One problem with standards is that you have to decide where to set them. If you set them too low, you give students the sense that they can be satisfied with meeting the standards, and you can discourage them from striving to exceed the standards, because after all the school has officially said this is all you need to know to graduate. If you set them too high, too many students are incapable of meeting them, and they have to drop out or stay in school for an extra long time, which economically and socially may be unreasonable expectations for them. So you have to set each standard at a level that a majority of students can achieve, which means that the math standards must be below the average level of ability of reasonably good math students, the English standards must be below the average level of ability of reasonably good English students, etc.
Personally, I don't think they're the answer.
The only real answer, IMO, is well trained (and compensated) teachers who are given the freedom to judge for each student what level of work that student should be expected to do in their subject. |
