The Common Core Standards
The Common Core State Standards focuses on increasing the use of informational texts, reading literacy, close and careful reading of complex texts, providing text-based answers to questions, writing that emphasizes using evidence to inform or make an argument, and academic vocabulary.

The New York State Common Core Learning Standards can be foud at (science standards begin on page 75 or slide 77 of the Adobe document):

http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/common_core_standards/pdfdocs/p12_common_core_learning_standards_ela.pdf