time to update the standards

[George Sheridan <learn@jps.net>]

Gary Hart: Update the state's education standards


By Gary Hart - Special To The Bee

<http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/110622.html>http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/110622.html 

Published Sunday, January 21, 2007
Story appeared in FORUM section, Page E4


It's no wonder that any mention of revision of 
California's K-12 student academic standards 
causes as much controversy and resistance as the 
standards themselves did when first adopted. No 
reform in modern California public education has 
improved student achievement more than these 
along with a testing and accountability system 
based on them. That is why any suggestion of 
changing the standards has been viewed as 
heretical by many education leaders. But as one 
of the architects of this system, I believe the 
time is now right to take a fresh look at what we expect of our children.

Just a decade ago, before our state adopted the 
standards -- a nationally renowned blueprint for 
what every child should know and be able to do in 
every grade -- expectations varied widely from 
school to school. Since then, we have aligned our 
pupil testing system to these measurements, and 
have held all schools accountable for teaching them.

The standards for what we expect our students to 
learn must be flexible enough to allow our 
schools to adapt to a demanding and rapidly 
changing world -- they were not meant to be 
chiseled in stone. Earlier this month, Education 
Week, with backing from the Pew Center on the 
States, issued a comparative rating of the 
nation's 50 states on a number of education 
indicators. California was judged as having a 
strong standard system in place, but scored 
unsatisfactory in one area: no regular timeline for revising them.

Much has changed and been learned since their 
initial adoption a decade ago -- a careful 
revision can both strengthen and clarify what 
skills and knowledge we want our students to learn and our teachers to teach.

There are three compelling reasons review and 
revision of California's academic standards is necessary:

? These measures were formulated five years 
before Sept. 11. Our students need exposure to 
concepts (and their historical antecedents) such 
as terrorism, religious fundamentalism and 
nuclear proliferation -- all concepts missing in 
the current history/social science content 
standards. In the science content area, global 
warming needs to be acknowledged and the 
fifth-grade standard calling on students to know 
all "nine" planets ought to be revised now that Pluto is reclassified.

? We have failed to integrate career and 
technical education concepts into the standards. 
This is a serious deficiency and an obstacle to 
establishing rigorous job skills into the 
mainstream curriculum. In addition, little effort 
has been made to align our standards with the 
University of California and California State 
University systems. A national project sponsored 
by the National Governors Association and the 
America's Diploma Project has had great success 
in assisting states with such integration 
efforts. California could benefit from such a collaboration.

? A common complaint from educators about state 
standards is that in an effort to cover so much 
knowledge and so many skills, little is explored 
in depth. That leads to superficial coverage, 
guilt-ridden and frantic teachers who can't get 
through it all, and struggling students who get 
left behind. We need to be more selective and 
consider differentiating among standards based 
upon importance. The maxim "less is more" applies 
here -- it would allow for more substantive 
coverage of crucial topics, provide opportunities 
for "pacing" for struggling students and permit 
some much needed curriculum flexibility for teachers.

Defenders of the status quo will argue that 
serious review would lead to watering down of 
California's system. I disagree. I believe the 
state's political, business and educational 
leadership is committed to academic excellence 
and doesn't want to return to mediocre or 
nonexistent standards. Other opponents will argue 
that this review would be too complicated, 
controversial and time consuming. But the world 
is changing, knowledge continues to grow 
exponentially and this is not the time for complacent California leaders.

California's standards-based education system has 
served us well in part because we have been 
willing to modify important components such as 
our test, textbook and accountability systems. 
The time is overdue to review and strengthen our 
standards and give our students the knowledge and 
skills they need to succeed in an increasingly complex and changing world.


About the writer:

Gary Hart, a former state secretary of education 
and state senator, is director of the California 
State University Institute for Education Reform. 
Reach him at <mailto:ghart@calstate.edu>ghart@calstate.edu.


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George Sheridan