by AFT President Sandra Feldman
June, 2002

Achievement is
rising, but we have
tough challenges
to overcome.

It is hardly more than a decade since states, in response to many years of debate about how to improve public education, took a giant step forward: They began to raise their education standards and test students to see if they met the standards. These few years have set public education on a new and hopeful course, but not everybody is applauding. We’ve heard harsh criticisms about the standards and particularly about student testing, and it’s important that we do not simply dismiss these criticisms. In the end, I think we will find that meeting them will not derail the standards movement; it will help keep us right on course.

When I look back to the days before standards, I remember a national system of education that was no system at all--with 50 states and 15,000 school districts, all doing their own thing. Children in districts where citizens demanded, and could pay for, excellence attended first-class schools where they were pushed to achieve. Kids in poor neighborhoods often had to be satisfied with much
less--poor-quality curriculums taught from out-of-date textbooks, with lax standards to match. This nonsystem put many of our students at a disadvantage, but it hit poor children hardest. And because there was no requirement that we remedy the discrepancies in student achievement, it was easy simply to ignore them.

Excellence is not a pipe dream

Although we are far from ending those inequities, we have made progress. The blueprint for education based on common standards is not a pipe dream. It has worked and is working in many other industrialized nations. And there is widespread agreement about what goes into creating it. States need to develop a coordinated system, with standards that spell out what they want their students to learn, curriculums that are aligned with these standards, and tests to find out whether students have learned the material. Most important, they need to make sure that students who start at a disadvantage get help in catching up and that teachers are equipped with the materials and professional development they need to assist their students in making the grade. Creating a successful system requires a considerable investment, sometimes a rearrangement of spending priorities, and adequate longterm funding.

After a decade or more of work, much of the basic framework is in place. Almost every state has set standards, virtually all are testing students; and some states are beginning to see improvements in student achievement. But very few have developed curriculums--the road maps for teaching the standards--and few provide needed extra help to students and teachers. The biggest problems, though, are with the tests and the way they are used.

Some critics say that tests are never good. I don’t believe that. But it is a mistake to deluge students with tests, and any test can be misused. The main purpose of testing should be to find out what students know and to inform teachers about students’ instructional needs. Teaching to the test would not be a problem if the test were a good one, based on a rich curriculum (that, of course, reflects the standards). Some parents have complained that state tests narrow the curriculum or that children are spending too much time on mindless test preparation. This does not need to be.

If tests are good, the curriculum rich, and teachers are given results in a timely and useful way, a standards-based system will help raise achievement for all children, but especially for disadvantaged children.

Adequate funding is crucial

Standards reform is no quick fix, and it can’t be done on the cheap. So we should not be surprised that we still have work to do. But as long as some parts of the system are starved and others, like tests, are used in ways that were never intended--and that harm learning instead of helping achievement--the standards reform will not live up to its promise.

There is a lot of support for this reform. A majority of Americans strongly favor raising education standards and helping students and teachers to meet those standards. It is important that the standards movement not lose momentum, but we must also be vigilant that the states and the federal government do not squander public support by failing to make necessary changes and to provide sufficient funding to get us there.