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. Public Schools of North Carolina . . State Board of Education . . Department Of Public Instruction .

ESSENTIAL STANDARDS

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Science

The 4.0 Drafts of the standards are posted below. These updated drafts are the result of continued refinement from the three earlier drafts. Thanks to all who have contributed feedback through this development process. These drafts will remain open for public comment for the next 30 days. The Essential Standards will be taken to the North Carolina State Board of Education for approval in March 2010. Please send comments on the 4.0 drafts to feedback@dpi.state.nc.us.

The North Carolina Science Essential Standards maintain the respect for local control of each Local Education Authority (LEA) to design the specific curricular and instructional strategies that best deliver the content to their students. Nonetheless, engaging students in inquiry-based instruction is a critical way of developing conceptual understanding of the science content that is vital for success in the twenty-first century. The process of scientific inquiry, experimentation and technological design should not be taught nor tested in isolation of the core concepts drawn from physical science, earth science and life science. A seamless integration of science content, scientific inquiry, experimentation and technological design will reinforce in students the notion that "what" is known is inextricably tied to "how" it is known. A well-planned science curriculum provides opportunities for inquiry, experimentation and technological design. Teachers, when teaching science, should provide opportunities for students to engage in "hands-on/minds-on" activities which are exemplars of scientific inquiry, experimentation and technological design.

The Revised Bloom's Taxonomy

The New Essential Standards are written using the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy (RBT) under the guidance of one of the authors of the revision, Lorin Anderson. North Carolina has chosen RBT to help move to the complex thinking expected from 21st Century graduates. The RBT was chosen because it has well-defined verbs and is built on modern cognitive research. Below is a very short primer on the RBT. Webinars, tools and resources for understanding and using the RBT will be made available throughout the winter and spring.

The RBT categorizes both the cognitive process and the knowledge dimension of the standard.

Cognitive Process:
The cognitive process refers to the verb used in the standard. This chart (pdf, 76kb) shows the verbs used in the RBT. The RBT has specific definitions for all the verbs used in the taxonomy. For example:

  • Explaining requires constructing a cause-and-effect model of a system (e.g. explain the recent downturn in the global economy)
  • Inferring requires drawing a logical conclusion from presented information (e.g. In learning a foreign language, infer grammatical principles from examples)

A common understanding of those verbs will be at the backbone of professional development around the new standards.

Knowledge Dimension:
The knowledge dimension is a way to categorize the type of knowledge to be learned. For instance, in the standard "The student will understand the concept of equality as it applies to solving problems with unknown quantities", the knowledge to be learned is "the concept of equality as it applies to solving problems with unknown quantities."

Knowledge in the RBT falls into four categories:

  • Factual Knowledge
  • Conceptual Knowledge
  • Procedural Knowledge
  • Meta-Cognitive Knowledge

RBT Knowledge Chart
More detail on the sub-types of knowledge.
(pdf, 86kb)

Standards can be charted based on the cognitive process and knowledge dimension using a chart (pdf, 83kb). It is also important to note that although RBT standards focus on particular verbs, "most authentic tasks require the coordinated use of several cognitive processes as well as several types of knowledge." (Anderson, Lorin and David Krathwohl, A Taxonomy For Learning, Teaching and Assessing. New York: Longman, 2001. Pg. 89)

Throughout the winter and spring, DPI will be holding webinars and releasing materials to begin the transition to the new Essential Standards and the use of the RBT. While Bloom's Taxonomy is familiar to most educators, intensive professional development will be an important part of successful implementation of the standards and will be offered over the course of the next year and a half in anticipation of a 2011-2012 operational year for the new Essential Standards.

Note: North Carolina has signed on to a consortium of states (at current, 46 of 50) that is working jointly towards developing and adopting a common set of K-12 standards starting with Math and ELA. While the adoption process has not been finalized, these standards will likely not use the RBT exclusively. NCDPI, in partnership with all other states in the consortium, will ensure that all teachers have the support materials and training to successfully implement these new standards. For more on the work of the consortium of states, visit http://www.corestandards.org/.


Adopted Standards

The State Board of Education unanimously approved the Essential Standards for Math K-12, Instructional Technology, English 10, and Occupational Course of Study. The Department of Public Instruction, members of the educational and business community across the state have worked diligently for the past months to develop world class standards that are enduring, rigorous, and will provide the knowledge and skills necessary for the students of North Carolina Public Schools to exit the K-12 educational system prepared to be successful, contributing members of a global economy. Instructional toolkits for the approved areas will be developed during the 2009-2010 school year and will provide teachers with vital content information, instructional strategies, and resources that will assist them in the daily instructional process, all of which will be supported by the formative assessment and benchmarking tools currently under construction as well.


Mathematics


Occupational Course of Study


English


Information and Technology Skills


WHAT ARE THE ESSENTIAL STANDARDS?

Defining essential standards for K-12 is the key foundation of the Accountability Curriculum Reform Effort. The essential standards will be those skills, understandings and learning experiences that a student must master at each grade level to move to the next grade level. Essential standards are the "must have" goals of the curriculum and will help teachers focus on the higher-order knowledge and skills that all students should master. This should resolve the "inch-deep and mile-wide" concern about North Carolina's current Standard Course of Study and ensure that every student learns essential content and skills for the 21st Century.

For more on the mandate from the North Carolina State Board of Education to move to an Essential Standards Model, please read the Framework For Change (pdf, 3.4mb).


North Carolina Standard Course of Study Essential Standards Format
A key part of the ACRE work is defining the essential standards that need to be taught to students in North Carolina public schools. This chart shows the progression from the prior Standard Course of Study with its many standards to the new Standard Course of Study which identifies the essential knowledge that all students must master for success in a global economy.
(ppt, 143kb)

 

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