The Following are how I would summarize sum up some of our National, State and Local Standards:
ESEA 2002 (NCLB)
The Act encourages a closure of the achievement gaps in the academic setting at all levels of education. This includes the management of federal funding to schools and school systems based on overall performance.
Next Generation Science Standards
This is an update to current standards by showing interconnections of the various science disciplines and other content areas such as mathematics and literary arts. Additionally, adding critical thinking in terms of design problems as opposed to rehearsed lab experiment with a common result.
Project 2061
Project 2061 wants two things, a common set a knowledge for all students and provide an avenue for a student to pursue their own interests as opposed to a complete “lock-step” of all instructional items. This is done, in part, by producing a set of benchmarks as oppose to a set circurricula. This is done by given students the same set of tools, then allowing them develop other tool-sets to generate solutions.
Common Core Standards for Math
Common Core is designed around producing abilities in conjunction with skill sets. Skill sets pertain performing repeatable tasks, i.e. solving equations. Abilities address how to process and analyze a seemly new problem and solving with prior skill sets.
ISTE Standards for Teachers
These standards have teachers incorporate using digital media and platforms and allow student to explore and incorporate these digital outlets to enhance and to drive student experiences in education.
ITEEA Standards for Technology Literacy
Produces standards and a framework to coalesce skills from core classes and apply those skills in a engineering design format. This allows experience to drive the learning and questioning to dictate what is known and what needs to be determined.
APG and VERSO STEM Education Resources
Provides information on course descriptions and course planning for particular job and career paths. This resource also shows connection to standards taught in the core classes such as the sciences, mathematics and english.
Virginia 2010 Science & Virginia 2009 Mathematics Standards of Learning
Each site provides information on progression of standards through each grade and core skills that are required for testing. Additional information such practice tests and prior released SOL items are made available.
Virginia College and Career Readiness Initiative
This initiative was developed to prepare students better to move into both the technical workplace or onto further technical education. This was developed to fill a need a various technology based industries and productions job and careers.
