Standards must focus on academics
The purpose of setting standards is to improve students’ academic performance, not
to focus on social and behavioral issues. Statements such as
[A] student who is becoming a fulfilled individual uses the fundamental skills of thinking, problem solving, communicating, quantifying, and collaborating...to analyze personal strengths and limitations to improve behaviors, capabilities, and plans(from Virginia's Common Core of Learning Draft 1992, which was rejected after a massive public outcry) do not meet this criterion.
Standards must be grounded in core disciplines
When standards-setters abandon the disciplines, content suffers. Standards become vaguely worded and loosely connected, making the job of curriculum designers, assessment developers and teachers all but impossible.
Standards must be specific enough to assure the development of a common core curriculum
How specific should standards be? ....... Here are some questions worth asking about the standards in your state: Are the standards organized by grade levels or age bands, or do they in some way clearly delineate the differences in expectations for students at different ages or levels? Are the standards clear and specific enough to guide the development of curriculum frameworks that would describe the core units to be covered in every grade? .... If a textbook publisher and an assessment developer were to use the standards in their work, is it likely that the text and the test would be well aligned?
Standards must be rigorous and world class
One thing is certain, though. Nothing will be accomplished by setting standards that are too low ... If standards truly are rigorous and world class, they should stand up to some tough but sensible questions. Do they reflect various levels of knowledge and skills comparable to what students in high-achieving countries are expected to master? Which countries did the standards-setters use as a basis for comparison, and what documents did they look at to determine their standards? Will the standards lead to a core curriculum for all students - those headed for college and those headed for works - as demanding as in France or Japan? Are the standards as rigorous as those reflected in the French Brevet du College and the German Realschule exams, a standard met by two-thirds of students in those countries? Will they result in assessments for the college-bound as rigorous as the German Arbitur, the French Baccalauréat exams, the British A-levels, or the Japanese university entrance exams? Did the standards-setters refer to internationally benchmarked curricula and exams such as those of the International Baccalaureate program? What about the best programs and resources available in the U.S., such as the College Board's Advanced Placement exams and Achievement tests...?
Standards must include performance standards
Whether you look at the medical boards that prospective doctors must pass, the bar exams for lawyers, or the time trials for drivers to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 - performance is never dealt with in the abstract. For example, Indy racers are not simply told that "very fast driving" will qualify them for the big race. They know exactly what times they need to beat, and they plan their strategies accordingly. ...... Performance standards should specify how good is good enough. They should indicate how competent a student demonstration must be to indicate attainment of the content standards.
The Virginia Standards of Learning
The Standards of Learning for Virginia Public Schools are exceptional among the state standards and frameworks because they actually list sets of skills that students should learn and when they should learn them. They are judged by some to be less demanding than they should be, on the other hand, they are far better than the standards used in other states. The quality and nature of the Virginia Standards is no accident. As of 1992 Virginia was planning to adopt standards that were a complete recipe for a transformational outcomes-based education (OBE) program. As a result of parent outcry and regular and deep research into the nature of OBE by Robert Holland, a columnist and editor at the Richmond (Va) Times-Dispatch, Virginia pulled back from OBE and adopted true standards of learning.
Parents can download the Virginia Standards of Learning for Mathematics and study the recommendations for particular grade levels, including high school subjects.
The Core Knowledge Series, What Your Nth Grader Needs to Know, covers grades 1-6, with one book per grade. The books contain sections on Mathematics; Language Arts; Geography, World History and American Civilization; Fine Arts; and Natural Sciences. As noted in the introduction to the books, the content of the Core Knowledge Series is based on a document called The Core Knowledge Sequence, a grade-by-grade sequence of specific content guidelines.....The Sequence is not meant to outline the whole of the school curriculum; rather, it offers specific guidelines to knowledge that can reasonably be expected to make up about half of any school’s curriculum.
The introduction to the Mathematics section states The experts we consulted may disagree about the best techniques for teaching math, but they do agree that we must define with great clarity the outcomes we want to achieve in each grade. The main purpose of the math chapters in this series is to describe these outcomes with clarity and specificity. The summary outcomes were derived by consultation with various groups. In addition the authors also coordinated the recommendations .... with the math standards of the nations that produce top results in math achievement at the elementary level -- especially France and Japan.
Every successful program for teaching math to young people follows these three cardinal rules or early mathematics education: 1) practice, 2) practice, and 3) practice ... Well-meaning persons who want to protect the joy of the childhood years wrongly fear that practice in mathematics portends a soul-killing approach to schooling. Nothing could be further from the truth..... The destroyer of joy in mathematics is not practice but anxiety that results from training that has denied them systematic familiarity with the vocabulary, grammar, and spelling of mathematics.
In addition to general introductions to the topics found in each book there are specific introductions to the grade level materials as well as extremely detailed and example-filled descriptions as to what mathematics skills children should know at each grade. Specific notation is made of the fact that the material in these volumes is advanced relative to what many American schools require, but is aligned with what is taught in countries that are far more successful at teaching math than we are. The material is clearly presented and contains a substantial number of examples that a child could reasonably be expected to do. Although the math section is extensive (e.g. 65 pages in the 3rd grade book), it is not a substitute for a complete curriculum.
For those parents interested in useful and clear definition of a basic set of knowledge
and skills, Mathematically Correct highly recommends the Core Knowledge Series.
The books are available in paper back at most large bookstores for a
list price of $10.95 US.