Are National Standards on the Way?

Lynn Olson writes about the move toward national standards in Education Week. It may not be too soon to start thinking about the involvement of professional organizations like NCTE/CEE in the process. The first time around (when NCTM created their standards and other subject matter organizations received grants to follow suit) there was a certain amount of political maneuvering, but that was nothing compared to what we're likely to see this time. We should also start considering what impact national subject matter standards would have on teacher education.

Standards Get Boost on the Hill
Bills before Congress aim to raise the bar in states.
By Lynn Olson

The politically sensitive idea of increasing the rigor of state standards and tests by linking them to standards set at the national level is getting a push from prominent lawmakers as Congress moves to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act as early as this year.

Sen. Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, the second-ranking Democrat on the Senate education committee and a newly announced candidate for president, introduced a bill with Rep. Vernon J. Ehlers, R-Mich., last week that would provide incentives for states to adopt voluntary “American education content standards” in mathematics and science, to be developed by the governing board for the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., the new chairman of the committee, introduced a bill Jan. 4 that would encourage states to benchmark their own standards and tests to NAEP, but would stop short of calling for the development of national standards.

Read the rest here.