The charge to the teachers and administrators from eight school districts seemed simple enough: Create an activity, called a performance assessment task, that would show, when solved, that students understand a unit covering Common Core standards that California and 45 other states and the District of Columbia have adopted. Really understand, not by simply choosing a multiple-choice answer, but by explaining or illustrating in multiple ways the depth of their knowledge.
Math teachers from Clovis Unified and Sanger Unified work on a performance assessment. They include, from left, Marcy Zunich of Clovis; Robin Ingram of Clovis and Meagan Speer of Sanger. Photo courtesy of the California Office to Reform Education. (Click to enlarge.)
The exercise, done in teams of six or so, divided by grade and subject, over 2½ days in Berkeley last month, was difficult, sometimes exasperating but also enlightening.
For many, it offered a revelation: Replacing the California state standards in math and English language arts with Common Core will
