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The Role of Standards

“These reforms express my deep belief in our public schools and their mission to build the mind and character of every child, from every background, in every part of America,”(Excutive Summary,1.

President George W. Bush January 2001

According to Robert L. Linn, standards have played a prominent role in education during the past 50 years. In the 1950s under the influence of James B. Conant, testing was used to select students for higher education and to identify students for gifted programs. In the 1960s testing was used to measure the effectiveness of Title I and other federal programs. In the 1970s and early 1980s, state testing to measure basic skills was developed and became a graduation requirement in 34 states. This minimum competency testing continued into the late 1980s and early 1990s and was overlapped by a movement toward the use of standardized test results for accountability purposes.(Linn,1) This use of standardized testing is still used in todays schools and has developed even greater emphasis with the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001(NCLB). The NCLB act is an education reform effort proposed by President George W. Bush and passed into law by congress on January 8, 2002. Two important areas of the NCLB act that directly effect the role that standards play in todays educational system include increased accountability for states, school districts, and schools and a greater choice for parents and students(particularly about school choice, (executive summary,1). The role of education standards has become the primary tool for assessing implementation of these key principles of the act.  	The role of standards is very evident in the assessment of the first principle of the NCLB act of increased accountability for states, school districts, and schools.  According to the executive summary of the NCLB act it is a requirement that states implement an accountability system covering all public schools and students.  These systems require state standards in reading and math and annual testing for students in grades 3-8.  Schools that fail to make yearly progress toward state goals will have to undergo corrective action to help them meet state standards. The bill prohibits any “national testing” or federally controlled curriculum. It is the responsibility of the state to design their own test and to make sure their test are aligned to their state curriculum standards. Federal funding was provided to states to develop their test. The test results are required to be made public annually. The test results are divided and reported according to poverty, race, ethnicity, disability, and limited English proficiency. This process is known as “disaggregation of data” and is used to prevent lumping all students together to hide the achievement gaps within certain groups of students. States had until the 2005-06 school year to develop and implement their test. Schools and school districts are now required to show “adequate yearly progress”(A.Y.P.) toward demonstrating with their test scores that they are on course to reach 100 percent proficiency for all groups of students within 12 years. States decide what the acceptable A.Y.P. is. Schools that fall behind may be subject to various “ school improvement measures”. States will also have to compare their test results against an independent benchmark called the National Assessment of Educational Progress(NAEP), which will be given to a small sample of each state’s 4th and 8th grade students. The purpose of the NAEP is to insure that the state standards are not set to low,(Executive summary, 1). The role of standards is very important in insuring that states, school districts, and local schools are being held accountable for student performance. According to the executive summary of the NCLB act standards also play a very important role in deciding how Title I funds are spent. The NCLB act increases the choices available for parents and students. If a school is identified for improvement, corrective action, or restructuring students must be given the opportunity to attend a better performing public school. The district must provide transportation to the school and use at least 5 percent of its Title I funds for this purpose. Schools that consistently fail to meet state standards for at least 3 of the 4 preceding years must use Title I funds to obtain supplemental services from the public or private sector. To help maintain that local educational agencies offer productive choices NCLB requires districts to spend 20 percent of their Title I money to provide school choice and supplemental programs to eligible students. Standards play an important role in determine how Title I money will be spent,(executive summary, 1-2). The school choice and supplemental program portion of NCLB provides incentives to poor performing schools to improve performance on state standards to prevent losing portions of their budgets. The role that standards have played in education has always been a controversial one. Despite the 50 year history of standards in education it is still not clear if they are a reliable source of indicating educational quality. The NCLB act has heightened this debate and has been highly criticized for its dependence on testing standards. According to K-8 principal and Vice-Chair of the Coalition of Essential Schools, Deborah Meier “the current push for national and state-mandated standards is fundamentally misguided. It leads inevitably to standardization, which is the antithesis of real education. It will not help develop young minds, contribute to a robust democratic life, or aid the most vulnerable of our fellow citizens. By shifting the locus of authority to outside bodies, it undermines the capacity of schools to instruct by example in the qualities of mind that schools in a democracy should be fostering in kids-responsibility for one’s own ideas, tolerance for the ideas of others, and a capacity to negotiate differences. Standardization instead turns teachers and parents into the local instruments of externally imposed expert judgment. It thus decreases the chances that young people will grow up in the midst of adults who are making hard decisions and exercise mature judgment in the face of disagreements. And it squeezes out those schools and educators with innovative ideas”(Meier,1). Proponents of using standards in educational reform argue, however that testing is a necessary way to maintain accountability. According to President George W. Bush, “how do you know if a child is learning if you don’t test(Marsha,1).” Regardless of the controversy created by the use of standards in education their role will continue to be an important one for all educators.

References

Frontline:Testing our schools:no child left behind:the new rules. Retrieved September 5, 2006, from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/schools/nochild/nclb.hyml

Executive Summary of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Retrieved September 5, 2006, from http://www.ed.gov/print/nclb/overview/intro/execsumm.html

Marsha Ing. (2005). Review: America’s “Failing” Schools: How Parents and Teachers Can Cope With No Child Left Behind by W. James Popham. Interactions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies. Vol. 1, Issue 2, Article 17. http://repositories.cdlib.org/gseis/interactions/vol1/iss2/art17

Bush, G.W. (2005, January 12). President discusses No Child Left Behind and high school initiatives. Retrieved September 5, 2006 from: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/release/2005/01/20050112-5.html

Meier, Deborah. What Do Kids Need? Retrieved September 5, 2006 from http://www.eyeoneducation.tv/reform/meier.html

Linn, Robert L. (2001). Assessments and accountability(condensed version). Practical Asessment, Research & Evaluation, 7(11). Retrieved September 13, 2006 from http://PAREonline.net/getvn.asp?v=7&n=11.

Multiple Choice

1. What educational reform bill of 2001 had an enormous impact on the role standards play in education today?

A. Elementary and Secondary Education Act B. No Child Left Behind Act C. The Standardization Reform Act D. None of the above

2. Which president proposed the education reform bill that has so greatly influenced the importance of standards in education today.

A. Lyndon B. Johnson B. Bill Clinton C. George W. Bush D. None of the above

3. Which two areas of current education reform directly impact the use of standards in education today.

A. Accountability and Parent/student choice B. Safe School Policies C. Testing and Standards Policies D. None of the above

4. What school year was the cut off for implementation of the state standards requirement of the No Child Left Behind Act?

A. 2004-05 B. 2005-06 C. 2006-07 D. None of the above

5. What is the state profficiency goal of the No Child Left Behind Act within the next 12 years.

A. 70% B. 80% C. 90% D. 100%

Essay

1. Describe the two principles of the No Child Left Behind Act that have a direct impact on the role that standards play in education.