California’s Standards System—a Coherent Foundation
The education reform movement grew, in part, from data showing that poor and minority students were often receiving an inferior education due to watered-down curriculum and poorly trained teachers. The solution required that all students receive an equal opportunity to learn the same challenging content and skills. As a result, states began adopting content standards for each course and grade level. In California, the state aligned its curriculum frameworks, instructional materials, assessments, and accountability system to the California content standards.
In a 2006 report, the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation ranked California's standards as being among the top in the nation. The foundation gave California an A grade for each of its content standards: English, math, science, and history.1
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Footnote
1Chester E. Finn, Jr., Michael J. Petrilli, and Liam Julian, 2006 The State of State Standards (PDF; Outside Source). Washington, D.C.: The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, August 2006.