Could I support national standards?

The case for national standards is gaining momentum with the new administration and comments from Arne Duncan, the new Secretary of Education. With the unprecedented money his department will receive in the stimulus package he certainly will have the resources for an effort of this magnitude. In an article in the New York Times he shares his thoughts on this opportunity.

“There’s going to be this extraordinary influx of resources,” he said in an interview. “So people say, ‘You’re going to be the most powerful secretary ever,’ but I have no interest in that. Power has never motivated me. What I love is opportunity, and this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something special, to drive change, to make our schools better.”

Based on what I am reading, I think that he would see national standards as being important enough to include in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Joining Duncan is Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, who makes the case for national standards in this Washington Post article. I don’t know if her membership is in agreement with her stance, but I applaud her for coming forward. I was influenced by the analogy below that speaks to the different standards students are measured against depending upon the state that they live in.


"Imagine the outrage if, say, the Pittsburgh Steelers had to move the ball the full 10 yards for a first down during the Super Bowl while the Arizona Cardinals had to go only seven. Imagine if this scenario were sanctioned by the National Football League. Such a system would be unfair and preposterous."

I have historically been against national standards always believing in local control, but I find myself wondering in today’s world if it might not be important to consider at least having the conversation. I agree with Weingarten when she says there is a body of knowledge about what children should know and be able to do that should not be dependent on where the child resides. She is also not advocating for a national curriculum, simply a common set of standards. I think this is what is making it more comfortable for me to be open to being influenced as I have in the past thought of it more as losing control over what is taught, the curriculum, rather than the target, the EALR’s. We had little influence on the EALR’s, how different would it be if they were identified at the national level instead of at the state level?

The question is around my comfort with some group identifying what those standards are? If they read what we have they should include our Classroom 10 focus, but I fear that the people placed in the room for the conversation might not reach agreement on this set of knowledge and skills. If what emerged was only a content focus I would struggle with supporting the outcome as it would drive more of the same. If content changes were included with a Classroom 10 focus I believe that it could result in positive changes to what we do as resources would become a national initiative as opposed to the local focus we now have. It would be a welcome scenario to have the revenue necessary to support the development and implementation of our vision emerge from outside our system. Is it possible?