CORE STANDARDS Striving for High Standards in Education in Indiana Presented by Donna McLeish IMI Staff

The Core Standards: Highlight the “Big Ideas” of math for each grade level and content area

The Core Standards: Integrate multiple IN Academic Standards indicators that focus on the most important concepts presented at each grade level and content area.

The Core Standards: Outline a manageable number of concepts that all students must understand and be able to demonstrate proficiency of at the end of the year.

The Core Standards: Highlight the concepts that are central to each grade and are connected to subsequent grade levels.

The Core Standards: Set challenging and explicit goals for students that delineate which Standards indicators should receive the most instructional time.

The Core Standards: Support the development of assessments that focus on the concepts that are central to a grade level or content area rather than individual skills.

The Core Standards: Enable teachers to assess critical skills in greater depth and use student responses to guide further instruction.

The Core Standards: Provide the opportunity to integrate multiple content areas in the classroom by analyzing the connections among the manageable lists of concepts in each grade level and content area.

So, what are the benefits to educators and students? Since the Core Standards integrate rather than select from the IN Academic Standards, they are aligned with the State’s assessment system. Since they will be used during development of future statewide assessments, their use in classroom curriculum, instruction, and assessment is encouraged.

What resources will be available to educators? 1.Core Standards – statements that encompass various Standards indicators in order to encourage depth in curriculum and instruction as well as assessments that are instructionally supportive.

What resources will be available to educators? 2. Instructional Strategies – possible instructional approaches for each Core Standard 3. Examples – activity ideas for teaching each Core Standard

When will they be available? It is anticipated that in early October, 2007, the Core Standards will be made available to educators through the Indiana Department of Education’s website Strategies and Examples will follow shortly thereafter. »

Who has reviewed these Core Standards? Staff from the IDOE and Indiana Commission for Higher Education (ICHE) together with committees of K-12 teachers and higher education faculty identified the Core Standards for grade levels and content areas tested either through ISTEP+ or Core 40 End-of-course assessments or that have high student enrollment.

What Was Reviewed for these Core Standards? Grade levels and content areas reviewed include English/Language Arts K-12; Mathematics K-8; Algebra I, Algebra ll, Geometry, and Pre-Calculus; Science K-8; Earth Space Science, Biology I, Chemistry, and Physics; and Social Studies K-8; United States History, World History, Government, and Economics.

Who has reviewed these Core Standards? The Core Standards continue to be reviewed at this time. Achieve, Inc., the Fordham Foundation, IDOE, ICHE, and State content groups are in the process of a second external review.

Reviews of the Indiana Academic Standards of Mathematics 2000 by Achieve, Inc., The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, and other outside experts have deemed Indiana’s Academic Standards to be among the best in the nation for setting clear, concise, and jargon-free expectations for students and educators.

Core Standards will now set a new, higher standard for education in Indiana.