This website will promote alternatives to centralized standards in American eductaion.
- Fire study expected in next few months - Charleston Post Courier
- Governors, state school superintendents to propose common academic standards - Washington Post
- Cost Cuts Raise Education Quality Concerns - guide2.co.nz
- Diane Ravitch: Expert Historian, Policy Tyro - Cato @ Liberty
- School says no to national standards directive - Stuff.co.nz
- College and Career Standards Catching On in States - Education Week News
- Why I Changed My Mind About School Reform - Wall Street Journal
- New York Board of Regents considers saving money by cutting some exams - The Post-Standard - Syracuse.com
- Jeff Jacoby: How separating school and state would pay off - Dallas Morning News
- Obama proposes to raise academic standards by linking them to state benchmarks - Washington Post
#1 by DONALD C. ORLICH at June 12th, 2009
| Quote
As the author of “School Reform: The Great American Brain Robbery,” (2006, PublishAmerica, Baltimore), I devoted hours examining a national sample of standards. Let me quote my conclusion.
“About the best descriptor I can make of the entire array of those ‘World Class’ state standards is that they are nothing but ’spitballs on the wall.’ In the old days, before kids packed a little heat to create chaos in school, the worst offense was throwing spitballs at the wall. If any stuck and the teacher saw them, you were in big trouble. This metaphor adequately describes the educational standards movement in every state that developed them because the standards are as random as spitballs. In no state can the standards be called curricula. They are not arranged in any meaningful sequence, nor do they show any flowcharts on how a student or teacher progresses from one standard to the next.”
(Feel free to quote anywhere any time.)