standards

• Obligation:  See Application Profiles
• Occurrence:  See Application Profiles
• Conditions:  See Application Profiles
• Scheme:  See Application Profiles

Element Semantics (Definition)

State and/or national academic standards mapped to the entity being described.

General

• Name:  standards
• Label:  Standards
• Namespace:  http://purl.org/gem/elements/
• Registration Authority:  GEM Consortium
• Notes:  None

Best Practices

1. With increasing frequency, K-12 classroom educators are looking for resources that have been correlated to one or more national, state and local academic standards.
2. Where the resource has been correlated to academic standards by its creator or publisher and that information is available in the resource, it is useful to capture that information in the Standards element.
3. In most instances, standards correlations require considerable expertise in the methods and processes of teaching and learning and in student intellectual development. As a result, doing such correlations is beyond the expertise of most individuals creating metadata. Therefore, unless local cataloging policy dictates otherwise, it is best to do "copy cataloging" only of such correlations.
4. Useful standards metadata includes information for the following facets:
   • Promulgating Body. The name of the organization (governmental or otherwise) that created the set of standards being correlated.
   • Standards Version. Standards evolve over time and it is important that the end user know the precise version of the standard used in the correlation.
   • Correlator. Since standards correlations involve considerable levels of subjective judgment, end users are interested in the identity of the person or organization that did the correlating.
   • Domain. The precise domain or subject area as defined (and stated) in the standard–e.g., "Science" or "Mathematics".
   • Academic or Training Level. Where appropriate, the grade level(s) to which the promulgating body says the standard applies.
   • Standard Text. The actual text of the academic standard.
5. The standard correlation should be recorded in the metadata at the same level of granularity that is included in the resource. E.g., if a resource is correlated at a benchmark level more refined than at a top-level standards level, record the correlation at the benchmark level.
6. Avoid abbreviations of any kind even when their meanings may appear obvious. Most search and retrieval engines treat this sort of correlation statement as a block of free-text, so individual words become extremely important.

Metadata Encodings Examples

• Resource Description Framework (RDF/XML)
  

  <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
  <rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf='http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#'
      xmlns:gem='http://purl.org/gem/elements/'>
  <rdf:Description>
      <gem:standards xml:lang='en'>
      Florida Department of Education. Sunshine 
      State Standards. Grade Level Expectations.
      Music First Grade. Skills and Techniques: 
      performs a steady beat based on a common 
      group pulse.
      </gem:standards>
  </rdf:Description>
  </rdf:RDF>
  

• XML (Tags & Attributes)
  

  <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
  <record xmlns:gem='http://purl.org/gem/elements/'>
  <gem:standards xml:lang='en'>
      Florida Department of Education. Sunshine 
      State Standards. Grade Level Expectations.
      Music First Grade. Skills and Techniques: 
      performs a steady beat based on a common 
      group pulse.
  </gem:standards>
  </record>
  

• Crosswalks
  IEEE LOM: 9.2.2.2:Classification.TaxonPath.Taxon.Entry (when 9.1:Classification.Purpose = 'educational objective')
  MARC: To be done