SRC pares back visual literacy standards, tightens wording on altered media ethics

The Standards Review Committee revised and streamlined the Visual Literacy elective on Oct. 7, accepting language changes to tighten outcomes and deleting several redundant items.

Committee members removed a narrowly framed research standard and folded background-context expectations into a tightened analytical standard. "Use research skills when appropriate to analyze the historical, social, cultural and/or political origins or impacts of a visual text," the committee agreed, adding that staff should annotate the working draft to show where research would be required.

The committee consolidated literal-content language so students are expected to "identify literal content both inside and outside the frame of the visual text," a change intended to help teachers and students discuss framing choices in film, photography and other media. Members also revised an ethics standard to ask students to "compare an original and altered visual text; evaluate the ethics of the alterations," aiming the language at photo‑editing and digitally altered content.

Members struck a separate discipline-vocabulary standard as redundant of a standard that already requires students to "use discipline‑specific language to discuss techniques used to create the visual text." The committee also simplified evaluative language to ask students to judge effectiveness against a set of criteria.

Ending: Staff will carry the edits into a cleaned working document; committee members put a handful of glossary and sequencing items on the parking lot for later review.