Today, I just want to cover a couple of questions:

1. What are the Arizona Academic Standards?
2. Why should I use them in my homeschool?
3. What is the easiest way to find and use them?

1. What are the Arizona Academic Standards?

The Arizona Academic Standards are a set of guidelines that help teachers (and parents!) know what they should teach their students in each subject at each grade level. They cover important subjects like English, math, science, social studies, and world languages. These standards make it easier for teachers or parents to plan lessons and tests that will help students succeed in school and beyond.

What the Arizona Academic Standards are NOT

That being said, the Department of Education is clear when they explain what the standards are NOT. According to the Department of Education website:

The standards are neither curriculum nor instructional practices.

While the Arizona English Language Arts Standards may be used as the basis for curriculum, they are not a curriculum. Therefore, identifying the sequence of instruction at each grade – what will be taught and for how long- requires concerted effort and attention at the local level. Curricular tools, including textbooks, are selected by the district/school and adopted through the local governing board.

What Are Standards?

They go a bit further to explain the difference between Standards, Curriculum, and Instruction:

Standards are what a student needs to know, understand, and be able to do by the end of each grade.  They build across grade levels in a progression of increasing understanding and through a range of cognitive demand levels.  Standards are adopted at the state level by the Arizona State Board of Education.

So the standards can be used as a general guide (aka where we are going) to help you understand what your kiddo should be learning at each “grade level”. (More information on grade level later.)

What is Curriculum?

Curriculum refers to resources used for teaching and learning the standards. Curricula are adopted at the local level.

So if the standards are the where we are going, the curriculum is the what we need to get there. This includes books, games, products, learning materials, equipment, or anything else you may need to teach to the Arizona Academic Standards.

What are Instructional Methods?

And if the standards are the where and curriculum the what, then the method of instruction is the how:

Instruction refers to the methods or methodologies used by teachers to teach their students.  Instructional techniques are employed by individual teachers in response to the needs of the students in their classes to help them progress through the curriculum in order to master the standards. Decisions about instructional practice and techniques are made at a local level.

For homeschoolers, there is super good news here. Our instructional methods are usually pretty similar regardless of the information we are teaching. For my kiddos, MysterV and MyssE, we usually ask questions and talk about what they have learned, and I have them set their own goals a lot to nurture their intrinsic motivation. But if you want to get particular about it, we can use Marzano's nine instructional methods to teach most anything. More to come later on Marzano.

What About Grade Levels?

As mentioned previously, grade levels are pretty subjective in homeschool. Luckily, the Arizona Academic Standards agree:

The standards do not necessarily address students who are far below or far above the grade level.

No set of grade-specific standards can fully reflect the great variety in abilities, needs, learning rates, and achievement levels of students in any given classroom. The Arizona English Language Arts Standards do not define the intervention methods to support students who are well below or well above grade level expectations. It is up to the teachers, schools, and/or districts to determine the most effective instructional methods and curricular resources to meet all students’ needs.

This means that even though the Arizona Academic Standards are a good place to start, we may need to supplement with standards or learning objectives from other sources, add variety to the curriculum, and switch up instructional methods as needed.

2. Why Should I Use the Arizona Academic Standards in My Homeschool?

You may be thinking, this all sounds great for teachers in classrooms, but we already follow a standardized curriculum with learning goals, so we don't need those. Or maybe you unschool or gameschool or school with living books so you don't really follow any sort of structured standards. If that is you and your situation – great! At the end of the day, we all need to do what works for us and our families. If not, however, there are a few reasons I would urge homeschool parents to consider including the Arizona Academic Standards in their homeschool.

Clarity and Focus:

Clarity is essential in homeschooling. Aligning our lesson plans and curriculum with the Arizona Academic Standards helps us understand what our children should aim to learn. This eliminates confusion and allows us to set specific goals working toward common themes. With a focused approach, we can ask better questions when assessing what our kiddos know and that can really maximize our children's learning potential.

Coherence and Progression:

A well-aligned homeschool curriculum ensures coherence and logical progression of knowledge and skills. When each lesson, game, or project builds on previously learned skills, our kiddos experience a natural flow of information, enhancing their comprehension and retention. This natural flow promotes reinforcement and scaffolding of concepts, fostering a deeper understanding of the subject matter.

Assessment and Evaluation:

Accurate assessment of our children's progress is vital for their educational growth. By aligning assessments with the Arizona Academic Standards, we can effectively evaluate their achievements. This alignment enables us to use fair and objective evaluation methods, ensuring that our children are assessed on what they were meant to learn. Now for that same concept in plain English:

When we know the lesson goal, we can ask better questions to see if they have met the lesson goal.

Engaged Learning:

Aligning our lesson plans and curriculum to the Arizona Academic Standards cultivates our children's motivation and interest in their homeschooling journey. When they perceive the relevance and meaningfulness of the content, they are more likely to actively engage in their learning. This alignment fosters a student-centered approach, promoting curiosity, critical thinking, and a deeper connection with the subject matter. Again, in simple language:

If your kiddo knows why they are learning something, they are more likely to be an active participant when learning it.

Differentiation and Individualization:

Every child is unique, with diverse learning needs and abilities. Aligning lesson plans and curriculum to the Arizona Academic Standards allows us to cater to our children's individual profiles, focusing on standards that may be above or below their current grade level.

Accountability and Quality Assurance:

Alignment plays a pivotal role in maintaining educational standards and ensuring consistent, high-quality homeschool instruction. By aligning our curriculum with the Arizona Academic Standards, we demonstrate our commitment to providing an effective and rigorous education. This alignment fosters accountability and enhances the overall quality of our homeschooling experience.

In addition to the accountability to ourselves, this also shows the ESA Administration that the materials and equipment we are purchasing are being used to teach to the same standards that are used in Arizona public schools.

If aligning homeschool curriculum to the Arizona Academic Standards became common practice, my belief is that the ESA Administration would be less likely to question non-traditional item purchases made by parents. We would be using their own language to explain how we are educating our learners.

Stacey Eaton, MAED | Eaton EDU

Collaboration and Communication:

Alignment facilitates effective collaboration and communication within our homeschool, but also with other people who homeschool in Arizona. By ensuring that everyone shares a common understanding of the Arizona Academic Standards, we can work together to find or create lessons, projects, games, or other ways of achieving them. The alignment promotes consistent messaging, aligns instructional practices, and strengthens the parent-child learning partnership, resulting in a more cohesive homeschooling experience and community.

3. What is the easiest way to find and use the Arizona Academic Standards?

There are two main options here. I like to think of this as the difference between doing long-division with a paper and pencil, or opening the calculator on your phone. They will both get you to the same result, but the calculator is generally faster, easier, and has less room for error.

The Paper and Pencil Option

Go to the Arizona Department of Education Website and open the Arizona Academic Standards Page. You can click around and into the different departments and grade levels to find the standards you are looking for, and use them to create your lessons in word or pages or google docs. For Empowerment Scholarship of Arizona (ESA) purchase requests and reimbursements, you can fill out the curriculum template available on page 26 in the parent handbook.

The Calculator Option

Eaton EDU has created a group of tools to help parents with lesson planning and purchases through the Empowerment Scholarship of Arizona (ESA) Program called the ESA Planner (or ESAP). Included with a monthly or annual subscription is the Standard Search Tool, a simple and powerful way to search the Arizona Academic Standards across all departments, grade levels, or even by keyword.

Once you have your standards, you can easily add them to your curriculum using our handy ESAP Curriculum Creator. When you add the identifier, the rest of the information will generate automatically, saving time and decreasing the potential for errors.

When you download the PDF of the curriculum, the links to the standards stay active, so if the folks over at the ESA want more information, it is just a click away.

Conclusion:

As homeschool parents, we have a significant impact on our children's education. Aligning our lesson plans and curriculum with the Arizona Academic Standards is crucial for unlocking their learning potential. It offers clarity, coherence, and focus, enabling us to provide meaningful and engaging instruction. We can accurately evaluate our children's achievements and cater to their individual needs. The alignment encourages collaboration, flexibility, and a commitment to educational quality. Ultimately, when our homeschool lesson plans and curriculum are aligned with the Arizona Academic Standards, our children thrive, reaching their fullest potential and experiencing educational success.

We hope you found this information as useful as we do! As always, if you have any kudos, feedback, or suggestions, please take a moment to complete this quick feedback form. You won't even need leave the page. 😉

Together, let's empower engaging education!