This page contains useful information about the Wikibooks project. While this is not a listing of rules or policies, it contains information about an important Wikibooks process, custom etc. This page should be helpful to our users; please let us know if it is not.

Many states have developed curriculum standards for their public schools. These standards give an age-appropriate outline and structure that can be used to develop textbooks and supporting materials for all schoolgoing ages.

The standards are in fact quite useful. They are painstaking and exhaustive organizations of material with regard to the appropriate level of the curriculum. Teams of trained professionals have already done a big chunk of the work in developing high-quality textbooks. It falls to the contributors at Wikibooks to flesh out this work and deliver it in a way that will be useful and pertinent.

Note that standards neither dictate how the material should be presented, nor how students should be treated based on their progress regarding established learning goals. Rather, the standards are an outline of essential concepts to be included, as well as a suggestion to how to structure them. Standards are often credited with improving educational attainment in schools. Another way to look at standards is the state telling students, parents and teachers what not to teach.

Why use standards?

• In order to be used by a class in a real school the book must adhere to set standards
• Standards compliance gives the books an authority equal to other textbooks
• Once we have one or two top-quality, standards-compliant books on the site, they will serve as a sales tool and bring attention and credibility, which opens us up both to
  • more people using our books and therefore served by our labor
  • more donations from institutional givers, which could translate to less site down time and new software features

Standards in Australia

This list gives an accessible resource for Australians who want to write textbooks for the Australian curriculum. These will vary by State, though certain things will be covered on a federal level. The standards are usually decided by the Department for Education and Training (in Victoria) and affect all primary school, secondary school, TAFE (technical and further education) and university students studying an accredited Australian course in an Australian educational institution (or an international institution offering Australian curriculum as part of its offering).

Standards in New Zealand

The New Zealand Qualifications Authority has produced a wide range (thousands) of modular "unit" standards that set out the learning objectives and assessment criteria for almost all topics taught in New Zealand schools and tertiary institutions. Many of these are competency based standard at a topic level within a subject.

Text book authors may find this approach useful for segmenting their books into pages or topics and pitching the topic to an appropriate audience.

Note: Level 1 standards are taught in Year 11 (14-16 year olds) while level 7 standards are at a tertiary institution graduate level. (Qualifications are attained by achieving the required unit standards.)

Standards in the United Kingdom

The National Curriculum Online from the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority seems specific to England but also has links to sites that are specific to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Standards in the United States of America

All U.S. states, populated territories, the District of Columbia, and the Department of Defense have standards for K-12 education. Most use the Common Core though may have additional state standards.

Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL) has an excellent database of U.S. standards that are aligned for comparison: McREL Standards Alignment Database

• Common Core map

Non-Common Core jurisdictions:

• Alaska Performance & Content Standards
• Indiana
• Minnesota
• Nebraska
• Oklahoma
• Puerto Rico
• Texas
• Virginia standards

Supplemental standards:

• California standards
• Colorado standards
• Florida standards (links to PDF files)
• Hawaii standards
• Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks
• Clarifying Language in Michigan Benchmarks
• New York Core Curriculum/Resource Guides
• North Carolina Standard Course of Study
• Ohio standards
• South Carolina standards (links to PDF files)
• Utah Curriculum & Instruction

Science standards (moved here)

Science standards for high schools curriculum by the State of California. Whenever possible it will help adoption of our books if we adhere to the standards already developed.

Standards in Canada

Curriculum standards in Canada are established for each province/territory in all K-12 subjects. Each province/territory tends to suggest that their curriculum standards are high and this contribution to learning as significant. There are some efforts to find common ground on standards between jurisdictions, but these are not maintained or communicated in such a way that allow portability or interoperability across various systems. A Pan-Canadian Science Curriculum was created in 1990's, but is not utilized.