A Second Front

Betting Everything on Standards-Based Reform Is Neither Wise nor Necessary

By Ronald A. Wolk

For the past 15 years, standards-based reform has been the nation’s strategy for improving public schools. Forty-nine states and the federal government are behind it 100 percent. It is a one-bet, all-or-nothing strategy. There is no Plan B. And the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001 raised the stakes considerably by setting hard goals and deadlines and real penalties for missing them.

Betting everything on standards-based reform is neither wise nor necessary. If this strategy doesn’t succeed, the system will be about where it was in the early 1980s, mired in mediocrity and riddled with failure. And a frustrated public might understandably rebel against pouring more money into a system that doesn’t work.

Policymakers should hedge their bets and open a second front in the struggle to improve public schools. For both practical and moral reasons, they should proclaim and promote a policy of creating new schools to accommodate growth and to replace low-performing middle and high schools. The new schools should be innovative, different from traditional schools, and...