The state Department of Education unveils new requirements for what elementary and middle school students should know.

08:58 AM EST on Thursday, February 12, 2004

BY JENNIFER D. JORDAN
Journal Staff Writer

In a time of almost indecipherable school jargon -- standards-based education, frameworks, learning indicators and rubrics -- comes another pedagogical mouthful: grade-level expectations.

The state Department of Education unveils this month its most specific criteria yet for what elementary and middle school students should be learning each year in reading, writing and math.

Instead of vague goals such as requiring kindergartners through fourth graders to "individually and collaboratively use language arts to formulate questions and problems relating to various topics," (a framework found on the Education Department's Web site), the new requirements are much more detailed and grade-specific.

A second grader is expected to identify synonyms and antonyms; a third grader should be able to distinguish a homonym from a homophone; and a fourth grader shows his or her breadth of vocabulary by discerning shades of meanings, such as the difference between cold and freezing.

In math, a second grader should grasp numerals 0 to 199; a third grader should understand 0 to 999; and a fourth grader should comprehend 0 to 99,999.

"This makes clear what content and skills students need to know and be able to do at a specific grade," said Diane Schaefer, who runs the Education Department's office of instruction.

They are not meant to replace a wider curriculum; rather, the grade-specific guidelines should be the foundation of each district's learning plan, Schaefer says.

The expectations also serve as a blueprint for yearly state tests, which the federal No Child Left Behind initiative will require in grades three through eight and a high school year.

Rhode Island education officials collaborated with their counterparts in Vermont and New Hampshire to create the expectations, and together have hired a company to draft new tests that all three states will use.

Another set of "local" grade-level expectations, to help a classroom teacher assess how well an elementary school student reads, for example, is currently being developed and will be available in the next couple of months, Schaefer says.

Many teachers have longed for guidelines as concrete and clear as the new grade-specific expectations, say some Rhode Island educators.

In an age of yearly testing and high standards for all children, knowing what students are expected to learn and when they are expected to learn it has been hard for Rhode Island's 36 districts to figure out. How do you get a student from Point A to Point B without a detailed map, they ask?

Already, local school districts have started to use the expectations as a compass.

"What the grade-level expectations have done is to provide a direct link between the standards and teaching in each grade level," said Ewa Pytowska, assistant superintendent for Central Falls. The expectations will have a different effect on what each district teaches and when, she says.

"In some districts, they will drive the creation of curriculum; in others, it will drive revision or realignment," Pytowska said.

Central Falls will do both, Pytowska said. It will realign its math curriculum and create an entirely new reading curriculum, grounded in the new, explicit expectations.

Portsmouth School Supt. Timothy P. Ryan said he welcomes the new guidelines.

Ryan says he sees the grade-specific guidelines as just the start of an important process Rhode Island has embarked upon, forced by No Child Left Behind. He comes from New York State, where the Board of Regents hands down a statewide curriculum that every school uses, and that every student is tested on.

"We're lucky in Portsmouth that we have a fairly stable community. But what about those districts where people move around a lot?" Ryan asked. "Kids who move around a lot get penalized in Rhode Island, because the curriculum is not consistent throughout the state."

The new grade-level expectations are currently on line at www.ridoe.net/standards/gle/default.htm