David J. Hoff of Ed Week posted an article reporting that there appears to be increasing support among US government officials for a common set of standards for academic outcomes. For those of us who are concerned about effective instruction, this is very welcome news. To be sure, national standards would have to be conceptualized very carefully, ensuring that they describe important competencies (not recitation of bits). Given the way that states have manipulated local standards, it is important to identify those core areas where we want educated students to be capable of demonstrating facility.
Absent agreed-upon foci for teaching, American education is likely to continue to meander, wander, and be subjected to fads and whims. Agreement about common goals and specification of widely accepted indicators of those goals would go a long way to providing a measuring stick against which educational methods could be compared. Then, it would easier to determine what methods are relatively more effective.
Anyway, here’s Mr. Hoff’s lead:
National Standards Gain Steam: Governors’ Embrace Rooted in Competitiveness Concerns
National standards—once the untouchable “third rail” of American education policy—now have the backing of the nation’s governors, a growing number of education leaders, and the U.S. secretary of education.
The National Governors Association last week adopted a policy statement endorsing a process to develop common academic standards by comparing student performance on international tests.
The governors join several education groups—the Council of the Great City Schools, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, and the American Federation of Teachers among them—in endorsing the idea that the nation should set a common definition of what students should know and be able to do.
Link to the article (subscription may be required). Also, see his recent blog entry on the topic. By the way, we need some national standards for social behavioral outcomes, too.
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Why not make the GED a standard exit exam for high school? It is a nationally accepted test of basic knowledge. There are many GED holders who are more highly qualified than those who just sqeaked through to get a diploma.
My friend and former colleague, Rick Brigham, has mused on the same question, Carrie. If we have a rigorous, trustworthy (i.e., reliable and valid) measure that meets other criteria (e.g., assesses relevant domains; requires application, not just recall), why not simply use it rather than create 52 local ones that require so much more additional development, validation, and etc.?
I’ve not reviewed the literature on this, but perhaps you know about studies examining correlations between GED and other outcome scores. If so, please tell.