On page 91 of our class textbook, Teaching Strategies: a Guide to Effective Instruction, the author criticizes state education standards, stating that “State standards cover a wide range of topics, concepts and subjects. Most appear to be randomly generated…” (Orlich, 2010) There are currently fifty different sets of state education standards being used in this country, each state having their own idea of what their students should learn and when. Oftentimes the standards are vague and nebulous, leaving educators to determine just what the standard entails. In addition, standards do not indicate how to progress from one area of learning to the next, instead just stating what a student must accomplish. Another issue with the standards of many states is the fact that they leave no leeway. Each student is to meet every standard.
As a country, why haven’t state education departments collaborated together to regulate education standards? Wouldn’t it make sense that all of our students be educated similarly, learning the same materials during the same grade, regardless of what state they live in? It is quite possibly because up to the advent of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), states felt that education should be a state issue, not a federal one. With NCLB being introduced, it became obvious that the federal government was not going to sit back and allow states to control how the nation’s youth were educated. The process wasn’t working and change needed to be instituted. Granted, NCLB was probably not the best format for improvement of the nation’s educational system, but its launch made apparent the need for accountability in schools. With this accountability comes the need to define exactly what is proficient in terms of skill mastery. Each state has had its’ own guidelines for proficiency. It has since been determined that in order to define proficiency, each state needs to be on the same page. Hence, the development of the Common Core State Standards Initiative in response to this need.
Currently, forty-six of the nation’s fifty states are on board with the initiative with Alaska, Missouri, South Carolina and Texas not having joined in. The thought of the majority is that with having uniform educational standards, it will be possible to have a solid idea of how American students rank academically. It will also allow a standardized testing program rather than the fifty different programs that are used by each individual state, saving money.
Will this initiative save the nation’s educational future? While I believe it has promise of administering aid to the issues plaguing education, I do not believe it is the only answer. I believe that additional state and federal programs are needed to reduce class size, allow for additional staffing in special education classrooms, and promote parent involvement in education, just to name a few areas of concern. The Common Core State Standards Initiative could be a good program if developed correctly with input from those in the education field. The initiative, in hand with other helpful programs, may just help rebuild our education system.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-06-01-state-standards_N.htm
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I am not a huge fan of the standards as they are currently laid out and implemented. You cite in your post a number of the reasons why - they are vaguely written, incomplete, and far too iron clad. They imply an inflexibility that just kills the creative side of teaching, the side I believe makes for many of the very best learning experiances. At the same time, I believe you are correct in saying that despite the flaws in NCLB - and I believe it is one of the most flawed documents I have ever seen - it did highlight the need for accountability and the need for some sort of educational standards or guidelines. Now I know what you're say - this is the guy that has railed against the state standards and now he's saying we need them?"
ReplyDeleteThat statement hits the issue on the head - we need some sort of standards but not the ones we have and not implemented like the ones we have. That is my problem with it all.
I also think you are correct that states rights is one of the main reasons we have the current situation. Each state wrote it's own standards and implemented them in their own way and the result is we as a nation are all over the map on this. Now I am a states rights guy myself. The Constitution says plainly everything the states can do should be left to the states and the national government should stay out of it. I agree with that and absolutely hate giving the national government any more power at all. However this appears to be one of those areas the states just can't handle competantly themselves. A comprehensive national set of standards should be created and correctly implemented. Now I understand it may be too much to ask that our national government do something this important correctly and completely. They have been pretty poor at getting much of anything right for a while now and the goofing up continues to this very minute, but I think even if it's not perfect, a national set of standards would make the most sense.
I hope very much that those final 4 states will come through. Then it will be up to the feds to do it well - cross your fingers.
Due to an ingrained philosophy called "local control," national standards are not likely to happen. In fact, even within a state, coming to consensus might to difficult.
ReplyDeleteIn a state like North Dakota, I think that state standards are achievable and wise. Standards can be the great leveler that insures that students in small, rural schools have the opportunities to learn as those in larger, richer districts.
Standards do help us be accountable for our learning goals. But I think that any accountability that would come with national standards would be meaningless. Can you imagine every 11th grader in the U.S.taking the same language arts test. Talk about "teaching to the test." Where is the real learning?