More About the Decathlon
The Academic Decathlon is a series of interscholastic competitions for high school teams nationwide. The Decathlon encourages, recognizes and rewards academic effort and excellence.
The Decathlon tests knowledge and academic skills - but isn’t just for the class genius. One of the unique features of the Decathlon is that each team represents a range of achievement levels.
The competition team consists of three students who have "A" averages, three with "B" averages and three with "C" averages. The alternate team consists of up to nine students with no specific averages.
To prepare for competition, the team members begin working and studying together early in the fall. On competition day, all nine team members participate in the same events and are judged by the same criteria. The team’s final score depends on the performances of ALL its members.
Experience Success as a Team!
~Hillside High School Academic Decathlon Team
2023 Region I State Qualifiers...
*Rutherford High School
*Hackensack High School
*Bergenfield High School
*Hillside High School
*Ridgefield Memorial High School
2023 Region II State Qualifiers...
*Indian Hills High School
*Westwood High School
*Kinnelon High School
*Ramapo High School
*Mahwah High School
2023 Region III State Qualifiers...
*Clifton High School
*Hanover Park High School
*WWindsor Plainsboro North HS
*Fair Lawn High School
*Morristown High School
*Donovan Catholic High School
2023 USAD National Qualifiers...
*Westwood High School
*Hackensack High School
*Rutherford High School
*WWindsor Plainsboro North HS
*Kinnelon High School
CURRICULUM STANDARDS
THE UNITED STATES ACADEMIC DECATHLON® AND CURRICULUM AND CONTENT STANDARDS OVERVIEW
The United States Academic Decathlon’s curriculum is an interdisciplinary curriculum in which a selected theme is integrated across six different subject areas: art, economics, literature, music, science, and social science. Students also study mathematics and participate in essay-writing, speech, and interview events. The theme for the 2022–2023 U.S. Academic Decathlon® (USAD) curriculum is The American Revolution and the New Nation. While in most subjects the majority of the topics relate to the overall curricular theme, some topics that cover fundamentals may also be included to encourage a thorough understanding of the subject area as a whole. The USAD mathematics curriculum is unrelated to the theme and focuses on standard high school mathematics topics. This document provides a summary of the Common Core Standards for high school Mathematics and Reading that are addressed in USAD’s 2022–2023 curriculum as well as the national content standards met by USAD’s 2022–2023 curriculum.
THE UNITED STATES ACADEMIC DECATHLON’ S CURRICULUM AND THE COMMON CORE STANDARDS
Standards Background The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a state-led effort to establish a common set of educational standards for English language arts and mathematics. The standards aim to ensure that students graduating from high school are prepared to attend college or enter the workforce. The Common Core Standards were developed by states and content experts under the guidance of governors and state education chiefs, and they have been adopted by forty-one states, the District of Columbia, four territories, and the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA). The United States Academic Decathlon and the Common Core Standards for High School Mathematics
The Common Core High School Mathematics Standards consist of six broad categories. The U.S. Academic Decathlon’s 2022–2023 mathematics curriculum addresses aspects of five of these six categories:
• Number and Quantity
• Algebra
• Functions
• Modeling
• Geometry
Mathematical Practice Standards addressed in addition to the content standards, the Common Core High School Mathematics standards emphasize eight practice standards. These standards are meant to address the manner in which students approach and reason during their learning of mathematics. USAD’s 2022–23 Mathematics Curriculum addresses seven of these eight practice standards:
• CCSS.Math.Practice.MP1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them
• CCSS.Math.Practice.MP2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively
• CCSS.Math.Practice.MP4: Model with mathematics
• CCSS.Math.Practice.MP5: Use appropriate tools strategically
• CCSS.Math.Practice.MP6: Attend to precision
• CCSS.Math.Practice.MP7: Look for and make use of structure
• CCSS.Math.Practice.MP8: Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning
The United States Academic Decathlon and the Common Core Reading Standards for Literature USAD’s 2022–23 literature curriculum in concert with other Academic Decathlon subject areas addresses aspects of all ten of the Common Core College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Reading for students in grades K–12. USAD’s 2022–23 literature curriculum in concert with other Academic Decathlon subject areas addresses aspects of all ten Common Core Reading Standards for Literature for students in grades 9–10. USAD’s 2022–23 literature curriculum in concert with other Academic Decathlon subject areas addresses aspects of seven Common Core Reading Standards for Literature for students in grades 11–12.
THE UNITED STATES ACADEMIC DECATHLON CURRICULUM AND NATIONAL CONTENT STANDARDS
USAD’s 2022–2023 curriculum addresses aspects of the following:
• All twenty of the Voluntary National Content Standards in Economics
• Eleven of the twelve Curriculum and Content Area Standards for English Language Arts
• Four of five content areas of the high school mathematics curriculum delineated by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) and provides students with opportunities to utilize all four reasoning habits delineated by the NCTM
• Four National Core Arts Standards for Music
• Four National Core Arts Standards for Visual Arts
• Ten Physical Science Disciplinary Core Ideas for Grades 9–12 and all seven crosscutting concepts delineated by the Next Generation Science Standards
• Nine of ten overarching curricular themes outlined by the National Council for Social Studies (NCSS), two areas of focus delineated by the National Content Standards for Civics, and two historical eras of focus delineated by the National Content Standards for U.S. History