State Education Standards
Each state in the U.S. has
its own set of standards and assessment requirements. Links to the various
state curriculum standards pages are listed below with a short description of
what the standards represent in each of the states.
State Curriculum Standards
OR PA RI SC SD TN TX
UT VT VA WA WV WI WY
The State Board of
Education adopted content standards identifying what students should know and
be able to do in six major academic areas. Benchmarks have been set within the
content areas, specifying what content will be covered in state tests, and
performance standards measure student achievement of the benchmarks.
These standards are periodically removed from the site
while they are updated. Please check back if this is the case.
Over 350 people throughout the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania assisted in the development of the academic standards called
Chapter 4. They included parents, business and community leaders, teachers,
higher education professors, school administrators and Department of Education
staff. In developing the Pennsylvania Academic Standards, the development
committees reviewed and used national benchmarks, other states’ standards
and international academic standards.
Chapter 4 currently covers Reading, writing and Speaking,
and Mathematics. Additional standards are under review and can be found at Standards in Progress.
There are two
kinds of standards in Rhode Island, content standards and performance standards. Content Standards describe what students need to know, understand, and be
able to do in a specific content area such a s English language arts or
mathematics. Performance standards tell how well the student has to perform to achieve or
exceed the standard.
Content
standards can be drawn from many sources. There are those developed by
national organizations such as the National Council of Teachers of English
(NCTE) and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). Other
sources of content standards are the Rhode Island state Frameworks (English
language arts, mathematics, science, and health) and the New Standards for
English language arts, mathematics, science, and applied learning. Each school district in the state
selects or adapts from among these various sources those content standards they
want their students to know and be able to do.
The South
Carolina Curriculum and Standards Office provides leadership and service to
students, teachers, administrators, and parents throughout South Carolina in
the implementation of standards-based education. They revise and disseminate curriculum standards in English language arts,
foreign languages, health and safety education, mathematics, physical education,
science, social studies, and visual and performing arts. Their curriculum content specialists design and implement needs-based
professional development to assist teachers and administrators in the
implementation of effective classroom instruction.
The South
Dakota Content Standards
articulate an essential core of knowledge and skills that the state as a whole
wants students to master. Standards clarify what students are expected to know
and be able to do at various points in their K-12
academic career. Local adoption and implementation of state standards ensures that the education
students receive is consistently strong across all of South Dakota, and that
completion of high school has common meaning throughout the state.
The Tennessee Curriculum
Frameworks contain the broad goals and objectives,
which identify the minimum content required at each grade level and for each
course from
K-12. The
approved frameworks are the basis for planning instructional programs in each
local school system.
The Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills documents (TEKS)
are the center of the curriculum throughout Texas schools and, as such, define
the basic content of the instructional program. TEKS outline the knowledge and skills required of every
student by the statewide accountability system. The guidelines are extensive,
ranging from Preschool guidelines through the core subjects and extending even
to supplemental subjects such as marketing and agriculture. The State Standards may be
downloaded as a PDF file.
The State Board of Education established a policy in 1984
requiring the identification of specific Core Curriculum Standards, which must
be completed by all students K-12 as a requisite for graduation from Utah's
secondary schools.
The Core
Curriculum represents those standards of learning that are essential for all
students. They are the ideas, concepts, and skills that provide a foundation on
which subsequent learning may be built.
The purpose of
Vermont’s Framework of Standards and Learning Opportunities is to improve
student learning. The standards
will be used in three ways: to provide a structure from which standards-based
district, school, and classroom curriculum can be developed, organized,
implemented, and assessed; to provide the basis for the development of a state,
local, and classroom comprehensive assessment system; and to make explicit what
may be included in statewide assessments of student learning.
Statewide assessments
focus on students’ use of knowledge and skills from the three fields of
knowledge.
The
Standards of Learning in Virginia identify academic content for essential
components of the curriculum at different grade levels for Virginia's public
schools. Standards are identified for kindergarten through grade eight and for
a core set of high school courses.
Washington has never had common goals for which students
and educators were accountable. Earlier attempts to set standards left districts
to develop their own lists, and there was no coherent attempt to measure
achievement.
After much study, intense discussion and thoughtful public
debate, statewide academic standards have been developed for the
"basics"--reading, writing, communication, and mathematics, and for
science, history, geography, civics, economics, arts, and health &
fitness. These standards are
called the Essential Academic Learning Requirements. They represent the specific
academic skills and knowledge students will be required to meet in the
classroom.
West Virginia’s
Instructional Goals and Objectives cover K-12 core subjects such as
Mathematics, English, and Science as well as six key
areas of process skills. These are essential skills that students need for
successful entry into work or post-secondary education. The ability to solve
problems, communicate successfully, work with others, apply sound judgment,
establish clear objectives for advancing career interest and utilize technology
to assist with specific tasks.
Wisconsin has published an
extensive set of academic standards called the Wisconsin Model Academic
Standards. As well as English, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies, the
standards cover additional subjects such as dance, music, marketing, and
technology, just to name a few. Each set of standards is presented in its own
self-contained booklet.
The Wyoming State Standards specify what students must
master. They are not instructional curricula, nor are they technical documents,
used by teachers to guide day-to-day instruction. Teachers ensure that students
achieve standards by using a range of instructional strategies that they select
based on their students' needs. Core subjects are covered and there are
additional subjects listed, although some remain in draft form.
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