Panel Releases Proposal to Set U.S. Education Standards

Source: NYTimes

Culminating a year’s work, a panel of educators convened by the nation’s governors and state school superintendents released a set of proposed common academic standards on Wednesday. The standards, posted on the panel’s web site,(http://www.corestandards.org/) lay out the panel’s vision of what American public school students should learn in math and English, year by year, from kindergarten to high school graduation.

Forty-eight states cooperated in producing the proposed standards, which amount to a new road map for American public education. If a majority of states were to adopt them over the next few months, which experts said was a growing possibility, the new standards would replace the nation’s motley current checkerboard of locally written standards, which vary greatly in content and sophistication. And adoption of the new standards would set off a vast new effort to rewrite textbooks and standardized tests.

“I’d say this is one of the most important events of the last several years in American education,” said Chester Finn, Jr., a former assistant secretary of education who has been an advocate for national standards for nearly two decades. “Now we have the possibility that, for the first time, states could come together around new standards and high school graduation requirements that are ambitious and coherent. This is a big deal.”

The proposed standards lay out a blueprint of the concepts and skills students should learn year by year as they make their way through the public schools. In English, for instance, they say that fifth graders should be able to explain major differences between drama and prose stories, and refer to elements of drama like casts of characters, dialogue, and stage directions when writing or speaking about specific works of dramatic literature, among other skills.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/education/11educ.html?hp

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Only Texas and Alaska didn't participate.

but oh well.

This potentially affects ALL schools.

1) union busting
2) blaming teachers for systemic and economic problems
3) cherry picking data to get the outcome one wants -- the 7% math figure is widely reported but not the significant gains in other areas
4) it's okay to take over and vilify schools in poor areas
5) it's okay for favoritism and cronyism

As for these standards, I haven't had a chance to look at them yet so will withhold judgement. They could stand to be simplified, that's for sure. When I read my state's standards I scratch my head and say, Huh? They aren't written very clearly, contradict each other at times, are redundant, and don't give much guidance for teaching. So... I'd like to see the proposed changes but have some concerns. What kind of testing will come along with these? Is this another "one size fits all" approach without attention to underlying problems some districts face (poverty, transient population, ELL)? What about special ed?

though I think no precedent was set, because all the items you listed have been status quo for many years.

I think that if we really care about education, talking about a national standard for all schools is infinitely more important than talking about one school in RI. But as Ive seen on DU many times before, most people don't really care about the ISSUE, they care about the STORY (see: Pirates, Somalia)

That is definitely new.

PATCO.

If they bypass federal money, they can have all the states' rights they want.

They can teach advanced concepts like "theft of time".

This would provide excellent training for future employees. :sarcasm:

On edit - "theft of time" is defined here:

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2002/02/7041.shtml

"Because time is money, the Wal-Mart man explained as an introduction, friendly chats during working hours is also theft, theft of time from the employer and thus punishable. One must guard oneself from unions with their hidden dangers for workers."

Wal-Mart is funding some charter school studies -- trying to get their greedy hands in the public coffers.