nationwide movement to ensure that kindergarten through grade twelve students gain the necessary
literacy, mathematical, scientific, civic, and English language understandings and practices required in
21st century civic life, higher education, and workplace communities.
According to the NGA Center for Best Practices and the CCSSO, the standards “define the
knowledge and skills students should have [mastered] within their
K–12 education careers so that they will graduate high school able
to succeed in entry-level, credit-bearing academic college courses
and in workforce training programs” (NGA/CCSSO 2010a, About
the Standards). Moreover, the standards are designed to provide
guidance on what students need to know while California and its
local education agencies work together to formulate how students
engage in learning and thereby create an accessible roadmap
for teachers, administrators, community members, parents, and
students to navigate the pursuit of these important instructional
goals.
Intent of the CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy
The CDE’s 2011 transition plan, A Blueprint for Great Schools, expresses the vital importance of
the CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy and Mathematics in achieving California’s goals for its students. “The
highest performing school systems in the world prepare their students to apply rigorous academic
content knowledge to real life situations. The end goal is to foster each student’s ability to create
innovative solutions for complex problems and to bring higher levels of economic prosperity and
social cohesion. As a result, these students are better able to lead productive and prosperous adult
lives. Every California student deserves these same opportunities. In our increasingly complex society,
students need to use knowledge in flexible ways, and develop complex reasoning and problem solving
skills and abilities to collaborate and communicate in multiple forms” (CDE 2011, 11).
The introduction of the CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy provides a portrait of students who meet the
standards. These students “readily undertake the close, attentive
reading that is at the heart of understanding and enjoying
complex works of literature. They habitually perform the critical
reading necessary to pick carefully through the staggering amount
of information available today in print and digital media. They
actively seek the wide, deep, and thoughtful engagement with
high-quality literary and informational texts that builds knowledge,
enlarges experience, and broadens worldviews. They reflexively
demonstrate the cogent reasoning and use of evidence that is
essential to both private deliberation and responsible citizenship in
a democratic republic. In short, students who meet the standards
develop the skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening that
are the foundation for any creative and purposeful expression in
language” (CDE 2013a, 2–3).
This portrait, coupled with the following statement of the “Capacities of Literate Individuals” (see
also the introduction to this ELA/ELD Framework, figure I.1), depicts the capabilities that successful
California students will achieve. “As students advance through the grades and master the standards
in reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language, they are able to exhibit with increasing fullness
and regularity these capacities of the literate individual. They demonstrate independence; they build
strong content knowledge; they respond to the varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and
Moreover, the standards
are designed to provide
guidance on what students
need to know while
California and its local
education agencies work
together to formulate
how students engage in
learning...In our increasingly complex
society, students need
to use knowledge in
flexible ways, and develop
complex reasoning and
problem solving skills and
abilities to collaborate and
communicate in multiple
forms.Overview of Standards Chapter 1 | 17