JANUARY 14, 2010
Vol. 29, Issue 17
TABLE OF CONTENTS
OPEN HOUSE! FULL ACCESS TO THE SITE UNTIL JANUARY 21.
FOR THE MEDIA
WEB EXTRAS
This interactive map offers a quick way to examine State-by-State grades and summary data.
Looking for detailed state data? The State Highlights Reports assemble findings on each of the 50 states plus the District of Columbia and compare individual state data to national data.
Your turn. Manipulate grades for states based on weighting schemes of your choice.
FROM PRINT
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This year’s special theme—the national debate over common academic standards—is complemented by extensive information on each state’s curriculum resources, assessments, and academic standards, drawn from the research center’s annual state survey.
OVERVIEW
Backers of the latest high-profile push for common standards believe it can succeed where previous national-standards efforts have failed, partly because it comes at standards from a different direction.
Leading voices worry that, when it comes to math, the United States is far behind where it needs to be to remain competitive in a 21st-century global economy.
FEATURE STORIES
Educators nationwide would have to exchange long-held practices for newer ones if all 50 states were to adopt a set of common content standards.
Publishers in the education realm are gearing up for the shift in the marketing landscape likely to come if and when states adopt common academic standards, with curriculum and assessment changes sure to follow.
A Massachusetts school vaults a high set of bars to ensure that instruction across all core subjects is closely aligned with the state's standards.
As the standards movement has evolved, one of its key questions has shifted. Instead of simply asking what students should know, educators and policymakers are now asking what students need to master to be prepared for the demands of college and career.
The political sensitivities that have scuttled virtually every previous attempt at common academic standards are very much on the minds of those leading the effort this time around.
COMMENTARIES
If the authors of the national common-core standards don’t encourage or require content coherence and cumulativeness, writes E.D. Hirsch Jr., they will have done little to improve the unacceptable stasis in American education.
National standards are not only unnecessary, writes Alfie Kohn, they’re also based on the premise that "our teachers cannot be trusted to make decisions about which curriculum is best for their schools."
The two greatest risks of the current effort to set common standards are that they will be so prescriptive they will be resisted, or they will be so vague that they can easily be ignored, writes Diane Ravitch.
Rather than a focus on national standards, writes Stanford professor Nel Noddings, more attention should be paid to problems that are truly pressing, such as reducing the number of high school dropouts.
STATE OF THE STATES
The 14th edition of Education Week's Quality Counts continues the report's tradition of tracking key education indicators and grading the states on their policy efforts and outcomes.