Standards

===Standards-based education is a process for planning, delivering, monitoring and improving academic programs in which clearly defined academic content stadards provide the basis for content in instruction and assesment. === === (U.S. Department of Defense Education Activity) ===

===Standards-based education was born out of the education reform, here in the United States, in the 1980's and put into writing the expectations of what students should know and what they should be able to do in a clear and measurable way. ([|Wikipedia information on Standards-based Education]) ===
 * ===Standards-based systems increase student achievement ===
 * Teachers know what the standards are and choose classroom activities and teaching strategies that enable students to achieve the standards.
 * Students know the standards and can see scoring guides that embody them.
 * Parents know them and can help students by seeing that their homework aligns with the standards.
 * Administrators know what is necessary to attain the standards and provide professional development, resources and materials to ensure that students are able to reach the prescribed standards.

===With this outcome based educational model both teachers and students alike can, and should, have a clear understanding of what is to be expected of them. All students, regardless of race, sex, poverty level, or and bias should be able to perform on an high level, but developmentally appropriate. Testing is frequent, so as to compare students to one another, with the hope of narrowing the gap between races, income and gender. ===

===This system varies dramatically from that of the norm-referenced based system of education. Under norm-referenced systems some students were believed to be naturally smarter than other, there for the content matter would vary from group to group. Children were assessed on what they knew compared to other students and student s who needed the most of the resources were the least likely to get them. With standards-based all students are believed to be able to learn and content matter is the same for everyone. Assessments compare students against set benchmarks and resources are given to students who need more resources. ===

===**The Pennsylvania Standards Aligned System (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. ===
 * ===Standards- PA's academic standards define what a student should know as the result of instruction. ===
 * ===Assessment- offers tools and resources to support the process of assessment and documenting student learning in order to improve professional practice achievement. ===
 * ===Curriculum Framework-Drawn from the Academic Standards, the Curriculum Framework is a set of teaching topics by subject and grade level, further defined via Big Ideas, Concepts, Competencies, Essential Questions, and Vocabulary. ===
 * ===Instruction-PA has adopted Charlotte Danielson's Framework fro Teaching as the overall vision for effective instruction in the Commonwealth. The model focuses the complex activity teaching by defining four domains of teaching responsibility. ===
 * ===Materials & Resources- Materials and Resources support standards aligned structure and include voluntary model curriculum, learning progressions, units, lesson plans and multi-media communication use in planning and delivering instruction. ===
 * ===Planning and preparation ===
 * ===Classroom environment ===
 * ===Instruction ===
 * ===Professional responsibilities ===
 * ===<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Safe and Supportive Schools- Safe and Supportive Schools supplies and exemplars to promote active student engagement in a safe and positive learning environment. Areas within the element include the following: ===
 * ===<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Engagement ===
 * ===<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Safety ===
 * ===<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Environment ===
 * [|Pa SAS]