The nation, state and local efforts to create academic standards for all students are in various stages of alignment with each other. They will strongly influence classroom level choices as to what students need to be taught and how they are assessed. Your Union, through its members, is actively involved in this process.
One of the first national organizations to develop content standards was the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics (nctm.org/standards/). They recently released an updated Principals and Standards for School Mathematics. The searchable electronic version is at (http://standards.nctm.org/). Their Illuminations web site features instructional resources related to the standards. (http://illuminations.nctm.org/)
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (http://www.aaas.org/) has a long-term effort to reform science, mathematics, and technology education for the 21st century, Project 2061. The name is based on a consideration of the all of the scientific and technological changes that a child entering school in 1985 would witness before the return of Haley's Comet in 2061 Ñ hence the name, Project 2061 (http://www.project2061.org/) Their ScienceNetLinks (http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/) website has compiled some of the best resources for K-12 science educators.
The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and the International Reading Association (IRA) have 12 standards that offer guidance for the opportunities and resources students should have in order to develop the language skills they need. (http://www.ncte.org/standards/). The National Endowment for Humanities, EDsitement web site, includes Literature and Language Arts resources. (http://edsitement.neh.gov/literature.html?all)
The National Council for the Social Studies have subject matter standards that they believe teachers should know and be able to teach (http://www.ncss.org/standards/home.html). The Center for Civic Education has National Standards for Civics and Government (http://www.civiced.org/stds.html). The 18 national geography standards are on the National Geographic Society Expedition Web site along with many teaching resources (http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/main.html?STST=standards&STN=1).
The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages in conjunction with other foreign language teaching organizations developed Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century (http://www.actfl.org/public/articles/details.cfm?id=33)
The Consortium of National Arts Education Associations developed the National Standards for Arts Education (http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/professional_resources/standards/nat_standards_main.html). It is available, along with many teaching resources at the Kennedy Center ArtsEdge web site (http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/).
The Putnam Valley school system in New York has taken on the task of maintaining web links to state, national and international standards projects (http://putnamvalleyschools.org/Standards.html).
The Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL) has a searchable database of standards published by nationally recognized groups of subject-area experts (http://www.mcrel.org/standards-benchmarks/). It also includes a selection of activities related to the standards.
The American Federation of Teachers has been involved in a yearly rating of state standards efforts, Making Standards Matter (http://www.aft.org/edissues/standards99/judging.htm). The Ohio analysis is at (http://www.aft.org/edissues/standards99/states/Ohio.htm).
Ohio's content standards are currently just guides developed to assist local committees. They are variously called State Curriculum Models or Model CompetencyÐBased Programs. They can be found on the Ohio Department of Education Curriclum and Instruction web page listed as Curriculum Models (http://www.ode.state.oh.us/ca/ci/Default.htm).
Ohio is in the process of developing draft Academic Content Standards for what all Ohio students should know and be able to do progressing from elementary school to middle school to high school and for success in college in core academic subject areas: art, English language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, and world languages. They are being developed by the Ohio Board of Regents (Colleges and Universities) and Ohio Board of Education (K-12) through its Joint Council. The english and math content standards are available for feedback through the end of December. In January similar standards for science and social studies will begin development.
There are nine components to the mathematics and English/Language Arts standards released in August 1999. Each component contains a statement about why students should learn the materials, a breakdown by grade level (3rd, 5th, 8th and 12th) and sample test questions that students should be able to answer when they have learned the material.
The Ohio Federation of Teachers Coordinator of Field Services, Deborah Tully, encourages every teacher to log on to the website and give feedback to the Joint Council via the online form or via e-mail. We can and should help shape the standards created for our students.
At the local level, Cleveland Heights Teachers Union members are involved in writing and reviewing Courses of Study and creating Curriculum Maps to help align us with state and national standards and assessments.
The CH-UH schools are experimenting with online access to some of these documents (www.chuh.org/curriculum/) and the ability to link to teaching resources. The project began as a means of integrating technology into the curriculum. The district's technology goals (http://www.chuh.org/standards/) are based on the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)'s national standards for the integration of technology into the curriculum (http://www.iste.org).