Making Sense of State Standards

Whether you are a veteran teacher or a newcomer, it is essential to understand what the state mandates your students to understand by the end of your class.  Your state’s standards give you the skills your students must master by the end of your class.  In order to be a successful teacher in a standards age, it is imperative to thoroughly understand what you are expected to teach.

History of Standards

In the 1990’s President George H. W. Bush set broad education goals with all state governors for the youth of America to meet by 2000.   President Bill Clinton and Congress passed the Goals 2000 : Educate America Act which created laws for the states and began the creation of standards by states.  Standards were put in place.  While George W. Bush was in office in the No Child Left Behind Act was passed.  Schools now must prove their students were achieving the standards by  testing.  Controversy ensues.

An Argument for Standards

Arguing for or against the standards as well as testing is currently a moot point, they are legally mandated.  So let us look at the good that standards create and how they help teachers be better.

Is This Just Teaching the Test?

Quality Instruction and Test Preparedness are not mutually exclusive concepts.  Effective teachers in an era of accountability do not set their sights on passing a test, but rather on nurturing a clear grasp of concepts, ideas, and skills.

Planning

Standards created by the state are the same for all students in the state.  The standards document is a great planning document that adds direction and expectations for teachers to pursue.  Unlike Public Schools, private schools often have no standards and the teacher is allowed to teach whatever it is that they please.  For some private schools a teacher may cover a lot, and others may only cover a small amount of content.  Public Schools are legally mandated to cover specific content and that makes the planning for the class very straight forward.  Without standards every classroom would be taught different content and many would not receive enough instruction.

Reading the Standards

Standards are often organized in to three tiers.  Each tier is more specific than the preceding tier.  The names of these tiers is different in each state.  By looking over the document you will see how each standard falls in to the tiers.

Standard or Strand

The broadest standard.  There are relatively few of these standards in the standards document, they are large and often require multiple teaching units to cover them.

Learning Goal

The next level of the standards.  This level is the building block of units.  The units you teach in class can include several learning goals.  A learning goal will take several days or weeks to teach.

Objective

The most specific level of the standards is the objective.  The objectives are often grouped together to form a learning goal.  You should aim to cover at least one objective in your daily lesson.

NC Grade 7 History

Standard: Red Circle

Learning Goal: Blue Circle

Objectives: Yellow

Visual Representation

Action Step

Create a document with your standards in an easy to read format.  Copy your individual learning goal and add the objectives below it.  Don’t worry about the highest level, the Standard.  We want a document that is just learning goals and objectives.  This document can be used throughout the year as you create daily lessons and unit plans.

Take it Further

If you found this helpful consider signing up for the Backwards Planning Course where you will be walked through this step by step.

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