National education standards are here, and it’s about time
In one of my first posts back in September–Your child’s test scores aren’t as good as they look–I argued for the creation of national education standards because they would, among other things, allow for a true comparison of how students in different states are doing. The process had just started when I wrote that post; on Wednesday, the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI) released a draft of the K-12 standards it designed over the past six months. According to the group’s website,
Governors and state commissioners of education from 48 states, 2 territories and the District of Columbia** committed to developing a common core of state standards in English-language arts and mathematics for grades K-12. This is a state-led effort coordinated by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). The NGA Center and CCSSO have received feedback from national organizations representing, but not limited to teachers, postsecondary education (including community colleges), civil rights groups, English language learners, and students with disabilities.”
**Texas and Alaska were the two states that chose not to participate.
The two sets of standards are available on the CCSSI website and are open for public comment until Friday, April 2. In my opinion, this is just what the doctor ordered for the U.S. public education system. I haven’t scoured every standard yet, but what jumps out immediately is that they are clearly written and concise (130 pages combined for two subjects across all grades, K-12). One of my professors in grad school used to say, “simplicity is elegance.” By that definition, these standards are elegant.
Major kudos to Kentucky, which last month became the first state to adopt the standards. An Education Week article reviewed the widespread support for this move, from politicians to the state school board to teachers. The union was particularly supportive:
Kentucky teachers have been feeling that the current state standards are ‘way too broad and not nearly deep enough,’ said Sharron K. Oxendine, the president of the 41,000-member Kentucky Education Association, also an NEA affiliate. She hopes that by attempting to take a ‘fewer, clearer, higher’ approach, the common standards will enable teachers to cover critical key areas in more depth.”
An added benefit to teachers is that if they move to another states, the basic standards will be the same. And an added benefit to taxpayers is that no more time and money will be wasted developing separate standards and assessments for their particular state. On the topic of assessments…
Unfortunately, national standards mean nothing without national assessments to measure students’ progress. So even if every state approves these, we’ll have the equivalent of a uniformed police officer without a gun, handcuffs, or a squad car.
My first inclination was to write that it will be quite a while before we see national assessments, because of all the debates within states over textbooks and course content in K-12 schools. After thinking about it, though, I realized that most of those fights have to do with history/social studies (e.g., which historical figures are studied and how certain periods of American history are portrayed) and science (e.g., evolution v. creationism), not reading and math (and when issues arise in these two subjects, it’s about how things are taught, not what is being taught). With a little luck, we might see national math and reading assessments by the middle of this decade. And then, finally, we’ll know how our nation is doing when it comes to educating our kids. Better late than never.
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Michael,
While we’ve heard the rhetoric over which state has the best (or worst) standards for quite some time now, I feel as though the information conveyed regarding student performance has been left unmentioned. True, the performance of students should be tied to the standards of a criterion referenced exam, but I’m left wanting to know just how divergent are (for example) the math knowledge sets of the average proficient student from South Carolina as compared to the average proficient student from Oklahoma.
Are we nit-picking details or are these students really expected to demonstrate the additional depth of understanding that we, as educators and a society at large, advocate?
On a slightly different note, a colleague of mine read to me a diatribe against Tennessee’s race to the top application. Although I forfeit the details, the main thrust was that between Tennessee’s low standards and low achievement the state expects little, produces little but – owing to an exemplary data collection infrastructure – measures it very well. A part of me thinks national standards falls into this camp as well: we’ll be better equipped to measure and compare outcomes, but achievement itself won’t be substantively impacted.
I understand the theory behind why national standards and possibly assessment may improve education, but do we have any empirical evidence to think this will actually come to fruition? I wonder what we may expect in terms of the size of the effect?
ptgoff – I partially address this issue in the September post that’s linked at the beginning of this one. When state test scores were matched up to NAEP scores, it was clear that some states’ (like Mississippi) test results said one thing, while their NAEP results said something very different. I actually wonder whether the national standards movement would be this far along if states had just set higher standards for themselves over the past decade.
As far as achievement being impacted by national standards and assessments, I think this will happen as a result of the entire nation knowing how a state’s students did. For example, if it becomes common knowledge that students in Virginia and Utah score much higher–on the exact same tests–than their neighbors North Carolina and Colorado–suddenly VA and UT get a leg up when it comes to people and businesses wanting to relocate there. This is similar to how things work now within states: Real estate agents or community leaders show potential residents or businesses how their locality stacks up against other localities on annual state tests. In short, I think interstate competition for business and residents will compel politicians and citizens to demand more from their schools. And when it becomes clear that schools in the state next door are achieving those results using XYZ practices (e.g., more funding, a different governance structure, some type of innovation), I think we’ll see states become more open to reforming their practices to what is proven to work in other places.
Following this possible line of developments over the first few years of a national testing system would be a fascinating study. Hopefuly someone decides to pursue it.
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