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More on Texas' low standards
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This is a continuation of the article I posted on Thursday, regarding the findings by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute that Texas state reading and math standards fall way behind the expectations of other states, due to the 2000 No Child Left Behind Act. The law allows states to make up their own goals and set their own standards for reading and math.
Randy Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post February 16 that makes a case for a national standard. In her piece she points out, “Abundant evidence suggests that common, rigorous standards lead to more students reaching higher levels of achievement.” She adds that countries that consistently outperform the US all have national standards.
Ms. Weingarten believes we should be outraged that our children are held to different standards depending on where we live. She uses a gripping metaphor:
“Imagine the outrage if, say, the Pittsburgh Steelers had to move the ball the full 10 yards for a first down during the Super Bowl while the Arizona Cardinals had to go only seven. Imagine if this scenario were sanctioned by the National Football League. Such a system would be unfair and preposterous.”
So, should Texans be outraged that our standards were purposefully set so low, some of the lowest reading and math standards in the nation? You see, we are the Cardinals in this metaphor – while more progressive states like Massachusetts and Minnesota get to be the Steelers, their children held to a higher standard than ours.
If you ask me, we absolutely should be outraged. And yet, I also agree with what I found regarding Weingarten’s piece here on Eduwonk: Andrew Rotherham asserts that, while national standards would certainly help us a whole lot, he believes that is not indeed the core of the problem, but instead a symptom. The problem with our failing, pieced-together education system is that poor and minority students are underserved in our public school system by a very large degree. If we could somehow attack this problem – a problem having nothing to do with the quality of teachers and/or math or reading scores, to be sure – then national standards would do a great deal to help us on our road to the education of the future.
Now I want to know: what is the reason Texas decided to set standards low? What are the standards at your school, and how do they compare with other states? Shouldn’t we find out?
