Needed: School-Set Standards

By Paul Schwarz

Former Mayor Edward Koch of New York City was known for stopping people on the street and asking, "How'm I doing?" I liked that. Of course, I realized the query was political and egocentric, but there was a simplicity about it that was miles away from spin doctors and TV talking heads.

I remembered Ed Koch recently as I thought of the morass we have gotten ourselves into with standards and accountability. It seems as though every journal or newspaper education section either reports on or calls for new standards. The calls and reports are always written by professors of education, politicians, federal or state education-department officials, or people with a special interest in a discipline like mathematics or biology. Can you imagine a group of teachers indignantly rising up to demand more standards? Sounds like material for a stand-up comic to me.

And keeping track of the debate on standards is not easy even if you are interested. First, there is the terminology to deal with: We have "delivery" standards and "content" standards and "curriculum" standards and "professional" standards. Then there are the materials that these groups produce. Many reports on standards or curriculum frameworks arrive in the mail, and I do not know how to take seriously statements like "Students will value the principles and ideals of a democratic system based on the premises of human dignity, liberty, justice, and equality." Certainly I support the goal, but I am at a loss as to what our responsibilities in this area are exactly. And that is only one of 12 expectations in the 11th-grade social studies in a statewide curriculum...