1. Challenging Academic Content Standards. These are standards in academic subjects that specify what high school students are expected to know and be able to do, contain coherent and rigorous content, and encourage the teaching of advanced skills. These standards form the core of high school curriculum for subjects such as, but not limited to, algebra, geometry, English, biology, government, and American history.
   
   Challenging academic content standards drive all the processes for improving teaching and student achievement. Therefore, they are established prior to developing and implementing aligned local unit and lesson plans, State and local assessments, and student academic achievement standards.
   
   
2. Challenging Student Academic Achievement Standards. These standards are aligned with the academic content standards and determine the extent to which all high school students have learned the challenging academic content standards. There are three levels of student academic achievement standards: advanced, proficient, and basic. The proficient and advanced levels describe the extent to which students are mastering the academic content standards. The basic level provides comprehensive information about the progress lower achieving students are making toward the proficient and advanced levels. These levels are crucial to the No Child Left Behind Act because they ensure that lower achieving students are taught with appropriate strategies to meet the same challenging expectations as all students.
   
   Challenging student academic achievement standards are established after developing, administering, scoring, and reporting the results of State assessments that are based on the academic content standards. The results of student performance at each achievement level and for each disaggregated group of students provide standards-based information to high school teachers about the effects of their instruction and related school and home support services. These data can be used to adjust and improve daily unit and lesson plans, teaching strategies, and support services to reach annual measurable objectives for adequate yearly progress.

The Same Standards for all Students - The same challenging academic content and student academic achievement standards in reading or language arts, mathematics, and science are required for all students enrolled in high schools, including career and vocational, charter, virtual, and alternative high schools.

1. Organize subject matter teams of teachers to conduct a school-based curriculum audit to determine how well their current programs of study align with and support State academic content standards for reading or language arts, mathematics, and science.
   
   
2. Organize teams of teachers to analyze the results of State, school, and classroom assessments to determine the status of student performance at each level of student academic achievement standards.
   
   
3. Update the high school programs of study based on curriculum alignment and student academic achievement data.
   
   
4. Align the exit high school academic content standards for reading or language arts, mathematics, and science with the corresponding entry content standards of a sample of colleges and universities that high school students attend.
   
   
5. Align the exit high school academic content standards for reading or language arts, mathematics, and science with the corresponding job expectations of a sample of businesses that employ high school students.
   
   
6. Include when developing lesson plans the academic content standard(s) that is the target of instruction as a part of each lesson plan to reinforce daily the vision of No Child Left Behind.
   
   
7. Develop school-based professional growth activities that align with academic content and student academic achievement standards to support their use by teachers.
   
   
8. Share academic content and student academic achievement standards with high school students and seek their feedback on clarity, rigor, and relevance.
   
   
9. Benchmark other high schools with a history of high performance on assessments aligned with the academic content standards to discover and apply strategies that produced their results.
   
   
10. Integrate academic content standards with career and vocational-technical standards to create authentic settings for lessons and assessments.
    
    
11. Use technology resources to develop, deliver, and assess academic content standards-based lessons and assessments and related professional development activities.
    
    
12. Require school-based teacher education programs in high schools to use academic content and student academic achievement standards as an essential part of their preparation activities.
    
    
13. Dedicate a block of time in teachers’ planning periods to focus on academic content and student academic achievement standards.
    
    
14. Post high school academic content and student academic achievement standards on high school web sites to share information and seek comments for improvement from stakeholders.