American Education in the United Arab Emirates Issue 1 2015 | Page 10

American Curriculum
Standards

F

or the majority of the history of the US educational
system, standards, from which curriculum is derived,
were interpreted in different ways by individual US
states. In an effort to ensure that all states are providing
the same quality of education to their students, in June 2009,
the US National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council
of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), in partnership with a
team of nationwide educators, announced the Common Core
State Standards (CCSS) Initiative. The initiative strives to
establish consistent education standards across all US states,
as well as ensure that students graduating from high school
are prepared to enter credit-bearing courses at two- or fouryear college programs or to enter the workforce. The CCSS
strive to ensure that students are prepared to compete not
only with their American peers in the next state, but also with
students globally.
As of April 2015, forty-two US states, the District of Columbia,
four territories, and the Department of Defense education
system have adopted the CCSS.
The Common Core initiative was developed as a call to action
partially in response to an alarming 2004 report entitled Ready
or Not: Creating a High School Diploma That Counts, which
found that American high school graduates were not provided
with the skills and knowledge they needed to succeed in
college and careers. The report stated that a diploma had lost
– Cont’d on pg 12

10 | American Education in the UAE

‫معايير المنهج‬
‫األمريكي‬

‫ف‬

‫ي الجزء الغالب من تاريخ النظام التعليمي في الواليات‬
‫المتحدة اختلفت طرق كل والية في تفسير المعايير التي‬
‫ُيستقى منها المنهج. وفي محاولة ضمان أن جميع الواليات‬
‫تقدم نفس جودة التعليم لطالبهم تم اإلعالن عن مبادرة‬
‫المعايير الحكومية لألساس المشترك في يونيو من عام 9