Standards and Benchmarks

The AISD Standards and Benchmarks from Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12 are aligned under the following eight broad themes:

1. Understanding Ourselves
   It is common to all peoples to wonder about the nature of the self. If we are to develop self-knowledge, empathy and perspective, we need to strive to understand our own culture, its systems of belief and behavior, and give equal respect to the culture of others. We need to reflect on the rites of passage common to all individuals, regardless of cultures. This theme provides the opportunity to understand the essence of being human.
   
2. Understanding our Bodies
   It is common to all peoples to wonder about the nature of the human body and its workings. We need to understand our senses and how they enable us to interpret our world. If we are to be successful, we need to understand how to become and remain healthy and “fit for life"? This theme provides opportunities to understand and maintain our bodies.
   
3. Understanding our Symbol Systems
   It is common to all peoples to develop systems of signs and symbols to help us understand, interpret and explain our world and its phenomena. To this end we have created a range of literacies: linguistic, mathematical, musical and technological. This theme provides opportunities to understand the patterns and concepts embedded in these literacies.
   
4. Understanding our Organizations
   It is common to all peoples to organize into communities with structured systems of social interaction. Each of these communities has its own systems of law, politics and economics. This theme provides opportunities to understand our local and global communities and our place within them.
   
5. Understanding our Power of Expression
   It is common to all peoples to express our unique response to the world through a variety of art forms. We communicate our ideas, emotions, opinions and selves through literatures and the fine and performing arts, using a variety of media and genre. This theme provides opportunities to understand the range and power of human creativity and expression.
   
6. Understanding our Place in Space and Time
   It is common to all peoples to be shaped by our stories: the decisions and discoveries, the explorations and the migrations, the adaptations to and of our locations. We are deeply connected to the past and to place, and we need to understand these connections. This theme provides us opportunities to understand where we have been and where we may go, as individuals, cultures and as humankind.
   
7. Understanding how our World Works
   It is common to all peoples to wonder about the world we inhabit and its phenomena. We need to understand the attempts that different peoples have made to interpret the natural and physical world. We need to understand the explanations provided by science and the methods used to derive those explanations. Through technology, we need to apply scientific thinking to the solution of complex problems. This theme provides the opportunity to understand our world and to apply our understanding to solving problems through technology.
   
8. Understanding our Environment
   It is common to all peoples that we inhabit complex, fragile ecosystems. We live in a world of limited resources and increasing demand. We need to develop ways to co-exist in sustainable balance with other species, other peoples and our planet. This theme provides us with opportunities to understand the environmental impact of the decisions we make, and the responsibility this understanding brings.