State Standards

Close up of student holding a pencil and filling in answer sheet on a bubble test.
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Assessment Why the Pioneers of High School Exit Exams Are Rolling Them Back
Massachusetts is doing away with a decades-old graduation requirement. What will take its place?
Sarah Schwartz, November 11, 2024
7 min read
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Artificial Intelligence 'The Backlash on AI Is Coming': 3 Early Lessons for K-12 Education
State education chiefs must figure out how to make the most of AI’s potential while steering around its problems.
Alyson Klein, March 22, 2024
3 min read
Conceptual image of magnifying glass and rating/grades.
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Assessment Q&A This Teacher Has Students Track Their Own Progress in Class, and It's Paying Off
Middle school teacher Erin Merrill gives her students the responsibility of tracking their mastery.
Lauraine Langreo, November 6, 2023
5 min read
Children drawing images of faces with emotions.
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Student Well-Being What 1 State's Saga Shows About the Status of Social-Emotional Learning
Missouri's board of education chose to redefine SEL standards as an optional framework for districts, citing confusion and division.
Libby Stanford & Arianna Prothero, October 31, 2023
7 min read
Teacher giving a lecture in a data classroom to a group of students
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Mathematics Q&A With Data Science in Demand, This State Is Infusing Instruction With It
Virginia has created a high school data science class and updated math standards to include more data analysis lessons.
Lauraine Langreo, September 19, 2023
4 min read
Photo of students creating charts on computers.
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Mathematics Students Need Better/More Data-Science Skills. Here Are 5 Ways Schools Can Help
Over the past decade, students’ basic data-science skills have been in decline.
Lauraine Langreo, September 18, 2023
6 min read
Image of happy and unhappy face symbols.
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Student Well-Being States Look to Social-Emotional Learning to Combat Student Misbehavior, Poor Mental Health
Experts say SEL can be a first line of defense against youth mental health problems and misbehavior, but political resistance continues.
Libby Stanford, September 15, 2023
6 min read
Photo of students taking test.
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Standards & Accountability Explainer What’s the Purpose of Standards in Education? An Explainer
What are standards? Why are they important? What's the Common Core? Do standards improve student achievement? Our explainer has the answers.
Sarah Schwartz, July 31, 2023
11 min read
Illustration of city buildings with financial, job, data, technology, and statistics iconography.
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Mathematics Project Good-Paying Careers in Data Are Booming. But Schools Aren't Teaching It
In Utah and other states business leaders are pushing schools to teach more about data science and statistics.
Sarah D. Sparks, July 31, 2023
7 min read
Lindsey Henderson, a secondary-mathematics specialist for the Utah board of education, talks about data science and the Utah Mathematics Pathways initiative with math educators during a seminar at Pleasant Grove High School in Pleasant Grove on May 30.
Lindsey Henderson, a secondary-mathematics specialist for the Utah board of education, talks about data science during a seminar at Pleasant Grove High School in Pleasant Grove, Utah, on May 30, 2023.
Jim Urquhart for Education Week
Mathematics Project Are Students Getting All the Math They Need to Succeed?
Advocates say reforms in math teaching are pushing out statistics and geometry and driving a drop in students' math scores.
Sarah D. Sparks, July 31, 2023
15 min read
Fourth-grade students Briley Williams, 9, left, and Jacqueline Naula, 9, work together in their English Language Arts class at Israel Putnam Elementary School in Meriden, Conn., on Dec. 9, 2022. School accountability measures show Meriden schools making academic gains including attendance and addressing social-emotional learning needs.
Fourth-grade students Briley Williams, 9, left, and Jacqueline Naula, 9, work together in their English/language arts class at Israel Putnam Elementary School in Meriden, Conn., on Dec. 9, 2022. Meriden schools have made progress on attendance and addressing social-emotional learning needs.
Dave Zajac/Record-Journal via AP
Student Well-Being Social-Emotional Learning Persists Despite Political Backlash
Social-emotional learning has generated a political backlash, but states are keeping SEL in their standards.
7 min read
Florida Governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis speaks during a press conference at the Celebrate Freedom Foundation Hangar in West Columbia, S.C. July 18, 2023. For DeSantis, Tuesday was supposed to mark a major moment to help reset his stagnant Republican presidential campaign. But yet again, the moment was overshadowed by Donald Trump. The former president was the overwhelming focus for much of the day as DeSantis spoke out at a press conference and sat for a highly anticipated interview designed to reassure anxious donors and primary voters that he's still well-positioned to defeat Trump.
Florida Governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis speaks during a press conference in West Columbia, S.C., on July 18, 2023. Florida officials approved new African American history standards that drew national backlash, and which DeSantis defended.
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Standards & Accountability Florida's New African American History Standards: What's Behind the Backlash
The state's new standards drew national criticism and leave teachers with questions.
Ileana Najarro, July 25, 2023
9 min read
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the historic Ritz Theatre in downtown Jacksonville, Fla., on July 21, 2023. Harris spoke out against the new standards adopted by the Florida State Board of Education in the teaching of Black history.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the historic Ritz Theatre in downtown Jacksonville, Fla., on July 21, 2023. Harris spoke out against the new standards adopted by the Florida state board of education in the teaching of Black history.
Fran Ruchalski/The Florida Times-Union via AP
Standards & Accountability Here’s What’s in Florida’s New African American History Standards
Standards were expanded in the younger grades, but critics question the framing of many of the new standards.
Ileana Najarro, July 25, 2023
1 min read
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Standards & Accountability Opinion How One State Found Common Ground to Produce New History Standards
A veteran board member discusses how the state school board pushed past partisanship to offer a richer, more inclusive history for students.
Rick Hess, July 20, 2023
10 min read