I have been
working on an online learning project involving four modules about fourth grade
social studies. I have based my lessons in these modules on the Colorado State
standards for 4th grade. The state standards for K-12
curriculum are published by the Colorado Department of Education or CDE. They
can be easily found on the CDE website. http://www.cde.state.co.us/standardsandinstruction The fact that I
would use state standards to guide my teaching and lessons is a given since
every public school and district requires teachers to use them. Documentation
from the CDE about state standards first introduces the standards in a
straightforward way, i.e. “4th grade history”. Under each standard is the outcome and skills a student needs to master, i.e. “organize and
sequence events to understand the concepts of chronology and cause and effect
in the history of Colorado”. Then under this outcome and skills are four
evidence of outcomes; inquiry questions, relevance and application, and nature
of history. There are bullet points under bullet points. And this is only one
state standard. Analyzing
the state standards got me thinking. Who makes these standards? Why are
they written as they are? How do they relate to other state’s standards? I have
always assumed the state government somehow created these standards to make
sure students learn at their potential and to organize the educational system,
even if some of the learning points seemed a bit high for target and a little
random. I wasn't too far off on the first part. The CDE website shows the
history of the state standards, created in 1993, http://www.cde.state.co.us/standardsandinstruction/cas-historyanddevelopment
by a house bill. Then committees were developed and meetings happened to compose the state standard documents in comparison to national and international
benchmarks. There is even a Standards and Assessment Task-force and evidence of
education-related action taken by the Colorado General Assembly. http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdedepcomI am glad to
know that our tax dollars are hard at work and that the standards I agonize
over are not dealt out arbitrarily. Thanks department of education!
