The skills and knowledge of the language arts are essential for student success in virtually all areas of the curriculum. They are also a central requirement for the development of clear expression arid critical thinking. The language arts include the study of literature and the development of skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

As a result of their schooling, students will be able to:

• read, comprehend, interpret, evaluate and use written material;
• listen critically and analytically;
• write standard English in a grammatical, well-organized and coherent mariner for a variety of purposes;
• use spoken language effectively in formal and informal situations to communicate ideas and information and to ask and answer questions;
• understand the various forms of significant literature representative
• of different cultures, eras and ideas;
• understand how and why language functions and evolves.

Mathematics provides essential problem-solving tools applicable to a range of scientific disciplines, business, and everyday situations. Matlrematics is the language of quantification anrl logic; its elements are symbols, structures, and shapes. It enables people to understand and use facts, definitions, aiid symbols iii a coherent and systematic way in order to reason deductively and to solve problem.

As a result of their schooling, students will be able to:

• perform the computations)ns of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division using whole numbers, integers, fractions and decimals;
• understand and use ratios and percentages;
• make and use measurements, including those of area and volume;
• identify, analyze arid solve prrrbloms using algebraic equations, inequalities, functions and their graphs;
• understand and apply geometric concepts and relations in a variety of forms;
• understand and use methods of data collection and analysis, including tables, charts arid comparisons; use mathematical skills to estimate, approximate arid predict outcomes and to judge reasonableness of results.

Effective human functioning depends upon optimum physical develop merit and health. Education for physical development and health provides students with the knowledge and attitudes to achieve healthful living throughout their lives arid to acquire physical fitness, coordination and leisure skills.

As a result of their schooling, students will be able to:

• understand the physical development, structure and functions of the human body;
• understand principles of nutrition, exercise, efficient management of emotional stress, positive self-concept development, and use and abuse, and the intervention and treatment of illness;
• understand consumer health and safety, including environmental health;
• demonstrate basic skills and physical fitness necessary to participate in a variety of conditioning exercises or leisure activities such h as sports and dance;
• plan a personal physical fitness and health l)program; perform a variety of complex motor activities;
• demonstrate a variety of basic life-saving activities

Science is the quest for objective truth. It provides a conceptual framework and the understanding of natural phenomena and their causes and effects The purposes of the study of science are to develop students who are scientifically literate, recognize that science is not value-free, are capable of making ethical judgments regarding science and social issues, and understand that technological growth is an outcome of the scientific enterprise.

As a result of their schooling, students will have a working knowledge of:

• the concepts and basic vocabulary of biological, physical and environmental sciences and their application to life and work in contemporary technological society;
• the social and environmental implications and limitations of technological development;
• the principles of scientific research and their application in simpIe research projects;
• the processes, techniques, methods, equipment and available technology of science.

Social sciences provide students with an understanding of themselves and of society, prepare them for citizenship in a democracy, and give them the basics for understanding the complexity of the world community. Study of the humanities, of which social sciences are a part, is necessary in order to preserve the values of human dignity, justice, arid representative processes. Social sciences include anthropology, economics, geography, government, history, philosophy, political science, psychology and sociology.

As a result of their schooling, students will able to:

• understand and analyze comparative political arid economic systems, with an emphasis on the political and economic systems of the United States;
• understand and analyze events, trends, personalities, and movements shaping the history of the world, the United States ,and Illinois;
• demonstrate a knowledge of the basic concepts of the social sciences and how these help to interpret human behavior;
• demonstrate a knowledge of world geography with emphasis on that of the United States;
• apply the skills and knowledge gained in the social sciences t9 decision making in life situations.

The fine arts give students the mearrs to express themselves creatively and to respond1iond to the artistic expression of others. As a record of human experience, the fine arts provide distinctive ways of understanding society, history and nature. The study of fine arts includes visual art, music, drama and dance.

As a result of their schooling, students will be able to:

• understand the principal sensory, formal, technical and expressive qualities of each of the arts;
• identify processes and tools required to produce visual art, music, drama and dance;
• demonstrate the basic skills necessary to participate in the creation and/or performance of one of the arts;
• identify significant works in the arts from major historical periords and how they reflect societies, cultures and civilizations, past and present;
• describe the unique characteristics teristics of each of the arts.

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