BAY COLLEGE SYMPOSIUMJanuary 12, 2007

Social Studies Merit Curriculum Breakout I

Wendy Bruno, DSISD; Mike Powers, Manistique High School

Grade Level Content Expectations(K-8 GLCEs)

• Convening to begin work today!• Group of Scholars

– Chaired by Stan Masters, Lenawee ISD– Also includes ISD and local district representatives

• Focus Groups– Community members and professional organizations

• Web Review – posted on MDE website in March• National Review• Plan for presentation to SBE July 2007

HIGH SCHOOL CONTENT EXPECTATIONS (9th – 12th HSCEs)

• Group of Scholars– Chaired by Dr. Robert Bain, University of Michigan– Also includes local district and ISD representatives

and career and technical education

• Focus Groups– Community members and professional organizations

• Web Review – will be posted in March• National Review• Plan for presentation to SBE July 2007

What will be done?

• Draw upon work that has been done

• Align with national documents, standards

• Code by appropriate type of assessment

– statewide/large scale

– formative/classroom/ongoing

• New standards may be added to the Michigan Curriculum Framework to better represent World History & Geography

Michigan Curriculum Framework

• Approximately 10 years old

• Comprised of Content Standards and Benchmarks

• GLCEs and HSCEs will hang on the Content Standards, but the benchmarks will be refined

• Will probably add standards to accommodate World History

Criteria for the work

• RIGOR: What is the level of intellectual demand in the standards?– challenging enough to equip students to

succeed at the next grade level– essential core content of a discipline; its key

concepts and how they relate to each other

Criteria for the work

• CLARITY: Are the standards clearly written and presented in a logical, easy-to use format?– more than just plain and jargon-free prose– widely understood and accepted by teachers,

parents, school boards and others who have a stake in the quality of schooling including university faculties that will prepare teachers to convey the standards and later receive those teachers’ students

Criteria for the work

• SPECIFICITY: Are the standards specific enough to convey the level of performance expected of students?– enough detail to help teachers design their

courses – address the given teachers’ time for

instruction

Criteria for the work

• FOCUS: Have tough choices been made about what content is the most important for students to learn?– priorities of facts, concepts and skills that

should be emphasized at each grade level

Criteria for the work

• PROGRESSION: Do knowledge and skills build clearly and sensibly on previous learning and increase in intellectual demand from year to year?– move from simple to complex, from concrete

to abstract– prevent needless repetition from grade to

grade

Criteria for the work

• COHERENCE: Do the standards convey a unified vision of the discipline, and do they establish connections among the major areas of study?– reflect a coherent structure of the discipline and/or

reveal significant relationships among the strands and how the study of one complements the study of another.

– States should eventually be able to “back-map” from the high school Academic Standards to a progression of benchmarks that middle and elementary school students would need to reach in order to be “on track” for college and work.

Social Studies Credit Requirements

• Required: 3 credits

• Credit content is being developed for:– U.S. History and Geography, Civics, Economics, and World

History and Geography

• 1 credit in U.S. History and Geography

• .5 credit in Civics

• .5 credit in Economics

• 1 credit in World History and Geography

• Anticipated approval and dissemination July 2007

U.S History and Geography

• Timespan covered is late 1880’s – industrialization – through present

• Teachers comment that they have difficulty getting up to Watergate era

• With geography – trends more than eras, maps and data more than narrative, places more than events

• Michigan Geographic Alliance - presidents

World History and Geography

• Similar principles will apply

• This will most likely be taught in 9th or 10th grade

• Michigan Geographic Alliance – NATO lesson

Economics

• .5 credit

• Different schools handling this differently – most have split the senior year into ½ econ and ½ government

• Will need to move this to 11th grade for Michigan Merit Exam testing

Civics

• .5 credit

• Schools handle this differently

• “Government”

• We the People and Project Citizen

DISCUSSION QUESTION

What are the challenges posed by this high school reform for social studies?

Merit Exam

• For Social Studies – two fifty minute testing periods– 26 multiple choice and 1 persuasive essay– 31 multiple choice and 1 persuasive essay

Social Studies counts as part of the Merit Award for the first time this year.

• Google: Michigan Department of Education released items social studies

Other portions of Michigan Merit Exam

• ACT

• Work Keys