The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) allege to answer this question:
What skills and knowledge does a high school graduate need to have in order to be college and career ready (CCR)?
Since I'm a history / English teacher, this blog focuses on the English Language Arts (ELA) and Literacy in Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects aspects of the answer to that question, but it's important to note that there are CCSS for math and a draft of Next Generation standards for Science (NGSS).
So, what's up with the CCSS ELA / Literacy standards? Simply, there are 32 CCR anchor standards (in other words, standards that say, this is what kids should be able to do by the end of the Grade 12, so they should be the “anchor” for what happens from PK to graduation). They are broken up as follows:
- Key Ideas and Details (R.CCR.1*, R.CCR.2, R.CCR.3)
- Craft and Structure (R.CCR.4, R.CCR.5, R.CCR.6)
- Integration of Knowledge and Ideas (R.CCR.7, R.CCR.8, R.CCR.9)
- Range and Level of Text Complexity (R.CCR.10)
- Text Types and Purposes (W.CCR.1, W.CCR.2, W.CCR.3)
- Production and Distribution of Writing (W.CCR.4, W.CCR.5, W.CCR.6)
- Research to Build and Present Knowledge (W.CCR.7, W.CCR.8, W.CCR.9)
- Range of Writing (W.CCR.10)
6 Speaking and Listening Anchor Standards
- Comprehension and Collaboration (SL.CCR.1, SL.CCR.2, SL.CCR.3)
- Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas (SL.CCR.4, SL. CCR.5, SL.CCR.6)
- Conventions of Standard English (L.CCR.1, L.CCR.2)
- Knowledge of Language (L.CCR.3)
- Vocabulary Acquisition and Use (L.CCR.4, L.CCR.5, L.CCR.6)
Here are some other things you might be wondering about the CCSS:
*The CCSS use the following format for notating anchor standards: [Strand, i.e., Reading or Writing or Speaking and Listening or Language].[College and Career Ready, i.e., this is what kids should be able to do when they graduate; see my post on anchor standards].[Number of the standard]. So, the fifth anchor standard in the Speaking and Listening strand would be SL.CCR.5, and the ninth anchor standard in the Writing strand would be W.CCR.9.