Report: Governors, state school leaders team up on new academic standards

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Report: States team up on new academic standards

WASHINGTON — Governors and state education leaders are proposing a new set of standards to define what should be taught in the nation’s public schools, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

The new benchmarks, to be announced Wednesday, are meant to replace standards that vary widely from state to state. They would cover English and math from kindergarten through high school.

For example, the Post reported, fourth-graders would be expected to know the difference between prose and poetry. Eighth-graders would be required to explain a proof of the Pythagorean theorem.

There is no required reading list, but books are recommended for different grades. Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s “The Little Prince” are among the fourth-grade picks; 11th-grade recommendations include Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” and Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye.”

The proposal was drawn up by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. While it is intended to address President Barack Obama’s call for higher academic achievement, the Obama adminsitration was not involved in its creation, the Post reported.