Prior to the great emphasis on standardization as an educational reform, many teachers did differentiate for their classroom students. But it was not called "differentiation", it was a matter of knowing their students and connecting with them. There were fewer measures and less research to dictate the "science" of teaching... but some may say there was more practice of the "art" of teaching.
Standardization has, in some cases, made classrooms into research labs, with stories from teachers about not being allowed to teach with different materials, curriculum, or pacing.
Some may say, in these circumstances, a type of censorship is occurring.
Local parental control of public school policies is being replaced with school boards influenced by nationalization efforts, in order to maximize receipt of tax dollars.
Like teachers of days gone by, today's involved parents (many without teaching credentials or certification) manage to ferret out meaningful resources for the education of their children, for enrichment, after-schooling, and homeschooling. They do this, in part, by knowing their children. School systems cannot know the children as well and strive to compensate for this with excessive data collection.
Those who value diversity of thought, freedom to learn from an uncensored variety of learning materials and curriculum, at an appropriate pacing for a student... and liberty from the veritable prison of excessive data collection... may wish to stay informed on legislation and strive to keep homeschooling legal and unrestricted.
