D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee earlier this week optimistically embraced “The Common Core State Standards Initiative,” started by the National Governors Association, Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers. The project would develop national academic standards that are linked to those of “top performing countries.”
“It would benefit DCPS enormously to be able to benchmark and norm our progress against that of students in other districts across the country. In doing so, we can learn from the best practices of others,” Rhee told me.
Participating states are expected to develop standards in English language arts and mathematics for grades K-12 that will be “research and evidence-based, internationally benchmarked, aligned with college and work expectations and include rigorous content and skills.” A validation committee, “composed of nationally and internationally recognized experts,” will provide an independent review. The college- and career-ready standards are expected to be completed in July. The grade-by-grade standards work will be completed by December 2009, according to the NGA.
Identifying best practices and setting standards aren’t problems in the District. Courage is, however. Many D.C. Council members have been unwilling to implement the radical agenda advocated by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and Rhee. In fact, squabbles between the executive and the legislature coupled with the council’s micromanaging proclivities have slowed the pace and narrowed the breadth of reform.
Truth be told, it’s hard to know whether NGA’s project means anything at all. The initiative, after all, is merely an agreement to develop the standards. The governors have yet to decide whether they will adopt the standards that are suggested. They haven’t even agreed to develop a national test or a common test score, Jack Jennings, president of the D.C.-based Center on Education Policy, told me during an interview earlier this week.
“This is as far politically as the governors feel they could go,” he said. “[But], getting [49] governors to agree to anything is quite an accomplishment.”
Let’s shout hallelujah — although they’re pretty late coming to the table: President George H.W. Bush first proposed setting national education standards and establishing a national test. President Bill Clinton eventually made a similar proposal. Then came President George W. Bush, who pushed through the No Child Left Behind law, forcing states to set certain standards in order to receive funds from the federal government. Now, after decades, governors realize that America’s children are academically far behind their counterparts in other parts of the world, including some countries labeled as undeveloped.
Rhee happens to know a thing or two about pledges. Two years ago, the District passed education reform legislation. Elected officials pontificated, as the governors did earlier this week, about the need to improve outcomes for children, better positioning them to compete in the world. But when the Washington Teachers Union and its parent the American Federation of Teachers resisted the proposed education reforms, legislators buckled.
Any bets on what’s likely to happen when the governors meet similar opposition?
