The Standards Movement

What is it?
• a powerful national effort to set clear
educational goals
• a means of preparing children for a
high-tech, global economy
• pre-determined standards and tests to
which schools are aligning their
curricula
 How did the
standards movement
begin?
 Sputnik
• In 1957 the Soviet Union launched first unmanned
satellite.
• set off wave of panic that Soviets were leading space
race
• resulted in self-criticism and curricula reform
– more advanced math and science were taught at
earlier grade levels
– “new math” and “new science” were adopted
– eventually abandoned in the 1970’s
 Japan
• In the 1970’s, U.S. superiority in economic
world was challenged.
• We were being outperformed by the Japanese
automotive and high-tech industries.
• The response was to look at our schools as
source of problem.
• Schools were not producing a competitive
skilled and educated workforce.
 A Nation at Risk
• loudest warning came in 1983 by U.S.
Department of Education
• report said that our schools had succumbed to
“a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our
very future as a Nation and a people”
• report called for higher academic expectations
for students, longer school days and year
 A Nation at Risk
-the aftermath
• Endless reports followed
• In 1989, President Bush and the nation’s governors
put the standards movement into high gear
• Created six national goals
• America would be first in math and science by the
year 2000 (which it wasn’t).
• Panel was set up to establish “world class
standards”
 Goals 2000: Educate America Act
•set criteria for state and local
districts
•set up a variety of bureaucracies to
implement goals
•state must devise school improvement plans that
align with National standards if accepting federal
money
•tells states how and where to spend their money
•mandates social services
•created National Skills Standards Board
•must align all assessments, curriculum and teacher
developments before receiving IASA money
 The standards
movement -
Boy, is it controversial!
 Five Fatal Flaws
from Schools Our Children Deserve

1. It gets motivation all wrong.

• Doesn’t seek tasks for the students that are
meaningful and motivating
• Encourages harder tasks and external pressure and
incentives to produce motivation
• Urges consequences such as retention if students
do not meet set standard
• Promotes regurgitation of memorized materials
instead of true understanding of ideas
2. It gets pedagogy all wrong
• Encourages “basic skills” or “core
knowledge” teaching
• Limits teacher to set curriculum mandated
by testing
• Public pressure for performance promotes
“teaching to the test”
 3. It gets evaluation wrong.
• “Higher standards,” “raising the bar,” and
“excellence” all refer to scores on standardized
tests
• Tests are multiple choice, norm-referenced and
imperfect
• Evaluation of school districts, teachers and
opportunities for funding will rest on test scores
• Scary to think how much may lie on the results
of these standardized tests
4. It gets school reform wrong.
• Does reform mean specifying exactly what
must be taught and learned?
• Will teachers be told what to teach and
when to teach it?
• Is the accountability for people in the
classroom being controlled by people not in
the classroom?
5. It gets improvement wrong.
• Suggests that harder is better
• Can tests, texts and teachers be judged on a
single criterion?
• If we do it “harder, stronger, louder and
meaner,” will we have a better school
system and thus a better country?
• It remains to be seen.
 Illinois State
Standards

The standards movement is

on our door step.
 What are they?
Statements that establish essential
knowledge and skills that ALL
Illinois students enrolled in public
schools are expected to know and
be able to do.
 History
• 1985- 34 Goals for learning became model for
nation
• 1995- Illinois Standards project began
• 1996- Drafts released for public comment
• 1997- Standards refined and accepted by State
Board of Education
 Goals
• guide the redesign of state assessments
• guide teacher preparation and
professional development
• assist schools and teachers with
curriculum, instruction and assessment
• create new learning experiences for
students
• incorporate technology
• guide the use of funds to better support
teaching and learning
• guide school improvement plans
• communicate the purpose and results
of K-12 public education in Illinois
 Why do we need standards?
They:
• set uniform high expectations for all students
• ease transitions from school to school and grade to grade
• provide an equal opportunity to learn for all students
• clarify the intended result of schooling
• specify exactly what will be assessed
• establish criteria for meaningful accountability
• define the knowledge and skills teachers need
 Standards: Do we have to?
• August 6, 1996- signing of the Illinois Quality
School Act
• State Board of Education set about establishing a
set of academic standards
• According to Illinois School code, all public
schools must “set student learning objectives which
meet or exceed goals established by the State.”
Standards Movement:
What do you think?
 Discussion Questions
1. Does your district align curriculum to state standards? If
not, are they planning to?
2. Is there any activity, unit, lesson, etc. that you give up or
change due to state standards?
3. How do you feel about the push for uniform standards and
assessments throughout Illinois and the nation?
4. Do you feel your children are benefiting from state
standards?
5. Do you think the children are developmentally ready to
absorb and implement the heavy load of content that they
need to meet state standards?
 Developmental Theorists And the
Standards Movement

What the standards say: What Rousseau and other

• We must set clear
educational goals for the
children in order to prepare
them for a bright future.
theorists say:
• We are too focused on
setting goals, which
often blind us to the
natural ways that
children grow and
develop.
• We need to focus on what
children will need in the
future
• We need to push children
to be strong students. There
is no time for the arts.
• When we focus too
exclusively on what
children may need in the
future, we deny them
opportunities to develop at
their own pace.
• (Piaget) Children love to
sing, dance and play which
all blossom at different
times in their lives. Young
children seem to be more
artistic than rational.
• The schools are limiting the • Some children are
arts in push to make struggling because the
children become more work is too difficult for
rational thinkers at an early them. They are learning to
age. Some schools are even become dependent thinkers
pushing for as early as pre- and have fewer
school and kindergarten. opportunities to become
creative.

• Nature does not play a role • Montessori began to

in education today.
articulate ways in which
children’s contact with
nature can help them
develop and give them a
sense of unity with world.
• Advocates for the standards • There would be less
do not encourage schools to depression, restlessness,
find tasks that students find and impulsivity in children
more intrinsically if we connected them more
meaningful and motivating. with nature, which would
give them a more calming
presence in their lives.

• Movement asks us to • This method will not help

assign more difficult and
challenging work with
external pressures and
incentives that go along
with that.
children. They will dislike
school more because of the
added pressure.
• Children need to under- • It is better to base education
stand the value of stretch- on intrinsic motivation.
ing themselves and learn
self-discipline.
• Education should be child-
• Standards suggest holding centered.
students back in their
current grade if they do not
pass the standardized tests.
• Enable children to develop
• Students need to be naturally at their own pace
motivated on their own. and results will be happy
Push to learn. children who are comfort-
able with themselves.
The End