Kansas Department of Education’s Reading E-Newsletter, July 9, 2008
Below is current news about the Kansas Writing Assessment! If you would like to receive more news from the Kansas State Writing Consultant, please email Matt Copeland at .
Greetings Good Writing Colleagues!
The state writing committee is pleased to announce the final versions of the updated rubrics and other selected materials for the 2009 Kansas Writing Assessment are now posted on the KSDE Writing Homepage <http://www.ksde.org/Default.aspx?tabid=1726>. These materials are available to be downloaded both as .pdf files and also as Microsoft Word files from the website above. The direct links below are to the .pdf files.
Available Now!
A Statement of Purpose and Rationale for the Kansas Writing Assessment – A list of the benefits provided to Kansas educators by the Kansas Writing Assessment and a list of goals for the future that can be supported by the assessment. http://www.ksde.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=WGT9reFMXwg%3d&tabid=1726&mid=6456&forcedownload=true
Instructional Example Prompts – Example prompts at each assessed grade level that educators can use in the classroom for more formative assessment purposes. These files include an explanation of the prompt format, eight to ten example prompts, and “teaching tips” to spark ideas for classroom lessons and activities to help improve student learning and the quality of student writing.
5th Grade Instructional Example Prompts http://www.ksde.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=%2bRnaQ%2b2UL%2fs%3d&tabid=1726&mid=6456&forcedownload=true
8th Grade Instructional Example Prompts http://www.ksde.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=TJldhZ5cHXk%3d&tabid=1726&mid=6456&forcedownload=true
High School Instructional Example Prompts http://www.ksde.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=FQ%2fDMqGx7WY%3d&tabid=1726&mid=6456&forcedownload=true
Suggested Scoring Procedures – An overview of the committee’s suggestions for how scoring sessions should be organized and facilitated and for how individual papers should be scored. <http://www.ksde.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=xs%2fXP5gQqy4%3d&tabid=1726&mid=6456&forcedownload=true
Updated 6-TRAIT Scoring Rubrics – The new look and format of the rubrics may be jarring at first, but teachers across the state are raving about the more specific descriptors and the inclusion of descriptors at the “2” and “4” point levels that allow them to be more confident in the accuracy of their scoring.
5th Grade Narrative Scoring Rubric <http://www.ksde.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=id9u5ycxUEQ%3d&tabid=1726&mid=6456&forcedownload=true
8th Grade Expository Scoring Rubric http://www.ksde.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=wBK21y4l0qU%3d&tabid=1726&mid=6456&forcedownload=true
High School Persuasive Scoring Rubric <http://www.ksde.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=RhY02XQbdj0%3d&tabid=1726&mid=6456&forcedownload=true
* Note: These rubrics are designed for use by educators in scoring student writing for the Kansas Writing Assessment. Although they were not explicitly designed for classroom use or written in more student-friendly language, the committee recommends local schools and districts adapt them for such audiences and classroom uses. The committee strongly believes that teachers creating such adaptations in a collaborative manner can be an important and rewarding opportunity for professional learning.
Rubrics for Incorporating Research and Citing Sources – Although not a part of the Kansas Writing Assessment, these rubrics are intended to complement the 6-TRAIT model and help educators communicate to students our higher expectations for academic writing and avoiding plagiarism. These scoring rubrics are formatted in the same manner as those for the writing assessment. If educators would like Microsoft Word versions of these files, please email me directly.
Grades 3-7 Rubric for Incorporating Research and Citing Sources <http://www.ksde.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=oEqz1mDVloQ%3d&tabid=1726&mid=4736
Grades 8-12 Rubric for Incorporating Research and Citing Sources <http://www.ksde.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=dzQuWsY4SSI%3d&tabid=1726&mid=4736
Coming Soon!
Glossary of Writing Terminology for the Kansas Writing Assessment
Updated KSDE Training Manual for 6-TRAIT Scoring—This manual will include an overview of the 6-TRAIT model and scored sample essays from Kansas students that can be used for training/calibration sessions.
PowerPoint Presentation for Conducting 6-TRAIT Scoring Training Sessions—A complement to the updated 6-TRAIT training manual to facilitate training/calibration sessions.
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Sebelius Encourages Education through Collaboration
When the Kansas Supreme Court decided the 2006 school finance lawsuit, who knew that it would pave the way for a multi-agency effort to foster a skilled, educated workforce prepared to face 21st Century challenges?
Yet today, as Gov. Kathleen Sebelius kicked off the P-20 Education Council's first meeting, the school finance judgment -- a guaranteed $541 million for three years -- was there, bringing Kansas into a new era of public education.
With the funding in place, Sebelius said the time was right to create a multi-agency coalition that will align all of the state's educational institutions and decrease the number of students who are "dropping out, falling out or checking out along the way."
The term P-20 stands for pre-school through graduate school. Ideally, the council would find a collaborative way to bring every Kansas student through those 20 years of education. The council will create a comprehensive system of education with strategic benchmarks for success in Kansas, she said.
"What we need is a strategic group to focus on how to get it right now, to take that 3 year old through graduate school, make sure we link what's happening in the schools with real skills," she said.
Among the strategies Sebelius supported was more emphasis on early childhood education, an issue she has been passionate about since taking office six years ago.
"A fairly alarming study was done five years ago by the Department of Education indicating that 50 percent of the 5 year olds who hit kindergarten in Kansas are not school-ready," Sebelius said.
Sebelius noted the lack of connection and communication between early childhood education, K-12, higher education and vocational and community colleges.
With her executive order to officially launch Kansas P-20 Education Council, Kansas joins more than 30 states who have launched P-20 or similar coalitions.
Sebelius took note of the success Kansas has seen as well as the challenges that lie ahead.
"I think we could say that Kansas is in better shape than many around the country," she said. "As we look at our global challenge, America is not in good shape at all."
Despite or perhaps because of successful educational efforts in countries like China, Singapore and India, Sebelius urged the council to move forward with strategies that would strengthen education and create potential employees who can be competitive with the global pool of candidates.
"So just the numbers are staggering and alarming that we're spending more money than any other country on Earth and that our results are still not up to par," she said. "So moving to international benchmarking, looking at some of the challenges that we have are very important, but I don't think that there's any question that there couldn't be a more important time for you all to come together and focus on this initiative."
Kansas Commissioner on Education Alexa Posny, Kansas Board of Regents President Reggie Robinson and Jennifer Dounay with the Education Commission of the States also spoke to the room of mainly legislators, educators and education professionals.
For more information see http://www.ktka.com/news/2008/jul/03/sebelius_encourages_education_through_collaboratio/
Kansas Joins With Seven Other States in The Partnership For 21st Century Skills
Topeka, Kansas - April 24, 2008 - The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, the nation’s leading advocacy organization focused on infusing 21st century skills into education, recently approved the Kansas application to join with seven other Leadership States in promoting 21st century teaching and learning skills for all students.
“We believe that the Partnership and its member states will assist in guiding us in our systemic and forward thinking educational improvement efforts. Additionally, as a national education leader, we believe the Kansas team can offer similarly important guidance to others as we tackle unprecedented challenges in educating students for success in an increasingly global and competitive society,” said Alexa Posny, Kansas Commissioner of Education.
The Kansas State Board of Education approved the submission of the Kansas application in December 2007. This initiative fits well with the guiding principles and nine Board motions supporting the integration of academics into career and technical education adopted at the February State Board meeting.
Accelerating technological advances, a rapidly changing knowledge base, an interconnected workforce, and an increasingly global society have all combined to make 21st century skills—global literacy, problem solving, innovation and creativity—essential for every student’s success. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills brings together the business community, education leaders and policymakers to define a powerful vision for 21st century education to ensure every child’s success as citizens and workers in the 21st century.
Governor Sebelius wrote in her letter to the Partnership Review Committee, “I am committed to working closely with Commissioner Posny, with the partnership and the key organizations and governors as we forge ahead to create innovative opportunities for our country, for Kansans and for all Kansas students.”
Member organizations include: Adobe Systems, Inc., American Association of School Librarians, Apple, ASCD, AT&T, Atomic Learning, Blackboard, Inc., Cable in the Classroom, Cengage Learning, Cisco Systems, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Davis Publications, Dell, Inc., Discovery Education, Education Networks of America, Education Testing Service, EF Education, Ford Motor Company Fund, Giant Campus, Hewlett Packard, Intel Foundation, JA Worldwide, KnowledgeWorks Foundation, LEGO Group, Lenovo, Measured Progress, Microsoft Corporation, National Education Association, Oracle Education Foundation, Pearson, PolyVision, SAP, Sesame Workshop, Texas Instruments, THINKronize, Verizon, and Wireless Generation. Organizations interested in joining the Partnership may contact .
States belonging to the Partnership include: North Carolina, West Virginia, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Massachusetts, Maine, Iowa, and Kansas.
July2008: Summer Reading from National Science Teachers Association (NSTA)
Summer brings time to relax and recharge with good books and fresh ideas. This issue of Science Class—an online companion to The Science Teacher (TST), NSTA's journal for high school teachers—offers information on summer reading. We suggest the best summer reading for teachers, ideas to motivate students with literature, new ways of looking at mentoring and inquiry, and strategies to teach English language learners. Click on http://www.nsta.org/publications/browse_journals.aspx?action=issue&id=10.2505/3/tst08_075_05 for TST's complete Summer 2008 Table of Contents and read a free article ("Take a Voyage of Discovery")from the issue.
Here is a collection of online resources we've compiled that relate to Summer Reading:
In the News: Summer Reading
http://science.nsta.org/enewsletter/2008-07/news_stories_high.htm
Too busy to sift through the news in search of interesting stories? Click on the link to read current news stories, collected for you by NSTA staff members, that are related to this theme.
On the Web: Summer Reading
http://science.nsta.org/enewsletter/2008-07/web_high.htm
With so much on the web, it's hard to know what's really useful. In this section, you'll find SciLinks (websites that have been reviewed by NSTA and your peers) and various other opportunities related to this theme.
From the TST Archives: Summer Reading
http://science.nsta.org/enewsletter/2008-07/journalarticles_high.htm
Readers tell us again and again how timeless our journal articles are. So in this section, we've compiled theme-related articles from The Science Teacher archives.
Books, Books, Books: Summer Reading
http://science.nsta.org/enewsletter/2008-07/books_high.htm
Tired of your textbook? Click on this link for a list of some of the high school-level books we've found related to this theme.
Kris Shaw
Kansas State Department of Education
Standards and Assessment Services
Language Arts and LiteracyConsultant
120 SE 10th Ave.
Topeka, KS 66612
Phone: 785-296-4926
FAX: 785-296-3523
Kansas State Dept. of Education website www.ksde.org
KSDE Reading Standards http://www.ksde.org/Default.aspx?tabid=142
KSDE Reading Assessments http://www.ksde.org/Default.aspx?tabid=159
An Equal Employment/Educational Opportunity Agency
The Kansas State Department of Education does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or age in its programs and activities. The following person has been designated to handle inquiries regarding the non-discrimination policies:
KSDE General Counsel
120 SE 10th Ave.
Topeka, KS 66612
785-296-3204