Office of Curriculum, Technology, & Assessment

SD Content Standards

Overview

The South Dakota Content Standards articulate an essential core of knowledge and skills that the state as a whole wants students to master. Standards clarify what students are expected to know and be able to do at various points in their K-12 academic career. Local adoption and implementation of state standards ensures that the education students receive is consistently strong across all of South Dakota, and that completion of high school has common meaning throughout the state.

Developing state standards is a challenging undertaking. In South Dakota, it has been a combined effort of the South Dakota Board of Education, veteran educators, state agency staff, senior scholars, interested citizens, and high-level policymakers. The most recent phase began with the common-sense notion that an academic standard must be clear, specific and measurable. Further, it must be simply stated in plain English and written for the general public as well as for educators.

The core of knowledge and skills set forth as board-adopted Standards is essential to prepare South Dakota students for work, for post-secondary education, for responsible citizenship, and for personal fulfillment as life-long learners. Standards serve to focus discussion and to develop consensus on common goals for South Dakota education. At the same time, the Standards do not represent a curriculum nor do they reduce the local school’s responsibility for curriculum planning or determining instructional approaches. In fact, the Standards challenge communities, schools and teachers to work together in implementing effective instructional strategies so that all students can achieve to high levels.

The Content Standards define only the core elements of education that should apply to all students without regard to their specific career and academic plans. Every student is expected to achieve goals that are broader than those outlined by the Standards. At the high school level, for instance, many students heading directly to post-secondary study or to the workplace will require learning experiences that are outside of the essential core in specific content areas set forth in the Standards.

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SDCL 13-3-48 states that "school districts shall adopt and implement clearly defined and measurable course guidelines so as to meet the state academic content standards." Language arts and mathematics guidelines adopted by local boards of education on July 1, 1999; guidelines for social studies and science were adopted on July 1, 2000.