What You Don’t Know about Standards

Abstract

Surprisingly, many parents, teachers, and other individuals are not aware of the great impact and deep implications of educational standards, and the evaluation of those standards on individual children and on society in general. This lack of awareness is surprising because of the constant and pervasive evaluation that all members of a school community experience, and because of the short-term and long-term effects of this evaluation on individuals and on the community. Perhaps one reason for this lack of awareness and understanding of the implications of standards and evaluations is the simplistic and superficial presentation of standards and evaluations by those in control of educational policy. In other words, what appears to be a cut and dried aspect of educational policy is actually a very complex and political issue. The political and complex nature of educational standards and evaluations becomes apparent when questions such as the following are asked: 1. What are the different types of standards that can be used to measure student progress? 2. What are the different types of evaluations that can be used to measure the attainment of the standards? 3. What are the purposes to be achieved by the different types of standards and evaluations, and how do these purposes align with the purpose of schooling that we want to foster? KeywordsStandardize TestCorrect AnswerThinking SkillSummative AssessmentSociocultural ContextThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.