Standards are an evolution of the earlier OBE (outcomes-based education) which was largely rejected in the United States as unworkable in the 1990s, and is still being implemented by some and abandoned by other governments. In contrast, the more modest standards reform has been limited to the core goals of the OBE programs: • the creation of curriculum frameworks which outline specific knowledge or skills which students must acquire, • an emphasis on criterion-referenced assessments which are aligned to the frameworks, and • the imposition of some high-stakes tests, such as graduation examinations requiring a high standard of performance to receive a diploma. In the process of establishing standards for each individual curriculum area, such as mathematics and science, many other reforms, such as inquiry-based science may be implemented, but these are not core aspects of the standards program. The standards movement can be traced to the efforts of Marc Tuckers NCEE which adapted aspects of William Spadys OBE movement into a system based on creating standards and assessments for a Certificate of Initial Mastery. This credential has since been abandoned by every state which first adopted the concept, including Washington and Oregon and largely replaced by graduation examinations. His organization had contracts with states and districts covering as many as half of all American school children by their own claims, and many states enacted education reform legislation in the early 1990s based on this model, which was also known at the time as performance-based education as OBE (and the non-OBE progressive reforms co-marketed with it) had been too widely attacked to be saleable under that name. Though the standards movement has a stronger backing from conservatives than OBE by adopting a platform of raising higher academic standards, other conservatives believe that it is merely a re-labeling of a failed, unrealistic vision. It is believed to be the educational equivalent of a planned economy which attempts to require all children to perform at world-class levels merely by raising expectations and imposing punishments and sanctions on schools and children who fall short of the new standards. Vision The vision of the standards-based education reform movement[citation needed] is that every teenager will receive a meaningful high school diploma that serves essentially as a public guarantee that they can read, write, and do basic mathematics (typically through first-year algebra) at a level which might be useful to an employer. To avoid a surprising failure at the end of high school, standards trickle down through all the lower grades, with regular assessments through a variety of means. No student, by virtue of poverty, age, race, gender, cultural or ethnic background, disabilities, or family situation will ultimately be exempt from learning the required material, although it is acknowledged that individual students may learn in different ways and at different rates. Standards are chosen through political discussions that focus on what students will need to learn to be competitive in the job market, instead of by textbook publishers or education professors or tradition. Standards are normally published and freely available to parents and taxpayers as well as professional educators and textbook writers. Standards focus on the goal of a literate and economically competitive workforce. • Standards outline what students need to know, understand, and be able to do. • Standards should be developmentally appropriate and relevant to future employment and education needs.[1] Standards should generally be written so that all students are capable of achieving them, and so that talented students will exceed them. • All students are believed to be capable of learning and of meeting high expectations. Both advanced and struggling students can learn new things in their own ways and at their own rates. • Instruction that helps an individual student learn the information and skills listed in the standards is emphasized. • Both excellence and equity are valued. Subgroups are carefully measured to identify and reduce systemic racism, bias, and the tyranny of low expectations. • Professional teachers are empowered to make the decisions essential for effective learning, rather than having a teaching style prescribed under traditional education models. • Social promotion is discouraged. Students advance or are retained based on their actual learning achievements instead of based on their age, their friends achievements, or tradition.
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 08:08:48 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015