Chapter 3: TP2000

This chapter discusses three important elements of any successful middle school: assessment, curriculum, and standards. Every state, with the exception of Iowa has created standards to match the federal standards for education. Strong standards are important if you are building lessons and curriculum through backwards design, and also can be a helpful guide for new, or even veteran teachers, when planning curriculum. The chapter goes over a list of guidelines to keep in mind when creating standards such as being clear, accurate, brief, feasible, flexible and assessable. The chapter goes on to show how state standards should be a basis for essential questions, which should be the basis for your curriculum. The last portion of the reading focuses on assessment. Although not an extremely in-depth overview, it does offer the advice to vary your assessment, make it authentic, and valuable.