Pressure for school accountability has led to learning standards for virtually every subject area in the K-12 curriculum. Organizations such as the National Council of Teachers of English, the International Reading Association, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, and the National Council for the Social Studies have developed national standards for specific content areas, and states have created standards of their own. In March 1994, President Clinton signed into law the Goals 2000: Educate America Act which created the National Education Standards and Improvement Council (NESIC) to certify these national and state content and performance standards as well as state assessments.
The following Web sites provide links to national and state level curriculum standards. Because of the large number of links at each site, you may find some no longer working. All of these sites are maintained, but some may only be updated on an annual basis.
Achieve.org Standards Database
http://www.achieve.org/achieve/achievestart.nsf/Search?OpenForm
This site allows you to search for state curriculum standards by subject and grade level and even to compare two states' standards.
McREL Compendium
http://www.mcrel.org/standards-benchmarks/
This site is a compilation of content standards for K-12 curriculum in both searchable
and browseable formats.
Developing Educational Standards
http://edstandards.org/Standards.html
This site, developed by Putnam Valley Central Schools in New York, is a comprehensive site with links to national and state standards by subject and state as well as links to the US Department of Education, all state departments of education, national standards setting organizations, and standards background information.