What do you think of National Standards?
The big education news this week is that there are 46 states that have agreed to setting national standards in education. Washington Post article here.
Is this a good idea?
I didn’t use to think so.
Then I got tired of constant fussing and arguing over state standards and thought of the ineffectiveness of all 50 states constantly revising their standards. This was followed by states pointing their fingers at each other and bragging over which state had the “toughest” standards or complaining over which state had the “weakest” standards.
I don’t know…what do you think?
5 Comments
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Interesting idea. I don’t know if I am in favor of this or not. I do know that education needs an overhaul, but am not sure what is the best way to begin the process.
Student achievement is being compared on an international basis, but on an uneven playing field. Before people jump on board with this, the public needs to be educated on all the different educational systems in the world that the United States is compared to–just who is being educated around the world. Do all countries educate all their youth? Free? Mandatory?
I think the idea of the National Standards was expressed recently in an article in Time Magazine. It has been suggested that many states are not honest in their reporting and so the results are untrustworthy. If the guidelines were national and the inclusion or exclusion of certain student groups were uniform and strictly defined, the results might actually mean something. Can’t remember which issue of Time, perhaps a month or six weeks ago, but it had a convincing argument regarding how easy it is for states to manipulate the numbers.
National Standards are okay as long as they are the standards I think are important.
This is the problem I see with national standards, they are fine as long as you agree with them but it will be very hard to make everyone happy when you are looking at the diversity of the United States. As it now stands, there are national social studies standards that are completely unrealistic if you consider them in terms of assessment. There are way too many and in many cases they are way to vague so the problem of local interpretation of a standard would arise.
I would also be wary of national standards since education is the responsibility of the states according to the US Constitution. By establishing national standards we are in essence establishing a national curriculum and thus violating the rights of states to control education within their borders.
What has interested me about this is the fact that supposedly our state has signed on to this initiative, and we have heard nothing about it. I figure that national standards are inevitable, so I think that our state jumping in and hopefully having some input in the process sounds better than just having it done to us.
Also curious as to whether having national standards in math and language arts will lead to a preferred curriculum in math and language arts. Currently being involved in an adoption process, it would be nice to know what the preferred curriculum will be, it might make my work easier.
I think that national standards could be a great move towards improving education in the U.S, if:
-They are quality–well articulated and measurable, and
-They help teachers focus on what is essential and what is not
What hasn’t been discussed in many of the blogs is the implication this has on creating a national assessment based on these standards. I actually think this could also be a good thing, if (again) it is done well and is based on student growth models.
I am skeptical that if we get national standards that they will meet my “if” statements. I don’t think the current national standards are good at focusing teachers or are measurable.