Background Information
Thank you for taking time to review the initial draft of the English Language Arts/ Literacy Standards and provide the standards review committees with your feedback.
The development of this initial draft began in June 2020. A statewide committee of educators, parents, legislators, school board members and higher education staff reviewed Idaho's current Content Standards and other states' content standards to guide the development of this initial draft.
Standards outline what a student needs to know, understand, and be able to do by the end of each grade. Standards build across grade levels in a progression of increasing understanding and through a range of cognitive demand levels. Standards are adopted at the state level by the State Board of Education and the Idaho Legislature. Idaho retains authority to approve and modify academic standards; there is no federal law requiring the adoption of a set of specific standards.
Curriculum, which is not part of the Idaho Content Standards, includes all the resources used for teaching and learning the standards (textbooks, reading material, lesson plans). Curriculum is adopted at a local level by districts and schools. Neither the State Board nor the Idaho State Department of Education has the authority to mandate school curriculum. Local governing boards (both district and charter) have the sole authority to adopt curriculum via public meetings, allowing for community input regarding what instructional materials are used in classrooms.
Instruction is the methods used by teachers to teach their students. Instructional techniques are employed by individual teachers in response to the needs of the students in their classes to help them progress through the curriculum in order to master the standards.
This survey does not ask about locally adopted curriculum or instruction. It asks for actionable feedback on specific standards as well as general impressions of the English Language Arts/Literacy standards.
Responses submitted through June 1, 2021 will be reviewed by the standards review committees. The review committees will consider actionable feedback into the initial draft and submit a draft to the State Board of Education in August 2021, as part of formal negotiated rule making. The public will have additional opportunities to review standards and provide feedback before final standards are approved by the legislature in 2022.