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Explore the people, places, events, achievements, struggles and stories that shaped our journey.
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
Innovation, patents, science, technology and world-changing contributions.
Pioneers, champions, Negro Leagues, records, activism and excellence.
Meet the people whose lives, choices and achievements shaped the journey.
Black towns, communities, institutions and places where history happened.
Moments that changed communities, movements, institutions and the nation.
Katherine Johnson’s mathematical calculations helped guide some of America’s most important early space missions while she confronted the racial and gender barriers faced by Black women in twentieth-century America.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
Learning standards (also called academic standards, content standards and curricula) are elements of declarative, procedural, schematic, and strategic knowledge that, as a body, define the specific content of an educational program. Standards are usually composed of statements that express what a student knows, can do, or is capable of performing at a certain point in their "learning progression" (often designated by "grade", "class level", or its equivalent).
Learning standards have multiple uses in a modern education ecosystem. They can be links to content,[1] and they can be part of a learning pathway or progression.[2] Academic standards are the benchmarks of quality and excellence in education such as the rigour of curricula and the difficulty of examinations.[3] The creation of universal academic standards requires agreement on rubrics, criteria or other systems of coding academic achievement.[4] At colleges and universities, faculty are under increasing pressure from administrators to award students good marks and grades without regard for those students' actual abilities, both to keep those students in school paying tuition and to boost the schools' graduation rates. Students often use course evaluations to criticize any instructor who they feel has been making the course too difficult, even if an objective evaluation would show that the course has been too easy.[5][6][7] It is very difficult to find a direct correlation between the quality of the course and the outcome of the course evaluations.[8]
Student evaluations are a controversial method of assessing academic achievement. Recent studies have correlated high student evaluation of instructors with high grades rather than mastery of content.[9] Studies have also noted that students' understanding of assessment criteria can lead to enhanced learning experiences.[10]
According to a 2009 report by UNESCO, changes in the university structure in the late 20th and early 21st century have led to increasing access to or "massification" of higher education which has, in turn, resulted in both a diversification of the student population but also a general decrease in academic standards globally.[11]
An example of learning standards are state-developed learning standards as described below or the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) developed by the NGA and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO).
State learning standards are developed by state boards of education and enforced by state education agencies across the US.[12]
Learning standards are also present at the local level in curriculum published by school districts where they often take the form of guidelines by grade of what a student can or should be able to do, or possibly even activity level learning objectives. These often are based on the state standards but at a finer grain.
Learning standards can also take the form of learning objectives and content-specific standards and controlled vocabulary,[13] as well as metadata about content.[14] There are technical standards for encoding these standards that deal with K-12 learning environments,[15] which are separate from those in higher education[16] and private business.[17]
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The Common Core is a group of academic standards which focus on two main subjects: mathematics and English language arts (ELA). These standards are intended to ensure mastery of information and prepare students for entry into the next grade and beyond. The core originated as a way to standardize the way students were taught from state-to-state, and also the quality of information students received. The Common Core has now been adopted by 42 states in the US.
The Common Core standards are:
In the United States, textbooks such as Noah Webster's Speller promulgated specific knowledge to be taught to people at specific ages. Chicago superintendent William Harvey Wells expanded this approach by creating a course of instruction for Chicago Public Schools,[19] which he codified in "A Graded Course of Instruction for Public Schools".[20] Thus, the first learning standards originated as a result of content in textbooks, rather than through a systematic, democratic approach. In 1892, the National Education Association convened the Committee of Ten, which codified the first learning standards designed for a national high school audience. One year later, in 1893, the Committee of Fifteen on Elementary Education was formed to determine a standard number of years for elementary education, establish the content and sequence for elementary grades, and explicate a standardized course of training for elementary school teachers.[21][22] However, the Committee of Fifteen's work focused primarily on defining the timing, content and teacher training for urban schools. As a result, the National Education Agency further formed the Committee of Twelve on the Rural School Problem and, in 1897, released a report intended to bring about the "...widespread consolidation of American rural schools, [to mirror] the conglomerating urban areas of the country...".[23]
Later in the 20th century, the Core Knowledge Sequence developed by E. D. Hirsch may have contributed to cultural values espoused as learning standards and guides. The Knowledge Sequence provides a sequence for "... specific content (and skills) [to be] taught in English/language arts, history, geography, mathematics, science, and the fine arts"[24] and had been adopted by some large school districts[25]
In the US, regulation is at state level by bodies such as the Standards and Assessment Division of the Arizona Department of Education.[26] At present, learning standards have become an important part of the standards-based education reform movement, in which learning standards are tied directly to rubrics and assessments in many schools; standardized tests are often used for grade-level evaluations within districts and states, and across states; standardized exams are used to graduate students in many US schools.
In the UK, degree awarding bodies themselves are responsible for standards in higher education, but these are checked during inspection by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) and the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual). On its website QAA defines academic standards as 'The standards set and maintained by institutions for their courses (programmes and modules) and expected for their awards.'[27]
The Dearing Report recommended in 1997 that benchmarking be used to measure and improve academic standards.[28] From 1997 to 2011 this was done by code of practice and other guidelines known as the Academic Infrastructure. During 2012–13, this was replaced by the Quality Code for Higher Education, which included points about the availability of information about the learning experience to emphasize the role of the student as a paying customer of the institutions.[29]
In Germany the Kultusministerkonferenz (conference of ministers of education) defines, publishes and evaluates standards for different school graduation forms.[30]
Japan's Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Japan manages National Curriculum Standards. These standards define the content for classes in Mathematics, Science, Japanese language, Social Studies, Life Environment Studies, Music, Drawing and Handicraft, Physical Education and Homemaking at the Kindergarten, Elementary, Lower and Upper Secondary levels.
Singapore utilizes syllabi to "[describe] the primary content expectations for each level through topic lists, which are similar to standards. Details are differentiated for students in different streams, or academic tracks. All students will study content through what is called the O-Level".[31]
Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
Learning standards (also called academic standards, content standards and curricula) are elements of declarative, procedural, schematic, and strategic knowledge that, as a body, define the specific content of an educational program. Standards are usually composed of statements that express what a student knows, can do, or is capable of performing at a certain point in their "learning progression" (often designated by "grade", "class level", or its equivalent). Learning standards have multiple uses in a modern education ecosystem. They can be links to content, and they can be part of a learning pathway or progression. Academic standards are the benchmarks of quality and excellence in education such as the rigour of curricula and the difficulty of examinations. The creation of universal academic standards requires agreement on rubrics, criteria or other systems of coding academic achievement. At colleges and universities, faculty are under increasing pressure from administrators to award students good marks and grades without regard for those students' actual abilities, both to keep those students in school paying tuition and to boost the schools' graduation rates. Students often use course evaluations to criticize any instructor who they feel has been making the course too difficult, even if an objective evaluation would show that the course has been too easy. It is very difficult to find a direct correlation between the quality of the course and the outcome of the course evaluations.
In the state of Victoria, Australia, the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) was the curriculum framework for Preparatory to Year 10 school levels, which replaced the Curriculum and Standards Framework II (CSF 2) in 2006. Students starting Year 11 normally proceed to complete the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE), but other education options are available. VELS was superseded by the Australian Curriculum AusVELS in 2013.
The Standards of Learning (SOL) is a public school standardized testing program in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It sets forth learning and achievement expectations for core subjects for grades K-12 in Virginia's Public Schools. The standards represent what many teachers, school administrators, parents, and business and community leaders believe schools should teach and students should learn. The Virginia Department of Education, schools, and school systems routinely receive essential feedback on the effectiveness of implementation and address effective instructional strategies and best practices. The Standards of Learning is supportive of the No Child Left Behind Act, which was signed into law by then-President George W. Bush on January 8, 2002. They address student achievement in four critical areas: English, mathematics, science, and history or social studies. Students are assessed in English and mathematics in grades 3-8 and upon completion of certain high school level courses. Science and history SOL are administered in grades 4, 5, and 8 and at the end of completing high school courses in these respective subjects.
The National Science Education Standards (NSES) represent guidelines for the science education in primary and secondary schools in the United States, as established by the National Research Council in 1996. These provide a set of goals for teachers to set for their students and for administrators to provide professional development. The NSES influence various states' own science learning standards (such as the Massachusetts Frameworks), and statewide standardized testing.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Madam C.J. Walker
