Sorry, I need to correct my previous message. The word "grammar" is used in the standards. There is a page on which the writers explain the problems with some educational terms, including grammar. Hence, the word is used. As for standards regarding grammar, however, all I remember (and I was looking for it), is something such as primary students will write sentences that are largely correct. Elementary students will write sentences that are effectively? correct? (My Dean borrowed my copy of the working draft, so I have to go by memory here.) In essence, the standards will definitely NOT be prescriptive (the Language Mavens). In regard to grammar, there will be no standards, unless some of us put pressure on the group. (Hence my original question.) EV Regarding the national standards, Dennis Newson wrote: I hope the committee begins by making a statement about what they mean and don't mean by grammar. And I hope they've all read Chapter 12, The Language Mavens, in Steven Pinker's brilliant: The Language Instinct The New Science of Language and Mind (1993). -------- From what I have seen, he need not worry: the word "grammar" does not appear in the standards, nor do any grammatical terms or rules. It seems that as far as the standards are concerned, grammar does not exist. Ed V.