› Standards and Assessments › Curriculum and Instruction › Leadership and Organization › Professional Development › Parent Engagement See the research basis for our design.		Standards Standards are the cornerstone of the America's Choice design. The distinguishing feature of our standards—which are known as the New Standards Performance Standards—is that they include examples of student work that meet the standards. We align these internationally benchmarked performance standards with the standards of the states and localities where America's Choice schools are located. That makes it possible for administrators, teachers and students to clearly see, often for the first time, exactly what work meets local, state and even international standards. Assessments Our students take state and locally mandated tests. We also have our students take our own reading, writing and math assessments, known as New Standards® Reference Examinations. The exams, taken by 8th graders, require students to produce written responses to performance tasks and respond to multiple-choice questions. America's Choice teachers use the results on these tests diagnostically, to create school-, grade- and classroom-level strategies for raising student performance. Continue to Aligned Instructional Systems…