Tougher Standards

Standards Based Instruction Rationales and Objections

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act, commonly known as No Child Left Behind, requires states to use academic content standards to benchmark federally mandated “adequate yearly progress”, in an effort to continually improve schools. Even though they remain controversial, state content standards have emerged as the most common way to meet this mandate. Regardless of our views about the future of the standards, one fact remains: there is definitely a higher content standards movement in U.S. education. (O'Shea, 2005) However, the question remains: how does this movement actually impacts schools and students? While it would be intuitive to assume that it is always good to have higher…show more content…
When students are required to learn a long list of facts, they lose the freedom to choose what, or how, they will learn. When presented with high content standards, students’ differences in ability, learning styles and interests are often marginalized. As Alfie Kohn states, “The current approach taken by the proponents of Tougher Standards is incompatible with personalized learning and with the interests of kids at the margins, and, ultimately, I think it is incompatible with excellence.” (Kohn, 1999) A typical content standard begins, “All students will be able to . . .” so, even before you look at the expectations, you see that the standards are uniform. This implies that individual differences either don’t exist or are not important enough to be addressed. This kind of wording disregards the fact that not all kids learn the same. Furthermore, considerable research has demonstrated that students who are actively involved in designing their own learning are more successful, so it would make sense to allow more academic freedom in the classroom, and therefore less specific standards. (Kohn,…show more content…
There are valid reasons to think that raising content standards is the answer, and there are equally valid concerns about the practice, and some evidence that it may actually be harmful to student progress. As educators, I believe it is our duty to research these ideas fully and make sure that our teaching practices both follow the law and reflect our beliefs about how to best educate the our students.
Works Cited
CCSSO & NGACenter, (Council of Chief State School Officers & National Governors Association Center for Best Practices) (2015, January 11). About the Standards. Retrieved from http://www.corestandards.org/: http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards/

Core Knowledge. (2015, January 11). Benefits of Core Knowledge. Retrieved from Core Knowledge: http://www.coreknowledge.org/benefits-of-core-knowledge

Kohn, A. (1999, September). Why Students Lose When Tougher Standards Win. Educational Leadership.

Kohn, A. (2001, September 26). Beware of the Standards, Not Just the Tests. Education Week.
O'Shea, M. R. (2005). From Standards to Success.

Popham, W. J. (2006, September). Content Standards: The Unindicted Co-conspirator. Educational Leadership, pp.