Center for Standards, Assessment, and Accountability

Resource Type: Product or Tool

Second Year of Assessments Communications Toolkit

The Council of Chief State School Officers developed this toolkit to help states and school districts communicate before, during, and after the 2016 assessment testing window. This toolkit includes a broad number of adaptable communications resources ranging from talking points to a parent letter. Spanish translations are also available.  Users are advised to download the full toolkit, then selectively pick and adapt resources […]

The Assessment Transition Communications Toolkit

This toolkit is one of two developed by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) to help state and school districts communicate testing information before, during, and after the assessment window this spring. This toolkit is for states transitioning to a new assessment this year. (For states continuing with a second year of the […]

Implementing the Common Core State Standards: State Spotlights

The purpose of this document is to help facilitate ongoing networking between states, districts, educators, and parents. The state spotlights are also intended to be a quick reference document to support the sharing of innovative practices and lessons learned. Examples were chosen based on quality and accessibility of information via the Internet. CCSSO will continue […]

Cinderella (4th Grade Unit)

This examplar fourth grade unit contains six lessons and is based on a picture-book version of Cinderella. Activities include interactive readings, embedded vocabulary instruction, mini lessons on context clues and idioms, and an opportunity for students to write their own fairy tale.

Cinderella: Identifying Evidence from the Text

In this video clip, the teacher explains to two students how to find and use evidence from the text while reading a picture-book version of Cinderella. She encourages her students to differentiate between the information they learn from illustrations and from the text and also introduces them to the concept of “inference.”