Students in schools that are making a big deal of standards-based instruction know the score, or more aptly, the rubric.

Take Joseph Vasoli, 7, a student at Pennypack Elementary in the Hatboro-Horsham School District in Montgomery County.

Does Joseph know about standards, assessments and rubrics? His father, Mark, hesitated to let Joseph answer the query, doubtful that the jargon of education had filtered into second grade.

But Joseph spoke right up.

"Yeah, a rubric is where you check off the things that you did so that you do the work your teacher wants."

And he had more to say: "If you didn't do everything, then you do more work and check off what you've done after you've done it."

These days, teachers post rubrics - checklists of work to be included if the assignment is to get a top grade. The task for the teacher is to align class work with the overarching academic standards.

In great measure, rubrics are the equivalent of good, organized instruction - making sure students learn what they need to learn to absorb the lesson.

"The rubrics are like a set of standards - what teachers use to grade by," said Ryan Beers, 14, a ninth grader at Hatboro-Horsham High School.

"It's a way to score your work, to tell how well you write, how well you do math."

As for standards, Beers has a dead-on definition: "It's what the state of Pennsylvania wants you to know."

Not that he is in total agreement.

"My mom says they should teach us more real-life stuff, like how to open a bank account," Beers said. "I think so, too."

Lance Burlbaugh, 16, a sophomore at the high school, said having a "checklist about what you're studying" made sense to him.

"It's not just guesswork about what you need to learn," Burlbaugh said.