History of the Standards

Switch to the Flash version of this timeline
1991

*Governor Walter J. Hickel directs Commissioner of Education Jerry Covey to develop a plan to improve Alaska’s system of public schools.

*The Governor’s Blue Ribbon Commission initiates Alaska 2000 (AK2K) a reform movement led by more than 100 Alaskans.


1992

*The State Board of Education approves AK2K recommendations, including the goal of developing student academic standards in ten core areas: English, mathematics, science, geography, history, skills for a healthy life, government and citizenship, fine arts, technology and world languages.
1993

*The State Board commits to developing content standards in the ten core identified subject areas.

*Two rounds of public hearings are held on the content standards in math, science and English/language arts.
1994

*Content standards in math, science and English/language arts are adopted and take effect on January 4, 1995. http://www.eed.state.ak.us/standards/

*Public hearings are held on the history, geography, government and health content standards and they are adopted to take effect July 26, 1995. http://www.eed.state.ak.us/standards/

 
1995 Governor Knowles takes office and a new State Board appoints Shirley Holloway Commissioner of the Department.

World Language and technology content standards receive public review and are adopted by the Board to take effect March 28, 1996. http://www.eed.state.ak.us/standards/

 
1996 *The Alaska Quality Schools Initiative (QSI) http://www.eed.state.ak.us/standards/ replaces AK2K as Alaska’s major school reform initiative. QSI has four major strands: High Student Academic Standards and Assessments, Quality Professional Standards, Family, School, Business and Community Network, and School Excellence Standards.

*School and community leaders attend the Knowles Administration’s first Education Summit in Girdwood and the Department commits to developing a results-based system of education based on standards.

 

1997 *The Legislature passes the secondary pupil competency testing law (AS 14.03.075) http://old-www.legis.state.ak.us/cgi-bin/folioisa.dll/stattx02? requiring all high school students to pass an exit exam in order to receive a diploma. Those who do not pass get a certificate of attendance. (Effective date: February 1, 2004).

*The Department of Education makes the English/Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies frameworks available in CD-ROM format developed by the Department between 1995-1997 to assist educators in implementing standards-based curriculum.

 
1998 *The Council for Basic Education (CBE) http://www.c-b-e.org/ reviews Alaska’s proposed reading, writing and math performance standards. The department makes changes to standards as recommended by CBE.

*Governor Knowles signs into law Senate Bill 36 (AS14.07.020 (b). http://old-www.legis.state.ak.us/cgi-bin/folioisa.dll/stattx02? that requires the development of student performance standards in reading, writing and mathematics. Benchmark exams at designated grade levels are required.

The QSI portion of SB36 required the following:

  • Academic Standards—Mandated the State Board of Education to adopt academic standards in reading, writing and math at four levels: ages 5–7, 8–10, 11–14 and 15–18. The high school and benchmark exam questions are to measure whether students have met the standards.
  • Alaska Benchmark Examinations—Mandates the department to assess students at the 3rd, 6th and 8th grades beginning in March 2000
  • Developmental Profile—Requires schools to complete a developmental profile on all entering kindergarten and first grade students. http://www.eed.state.ak.us/tls/assessment/developmental.html
  • QSI Grant—Gives school districts additional dollars through the Quality Schools Grant program if they establish plans to adopt standards, intervene with additional services for children who are not meeting the standards, and train educators how to teach students in a results-based system of public education. The QSI Grant program became part of the state’s school funding program.
  • School Designators—Requires the State Board to develop an annual system of rating schools, and designate each school by August 2002 in one of the four categories: distinguished, successful, deficient and in crisis. The categories are to be based on a school’s student test scores and other indicators of student performance.
  • School Report Cards—Requires each school to annually report specific information about student performance beginning July 1, 2000. The information required includes school accreditation status; results of norm-referenced achievement tests; results of state standards-based assessments in reading, writing and mathematics; description of student, parent, community and business involvement in student learning; and rates of student attendance, K–8 retention, grade 7–12 dropout and graduation. The department is required to issue its first school-by-school report card on January 15, 2001. http://www.eed.state.ak.us/stats/

*The Education Commission of the States http://www.ecs.org/ submits a partial review of Alaska’s proposed performance standards in reading, writing and mathematics. The review is favorable.

*The State Board adopts the student employability standards as an eleventh content standard. http://www.eed.state.ak.us/standards/employability.html

*Frameworks in Arts, World Languages, and Health were developed by the Department and published in print form.

 
1999 *The State Board adopts student performance standards in reading, writing and mathematics. http://www.eed.state.ak.us/tls/PerformanceStandards/

*Benchmark exams for grades 3, 6 and 8 and high school exams are field tested statewide. The State Board mandates all sophomores to take the exam.
http://www.eed.state.ak.us/tls/assessment/

*Public schools complete first developmental profiles of kindergarten and first grade students. http://www.eed.state.ak.us/tls/assessment/developmental.html

*The State Board adopts by reference the content and performance standards contained in the publication Alaska Standards: Content and Performance Standards for Alaska Students. http://www.eed.state.ak.us/tls/PerformanceStandards/

*The Board adopts by reference the employability content standards. http://www.eed.state.ak.us/standards/employability.html

 
2000 *Governor Knowles appoints an Education Funding Task Force to recommend a five-year funding plan to fulfill the goals of the QSI and improve education in Alaska.

*The State Board adopts passing scores for the high school exam. http://www.eed.state.ak.us/tls/assessment/hsgqe.html

*Education Summit 2000 develops strategies to help more children meet the state’s new higher standards in reading, writing and mathematics. School district teams examine the performance of their students on state tests and learn how to analyze and score data and to improve schools to better meet the learning needs of students.

*The second high school exam is administered statewide. http://www.eed.state.ak.us/tls/assessment/hsgqe.html

*The State Board adopts proficiency cut scores for the benchmark exams. http://www.eed.state.ak.us/tls/assessment/benchmark.html

*The School Designator Committee meets to recommend elements of a system to rate schools as distinguished, successful, deficient and in crisis.

*The State Board adopts Alternate Performance Standards http://www.eed.state.ak.us/tls/assessment/ and the Student Cultural Standards. http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/standards/standards.html

*The first administration of the high school and benchmark exams is conducted statewide. All 10th grade students are required to take the high school exam. http://www.eed.state.ak.us/tls/assessment/

*Alaska content standards are measured against National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) standards. Alaska’s standards match well with NAEP standards. http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/

*Committees meet to recommend passing scores for the high school exam and proficiency scores for the benchmark exams.