It's Econ 101: Our Students Must Have Rigorous, World-Class Standards
Receive Article Updates (RSS)By James B. Hunt, Jr.
January 16, 2009
Our country faces a crucial transition that calls for the growing, urgent need for national, world-class standards. The education challenges before us are so serious that the only analogy that comes to mind is World War II; just as Franklin Roosevelt mobilized a nation to win the war, President-elect Obama must mobilize the nation to compete and win in today’s world economy.
The front edge of the Baby Boom generation stands on the verge of retirement, and over the next two decades, there will be a near-flood of departures of skilled, experienced professionals and technicians. We need well-educated younger adults to replace them and fill the well-paying jobs that the knowledge economy will produce.
To meet these workforce needs, we must make our public schools places of learning, with high expectations in every state and in every community. To do that, we need to create national, world-class standards that are clearer and higher than the state-by-state standards we now have. All of our students must be ensured the opportunity to learn from the very best curriculum.
Some might say that we already have national standards. Indeed, most states look to the work of national organizations in math and science for examples to guide the development of their own standards. Yet, U.S. students choose from 286 different math courses, and nearly 50 varieties of algebra. This variation is evidence that we don’t have a single standard for all students.
For the past year, the Hunt Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy has collaborated with the National Research Council to examine current state standards and their role in our education system. Scholars have told us that current standards are generally weak, poorly ordered, and differ dramatically in scope, clarity, comprehensiveness, and implementation. This quality and variability present major concerns. Standards form the basis of our education system, and all components of the system should line up with these expectations for student learning.
It is almost universally agreed that the development of national standards should not be the job of the federal government or the federal department of education. We should build on what we have learned from states during the past two decades. Let’s use what we now know to be the demands of college, the workplace, and the global economy to create a set of standards that each state could adopt voluntarily as a foundation for its work.
Regardless of who takes the lead to develop these content standards, the process must be grounded in evidence about the essential knowledge and skills that students need to be prepared for college and work. Leaders at every level share in the responsibility all our students have the opportunity to learn at the highest levels.
We need President-elect Obama to call upon state leaders and national organizations that have been working hard to align their standards with the demands of college and the workforce and to benchmark them against standards in the highest-performing nations. By speaking to the nation about where we truly stand, the President can rally support across partisan lines and unite governors, chief state schools officers, members of Congress and state legislatures, teachers’ associations and unions, and business executives.
Yes, we must have full funding for early childhood programs, increase our teacher force, advance math and science education, and get parents to play a larger, more responsible role in education. Taking a long, hard look at the need for a single set of world-class standards is of equal importance; it is fundamental to building a strong education system.
As a society, our nation must have high expectations for itself and its students. High standards result from high expectations. Momentum is building for America to set clear, consistent, internationally benchmarked standards for our schools. Not acting threatens to put us on a path to being a second-rate nation as the 21st Century progresses.