Curriculum integration has long been proposed as a way of organizing the "common learnings" or life skills considered essential for all citizens in a democracy. Curriculum is organized around real-life problems and issues significant to both young people and adults, applying pertinent content and skills from many subject areas or disciplines. The intent is to help students make sense out of their life experiences and learn how to participate in a democracy. This digest suggests how middle level schools can, at the same time, both reap the benefits of genuine student-centered, integrative curriculum and instruction and also develop student competencies in state-mandated standards so that students can make acceptable scores on typical standards-based tests. The digest discusses"integrative standards" development by several groups: (1) the National Study of School Evaluation (NSSE) and the Alliance for Curriculum Reform (ACR); (2) the Center for Occupational Research and Development (CORD); and (3) the Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL). The digest also discusses the students' role in addressing standards and cites research on student academic achievement in various types of integrative programs. Contains 12 references. (LPP)