What a college- and career-ready student looks like

So at some point in the CCSS webinar from two weeks ago, the presenters said that page 7 of the introduction was one of the most important pages in the document. This page describes what college- and career-ready students can do.

The seven descriptors are:

·         They demonstrate independence.

·         They build strong content knowledge.

·         They respond to the varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and discipline.

·         They comprehend as well as critique.

·         They value evidence.

·         They use technology and digital media strategically and capably.

·         They come to understand other perspectives and cultures. 

The common thread running through all of these descriptions is that students use evidence. 

A couple of comments here. First, I love that everything comes down to evidence, but I realize that this is a going to be a huge challenge. We’re going to have to slow down, read carefully, listen closely, and always go back to the text for answers. Students can’t just respond with “I think…” and not have evidence to support their opinions. Also, the evidence they provide will have to come from the text, not some movie the text reminded them of.

Second, this portrait of a college- and career-ready student fits with what we read in College and Career Ready and College Knowledge. (A good summary is here.) So everything we’ve been focusing on works together and affirms the changes we’ve been making in our curriculum to better prepare students for post-secondary success. 

I think I will use the description of a college- and career-ready student as a mid-year self-assessment piece with students. Does this describe you? What can you do? Where do you need to improve? Show me where you have done this in my class this year. What do we need to do to make sure you can do all that is in these descriptions?