Parents-
For the last several months (actually over a couple years) the educational community has been abuzz about the Common Core State Standards. They are being discussed in Congress and among other community leaders. To learn more about the common core feel free to visit the following site: http://www.corestandards.org/.
The core standards have set grade level expectations at a national level. So far, the CCSS is written for English Language Arts and Math. It has been adopted by 45 states. Regarding science, the standards will be called the Next Generation Science Standards. They are currently in a draft form and have been available for peer review. The second draft is scheduled to be released this month. You can find more here: http://www.nextgenscience.org/.
At this time there are no standards released for social studies. I believe it is in the works, but it could be a while before we find out more.
To find out about national assessments for these disciplines visit the following: http://www.smarterbalanced.org/. Smarter Balanced is the assessment group for the state of Michigan. At this time Michigan schools are scheduled to give these assessments in the spring of 2014. As parents you are able to view assessment items and even take sample items and performance tasks, plus try out a few assessment questions. To do that go here: http://www.smarterbalanced.org/sample-items-and-performance-tasks/. You'll need to select ELA or Math sample items. I believe that the more we know as parents, the better able we are to prepare our children (and students) for the rigorous work that awaits them over the rest of their educational career!
Be sure to let me know if you have questions!
Mrs. Perrien
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