A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

What Is a Standard?

Academic standards describe what every student should know and be able to do in core academic content areas. They also define how students demonstrate their skills and knowledge.

In Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina, the 5th-grade social studies content standard sets a goal for students to be able to identify basic tenets of citizenship and government. They will, for example, be able to: identify three branches of U.S. government and describe their legislative, executive and judicial function; describe the three levels of U.S. government (local, state, and federal) and list examples of authority of each of them; compare how governments in the United States, Canada, and Latin America select leaders, establish laws, and receive their authority; explain specific changes that have taken place in government over time; and identify and state the significance of symbols, people, and events to the development of the United States, Canada, and Latin America.

In the state of Delaware one of the goals the mathematics content standard sets forth for students is to develop an understanding of estimation, measurement, and computation by solving problems in which there is a need to measure to a required degree of accuracy by selecting appropriate tools and units.

To meet this standard, students in grades K-3 will investigate meaningful problems, individually or in cooperative groups, using appropriate technology, and demonstrate that they are able to estimate and then measure length, perimeter, time, temperature, and weight/mass to the nearest unit using standard and non-standard units; determine the value of a given set of coins; measure and compute the perimeter of rectangles; and use multiple computational procedures with whole numbers.

[How a GOALS 2000 Approach Works]

[GOALS 2000 Activity Across the Nation]