There’s a buzz in the educational world that the development of a national set of standards is on the way. The idea behind a comprehensive, national set of public education standards is compelling. These benchmarks would identify proficiency levels in reading, language arts, math, science and social studies.

This push is not only coming from Washington. As recently as March, the National Governors Association and the American Federation of Teachers endorsed creating a national process outlining common academic standards on par with international performance levels. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan also supports the idea and has suggested a possible pilot approach in which neighboring states would create groups to adopt a common standard.

In theory, this idea has great merit. The implementation of such standards would be difficult to institute nationally, especially since there are many differences among the various state standards. In Ohio alone, there are 614 school districts required to adopt and comply with statewide standards. Speaking from experience, it is often challenging to get a team of seven to agree to a districtwide initiative (five school board members, the superintendent and treasurer), but maybe the development of a common standard could easily be adopted from one of the many countries that continue to outpace America in educational success. We all understand this is a global society that requires us to raise the level of competency for all students if we are to compete globally.

Duncan recently spoke at the National School Boards Association (NSBA) annual meeting, advocating a common standard, and I’m sure the NSBA will have a seat at the development table. Key elements would include international benchmarking — in fact some of the federal stimulus dollars will be based on public education’s ability to improve its math and science standards. With competition for engineering jobs at a premium and the rise of China, Korea and India in this international competition, benchmarking and raising the educational bar is the only way for future success of our country’s students. Duncan has said our standards are too low and during his address at the NSBA conference and referenced in the “NSBA’s School Board News” on April 5, 2009, he states “The No Child Left Behind Act, led us on a race to the bottom, rather than a race to the top.”

National agreement should create fewer, clearer and hopefully higher standards. The goal would be for students to focus on a deeper understanding of concepts and critical thinking skills rather than rote memorization of facts. According to an article printed in the Perspectives Newsletter published by the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence based in Kentucky, Bill Gates said, “The first step in indentifying effective teaching has to be setting fewer, clearer, higher standards that are aligned with the goal of graduating students from high school college-ready.”

Additional assessments and accountability will be required to produce measureable results and usable data. Toledo Public Schools tracks considerable grade level data; however, a national set of standards and data set would allow states and individual districts to compare “apples to apples” to more clearly identify achievement gaps.

I believe we need to provide added focus on those achievement gaps and to create a strategic plan leading to reform measures that are transformational and bold.

Darlene Fisher is in her fourth year as a member of the Toledo Public Schools Board of Education. She can be reached at darlene.fisher@tps.org.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 5th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Guest Column, Opinion.
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