Putting the pieces together!      

North Carolina's Accountability and Curriculum Reform Effort (ACRE) is the state's comprehensive initiative to redefine the Standard Course of Study for K-12 students, the student assessment program and the school accountability model.

In stages over five years (2008-2013) the ACRE initiative will:

• identify the most critical knowledge and skills that students need to learn - filtering the "must have" elements of the curriculum from the "nice to have" elements;
  
  
• create new student tests for grades 3-8 and high school courses that use more open-ended questions, more technology and more real-world applications of what students learn; and
  
  
• provide a new model for measuring school success that gives parents and educators more relevant information about how well schools are preparing students for college, work and adulthood.

The ACRE work involves many educators from across North Carolina - classroom teachers, school administrators, content and curriculum experts from the Department of Public instruction, university and community college faculty and national experts on curriculum design and testing. While ACRE is on a fast-track schedule, this work will take time to unfold and take effect statewide. In order to be reasonable about how much change can be implemented at once, there is a schedule for addressing each subject area and its following assessments. The new accountability model for schools and tracking student growth over time will be the final phase of ACRE work.