DOCUMENT RESUME UD 031 926 ED 412 302 Pritchard, Ivor AUTHOR Standards-Based Reform. Judging Standards in TITLE Education, Washington, DC. Council for Basic INSTITUTION and Philadelphia, PA.; John D. Pew Charitable Trusts, SPONS AGENCY Carnegie Foundation, Chicago, IL.; Catherine T. MacArthur Corp. of New York, NY. 1996-00-00 PUB DATE 26p. NOTE NW, Suite 900, Education, 1319 F Street, Council for Basic AVAILABLE FROM Washington, DC 20004-1152. Evaluative Reports Serials (022) Collected Works PUB TYPE (142) Perspective; v8 n1 Sum 1996 JOURNAL CIT MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. EDRS PRICE Educational *Educational Change; *Criteria; Decision Making; DESCRIPTORS *Expectation; Secondary Education; Practices; Elementary *Standards *Public Schools; Learning; *Policy Formation; Content Knowledge *Reform Efforts; Subject IDENTIFIERS ABSTRACT initiated the for Basic Education In 1995, the Council effort to project, a multiyear in Education (SEE) Standards for Excellence to use public with better means and the general provide parents, educators, tries to issue of "Perspective" public education. This standards to improve questions related to think about issues and provide a coherent way to developing the standards reform, focusing on standards-based education Content students should learn. to identify what educators and the public use first is that areas. The grouped into three broad standards criteria are the major concepts They must capture should be meaningful. content standards provide coherence, and they must the subject its and knowledge that give criterion subject. A second questions in that guidance to address problems or of be a justifiable set legitimate. They must standards must be area is that students entitled to demand public and schools are expectations that the contribute to practical is that standards must meet. A final requirement learning and and must promote clearly understandable reform. They must be about how well guide decisions Standards-based reform must policy formation. policies, and other is doing and what resources, the educational system (SLD) changes are needed. ******************************************************************************** that can be made EDRS are the best Reproductions supplied by document. from the original ******************************************************************************** Standards-Based Reform. Judging Standards in Summer 1996 Perspective Volume 8, Number 1 Council for Basic Education U.S. DEPARTMENT or EDUCATION REPRODUCE AND PERMISSION TO Improvement Office ol Educational Research and MATERIAL DISSEMINATE THIS EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION GRANTED BY CENTER (ERIC) HAS BEEN reproduced as 13 bus document has been Ortiz/non received from the Person Or Ofg 'pouting it. tor changes Nave been made to improve CAfr nOrOduCtiOn Quality opluoni stated in this CIOCu- Pants°, vrow radice( RESOURCES menl dO not necessarily represent EDUCATIONAL TO THE OERI position or policy (ERIC) INFORMATION CENTER BEST COPY BLE 4, VA1 fr. Vol. 8, No. 1 Summer 1996 PERSPECTIVE Council for Basic Education JUDGING STANDARDS IN STANDARDS-BASED REFORM by Ivor Pritchard education 'standards -based include effOrts naturally judging how well the content standards reflect the should students education have. In other words. content standards themselves must be evaluated. 3 "riN P. Summer 1996 Vol. 8, No. 1 rERSPECTWE Education Council for Basic INTRODUCTION In 1995, the Council for Basic Education initiated the Standards for Excellence in Education (SEE) Project, led by Ivor Pritchard as principal investigator. The SEE project is a multi-year effort to provide parents, educators, and the general public with better means for using the standards to evaluate and improve schooling in the United States. As a Published quarterly as a forum discussion, and and school improve- analysis, for resource for standards development review of pressing issues for national volun- ment efforts at the state or local level, the schools and the liberal arts, by detailed and care- tary standards contain a valuable set of the Council for Basic Education. Additional copies at two dollars. fully developed descriptions of what students should know and be able to do in the core subject areas. Stephanie Soper, Editor This Perspective originated in staff discussions of how Martha Bonilla, Guest Editor voluntary standards to systematically evaluate the national Membership: and their possible uses in education reform. As we formu- one volume year, ten issues lated our own understanding of the important criteria, we of Basic Education plus four decided that our work might be helpful to others contem- issues of Perspective $50.00 plating or actively engaged in the process of standards- based reforms. While there are other discussions of stan- dards criteria available, we thought that this essay would provide a coherent way to approach the issues. The SEE project is supported by generous funding from several sources, including The Pew Charitable Trusts, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. This Perspective is a preliminary product of the work begun on the SEE project. impor- CBE appreciates the degree of commitment to the that is reflected by tance of improving American education these institutions' support. Christopher T. Cross President Council for Basic Education 4 JUDGING STANDARDS IN STANDARDS-BASED REFORM by Ivor Pritchard bond when it is understood, approved constitution is a standard, a pillar, and a ... a it might as well be a kite and beloved. But without this intelligence and attachment, the air. or balloon, flying in john Adams America. In the 1995 Gallup/Kappan High educational standards are popular in setting higher standards in the basic poll, 87% of the American public favored 84% favored the same thing for subjects as a basis for grade promotion, and serious objections to the basic idea of hav- high school graduation.' It is hard to imagine educational achievement and for the quality of the ing high expectations for students' would argue with the idea of striving for education provided in American schools. Who the best possible education? reform are not all sweetness and light. Yet, discussions of standards-based education effects on children's education: What are Questions are raised about standards and their their own, or do they require other standards? Do they work? Are they effective on less equitable? By what changes in schooling? Will they make the system more or Who is responsible for their success or authority are they defined, created, and used? reasonable response to such questions, failure in improving student learning? Without a than well-meaning talk. support for high standards is little more think about issues and questions This Perspective tries to provide a coherent way to focuses on the first step, which is devel- related to standards-based education reform. It public use to identify what students should oping the standards that educators and the these standards as they are developed pro- learn. Having a set of criteria for evaluating reforms. Illustrations are drawn from vides a useful way to gauge the consequent subjects produced by national level pro- recently created standards in the various core standards are relevant to any stan- jects,2 but the criteria presented here for evaluating dards-based reform effort in this country. 1983 report, A Nation at Risk (certainly the most two recommendations in the The first education), were 1) strengthening the frequently cited report about modern American standards.3 2) raising expectations using measurable content of the core curriculum and 5 1/Summer 1996 The report specified course requirements in five core subjects for high school gradua- tion, and recommended that textbooks, grades, and tests be designed to encourage rig- orous learning experiences. In 1989, the President and Governors met at an Education Summit in Charlottesville, Virginia. Their meeting led to National Education Goals, continuing the emphasis on promoting educational excellence.4 Following the creation of the Goals, an initiative emerged to create voluntary national standards in each of the core subject areas. These standards would describe what students should know and be able to do as a result of their primary and secondary school educa- tion.5 Following the lead of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, various national professional organizations organized projects to develop standards in subjects such as science, geography, civics, history, the arts, and foreign languages.6 Some of the standards projects received funding from various parts of the federal government, but the federal government had no control over the contents of the standards projects' products.? The Promise of Standards-based Reform The basic idea of standards-based reform is to create clear, consistent, challenging goals for student learning, and then to make educational practices more coherent by deliberately using those goals to guide both instruction and testing. Common sense sug- gests that the quality of education is better if teachers are prepared to teach what they're asked to teach in the classroom, if the materials teachers use are designed to enable stu- dents to learn what they are supposed know, and if the tests students are given test them for what they've been asked to learn. Unfortunately, the typical American student's educational experience seldom match- often es this common sense approach. Teacher preparation, textbooks, and tests are developed independently of one another. As a result, teachers are often at cross pur- poses both with each other and with the materials they are using, and the tests measure student knowledge that is different from what teachers were trying to teach. By coordi- nating learning, teaching, and testing, standards-based reform tries to eliminate the edu- cational confusion. Not surprisingly, this classroom chaos hurts disadvantaged students more than any- that disadvantaged stu- one else. Evidence on student grades and achievement shows dents (and their parents) are misled about how well they are doing in school: In English and mathematics, the level of academic achievement associated with an -A" at a high poverty school corresponds to the level for students getting a "C" or a "D" at a school where the students' families are fairly well-off.8 Consequently, students, colleges, and employers are all using unreliable information when students from different schools compete with one another for jobs or college admissions, and the students from the high poverty schools are most likely to end up disappointed when the others find that they straighten out are misled by the overly inflated grades. Standards-based reform seeks to this mess through a public process of setting the same standards across the board so that everyone can see what they are supposed to be doing and how well they are doing it. Perspective/2 break down the obsta- By setting the standards high, standards-based reform tries to obstacles trip up many cles to achievement created by low expectations. These students do not get the mes- American students, not only the disadvantaged. American takes priority over competing demands on their time. sage that academic achievement effort and outstanding intellec- People around them frequently disparage extraordinary impression that no one expects tual work, and disadvantaged students often receive the setting high standards and recognizing them to do well, and so they give up easily.9 By knock down the barriers of genuine accomplishments, standards-based reform tries to student learning and including discouragement. School reforms focusing on improved reform have already produced evidence of many of the elements of standards-based achievement gains reported across the range of student success, with positive student socioeconomic backgrounds.'° and state what students The national standards projects are organized by subject area twelfth grade. Taken togeth- should achieve as they progress from kindergarten through picture of the benefits of a liberal arts education in the er, these standards create a United States. Reform Key Terms in Standards-based Education Apicture of the elements of standards-based education reform is emerging, and as it these pages, the key terms will does, some pieces of the picture have acquired labels. In be understood as follows: expected to have learned, Content Standards. A description of what students are with and use that material expressed as mastery of the subject matter and how to think expectations are usually described as for intellectual or practical purposes. Since these by the end of a certain school level, what students are supposed to have accomplished standards. Content standards describe they are sometimes also called exit or outcome do, but are not the materials students what students are expected to know and be able to actually use to accomplish their learning. the progress of student Learning Benchmarks. Points of reference used to gauge in terms of a grade level. achievement toward content standards, usually provided students should be expected to Learning benchmarks serve to give an idea of what specific that they ignore varia- learn by that point in their schooling, without being so the scope and sequence of curric- tions in individual student progress or variations in ular offerings. will actually be taught in the rel- Curriculum. A description of how and what students described in the content standards. The cur- evant course(s) to achieve the objectives primary source materials, text- riculum normally includes lesson plans or outlines, information. books, videos, lectures, and other sources of 3/Summer /996 students are Curriculum Framework. A descriptive outline of the series of courses for the courses should normally expected to take in school and what the curricula and curricula are coordi- include. Ideally, content standards, curriculum frameworks, provide some guidance for the nated with one another, so that the content standards of the curricular mate- development of frameworks and curricula, and a careful analysis rials should reveal the content standards embedded in them. students are supposed Performance Standards. A description of the kind of mastery with a content standard. In other words, con- to achieve, normally given in connection learned, and performance standards identify tent standards identify something to be standards sometimes identify how well students are supposed to learn it. Performance for a content standard, and label each level accord- more than one level of achievement ingly (for example, basic, proficient, advanced). writing assignments that Assessments. Activities such as tests, projects, experiments, or demonstrate their educational achievements. Educators use are designed for students to meeting a given performance standard. assessments to find out whether students are and quality of the edu- Opportunity to Learn Standards. Descriptions of the nature make available to students. In cational experiences and resources that educators should of what the edu- standards-based reform, opportunity to learn standards are measures expectations set by the content and cation system does to enable students to meet the performance standards. experiences provided by teachers, Teaching Standards. Descriptions of educational and learning projects they offer that is, the quality of instruction, classroom activities, standards is normally a substantial part of meeting to their students. Meeting teaching used to gauge the relation- opportunity to learn standards. Teaching standards are also learn in the classroom, on the one ship between what students are taught and how they performance standards demand that stu- hand, and what the corresponding content and dents know and be able to do, on the other. Judging Content Standards Education reforms should be practical, include participation by those concerned, and students. Standards-based education efforts natu- treat everyone fairly, particularly the standards reflect the education students rally include judging how well the content themselves must be evaluated.11 should have. In other words, content standards should not be isolated from one anoth- To be useful, criteria for reviewing standards list, as some other documents have done, leaves out er. Presenting them as a random the various features of standards. For both the connections and the tensions among balance the need to include every- example, content standards must constantly try to Perspective/4 of the demands of time. What thing students should learn against a realistic appraisal show what they have learned, students are expected to learn, and how they are asked to of standards in be asked together. The various demands made are questions that should quality. reform may either strengthen or weaken their overall into three broad areas. The three This Perspective groups content standards criteria All three standards can be meaningful, legitimate, and practical. areas portray how content standards-based reforms. While the criteria about meaning can areas are crucial to good criteria about legitimacy and practicality be applied to content standards documents, the into practice. People have to use sound really come into play as content standards are put develop curricular frameworks, curricula, teaching content standards as a compass to practices, performance standards, and assessments. Meaningful? Are the Content Standards I. enduring knowledge and skills standards should state the most important and Content basic liberal arts education. Judging how that students should acquire in the course of a examining the standards themselves and com- well content standards do this requires Each set of content standards paring them with standards in other education systems. They outline crucial features of identifies the essential learning objectives for students. be covered and the kind of mastery the subject area, including the range of material to achieve in their understanding of that mate- and sophistication students are expected to that give that subject its coher- rial. They capture the major concepts and knowledge subject are about how problems or questions in that ence, and provide guidance addressed, in theory and application. The Heart of the Subject Matter important learning goals required First of all, content standards must capture the most defines that subject as a whole? What are its by the nature of the subject itself. What significant features? What sets it off from, and connects most essential, distinctive, and Content standards should be reviewed in it to, the other subjects in the curriculum? these basic features of the subject. terms of how well they represent the traditional core academ- Standards' significance depends on their relationship to coherent ways of organizing and under- ic disciplines. These disciplines have developed and categories that have been developed standing subject matter according to principles of content offered by the disciplines and improved over time. The systematic quality have a general familiarity with a discipline can move more means that students who another. Having been tested readily from the material in one area of the discipline to and experimental strategies fortify the stu- and revised, a discipline's methods, rules, and pursue new knowledge. dent's ability to solve problems, find answers, 5/Summer 1996 worth studying, both for Content standards reflect claims about why subject matter is intrinsically worth- its own sake and for pursuing other valuable ends. They identify the academic while features of the subject itself through the appeal of participating in descriptions vary activity and the satisfactions of accomplishment. Obviously, these of the workings of according to the subject and depend on such things as the discovery of political will. All of them, nature, the expression of artistic creativity, or the exercise however, affirm a view about the subject's inherent worth. practical value of their The standards also make claims about the instrumental or learning in other subjects, subject. Besides whatever contributions the subjects make to successfully than people they enable people to meet the challenges of adult life more be applied to var- who lack the benefits of attaining them; they offer knowledge that can they may have. ious practical pursuits, beyond whatever intellectual appeal people based on Governments collect revenues and mandate education for their young effectively, how to ful- the belief that education will help them learn how to work more personal life for them- fill their roles as citizens, and how to create a more meaningful overall cultural enrichment selves. All three of these pursuits also promise to add to the that promises such of the society. Good content standards identify the kind of learning practical benefits. Balancing Knowledge and Skills of balancing discussions of content standards commonly express the idea Current know and be able to do." knowledge and skills by talking about "what students should subject. both of which are This phrase is used to give credit to two dimensions of the familiarity with content matter important. What students "know" generally refers to a without which any sub- the factual information, central ideas, and key vocabulary "can do- usually refers stantial achievement in that subject is impossible. What students activities characteristic of people actively to the skills necessary to carry out the engaged in that subject. the particular subject at The emphasis on knowledge or skills may vary according to with material, while oth- hand. Some subjects naturally rely more heavily on familiarity of procedures students use on the material to ers depend more on the mastery of a set appropriate portion of standards solve whatever problem has arisen. Consequently, the be assumed to be the in a subject devoted to content or skills may vary, and should not same across the core curriculum. in mathematics and The proportion of skill- to knowledge-oriented standards subjects. For grades 5 history reflect the natural differences between the two of Teachers of Mathematics standards to 8 and 9 to 12, the National Council standards that list four standards which emphasize skills and eight or nine Perspective/6