Steven Weinberg, a retired Oakland middle school teacher, critiques the lack of teacher participation and other problems in the crafting of “standards,” the content that is taught and tested in schools.
There are a number of problems with the standards that are now being used to guide K-12 education throughout the United States. As I wrote in November, the standards are too long and detailed, and they make it difficult for teachers to cover material in enough depth to give students the best possible education.This problem is a natural result of the process used to develop these standards. State (and now federal) standards are designed by large committees drawn from a sizable geographic area. Teachers, whose jobs do not allow them to travel frequently to attend such meetings, are poorly represented on these committees.
According to a letter in the October 28, 2009 issue of Education Week, only one teacher sits on the panel of 80 producing the national standards for high school graduation. The other positions are held by college professors, business leaders, and — most unfortunately — the companies that stand to profit by writing tests for the standards.
Committees, by their nature, have to accommodate a variety of viewpoints. When you have many people involved, with their own ideas about what should be included, one of easiest ways to reach agreement is to keep making the standards longer so that everyone’s interest is satisfied. Without the input of teachers who will need to implement the standards, the list can quickly get too long.