Our children must leave this school system with the knowledge and skills that will open doors. The first step is getting clear about what academic success looks like. Content standards describe what students should know and be able to do in each subject. Performance standards show what good performance looks like in elementary school, middle school and high school. We also have new content and performance standards in science.
Teachers now have content standards for history, art, music, health and world languages.
Our third-graders should be reading books that are appropriate for their grade level and that challenge them. Those books become more difficult as they move up through school. And all students need to be able to summarize and draw conclusions from what they read. In math, elementary school students need to be able to add, subtract, multiply and divide. They need to know how to measure, estimate and use their math skills to solve problems, which get more complex in the higher grades.