Prerequisites for 'Scaling Up'

By Tony Wagner

Higher standards" and professional development have become unifying battle cries of school reformers. Like apple pie, few can oppose efforts to "professionalize" education, but the real questions are: which standards, decided by whom, and assessed how? And professional development for what?

At the national level, the business community has produced important documents, like the U.S. Labor Department's SCANS commission report, that succinctly describe the workplace competencies all employees now need. But this approach is in conflict with the recent recommendations of content experts who continue to add to the list of what must be "covered" in their various subject-matter disciplines.

Among the academics, there is tremendous dissension. Historians, geographers, and sociologists fight among themselves about what social studies should be, and few can agree on what should be taught in American history. The National Academy of Sciences has recently developed new standards that are at odds with those developed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in its Project 2061. And the National Council of Teachers of English has had to throw out several years of work because its new standards were considered unacceptable by the U.S. Education Department, which had...