1. Texas AEL Content Standards
Literacy Texas 2017 Conference
August 1, 2017
Veramendi D

2. What’s your experience with Content Standards?
Huh?
I’m familiar, but I’m not really that much into it.
I’m a believer.
I probably know more than you.

3. What?

4. Education Standards
In education, standards are a description of the skills and knowledge that students should have at a specified level.
3/8/2017

5. WIOA Regulation: §
“…the Unified State Plan must describe how the eligible agency will, by July 1, 2016, align its content standards for adult education with State- adopted challenging academic content standards under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended.”
TEKS
K12 Standards
TCCRS
College Standards
STAAR
TxCHSE Assessments
GED®, HiSet, TASC
TSI Assessment
3/8/2017

6. Set at Exit-Level Standards are set at exit or mastery level
Demonstrate mastery of content and skills
Offer educators and students a transparent view of what is expected at exit
Allow all stakeholders to gauge student preparedness for college, job training, entry and middle-skill employment
3/8/2017

7. Not Curriculum Education standards are not a curriculum
They provide the road map for the targeted, systematic use of a curriculum
Schools, communities and educators choose their own curriculum, which is a detailed plan for day-to-day instruction
Clear standards provide educators with specific student performance indicators which drive instructional practice. 
3/8/2017

8. Content Areas
English Language Arts & Literacy (pp )
Mathematics (pp )
English as a Second Language (pp )

9. Organization of Content Areas
Look at Table of Contents on pages 1 and 2.
Note the three Content Areas: English and Language Arts and Literacy, Mathematics, and English as a Second Language
Each Content Area divided into subareas
Each subarea subdivided into Content Standards Content Standards describe what learners should know and be able to do within a specific content area.
Each Content Standard supported by Benchmarks. Benchmarks describe the set of skills that learners need to develop and achieve to meet the more broadly stated standards
See page 10 for an example.
Example:
I. English Language Arts and Literacy Subarea I.2 – Reading
A. Vocabulary Development. Understand new vocabulary and concepts and use them accurately in reading, speaking, and writing.
Identify new words and concepts acquired through study of their relationships to other words and concepts.
Apply knowledge of roots and affixes to infer the meanings of new words.
Use reference guides to confirm the meanings of w
(pp )

10. Appendices
Educational Functioning Level Descriptors for Adult Basic Education, National Reporting System, (pp )
English Language Proficiency Standards for Adult Education and ELP Standard Level 1-5 Descriptors (pp )
New NRS Implementation guidelines to be released as soon as this month!
See page 2 of Table of Contents. There are five appendices
A. New NRS Descriptors
New ELP Standards
Acronyms and Vocabulary
Description of the Development Process
List of Standards Working Group members, practitioners, SMEs and others who worked on the proct.

11. Why?

12. Text Lexile Measure (L)
Lexile Framework® for Reading Study Summary of Text Lexile Measures
p. 53
1600
1400
1200
Text Lexile Measure (L)
1000
The blue bars represent the interquartile range of lexiles for book selections for various collections. High school texts include all recommended texts for the Texas high school curriculum. The others are samples. Personal use documents and books were selected from a survey of reading materials necessary for “self-sufficient adults,” including things like newspapers, leases, contracts, common magazines and popular books. Examples can be found on the lexile website at > Educators> Tools .
800
600
High
School
Literature
College
Literature
High
School
Textbooks
College
Textbooks
Military
Personal
Use
Entry-Level
Occupations
SAT 1,
ACT,
AP*
* Source of National Test Data: MetaMetrics
Interquartile Ranges Shown (25% - 75%)

13. History
Year
Action
2008
Texas Adult Education Content Standards and Benchmarks (TAECSB)
2009
Texas College and Career Readiness Standards (TCCRS)
2011
Gap analysis between TAECSB & TCCRS
2013
Federal CCRS
2014  
WIOA passed
2016
Revised Texas AEL Content Standards
2017
Requirement in year 4 contracts
3/8/2017

14. ELAL - What is different from 2008?
2016
2008
Focus on reading and writing for an academic environment Includes Speaking New: Research section New: Computer skills New: Teamwork standard
Focus on reading and writing for a variety of purposes
TIME: 6 minutes
Look at each change and ask why? Because of the emphasis on transition to postsecondary or to employment or job training.
Discuss the “Why” for each of the new sections.

15. Math - What is different from 2008?
2016
2008
Focus on numerical fluency and problem solving Benchmarks written on basis of progression levels
Focus on mathematical processes/practices and college and career readiness Benchmarks written to align with K-12 standards and are much more rigorous
TIME: 3 minutes
Look at each change and ask why?
First: Because of the emphasis on transition to postsecondary or to employment/career training.
Second: Higher expectations and rigor are part of the reason for the new emphasis and format was changed to align to the Texas K-12 standards and better state those expectations.

16. ESL - How Are These Different?
2008
2016
Focus on basic personal communication skills Less rigorous
Focus on proficiency skills required for academic environments Emphasis on all 4 skills- speaking, listening, reading and writing. More rigorous
TIME: 1 min

17. How?

18. Unpacking the Standards
To unpack standards means to do a close reading of the standard and, using evidence from it, be able to determine what students need to know and be able to do to meet the demands of that standard.
TIME: 2 minutes

19. Communities of Practice: CCRS, Session 1
10/27/2014
What’s in a Standard?
situations where learners apply understanding of concepts and mastery of skills
Skills
Context*
Concepts
what learners are expected to do to demonstrate mastery
information or ideas that learners are expected to know
TIME: 1 minutes
Standards are made up of skills, concepts, and sometimes context. Context is not present in every standard, so it’s marked here with an asterisk to remind you of that. Let’s take a look at what is meant by skills, concepts, and context. Use Handout 4 to take notes during the explanation of each of these standard components.
October 2014

20. Example: Skills, Concepts and Context
Content Area: Math
Subarea: II.8 Financial Literacy
Standard: Develop and use an economic way of thinking and problem solving useful in one’s life as a knowledgeable employee, consumer, provider, and investor.
Benchmark: Calculate and compare simple interest and compound interest as it applies to saving, borrowing, and lines of credit.
What do students need to be able to do (skills)?
Calculate
Compare
Sample classroom activity:
In what context?
Saving
Borrowing
Lines of credit
What do students need to know (concepts or content)?
Simple interest
Compound interest
TIME: 4 minutes
Refer them to the actual handout.

21. a good thing or a bad thing?
Backward Design
a good thing or a bad thing?
Backward Design is a method of designing educational curriculum by setting goals before choosing instructional methods and forms of assessment.

22. What’s next?

23. Content Standards Rollout

24. Standards Alignment to Industry Clusters
Awarded to Literacy Texas in June 2017
Healthcare Science
Advanced Manufacturing
Construction and Extraction
Transportation, Distribution & Logistics

25. How this might work O*Net, https://www.onetonline.org/find/zone
Browse by Job Zone
Select Preparation Level
Select Occupation
Review knowledge and skills requirements
Cross check with Texas LMCI
Cross check with Texas Content Standards

26. Q & A
John & Beth

27. Contact Information
John Stevenson Adult Education & Literacy Texas Workforce Commission