THE PRACTICE: Standards All technology-enhanced activities should be deliberately and consciously aligned with local, state, and national standards.
Content Presented By:
NEIRTEC, Northeast & Islands Regional Technology in Education Consortium

Resources related to this practice:

• An Investigation of Heroism through the Holocaust and the Underground Railroad
  http://knowledgeloom.org/gmott/resources/frieslerunit.pdf

  This 8th grade unit plan, created by teacher Janis Friesler, integrates language arts, social studies, and technology standards and supports cooperative, project-based learning. It won Co-nect Schools' 2001 National Project Contest.

• Arlene Brown & Chris Rose's 4th Grade Unit on Living Things
  http://knowledgeloom.org/gmott/resources/brown_dti.pdf

  This unit plan, created by Arlene Brown and Chris Rose, integrates educational technology into a fourth grade study of living things. Before collaborating with Rose on the unit, Brown participated in a Designing for Technology Integration (DTI) workshop sponsored by The Northeast and Islands Regional Technology Consortium (NEIRTEC).

• Edtechnot.com
  http://www.edtechnot.com/

  This site might be called a meeting of ed tech leaders throughout the world. Its purpose is to bring those who are guiding technology use in schools together to discuss divergent opinions. The site includes information on plans, web logs, books, and ideas related to educational technology.

• Great Resources for Integrating Technology in Schools
  http://www.gritsonline.org/

  Some words may conjure images of the South, but none trigger those visions as quickly as "grits." Using this very Southern menu item as a symbol, SEIRTEC offers students and teachers a full helping of online, curriculum-based activities and resources. GRITS (Great Resources for Integrating Technology in Schools) is connected to curriculum standards in reading/language arts, math, science, social studies, and instructional technology from the six southeastern states (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina).

• ISTE Technology Foundation Standards for Students
  http://cnets.iste.org/students/

  To live, learn, and work successfully in an increasingly complex and information-rich society, students must be able to use technology effectively. These ISTE standards provide guidelines for technology use in schools. The information provided includes links to performance indicators, curriculum examples, and scenarios.

• National Council of Mathematics Teachers Standards for School Mathematics
  http://standards-e.nctm.org

  The Council's standards reflect, and are an extension of, the community's responses to demands for change. Inherent in this document is a consensus that all students need to learn more, and often different, mathematics and that instruction in mathematics must be significantly revised.

• National Standards for History in the Schools
  http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/nchs/standards.html

  These standards address one of the major goals for education reform contained in the landmark legislation, Goals 2000: Educate America Act. This statute affirms that by the year 2000, "All students will leave grades 4, 8, and 12 having demonstrated competency over challenging subject matter" in the core academic subjects of the school curriculum, with history being one of them.

• NCTE/IRA English Language Arts Standards
  http://www.ncte.org/about/over/standards/110846.htm

  The International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English present these standards for the English language arts. Their shared purpose is to ensure that all students are knowledgeable and proficient users of language so they may succeed in school, participate in our democracy as informed citizens, find challenging and rewarding work, appreciate and contribute to our culture, and pursue their own goals and interests as independent learners throughout their lives.

• Reality Check 2002: The Standards Movement
  http://www.publicagenda.org/specials/rcheck2002/reality.htm

  Since 1998, Public Agenda has conducted annual surveys in association with Education Week to find out whether the school standards movement is making headway. The surveys, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the GE Fund, ask students, teachers and parents about what's happening in their own schools, and they ask employers and professors for their perceptions about the skills of young people. These are the findings for 2002.

• SCORE (Schools of California Online Resources for Education)
  http://www.score.k12.ca.us/

  This site is an online curriculum guide with links and resources for math, science, social studies, and language arts aligned with California's standards frameworks. It is a good example of how one state supports the standards issue.

• The National Science Education Standards
  http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/nses/html/

  The National Science Education Standards present a vision of a scientifically literate populace. They outline what students need to know, understand, and be able to do to be scientifically literate at different grade levels. They describe an educational system in which all students demonstrate high levels of performance, teachers are empowered to make the decisions essential for effective learning, interlocking communities of teachers and students are focused on learning science, and supportive educational programs and systems nurture achievement. The Standards point toward a future that is challenging but attainable which is why they are written in the present tense.

• The U.S. Department of Education: Office of Educational Technology
  http://www.ed.gov/about/contacts/state/technology.html

  A valuable site listing the address, phone number and Technology Specialists for the Department of Education in each state as well as links to each state's website and state standards.

• The Union City Story: Education Reform and Technology: Students' Performance on Standardized Tests
  http://www2.edc.org/CCT/cctweb/public/include/pdf/04_1998.pdf

  This April 1998 report provides an update to prior reports about the successful school reforms in Union City, NJ and the role of technology within those reforms. It provides hard data about the positive impact of the changes on students test scores.

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This resource is developed and maintained by The Education Alliance at Brown University. Seed funding was provided by the U.S. Department of Education. Send comments to: loom@alliance.brown.edu