Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Common Education Standards

I can see where national standards could be a dangerous thing but I think we need something. A friend told me that her best bud left our area with kid in Special Ed and behind, only to move down South and have the school wanting to skip the child ahead! How does that happen? Which school is right? In Time magazine several years ago, they compared state assessments to national assessments...You can have one state where all the kids are proficient on state assessment and only 10% proficient on national assessment. (You then have to ask which assessment is a more accurate measure of course) I think their needs to be flexibility....areas w/ a unique ecosystem would spend more time studying it than somewhere that didn't have it, for example.

I don't want to get too sidetracked by politics, but I'm in favor of this consortium of governors agreeing to standards. They probably were spurred into action by federal government, but I don't think this is an issue that the federal government has the authority to decide or enforce.

Because we have such a mobile society I think a national standard of achievement will help children who move from state to state or even district to district.

Dazey, I agree that each district & state would have unique features which should be studied. But without a thorough education in reading, writing, & maths, no indepth study can be done. I think the standards are most important in elementary school to prepare the children to branch out when reaching middle & high school.

Well stated.

I would like to see a standard assessment adopted with results made easily available so that parents can compare apples to apples when decided where to live. The competition and transparency that could create, more than federal penalties, could motivate higher performance by the schools.

Our district only publicizes ACT scores for the graduating class. The state test pass rate (which they are happy for parents/taxpayers to assume is the average %tile rank) is publicized for other grades.

I recently read or was told, can't remember which, that a 4 (exceeds expectations) on a state assessment was 75% correct. So a kid scoring 75% correct, looks the same on paper as a kid scoring 99-100% correct. I wonder how low you can go and get a 3 (meets expectations/proficient). I heard that range is very wide...no wonder >95% meet or exceeds expectations as low as they are.

I think all of that is state specific right now.

Yes, we should have these. One reason is that when a student changes schools, he or she should know all the prior material. An example is the small school where I taught. Many students transfer in and out of these small districts here. A very bright student had to take Algebra I again as a freshman even though she had made an "A" in Algebra I in 8th grade.

Also, a student (especially without a college educated parent) should have the right to have a real education. The same school suspended teaching of British lit and Shakespeare since nobody gets it. These kids cannot make it in college.

There are already Federal laws they have to adhere to. When we are measuring our students' progress, it is false to have different measures in every state. We cannot raise our level of education if schools like the one I mentioned above is way below standard.

None of these prevent students from achieving beyond this level and all states should have a "commended level" also.

Homeschooling should have an option to be in this curriculum and test with it. Many colleges and universities (and jobs) do not accept their vague requirements and just stay away. These students should have these options also. Everyone I have ever worked with at colleges and other jobs just dismiss homeschool for this reason.

A standard is not a curriculum. There are a lot of curriculums designed to teach to the same standard. There absolutely should NOT be a requirement to use a certain curriculum. It's hard enough to work with a school district which has chosen a certain curriculum that does not work for your child, to have it mandated by the state would be horrible. I think holding a minimum standard for a grade level would be acceptable no matter where the child was educated, public, private, or homeschooled.
Also, I know 15 kids from 4 families that were homeschooled partially or fully, 13 of the 15 were accepted to the college of their choice, the other 2 are still too young. I don't know any homeschool failures. Statistics show homeschoolers outperform public schoolers on standardized tests. Of course there are some that fall below average, but most are above the average.

Well said, OHG.

Val, I couldn't agree with you more. I moved to a different state the summer after 7th grade, and other than math, I repeated my entire 7th grade year over in 8th grade. This was not because I failed 7th grade, but it was because that it what they taught in 8th grade here vs where I came from. And I would've HATED to know what schools were like in a different county, as I attended one of the best in the state.

Also, this is setting national standards, not limiting students who are above the curve. In fact, this may actually help reason that certain children do not belong in a classroom with their peers solely based on age.

In my high school, there were three tracks for each grade year. So students were put on a track that met their academic needs/abilities. This needs to be introduced into all grade levels nationally, not just high school. I personally feel like the fact that currently school districts are trying to make sure there are a good mix of students in all classrooms is actually hindering ALL children, regardless of what level of learning they may be on... I will stop there, for now, but I would LOVE LOVE LOVE my state's schools to be held to the same standards as each other let alone the rest of the nation.

See my other post on Britain demanding the same thing. Sure - it's great to raise standards and prevent child abuse. Different political agenda if you're just trying to nationalize everything and turn everyone into "government educated morons".