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K-12 education content standards in Pennsylvania

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See also: K-12 education content standards in the states

This page features the following information about who sets K-12 education content standards in Pennsylvania public schools:

  • The state entity with the authority to approve K-12 education content standards.
  • Whether Pennsylvania requires or recommends that local schools or districts follow the K-12 education content standards.
  • The statutory or regulatory language in Pennsylvania governing the development and application of K-12 education content standards.

Background

State education officials develop content standards in order to facilitate curriculum development for public schools. This section examines the role of content standards in public instruction and the different state approaches that either require or recommend their use in public schools.

What are content standards?

Content standards are educational learning and achievement goals that state education officials either require or recommend that local schools satisfy in K-12 instruction. Content standards are not curriculum but rather aim to guide the development of what state officials view as a robust K-12 curriculum.[1]

The development of K-12 education content standards in public schools varies across the 50 states. State boards of education, state education agency leaders, and local school districts, for example, may play a role in the development and approval of content standards.

Do states recommend or require schools to follow content standards?

State statutes or regulations may require or recommend the use of K-12 education content standards in public instruction.

Some states require local schools to align curriculum with content standards by establishing content standards as a minimum course of study. Such states may also require local schools or districts to adopt content standards as part of their curriculum, or they may require students to demonstrate mastery of content standards through state assessments.

Other states recommend that local schools or districts follow state content standards.

Who sets state K-12 education content standards in Pennsylvania?

The following section provides information about the development and application of K-12 education content standards in Pennsylvania as of research performed in 2022.

The table below identifies the state entity tasked with setting content standards, whether the content standards are recommendations or requirements for local schools, and the governing statute(s). The text of the governing statute(s) is provided below the table.

Pennsylvania K-12 education content standards
Entity Recommendations or requirements? Statute or Regulation
State Board of Education Requirements Pennsylvania Code § 22-4.12


Pennsylvania Code § 22-4.12:

“ Academic standards.


(a) School entities may develop, expand or improve existing academic standards in the following content areas:

(1) Science and technology. Study of the natural world and facts, principles, theories and laws in the areas of biology, chemistry, physics and earth sciences. Technology is the application of science to enable societal development, including food and fiber production, manufacturing, building, transportation and communication. Science and technology share the use of the senses, science processes, inquiry, investigation, analysis and problem solving strategies. The Pennsylvania Core Standards for Reading in Science and Technology and the Pennsylvania Core Standards for Writing in Science and Technology will be an appendix to the Commonwealth’s academic standards for Science and Technology upon publication in the Pennsylvania Bulletin.
(2) Environment and ecology. Understanding the components of ecological systems and their interrelationships with social systems and technologies. These components incorporate the disciplines of resource management, agricultural diversity, government and the impact of human actions on natural systems. This interaction leads to the study of watersheds, threatened and endangered species, pest management and the development of laws and regulations.
(3) Social studies.
(i) History. Study of the record of human experience including important events; interactions of culture, race and ideas; the nature of prejudice; change and continuity in political systems; effects of technology; importance of global-international perspectives; and the integration of geography, economics and civics studies on major developments in the history of the Commonwealth, the United States and the world.
(ii) Geography. Study of relationships among people, places and environments, of geographic tools and methods, characteristics of place, concept of region and physical processes.
(iii) Civics and government. Study of United States constitutional democracy, its values and principles, study of the Constitution of the Commonwealth and government including the study of principles, operations and documents of government, the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, how governments work and international relations.
(iv) Economics. Study of how individuals and societies choose to use resources to produce, distribute and consume goods and services. Knowledge of how economies work, economic reasoning and basic economic concepts, economic decision making, economic systems, the Commonwealth and the United States economy and international trade.
(v) Appendix. The Pennsylvania Core Standards for Reading in History and Social Studies and the Pennsylvania Core Standards in Writing for History and Social Studies will be an appendix to the Commonwealth’s academic standards for History upon publication in the Pennsylvania Bulletin.
(4) Arts and humanities. Study of dance, theatre, music, visual arts, language and literature including forms of expression, historical and cultural context, critical and aesthetic judgment and production, performance or exhibition of work.
(5) Career education and work. Understanding career options in relationship to individual interests, aptitudes and skills including the relationship between changes in society, technology, government and economy and their effect on individuals and careers. Development of knowledge and skill in job-seeking and job-retaining skills and, for students completing vocational-technical programs, the skills to succeed in the occupation for which they are prepared.
(6) Health, safety and physical education. Study of concepts and skills which affect personal, family and community health and safety, nutrition, physical fitness, movement concepts and strategies, safety in physical activity settings, and leadership and cooperation in physical activities.
(7) Family and consumer science. Understanding the role of consumers as a foundation for managing available resources to provide for personal and family needs and to provide basic knowledge of child health and child care skills.
(8) Through June 30, 2013: Reading, writing, speaking and listening.
(i) Reading. The application of phonemic awareness, phonics and word study, vocabulary, fluency and text comprehension in reading critically across subject areas; the interpretation and analysis of literary expression with analysis of the origins and structures of the English language and learning how to search a variety of texts to conduct research.
(ii) Writing. Narrative, informational and persuasive formal writing for an audience, including spelling and editing skills; and informal writing to capture and organize information for individual use.
(iii) Speaking and listening. Participation in conversation and formal speaking presentations.
(iv) English Language Arts. Upon publication in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, following full implementation of a transition plan to be developed by the Department in collaboration with education stakeholders, academic standards will be based on the Pennsylvania Core Standards for English Language Arts.
(9) Mathematics. The understanding of fundamental ideas and the development of proficient mathematical skills in numbers, computation, measurement, statistics and data analysis, probability and predictions, algebra and functions, geometry, trigonometry and concepts of calculus. Using this content, students will learn to think, reason and communicate mathematically. Students will learn to model real-world situations by creating appropriate representations of numerical quantities and plan and implement problem-solving strategies to answer the question in the context of the situation. Upon publication in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, following implementation of a transition plan to be developed by the Department in collaboration with education stakeholders, academic standards will be based on the Pennsylvania Core Standards for Mathematics.

(b) In designing educational programs, school entities shall provide for the attainment of the academic standards under subsections (a) and (c) and any additional academic standards as determined by the school entity. Attaining the academic standards in this section requires students to demonstrate the acquisition and application of knowledge.

(c) School entities shall prepare students to attain academic standards in mathematics and English Language Arts in Appendix A-2 and incorporated here by reference and additional standards as may be adopted by the Board and promulgated as amendments to this chapter.

(d) A school entity’s curriculum shall be designed to provide students with planned instruction needed to attain these academic standards.

(e) School entities shall apply academic standards for students in all areas described under subsections (a) and (c). The local assessment plan under § 4.52 (relating to local assessment system) must include a description of how the academic standards will be measured and how information from the assessments is used to assist students having difficulty meeting the academic standards.

(f) School entities shall assess the attainment of academic standards developed under subsections (a) and (c) and any other academic standards that they develop under § 4.52(c) for purposes of high school graduation and strategies for assisting students to attain them. Plans for assessment developed by school entities must take into account that academic standards in subsections (a) and (c) may be attained by students in various ways and shall be assessed in various ways. Children with disabilities may attain the academic standards by completion of their individualized education programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and this part.

(g) In planning any revision of the academic standards in subsection (a) content areas, the Secretary will consult with educators, business and community leaders and parents.

(h) School entities are responsible under subsections (a), (c) and (f) for assessing individual student attainment of academic standards and for assisting those students having difficulty attaining them. Upon request by a school entity, the Department will provide the requestor with technical assistance in the development of academic standards and assessments that are sufficient to assure that students are making progress toward the attainment of standards required for high school graduation under subsection (f).

(i) Every 3 years, the Board will review the State academic standards and State assessments under this section to determine if they are appropriate, clear, specific and challenging, and will make revisions as necessary by revising this chapter.

(j) The Department may not expand the collection of student data and, in accordance with section 444 of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (20 U.S.C.A. § 1232g), regarding family educational and privacy rights, may not collect personal family data due to the implementation of Pennsylvania Core Standards in Appendix A-2.[2]

”

See also

External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Common Core State Standards Initiative, "What are educational standards?" accessed April 21, 2022
  2. ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
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