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Monday, December 29, 2008
Can universal standards improve learning?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Support seems to be building for national standards in reading and math.
The way it’s set up now each state sets its own expectations and it varies widely.
Some argue it’s time for all the benchmarks to be the same and high so the U.S. can compete and excel when compared to other countries. Others say it should be left to each state.
But it seems as though there should be another argument. If students are struggling with the goals we have now, what will happen when the standards become harder?
Some seem to think that just “raising the bar” automatically makes students smarter or at least test better. But so many more steps are needed - such as more remediation and tutoring for students and additional training for teachers.
What do you think of universal standards? Is this the way to improve schools?
