Standards

-Standards based education is a process for planning, delivering, monitoring, and improving academic programs in which clearly defined academic content standards provide the basis for content in instruction and assessment.
 * What are standards?**

-Standards are an evolution of the earlier OBE which was rejected in the US as unworkable in the 1990's and is still being implemented by some and abandoned by others in Australia. The Standards have been limited to the core goal of the Outcomes-based education. The origin can be traced to Marc Tucker's NCEE which adapted aspects of the OBE into a system of standards and assessments for a Certificate of Initial Mastery.
 * How and when did they originate?**

- The uses of standards are to help ensure that students learn what is important rather than allowing textbooks to dictate a classroom practice. Student learning is the focus of standards.
 * What are their uses?**

-Teachers feel that standards articulate students, inform students about the standards, use rubrics and other methods to clearly communicate student expectations, provide feedback to help students provide performance, use teaching methods that suit the individual student's needs, and communicate progress towards the achievement of students.
 * What are they to teachers?**

-Standards help students describe the standards, use self-assessment and reflection to improve performance, take responsibility for their own learning, and communicate progress towards the achievement of standards.
 * What are they to students?**

- Standards based learning systems believe virtually all students can get smart enough through effort, content subject matter is the same for all students, assessments compare what students know to standards and benchmarks, resources are deployed as needed for all students to meet standards, and professional development focuses on improving instruction so all students meet standards.
 * How do they differ from other learning systems?**

-SAS is a collaborative product of research and good practice that identifies six distinct elements which if utilized together will provide schools and districts a common framework for continuous school and district enhancement and improvement.
 * What is SAS?**

-The purpose of SAS is to provide schools and districts a common framework for continuous school and district enhancement and improvement.
 * What is the purpose and function of SAS?**


 * The Six Components of Student Achievement (related to SAS)**
 * 1.) Standards-** What students should know and be able to do after instruction
 * 2.)Assessment-** Offers tools and resources to support the process of assessing, evaluating, and documenting student learning in order to improve professional practice and increase student achievement.
 * 3.)Curriculum Framework-** Set of teaching topics by subject and grade level, further defined by Big Ideas, Concepts, Competencies, Essential Questions, and Vocab
 * 4.)Instruction-** Planning and Preparation, Classroom Environment, Instruction, Professional responsibilities
 * 5.)Materials & Resources-** Support standard aligned instruction and include Voluntary model curriculum, learning progressions, units, lesson plans, and multimedia content examples for use of planning and delivering instruction
 * 6.)Safe and Supportive Schools-** Engagement, safety, and environment