origin of standards

[Peter Farruggio <pfarr@cal.berkeley.edu>]

My recollection is that in California, sometime in the mid-1990s, 
expert panels/committees of teachers were convened to come up with 
subject matter standards (Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, etc) 
in their respective areas of specialization.  The stated purpose was 
to improve the state's curricula for K-12, because the new content 
frameworks would be derived from these standards.  At least, that's 
what I was told by  people who knew members of some of these 
committees.  I also remember seeing or hearing drafts or early 
versions of the new standards a few times (I'm fuzzy on this because 
at the time I dismissed most stuff coming from the state dept of ed 
because of all the fads and hype.  Who knew?).  I DO remember that my 
impression of these standards was that they sounded unrealistic and 
overly ambitious, as if each committee thought their subject was to 
be the only one taught.  At least one person told me that the 
committees were asked to come up with "ideal" standards, goals to 
shoot for, near perfection, etc, and not anything to be used for high 
stakes assessments.  Back then, as now, the idea of "perfection" was 
like a cruel joke, given the chronic underfunding and dilapidated 
schools that define California education since the big tax cuts of 
the Reagan era.

I believe that these "ideal" standards reflected genuine good 
intentions by those on the committees, and that they were optimistic 
that public funding was soon to be available to poor schools due to 
the revenue surpluses accumulating by the late Clinton years.  Who 
knows if the corporate standardistas were manipulating this process 
from the beginning as part of their long term plan for high stakes, 
or if they just appropriated these unreachable standards after the 
fact?  California didn't pass its high stakes legislation until 1999.

Pete Farruggio


At 02:24 PM 1/27/2007, you wrote:
> >.....And that it's on The Test because it's in the Standards. But why is it
> >in the Standards?
>
>      THIS is THE question.  And no one is asking it.  When, a few years ago,
> I pushed Jeb Bush's man on this, he told me the Sunshine State Standards
> came from "a process involving committees of working teachers" so I should
> just shut up.  He had absolutely no interest in digging deeper, in exploring
> WHY those particular teachers volunteered or were chosen, why they settled
> on particular standards and not others, how familiar they were with current
> research, what journals they did or didn't read, what sort of schools they'd
> taught in, what role attempts to impress other committee members might have
> played in committee deliberations.
>      For him, "teacher committee" meant the case was closed.
>
> Marion