Developing Educational Standards
Organizations
Developing Educational Standards is an annotated list of Internet sites with K-12 educational standards and curriculum frameworks documents, maintained by Charles Hill and the Putnam Valley Schools in New York. Your help with updates or corrections is greatly appreciated. [This page was last updated on July 19, 2000.] -> Return to the Standards index page.
2 plus 2: The Home of Mathematically Correct
Mathematically Correct offers articles and other criticisms of math standards, particularly the NCTM standards and the California frameworks. The group has recently prepared its own draft Mathematics Standards for Kindergarten to Geometry, presenting it to the San Diego City Board of Education in January 1997.
Achieve
The Achieve Resource Center on Standards, Assessment, Accountability, and Technology describes itself as a private, not-for-profit organization with a mission of helping political and business leaders develop effective educational standards and effective means of assessing the outcomes of instruction based on those standards. One of its major contributions is the development and online publication of a Standards Clearinghouse that can be searched for each state's standards in the major subject areas. In September 1999, Achieve hosted the 1999 National Education Summit.
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science - through its Project 2061 - has put up its Benchmarks for Science Literacy. These contain benchmarks and a very intelligent and readable discussion of benchmarks as they relate to science, math, technology, and the interaction of all three areas. (Thanks to Mary Koppal of AAAS for this information and to Therese Sarah for a link update.)
American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education
The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education is working with the Council for Basic Education on a Standards-based Teacher Education Project (STEP) to examine and improve teacher education programs in light of local and state standards.
American Association of School Administrators
The American Association of School Administrators has a section on Assessments/Standards with links to various articles and reports the organizaion has sponsored over the past several years. These include a December 1999 article about dissatisfaction with high-stakes testing, a November 1999 article about how schools can prepare effective "report cards" for their communities, and quite a few other articles - and links to external sites and reports. In April 1999, the AASA magazine, School Administrator, published an article about Technological Literacy for Administrators that offers rubrics "to determine what you and other leaders should know and be able to do with information technologies."
American Association of School Librarians
The web site of the American Association of School Librarians, an affiliate of the American Library Association, has a section devoted to the K-12 Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning. In addition to the standards, the site contains some supporting documents, links to a PowerPoint presentation, and ordering information.
American Cancer Society
The American Cancer Society has created a Health for Success site containing the National Health Education Standards and a considerable body of supporting material. The latter include a page listing the standards and providing, for each, a rationale and performance indicators for grades K-4, 5-8, and 9-11. A separate page, called Opportunity-to-Learn Standards for Health Education presents separate standards lists for local education agencies, family and community agencies, state education and health agencies, teacher preparation institutions, and national education agencies. [Thanks to Therese Sarah, formerly of McREL, for alerting me to this site and to Jim Bogden of NASBE for notification of a link change.]
American Council on Education
The American Council on Education has published a study dealing with the Alignment of National and State Standards: A Report by the GED Testing Service that examines the degree to which there is concensus about standards in the areas of English language arts, math, science, and the social studies. The site has a link to a 263K Adobe Acrobat version of the study's executive summary along with ordering information for the entire document. (The GED Tesing Service is run by the ACE.)
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages offers a download library that contains an Adobe Acrobat copy of the executive summary of the Standards for Foreign Language Learning and Acrobat copies of several "white papers" that deal with standards and foreign language instruction.
American Federation of Teachers
The AFT's web site pages has several major sections devoted to standards. Academic Standards contains links to various AFT documents and newspaper colums about standards, including the November 1999 version of the AFT's Making Standards Matter. Like its predecessors, this report stakes a position about what it is that standards ought to be like and assesses the quality of each state's standards and frameworks. A second AFT page has information about the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, including an AFT policy brief along with quides and other information about the NBPT. Lastly, the AFT has published several Adobe Acrobat versions of documents about both teaching and content standards that are available on a Policy Briefs page.
American Historical Association
The American Historical Association has a link to the UCLA standards documents (which it helped develop) on its AHA and K-12 Teaching. This page also has links to several instructional resources.
American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges
The American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges (AMATYC) is hosted by the Illinois Mathematics Association of Community Colleges. The IMACC site contains the AMATYC math standards, Crossroads In Mathematics: Standards for Introductory College Mathematics Before Calculus, which contain frameworks and explanatory material about secondary math which are similar to many from the states. (Thanks go to Vernon M. Kays, Richland Community College, for this information.)
American Music Conference
The American Music Conference has links to a wide range of standards documents, FAQ's, and press releases. It also maintains a State by State Overview of Arts Standards Implementation that is very helpful to anyone looking for state level information.
ArtsEdge Curriculum Connection
ArtsEdge (from the Kennedy Center) (the "National Arts and Education Information Network") maintains a Curriculum Design Resource page that offers the National Arts Standards, standards from more than a dozen states, and with links to such related resources as assessments and curriculum planning tools.
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development provides excerpts from many of its articles and these can be searched by keyword. Go to their Web Search Engine and type in the word "standards." This will give you a list of articles from which you can pick the ones you want to read.
Association of California School Administrators
The Association of California School Administrators has published several articles about standards.
Association of College and Research Libraries
The Association of College and Research Libraries, an affiliate of the American Library Association, has released a December 1999 draft of the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. Intended for college use as they prepare their own students for lifelong learning, these standards build on and extend the K-12 standards developed jointly by the ALA and the AECT. The draft document lists five standards, with performance indicators and outcomes for each.
Brookings Institution
The Brookings Instiutution offers several pieces by Diane Ravitch about standards. These include 50 Ways to Teach Them Grammar (an argument for national standards othat riginally appeared as an opinion piece in the Washington Post on April 11, 2023) and a book called National Standards in American Education: A Citizen's Guide. The latter can be purchased online.
Center for Education Reform
The Center for Education Reform, founded in 1993, conducts research and publishes studies and advocacy pieces dealing with such prominent educational issues as charter schools and standards. Its section on Academic Standards and Curriculum offers a page with links to the "Report Cards" issued by many states, a page of frequently asked questions about standards, and links to various articles and books on related topics. The center also hosts the Education Leaders Council.
Computer Science and Telecommunications Board
In April 1999, the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board released Being Fluent with Information Technology. Its authors say it describes "the knowledge and understanding that individuals need to use today's information technology effectively and to adapt to and learn about tomorrow's information technology" - in other words, adult standards for information technology. The Board is a component of the National Research Council which is, itself, a part of The National Academies.
Council for Basic Education
The Council for Basic Education has set one of its goals as being reviewing various standards projects while a related goal is to help develop standards at a local level. With a motto of "Championing High Academic Standards for All Students," the CBE maintains an Academic Standards page that lists its current and past standards projects in various states and districts (it helps them review and assess their standards), provides answers for various frequently asked questions, and presents links to several articles. Elsewhere on its site it sells a kit to help districts with their standards, shows the findings of a 1998 poll it conducted about the public's view of standards, describes the Standards-based Teacher Education Project that aims to help colleges prepare k-12 teachers to work with standards, and presents Schools Around the World, an examination of the educational systems (including the role of standards) of nine countries.
Council for Exceptional Children
The Council for Exceptional Children has published several Professional Standards documents about teachers and teaching. These include international standards for entry into the field, standards of ethics and practice, a knowledge and skills standards for paraeducators.
Council of Chief State School Officers
The Council of Chief State School Officers' site offers resources on a wide range of educational issues. Those directly relevant to standards and frameworks are grouped on a Standards and Assessments page. They include surveys of state progress on standards and examples of standards and benchmarks in math and science. They also have articles dealing with standards for teachers and school leaders. Recent documents include a December 1998 report on education policies in each state as they relate to standards and other issues, a 1997 report on math and scienct content standards, and several reports on model standards for beginning teachers.
Council of Great City Schools
The Council of Great City Schools has references to standards scattered throughout its site - mostly as brief items in its publications. To find what it has currently, go to the CGCS Search Engine and enter the word "standards." A link to a page on "Instruction and Standards" was not active as of April 7, 1996.
Education Commission of the States
The Education Commission of the States has a varied and often changing set of documents related to standards. In late January 2000 the home page featured a December 1999 report on ways states are using "report cards" as part of their assessment programs (also available as an Adobe Acrobat file) and a January 2000 chart summarizing the status of professional standards boards in the various states. Several earlier reports in the Information Clearinghouse section, under the topic of standards.
Education Leaders Council
The Education Leaders Council, formed in 1995 by education leaders from several states, has a few articles and press releases supporting a general move toward the development of standards, primarily at state and local levels. The most recent is a January 2000 announcement of of a project to create "Results Card" that states could use to asess their progress on standards." The site also has links to Opportunity, the society's magazine of several years ago, and to policy statements about various educational issues, including standards.
FairTest
FairTest, an advocacy group that opposes "the abuses, misues and flaws" of standardized tests, offers a survey of state assessment systems for purchase and for online use. Its web site also has a large amount of information about tests and testing throughout the country.
Foundation for Teaching Economics
The Foundation for Teaching Economics has helped issue the the Voluntary National Content Standards for Economic Education. This contains 20 content standards, each benchmarked for grades 4, 8, and 12. (Thanks to Michelle Mason Winston of NCEE for this link update.)
Guide to Math and Science Reform
An Annenberg/Corporation for Public Broadcasting Project, the Guide to Math and Science Reform is an extensive, comprehensive, and searchable database of programs and groups that are engaged in activities designed to boost K-12 math and science educdation. A typical listing contains a description of a particular program or activity, when it was set up, who runs it, its web address (if it has one), and how to contact it for more information. Only a handful of listings deal directly with standards or frameworks but many others besides these are well worth exploring. (Thanks to Aden Dauchess, research coordinator at The Guide, for an update on this site.)
International Reading Association
The International Reading Association has an IRA Standards Activities page containing a brief history of the IRA/NCTE Standards for English Language Arts, a list of the core beliefs underlying the standards, and ordering information. (Thanks to Therese Sarah, formerly of McREL, for this update.)
International Society for Technology in Education
The International Society for Technology in Education has played a major role in the National Educational Technology Standards Project - a collaborative effort on the part of the federal government and various education groups to develop technology standards and performance indicators for both students and teachers. The Standards for Students (released in June 1998) cover six areas, ranging from basic skills through decision-making. In addition to some excellent supplementary material, the site offers a rich resource with its NETS Database of online lessons. Searchable by keyword, grade, and subject area (language arts, foreign language, math, science, and social studies), the database presents lesson plans with active Internet links and direct ties to major standards documents. The Standards for Teachers- (released in June 2000) describe six standards, various "essential conditions" for those standards (such as, access, professional development, and both community and institutional support), and expectations for teacher preparation programs.(Thanks to Therese Sarah, formerly of McREL; Scott Adams of Arkansas Tech University; and Dr. M.G. Kelly, Co-Director of the ISTE NETS Project for this update.)
International Society for Technology in Education
The International Society for Technology in Education has developed National Standards for Technology in Teacher Preparation that apply to college-level teacher preparation programs. Among the various sets of standards linked to this site are ones dealing with the kind of education those programs should provide their students, another set that details the skills and conceptual base students should have mastered at the time they begin their teaching careers, and an advanced set of standards for advanced students. The ISTE standards have been adopted by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). (Thanks to Talbot Bielefeldt of ISTE and to Therese Sarah, formerly of McREL, for update information.)
International Technology Education Association
Technology for All Americans: A Project to Develop National Standards for K-12 Technology Education is funded by the National Science Foundation and NASA and coordinated by the International Technology Education Association. A two-phase project, Phase I is trying to define the meaning of "technology" and, therefore, the scope of any subsequent standards. During Phase II, ITEA is developing model K-12 technology standards along with benchmarks at grades 2, 5, 8, and 12. The ITEA web site also contains various instructional and professional resources including such publications as the Journal of Technology Educaion and The Technology Teacher.
Linking Schools Through Language and Technology
A collaborative project involving the Connecticut Department of Education and Yale University, Linking Schools Through Language and Technology offers various foreign language resources including a draft of the Connecticut World Languages Curriculum Guide. The guide presents five goals (the same goals as the national standards). Clicking on a goal takes you to a page with several associated content standards each of which has links to relevant performance standards and sample learning activities for elementary, middle, and high school students.
Mass Insight Education and Research Institute
The Mass Insight Education and Research Institute seeks to have the private sector and public officials collaborate on issues that affect them both. One of its major topics is standards and, in particular, the way that Massachusetts is and ought to be assisting schools to help students meet the demands of new high stakes tests. The web site describes some of this not-for-profit corporation's members, programs, and recommendations. [My thanks to Andy Calkins, Mass Insight's Executive Director, for an update on this site.]
Mathematical Association of America
The Mathematical Association of America, though it is more focused on college teaching than on secondary schools, has published The MAA and the NCTM Standards: Some Recent History, by Ken Ross and Quantitative Reasoning for College Graduates: A Complement to the Standards (an exposition on what every college graduate should know).
MiddleWeb
MiddleWeb, a site sponsored by the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation and devoted to middle level education (with a particular focus on urban middle schools), contains thoughtful articles dealing with many subjects, including standards. An early 1999 addition to the site is an excerpt from Anne Wheelock's new book, "Safe To Be Smart: Building a Culture for Standards-Based Reform in the Middle Grades," published by the National Middle School Association. (Thanks to John Norton, Editor, The Focused Reporting Project at MiddleWeb for this information.)
National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy Press, a publication arm of the National Academy of Sciences, has placed the extensive and comprehensive National Science Education Standards on line. The site's table of contents can take you to a history, overview, and rationale for the standards; teaching standards, with some example activities; professional development standards; assessment standards; content standards; program standards; science education system standards; reference material; and credits, an epilogue, and an appendix. Individual pages do much more than follow a typical one or two sentence listing of standards of the kind often found elsewhere. Clear prose explains each standard, suggests teaching strategies, and offers clear and compelling reasons why science should be taught as a hands-on subject. Particularly useful are the numerous links to other pages among the standards documents, making it easy to follow a side path and them come back to the document you started on. This site should serve as a exemplar to other organizations placing their standards documents on line. The NAS has also posted its assessment of what a science teacher preparation program ought to look like. Its Science Teacher Preparation in an Era of Standards-Based Reform contains seven vision statements, each with a set of recommended actions for the National Science Foundation.
National Arts Education Association
The National Arts Education Association offers various documents for sale from its Publication List. These include Standards for Art Teacher Preparation, The National Visual Arts Standards, and Purposes, Principles, and Standards for School Art Programs.
National Association for Music Education
The Online Publication and Guides section of the National Association for Music Education's web site offers a variety of excellent resources dealing with music standards. These include the National Music Standards themselves (in both English and Spanish), opportunity-to-learn standardsfor music, and several articles or position papers that explore or explain standards related issues. (Thanks to Peggy Senko, the association's Director of Publications, for information about this link.)
National Association for Sport and Physical Education
The National Association for Sport and Physical Education's site contains several resources. The National Standards for Physical Education lists seven standards along with some background information and a rationale. The National Standards for Athletic Coaches presents 37 standards. More expansive versions of both documents can be purchased from NASPE. Publications dealing with Basic Standards for Professional Preparation in Exercise Science and National Standards for Beginning Physical Education Teachers can be ordered but do not have online excerpts.
National Association of Secondary School Principals
The National Association of Secondary School Principals offers relevant excepts from several of its publications. These include the January/February 1999 issue of Schools in the Middle and the September 1997 issue of the NASSP Bulletin.
National Association of State Boards of Education
The National Association of State Boards of Education offers ordering information for several of its publications that deal with standards as well as summaries of some of those documents (look under the NASBE Publications heading in the site sidebar). These include a 1996 statement on standards-based reform for all students, and a 1997 position paper on statewide assessment systems.
National Board for Professional Teaching Standards
The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards is an independent organization working to develop professional standards for teachers. Its site currently offers a policy statement and five propositions that form the rationale for the creation of such standards, a desciption of the process used for standards development, and summaries of the standards already prepared (full text copies must be ordered from the board). Standards documents currently completed or in preparation include general ones for teachers of all ages and content-specific ones for English, math, science, social studies, the arts, vocational education, ESL, and special needs students.
National Business Education Association
The National Business Education Association has developed guidelines for National Standards for Business Education. These cover the areas of accounting, business law, career development, communications, computation, economics and personal finance, entrepreneurship, information systems, international business, management, and marketing. The web site has basic information for each category and ordering information for the complete document.
National Coalition for Family and Consumer Sciences Education
The National Coalition for Family and Consumer Sciences Education has developed sixteen National Standards covering such topics as the family, foods, and human development. Each standard also has several general performance indicators along with it. A note at the bottom of the page asks you to send email for more information or related materials. (Thanks to Barbara Woods, President of the National Association of State Administrators for Family and Consumer Sciences for information about this link.]
National Communication Association
The National Communication Association has published its 1998 Standards for Speaking, Listening and Media Literacy on its web site. The document lists twenty standards, each having its own performance indicators in the areas of knowledge, behaviors, and attitudes. An appendix describes how and why the NCA created the standards.
National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education
The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education page on standards has links to several key documents. First is its 1997, Standards for Identifying and Supporting Quality Professional Development Schools, along with a second report that specifically relates to technology. Second, anticipated revisions in that document appear in an Adobe Acrobat file called May 2000 Revised Standards. Third are new standards for elementary education programs. Fourth is a set of draft standards for professional development schools. And fifth is a page of links to program guidelines for seventeen specific subject and professional areas, developed in conjunction with related professional organizations. These areas include computing technology education, early childhood education, educational communications, educational leadership, English language arts, elementary education, health education, mathematics education, middle level education, physical education, reading education, school library media specialist, school psychology, science education, social studies education, special education, and technology eduction.
National Council for History Education
The National Council for History Education has issued a call for changes in history teaching called Reinvigorating History in U.S. Schools. While the document is brief and speaks broadly to instructional issues, parts of it have implications for social studies standards and frameworks.
National Council for the Social Studies
The National Council for the Social Studies has a Standards and Position Statements page containing links to an abbreviated version of Expectations of Excellence: Curriculum Standards for Social Studies and to its Teacher Education Standards. The latter is a lengthy presentation of what the NCSS believes individuals should know and be able to do if they want to receive degrees and certification as social studies teachers of what the organization believes colleges and universities should do to prrepare students to become social studies teachers.
National Council of Teachers of English
The National Council of Teachers of English has a selection of resources dealing with the NCTE/IRA Standards for the English Language Arts. These include a list of the twelve ELA standards, selections from the organization's book about standards, and a link to a discussion forum. On a different part of its site, the NCTE lists excepts from the Guidelines for the Preparation of Teachers of the English Language Arts. (Both documents can be downloaded as Adobe Acrobat documents.) An online catalog lists numerous books that deal with standards. (Thanks to Martha Sierra-Perry for a link update.)
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
April 12, 2023 is rapidly approaching and with it the "rollout" of the Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. This page, from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, contains links to the new standards, articles from various NCTM documents and journals, and discussion forums. On a related note, the NCTM has set up a new web site, called Illuminations, filled with material related to the new principles and standards for teachers, students, and families. The site is divided into four grade groups (pre-k to 2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12), each with its own interactive math investigations, resources, lesson plans, and links to the standards. (The 1989 standards are online through both the and the A HREF="http://www.enc.org/reform/journals/enc2280/nf_280dtoc1.htm>Eisenhower National Clearinghouse for Mathematics and Science Education.) Finally, the council also offers relevant articles from its publications. One from January 1999 that is particularly interesting is Relationships Between Research and the NCTM Standards.
National Council on Economic Education
The National Council on Economic Education maintains an Economics America site and has helped issue a set of Voluntary National Content Standards for Economic Education. This contains 20 content standards, a supplementary handbook, various online lesson plans, and ordering information for the whole document. Covering grades three through twelve, the online lessons can be searched by standard, title, grade, or concept. Each lesson is fully described and is linked back to one of the economic standards.
National Dance Association
In a section of its web site, called Publications and Resources, the National Dance Association has ordering information for the national standards for dance education and the opportunity-to-learn standards in dance education.
National Dropout Prevention Center
The National Dropout Prevention Center, operating out of Clemson University and with funding from the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, has set up a Middle School Standards, Assessment, and Interventions site that reports its research on possible relationships between the implementation of academic standards in selected states and urban areas and the performance of at-risk students. The states are Kentucky, Nevada, New Mexico,North Carolina, and Pennsylvania while the school districts are in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Broward County, Florida; Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina; Clark County, Nevada; and Jefferson County, Kentucky. (Thanks to Undine McEvoy, Graduate Assistant at the National Dropout Prevention Center, for this information.)
National Educational Technology Standards Project
The National Educational Technology Standards Project is a collaborative effort on the part of the federal government and various education groups (including the International Society for Technology in Education) to develop technology standards and performance indicators for all students. For more information, see the ISTE entry.
National Geographic Society
Buried deep within the rich National Geographic Society site lies its Resources for Teachers. This page has links to a list of geography standards and to ordering information for the complete document. (Thanks go to Therese Sarah, formerly of McREL, for bringing this site to my attention.)
National Partnership for Excellence and Accountability in Teaching
The National Partnership for Excellence and Accountability in Teaching is a collaborative of more than 30 educational organizations and colleges, largely funded by a branch of the US Department of Education. Its goals include developing performance standards and assessments for effective teaching. As of January 2000, a page on Standards and Assessment lists three core questions and the promise of more information to arrive later on.
National Science Teachers Association
The National Science Teachers Association home page has information about various activities related to the development of science standards and frameworks. Its Scope, Sequence & Coordination Project, hosted by Microsoft's Global Schoolhouse, has an extremely comprehensive curriculum-focused site, billed as containing over 2000 pages of high school science teaching resources. The site has extensive sets of lessons and lesson materials for biology, chemistry, earth and space science, and physics - all tied to the National Science Education Standards (NSES) and the NSTA's Scope, Sequence, and Coordination subject areas. You can browse or search the site by topic, keyword, or grade level to find more detailed listings within a topic. These lead to "MicroUnits" - some completed and some still in progress - which contain both teacher and student material. These can be downloaded as Adobe Acrobat files or read on line with the Acrobat plug-in. (Be forewarned, however, that the files are quite large and you may spend a lot of time downloading them or waiting for them to appear on your screen.) Completed units have been tested in classrooms and appear to be a gold mine for both new and experienced teachers. (Thanks to Joelle McGinnis, Marketing Associate for Marcy Monyek and Associates, for this information. Thanks also to Diane Holben of the Saucon Valley High School for some updated information.)
National Staff Development Council
The National Staff Development Council (NSDC) has created a set of Standards for Staff Development that focus on the best strategies for implementing staff training (and focus away from the simple act of counting participants as a measure of success). The standards page also has links to various articles that deal with standards-driven staff development.
New American Schools
The New American Schools/A> offers various Publications related to its schools redesign mission. Among them is an Adobe Acrobat copy of How to Make the Link Between Standards, Assessments, and Real Student Achievement.
Organization of American History
The Organization of American History supported the history standards in a Newly Revised History Standards press release.
Parent Teacher Association
The PTA has published six National Standards for Parent/Family Involvement Programs and has put the standards, a rationale, research results, quality indicators, sample activites, a model parent/family involvement policy, and a lot more on its web site.
Phi Delta Kappa
Phi Delta Kappa has placed selections from its Kappan magazine online, including some dealing with standards and their role in schools.
RAND
A 1999 RAND Research Brief called Test-Based Accountability Systems reports on Kentucky's high stakes testing system, KIRIS, warning that initial gains on such tests may be due more to teaching to the test than to real gains in student learning.
Sports Media
A HREF="Sports Media">Sports Media is an international sports organization, based in Belgium, whose site offers a range of instructional resources for physical education teachers. These include links to various standards and frameworks documents from throughout the US. To find these, go to the lesson plans section of the site and do a local search on either term. (Thanks to Guy Van Damme of Sports Media for information about this link.)
Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages
The Center for Applied Linguistics, in cooperation with the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, has developed a set of nine ESL Standards for Pre-K - 12 Students. The standards have three goals, each of which has three attached standards. Clicking on any one takes you to a page that lists the standard; provides descriptors (brief statements that elaborate on the standards); states sample progress indicators for grades pre-K to three, four to eight, and nine to twelve; and offers (or will offer soon) "vignettes" - or sample scenarios for different locales and situations that show how the standards could be used. In addition, TESOL has an ESL Standards for Pre-K-12 Students page containing links to supplementary documents and instructional ideas. (Thanks to Chris Montone, Research Assistant and Webmaster of the Center for Applied Linguistics, for this information. He wishes to acknowledge the cooperation between TESOL and CAL and the work of Deborah Short and Emily Lynch Gomez. Thanks also to Jennifer Locke of CAL, for an update about the standards.)
Thomas B. Fordham Foundation
The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, successor to the Educational Excellence Network, sponsors studies and programs that advance its mission to advance educational standards and create a core curriculum. Among the many reports and resources on its site are a January 2000 report on The State of State Standards 2000, edited by Chester Finn. A large document (over 500k), it assesses standards by subject area (English, history, geography, math, and science) and by state. It concludes that standards have improved slighltly from an assessment made in 1997 but that they are still relatively poor. A second document released in January 2000 examines standards of teacher preparation in New Jersey in light of that state's alternative certification program. A Standards, Testing and Accountability page lists a number of other reports prepared for the foundation. (Thanks to Therese Sarah, editor of Lesson Stop, for this update.)
Web66
Web66, through its Mustang site, has published an early, somewhat out-of-date version of the Minnesota State Graduation Standards on a Required Profile of Learning page. (Thanks go to Stephen E. Collins of Mustang for the update.)
William G. Quirk Seminars
Very critical of the NCTM math standards as artifacts of progressive education that fail to emphasize explicit math concepts, Quirk has developed a web site called The Truth About Math Standards and Information-Age Math Reform. It currently has extensive critiques of both national and New Jersey standards, called The Truth About the NCTM Standards and The Truth About the New Jersey Math Standards.
