The June 1, 2009 issue of the USA Today stated “4 States Yet to Agree to Standards For Academic Rigor” This article immediately caught my attention because of the discussion my peers and I have been having in our Principles of Teaching and Learning graduate class through Valley City State University regarding the affect of mandated learning standards on our profession.
Briefly summarizing, the article explains that at present there are 51 different sets of standards in the 50 states and District of Columbia. That could be changing. On May 29th, 2009, 46 states agreed in principle to develop a set of common rigorous criteria. This charge will be led by the National Governor’s Association, the same group who developed Goals 2000 which eventually became the framework for NCLB. This whole issue is an attempt to better prepare our high school graduates for higher education or the workforce. This is important because it was reported this week that 4 year colleges only graduate 53% of entering students within six years. We can do a better job of preparing our students.
National standards will certainly make it easier for kids to remain academically successful even if they transition from state to state. American citizens are a very mobile group of people and it is not uncommon for children to attend schools in a number of states before they graduate from high school.
There are no common definitions for proficiency among any of the 50 states and DC. NCLB leaves it to each state to figure out for themselves what students have to do be proficient. Critics of NCLB cite this as being one of the major flaws of the law. A school may make AYP in one state but not make it in another. Students may be deemed proficient when going to school in one state and then face the shocking reality that they are not proficient in the new state to which they have moved. I have personally seen this occur. A family with three children moved to Bismarck from Arizona. All three children were proficient or advanced on the Arizona state test in all areas. Their scores ranked them as only novice or partially proficient in North Dakota.
The nation has 51 different ways of saying that all 4th-graders have met math standards and these are not usually the same results that NAEP, our nation’s report card, presents. Comparison studies have been done with NAEP results and State test scores, and found that most of the time the state test results show that more students are proficient than NAEP does. Sometimes the difference is quite large, as much as 60 percentage points or more.
I’m curious to know how my classmates feel about this possibility of national standards. Have we come to accept the state standards enough to consider the possibility of a set of national standards? At least for the core subject areas of Math, Reading, Language Arts and Science?
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I think adhering to National Standards would have a greater impact overall and make more sense rather than each state adhering to their own set of standards. Knowing that my students would not be behind other students when moving to another state or that I would be teaching the to the same standards if I were to move to another state would also make me feel more at ease. Thanks for bringing up the point that State test results show more proficiency than NAEP results. I think this proves that there is something to be said for consistency.
ReplyDeleteNational Standards are really the only way to go. It makes no sense why each state has a different set of standards. I think it hurts our overall average for students nation wide. I noticed the same thing for each states requirements to become a teacher. Each state should be uniformed with the next.
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