesign schools, we have to start with what
we want students to be able to do and then write
the curriculum.
• He doesn’t sound like a fan of standards…but
they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Pragmatically speaking, how can we move in a
direction of improvement?

5. Steps for Change
(We are optimists!)
1. Articulate what we want students to be able to do.
What’s the point?!?
2. Assess how well/poorly our standards are preparing
students for the new information and work context.
Evaluate what we’ve got.
3. Identify what is irrelevant. Throw those standards out
or look for successful models to help in revision.
Learn from others.
4. Re-align instruction, assessments, teacher training,
policies, and other structures.
Make targeted changes.

6. How would we pick a model?
• Programme for International Student
Assessment (PISA): USA ranks 14th
• Gross Domestic Product per Capita: USA ranks
6th
• Countries consistently out-performing the
USA in these measures include:
– Norway
– Switzerland

7. Norwegian Schools Overview
• Significant improvements in PISA 2009 scores
• Mandatory education up to completion of year 10 (typically
16 year olds) curriculum.
• Upper secondary education is an additional 3 years.
• Very very few privately funded schools
• Schools are selective and offer specialties
• Annual standardized tests are both written and oral.
Individual teachers and teacher panels are trusted to
grade.
• Purpose “Every student should be able to think for
themselves.”
• Staunch cultural value of social justice and equity that
drives the design and practice of mandatory education.

9. Step 1: What do we want US students to be able
to do?
• Goal of the Common Core: “college and career readiness”
(Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2010)
• Goal of Georgia Schools: preparation for employment
(Georgia Department of Education, 2009)
• Less than 6% of jobs in the United States are low-skill jobs
of the Agricultural and Industrial eras, and most employers
of today’s Knowledge Economy are looking for high-skilled
creative workers. (Kopczuk and Saez, 2004)
Why am I not focusing on “college readiness”? (Bui, 2013)

10. Work in the Knowledge Economy
(see YELLOW codebook/rubric)
• Creativity
• Digital Literacy
• English Language Literacy
• Information Literacy
• Interpersonal Participation in Learning Society
• Intrapersonal Skills of Life-Long Learning
• Media Literacy
• Numeracy
• Problem-Solving
• Systems Thinking

11. The Curricula
• GPS (Georgia Performance Standards)
– English Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies
– 8th
grade
• CC (Common Core)
– English Language Arts and Math
– 8th
grade
• CCGPS
– English Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies
– 8th
grade
• NOR (Norwegian National Curriculum)
– Norwegian, English Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies
– 10th
grade
• NOR-E/M
– English Language Arts and Math
– 10th
grade

12. Step 2: Assess our curriculum
Curriculum alignment research including the Curriculum Audit (English & Steffy, 2001, p.88)
and the Balanced Curriculum (Squires, 2009, p. 88) evaluate the relationships between the
written, taught, and tested curricula. The terms intended, enacted, and assessed are also
similarly represented in the literature (Porter & Smithson, 2001).

13. Goal-Curriculum Alignment Measures (G-CAM)
• Building on Andrew Porter’s Surveys of Enacted Curriculum
(2001) and Fenwick English’s Curriculum Audit (1988)
• Content Analysis (Neuendorf, 2002)
– Rooted in hypothesis testing (Krippendorf. 1980)
• Multiple Coders (2-5)
• Tested for Reliability (Pearson’s r>0.70)
• Publication of G-CAM (in submission)
• Presenting at AERA 2013 in San Francisco
Further methodological explanation available through request to
avega4@kennesaw.edu

14. G-CAM Table
GPS CC CCGPS NOR NOR_EM
Balance 0.8306 0.9635 0.8220 0.8313 1.0000
Relevance 0.6142 0.8720 0.4890 0.6051 1.0000

15. G-CAM Model: Norway vs. Common Core
English/Math Curricula

16. G-CAM Model: Norway vs. CCGPS
Whole Curricula

17. G-CAM: All curricula

18. Which themes are least/most prevalent?

19. Which themes are least/most prevalent?
Common Core vs. Norway

20. Which themes are least/most prevalent?
Whole Curricula

21. How are we doing?
“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.
The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real
world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people
need for success in college and careers. With American students
fully prepared for the future, our communities will be best
positioned to compete successfully in the global economy.” –
CCSS mission statement

22. First, Let’s Celebrate!
• We are doing pretty good with information
literacy!
• Our English and Math Curricula could be
stronger, but they are NOT full of irrelevant
material like other subjects.

23. Why does it matter how standards are
written?
• Look at your latest CC text titles.
• If its not explicitly in the standards, is on the
tests? Is it taught?
• How do teachers interpret curriculum
standards in order to plan instruction?
– Sample (green handout)
– Audience (assumed), Behavior, Condition, Degree

24. If you add it later = LACK of alignment

25. Step 3: Now, Let’s Get Better!
• Reduce the amount of irrelevant content found
in other subject areas.
• We need all curricular subjects to address more
of the skills/themes necessary to prepare student
for careers in today’s economy. We have big
gaps!
• We have far more curriculum standards for the
whole curriculum than Norway. Why is this so?
They are addressing more skills than we are in
fewer standards. CCGPS (n=364) NOR (n=157)

26. Creativity (see YELLOW codebook/rubric)
• CC: Develop the topic with relevant, well-chosen
facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or
other information and examples. (68WSHT2.b)
• NOR: use various media, sources and aesthetic
expressions in personal texts relating to the
Norwegian subject curriculum and
interdisciplinary texts (NN10.C02)

27. Continuous Improvement of the CC

28. Intrapersonal Skills of Life-Long Learning
• CC: Spell correctly (8.L2.c).
• NOR: describe and assess his/her own work in
learning English NE10.L05); identify important
linguistic similarities and differences between
English and the native language and use this
knowledge in his or her own language learning
(NE10.L02); give grounds for personal choices of
literature and reading material based on
knowledge of reading strategies (N10.W06)

29. Some informed revisions of
L2.c might include:
Option 1: Describe and assess his/her own work
in learning to spell words correctly.
Option 2: Identify important spelling similarities
and differences between related words and use
this knowledge in his/her own learning of how to
spell correctly.

30. Media Literacy
• CC: Cite specific textual evidence to support
analysis of science and technical texts. (68.RST1)
• NOR: search for and select sources, assess them
critically and show how different sources might
present history differently (NSS10.H04); use texts
taken from libraries, the internet and mass media
in a critical manner, discuss and elaborate on the
texts and acknowledge the sources used
(NN10.W14)

31. Some informed revisions of
68.RST1 might include:
• Option 1: Search for and select sources, assess them
critically and cite fitting textual evidence from the
sources to support analysis of science and technical
texts and show how different sources might present
science differently.
• Option 2: Use texts about science and technology
taken from libraries, the Internet and mass media in
a critical manner, discuss and elaborate on the texts
and acknowledge the sources used.

32. Interpersonal Participation in a Learning Society
• CC: Write arguments focused on discipline-
specific content. (68.WSHT1)
• NOR: give simple lectures, presentations and
readings with interpretations, and participate
in role play and dramatization, adapted to
different recipients (NN10.O07)

33. Digital Literacy
• CC: Understand that a two-dimensional figure is
congruent to another if the second can be obtained
from the first by a sequence of rotations, reflections,
and translations; given two congruent figures, describe
a sequence that exhibits the congruence between
them. (8.G1.2)
• NOR: analyze, including digitally, characteristics of
two- and three-dimensional figures and use them for
constructions and calculations (NM10.G01)

34. Problem-Solving
• CCGPS: Follow precisely a multistep procedure when
carrying out experiments, taking measurements, or
performing technical tasks. (68.RST3)
• Describe the rights and responsibilities of citizens.
(SS8CG1.c)
• NOR: plan, carry out and present problem-oriented
sociological surveys and assess the work process and
the results (NSS10.S01); make a plan for starting and
operating an enterprise based on a survey to
determine the basis for such an enterprise (NSS10.S03)

35. Systems Thinking
• CCGPS: The student will explain the benefits
of free trade (SS8E2)
• NOR: describe the universe and different
theories of how it has developed (NS10.U01);
describe the main characteristics of the
Norwegian economy and how our economy is
connected to the global economy (NSS10.S13)

36. Let’s raise the bar:
Digital Literacy, Information Literacy, & Numeracy
• CC: Know that straight lines are widely used to
model relationships between two quantitative
variables. For scatter plots that suggest a linear
association, informally fit a straight line, and
informally assess the model fit by judging the
closeness of the data points to the line. (8.SP1.2)
• NOR: carry out investigations and use databases
to search for and analyze statistical data and
demonstrate source criticism (NM10.SP01)

37. Let’s try 3rd
grade CC Math…
CC: Tell and write time to the nearest minute and
measure time intervals in minutes. Solve word
problems involving addition and subtraction of time
intervals in minutes, e.g., by representing the
problem on a number line diagram (3MD.A.1)
Interpersonal Skills of
Participating in a Knowledge Society (?)
Problem-Solving (?)
Systems Thinking (?)

38. Curricular Supplements
What key patterns do you think would occur
between the instructional practices and
materials of the original standard and our
revised standards? How would the revised
standards affect mastery of the originals?
Feedback and Thoughts?

39. How might the revised standards affect our
bar graph?

40. Would the revised standards better support
the CCSS mission?
“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.
The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real
world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people
need for success in college and careers. With American students
fully prepared for the future, our communities will be best
positioned to compete successfully in the global economy.” –
CCSS mission statement

41. Step 4?
Re-align instruction, assessments, teacher
training, policies, and other structures.

42. I Propose REVISION of the CC for Continuous
Improvement of College and Career Readiness
“‘Rapid iteration,’ ‘living in perpetual beta,’ and
other ideas related to quickly trying things,
getting feedback to see if they worked, and
adjusting course accordingly are all extremely
important, particularly in a rapidly-changing
world.” –Scott McLeod, 2013

43. Future Work: Continuous Improvement
Curriculum Revision Process
1. Articulate goal of schooling/subject/program
2. Conduct initial G-CAM analysis to identify
irrelevant content for revision
3. Use other curricula as models for targeted
revisions
4. Conduct follow-up G-CAM analysis to
determine quality improvement

44. Detailed Reference List Available
• Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2010
• Georgia Department of Education, 2009
• Kopczuk and Saez, 2004
• Bui, 2013
• Schweizer Medieninstitut furBildung und Kultur, 2011; Ministry of
Education and Research, 2011
• English & Steffy, 2001
• Squires, 2009
• Porter & Smithson, 2001
• Neuendorf, 2002
• Krippendorf. 1980
• Scott McLeod, 2013

45. Special Thanks
BCOE Global Engagement Award Committee
and
Dr. Geir Moen
Toyen Skole
of Oslo, Norway
And the many teachers and administrators of Oslo’s public
schools for welcoming me to Oslo and for their contributions
in assisting in the data collection process to ensure accurate
representation of Norway’s curriculum.

46. Contact Information
Anissa Lokey-Vega
Assistant Professor of Instructional Technology
Kennesaw State University
AVega4@kennesaw.edu
Doug Hearrington
Associate Professor
Georgia Regents University
Dhearrin@gru.edu