In the US Education System...?

in 1983 "a Nation at Risk" was published and changed everything. in 1989, President Bush held a meeting with all 50 state governors with the goal - content standards. NCTM was the first curricular organization to create standard suggestions. By 1996, all 50 states had standards. They are all state standards - there are no federal standards as education is primarily a states issue. Recently however, there has been talk of national standards - but none have been adopted.

I started my career prior to the standards movement and remember when I first got my position, my district had curricular guides. My guides called for me to teach many things to 8th graders that now are taught to 6th graders instead.

I am just going to add onto what the previous poster said. Yes there are state curriculum standards that are set by the state department of education. Many states also include power standards and benchmarks which basically tells a teacher what must be taught when. As far as national standards go, they do exist and there are currently 32 states that will be adopting them in the next two years.

One important note though, the curriculum standards tell a teacher what must be taught, but the method in which it is taught (activities, exercises, lessons etc.) for the most part is left up to the teacher so that he or she can determine the methodology that is best for his or her individual group of students. (example - you would not teach an AP History class the same way you would teach a remedial History class though the content that needs to be taught is the same.)