1. NEW JERSEY CORE CURRICULUM CONTENT STANDARDS What are NJCCCS?

2. What should be taught and at what grade level should it be taught? Those are the key questions answered by the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards (NJCCCS). National organizations in areas of mathematics, science for example, have taken their stance on what should be taught. Since then, there has been a movement across the country for states to develop their own standards which by and large are modeled after the national recommendations.

3. New Jersey adopted its first set of standards in 1996. The seven academic areas that were identified include: 1. visual and performing arts 2. health and physical education, 3.language arts/literacy 4. mathematics 5. science, 6.social studies 7. world languages.

4. Since then more recent adoptions have included technological literacy career education consumer family and life skills

5. Cumulative Progress Indicators (CPIs) Describe what students should know and be able to do in a specific academic area by the end of a benchmark grade (usually grades 2, 4, 6, 8, and 12).

6. The NJCCCS define the results expected but do not dictate to districts how to ensure that students achieve these expectations.

7. State assessments Such as: GEPA (Grade Eight Proficiency Assessment) NJ ASK 3 and 4 (New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge for Grades 3 and 4) are one tool used to measure students level of performance as outlined in the Standards.