In the State of California at each grade from Kindergarten through 12 there are specific content 'standards' for each subject area. These standards are what drives the curriculum. In fact, the standards are what the children are tested on! Unbelievable, as it may seem, children at Kindergarten DO have content standards, too. (Yes, what was once thought of as the 'milk, fingerpainting, and naptime program of Kindergarten is now long-gone. Now, Kindergartners take tests and are even expected to read, write, and do arithmetic!)
At the Back-to-School Night meeting in September, families received Mrs. S-S' booklet that included a condensed version of the Kindergarten content standards for Mathematics & English/Language Arts, based on what the Santa Ana Unified School District requires for the Kindergarten student. The standards are based on the State's content standards. The California standards for Science and History Social/Sciences were included in their entire form.
For a complete set of the standards from the California Department of Education, please click on California Content Standards. Each framework can be downloaded either as a PDF or a Microsoft Word document.
- The Mathematics Frameworkwas revised and updated in 2005.
- The English-Language Arts Framework was adopted in 1997.
- The History-Social Science Framework was adopted in 1998.
- The Science Framework was also adopted in 1998. Science is a very important content area which integrates mathematics and higher-level thinking skills, as students make connections and form concrete associations between science and the study of nature.
