Building momentum . . .

Those that are supporting the movement towards national standards will be pleased with the National Governors Association’s endorsement of a policy statement that could lead to a set of national standards. This follows Arne Duncan’s statements about this being a goal of the Obama administration and AFT President, Randi Weingarten, endorsing the need for national standards. Momentum is building as these are obviously significant players in education at the state and national level.

The report from the NGA, Council of Chief State School Officers, and Achieve Inc. referred to in the article is full of heavy hitters from state education offices like our OSPI and business leaders such as Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer. People such as these will be listened to as our elected leaders determine the fate of NCLB. The focus of the report can be seen on page six of the Executive Summary where five Action statements identify the need for benchmarks against international standards in math and language arts.

It will be important to follow this movement as the shift to national standards would have significant impact on our work at the state and district level. We have experienced many changes to our state standards; I can’t imagine what it would be like trying to accomplish this at the national level. It will be interesting.