Research Topic
At High School One (a pseudonym) a rural 2A high school in Central Washington State, students struggle with the rigorous reading and writing skills necessitated by the Common Core State Standards. The Common Core State Standards require students to use skills and strategies that include: making assessments, comparing and contrasting the same topic in several sources, integrating quantitative or technical analysis, determining central ideas and providing accurate summaries (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010). As Washington State has adopted the rigorous standards of the Common Core and the Smarter Balanced standardized test, the traditional teaching and testing
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Additionally, our assessments have been dominated by subjective multiple choice, matching and fill-in-the-blank questions that measure the students’ content knowledge, but not their ability to use higher order thinking skills. Over the last few years, however, because of the Common Core changes, we have begun shifting to the use of multiple texts and inquiry research to understand social studies and new objective assessments dominated by essay questions that require students to use higher order thinking skills to analyze, synthesise and evaluate information. Over the last few years at HSO, students ability to write has improved dramatically from direct instruction and practice. However, their ability to read and comprehend the information necessary for these tests has diminished. Arming students with the skills and strategies necessary for not only improved writing, but improved reading will positively impact student academic achievement in high school, on the standardized tests and in college and so it seemed like a topic worthy of