4. What is Common State Standards Definition Why are they important? Photo by: Wesley Fryer's
5. How The Standards are Used Building a curriculum. Used for state standardized tests. Example for 10th grade Biology. How to read a grade and topics. B4.1 Genetics and Inherited Traits
10. The legislative efforts are being made What is trying to be passed? English Math Photo by: dbking
11. Conclusion What is Common State Standards? What is being addressed? The next step.
12. Works Cited Council of Chief State School Officers. CCSSO, 6 June 2009. Web. 26 Mar. 2010. <http://www.ccsso.org/whats_new/press_releases/13359.cfm>.
Editor's Notes
Common state standards are trying to be implied to the united states. This is in the news for many reasons. The first is it could impact money for a district. If a school does well on standardized national tests then they may get more money. The next reason I think they are trying to be implied is for the students. If national standards are set in place then all the schools in the nation would have to teach the same material. So this would mean all the schools in the USA would have the curriculum. The other reason state standards are wanting to be in place is for college prep. If students all get taught the same material, and that material prepares students for college. Then the common state standards should prepare students for college.
The main use for common state standards according to the council of chief state school officers is “To maintain America’s competitive edge, we need all of our students to be well prepared and ready to compete with not only their American peers, but with students from around the world. CCSSO and the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) in partnership with Achieve, Inc., ACT, and the College Board have initiated a state-led process of developing and adopting a common core of state standards (Common Core State Standards Initiative).” Should each state have there own call on what needs to be taught or should the whole nation follow one set of common standards. That is the debate along with this topic.
The common state standard is a list of items for each school to teach. For example all 10th grade bio students will have to learn about Cells. This would not just be a Michigan standard but all the 10th grade students in the USA would have to teach about Cells.The reason these are important according to council of chief state school officers is because “In the 26 years since the release of A Nation at Risk, states have made great strides in increasing the academic rigor of education standards. Yet, America’s children still remain behind other nations in terms of academic achievement and preparedness to succeed.” this is why they want to make a common state standards. So each student gets the same education, and that education will be tough enough that the US students are better prepared then other students in other countries.
When the standards do come out teachers then use it to build a curriculum. A curriculum is what teachers us to make their lesson plans.They are also used to put material onto standardized tests. So when the teachers do go to teach they will be able to help they students get ready to take those tests.So in 10th grade biology. So the “B4.1 Genetics and Inherited Traits is all about: Hereditary information is contained in genes, located in the chromosomes of each cell. Cells contain many thousands of different genes. One or many genes can determine an inherited trait of an individual, and a single gene can influence more than one trait. Before a cell divides, this genetic information must be copied and apportioned evenly into the daughter cells. B4.1A Draw and label a homologous chromosome pair with heterozygous alleles highlighting a particular gene location”(Michigan Department of Education).
K-12 and teachers for their curriculumACT: info on the test is incorporated in the standardsCollege prep is also used in the standards.
Schools: all schools would teach the same things that any other school in the whole nation will teach.If schools so well on state and national tests they may receive more money to help their school out.The community would also benefit from the success of students in their school system.
Schools: would need to adjust there curriculum. So if there school system had the state standards covered and then taught other things, they would have to adjust and make a whole new curriculum to teach.Students: This new standards will most likely be more rigorous then the curriculum in the past. This may mean harder classes for students. This can be a positive and a negative. The positive is the students will be more prepared for college or life in general. But if schools gets harder more students may feel like they need to drop out if they start to struggle with it.Teachers: teachers that may have been teaching something for many years may not want this. They might have the same lesson plan from years ago, but if they change the curriculum the teachers might have to write out new lesson plans. This is not a easy task because if something was working for a teacher then they have to start new it may not go as good as that teacher had been doing in the past.
Nation: The nation is trying to get every state to get a set of standards for each subject. They will take a action with bills and laws to try and get the whole nation to be on the same standards and same goals.States: All states have not yet come to agreements to a common state standard. I have not found information on why some states have not signed a common act. I think all states will one day come to agreement to all follow one set of standards.
Again form the CCSSO The Common Core Standard Initiative is the main legislative act I found so far to set a common core standard. This was set in place on June 1, and49 states and territories have signed on to an agreementThe national standards this agreement was set to fix is in math and English, Because if 49 agreed to math and English then the next step is the other main subjects studied in schools.
The main use for common state standards according to the council of chief state school officers is “To maintain America’s competitive edge, we need all of our students to be well prepared and ready to compete with not only their American peers, but with students from around the world. CCSSO and the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) in partnership with Achieve, Inc., ACT, and the College Board have initiated a state-led process of developing and adopting a common core of state standards (Common Core State Standards Initiative).” The Common Core Standard Initiative is the first big step top get common standards.With math and English both being passed in 49 states and territories, all the nation can look forward to is more subjects all having a common standard in all the states. The only thing we can hope for is that these standards will set the USA apart for the other countries so we can show improvement, other wise states and the nation will start to ask are common state standards even a help? I hope we do see a change and that one day our school system will compare to those other students who excel over the USA.
