A renewed push for national educational standards has local school systems concerned about compromising quality.
The worries come on the heels of Wednesday’s release of the “Common Core” state standards crafted by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, in partnership with D.C. and every state except Texas and Alaska.
The K-12 national standards “seek to provide a clear and consistent framework to prepare our children for college and the workforce,” according to the drafters.
To do so, dozens of pages outline what students ought to know. Fifth graders, for example – whether in the poorest neighborhood in Los Angeles or the wealthiest neighborhood in Fairfax County – should be able to “read literature independently, proficiently, and fluently within the grades 4-5 text complexity band,” and “read ‘stretch’ texts in the grades 6-8 text complexity band.”
Second graders are expected to know how to “count within 1000,” and to “skip count by 2s, 5s, 10s, and 100s.”
Martina Hone, a Fairfax County school board member, supports the idea of national standards, but worries that such efforts could set an achievement ceiling instead of a floor.
“This isn’t directed at a school system like Fairfax County,” Hone said. “We already give the bare bones, but what makes us spectacular are the things beyond the bare bones.”
Hone, who spent time teaching in a poor and under-performing school, said that the people focused on education reform rarely came out of the excellent districts. Their attention, then, is on bettering the worst of the bunch, instead of nurturing the best.
“People forget sometimes that there are places like Fairfax and Montgomery County that are out there doing everything already,” she said.
Montgomery teachers union President Doug Prouty said that national standards make sense if given enough flexibility for individual states and districts. The worry, though, is that they would promote a cookie-cutter education.
“If national standards become too arbitrary, they don’t allow districts to attend to the unique needs of districts, and then they don’t allow teachers and schools to attend to the needs of the classroom,” Prouty said. “But I’m optimistic that’s not the direction this time.”
