Standards

Standards are villains in the world of education. They are easy targets for many teachers, administrators, politicians, and many others, who use them as scapegoats for students’ failures. Hardly a day goes by without some loud-mouth politician announcing to the world his whole-hearted belief that teachers are being forced to teach to woefully-outdated standards, and this is one of the reasons why our children are failing. No Child Left Behind, which has become the poster child for “bad standards,” is often referenced, during these political tirades, as the shining example of standards gone astray.

I love standards. Most of us do. The problem is most of us do not take the time to think about how prevalent and important standards are in our lives. For if we think about it, we will immediately begin to realize that standards govern virtually all aspect of our existence. Standards determine the building materials that can be used to construct our homes, the fixtures that all motor vehicles must have in order to be declared “safe to operate.” Standards help to insure the safety of the foods we buy, the quality of the water we drink, and the cleanliness of the air we breathe. Almost everything we encounter in our daily lives is required to meet health and/or safety standards, which are embraced by practically all of us. We are so much aware of their importance that many of us are requesting tougher standards.

However, there is one type of standards that has gone virtually unnoticed ― performance standards. Until recently, most of us paid little to no attention to them, except in the area of sports events and military armament.

Racing events, including horse, boat, car, drag, track and field . . . focused our attention on the performance of each competitor, and keep us mindful of the fact that victory goes to the best performer.

Similarly, weapon systems allowed us to compare the performances of similar weapons. For example, we compared one rifle against another, one hand-gun against another, one jet fighter vs. another, etc. Yet, for the most part, performance standards were distant in our lives, or ― less personal than health and safety standards.

But today, we are being asked to do more with less, and we are being asked to win jobs that are becoming increasingly few. And these two changes in our lives put performance standards on the center stage, with everyone fully aware that the best performer wins. We are now trying to do more with less by creating more efficient products that lasts longer and cost less to operate. We want, for example, the brighter light bulb that last longer and uses less energy than today’s light bulb.  And we want, for example, cars with the same size, power, speed, and comfort of today’s cars, but offer three to five times the amount of miles per gallon. The list of equipment, utilities, and fixtures that we are creating to be more productive, more durable, and less costly is endless.  

This, of course, brings the discussion full circle by asking the question “How should schools prepare students to win jobs that are becoming increasingly few?  The answer is quite simply this: The education community must listen to businesses, trade schools, technical schools, colleges, and universities. These are the institutions that are doing the hiring, or preparing students (following their high school graduation) to be hired. It must make itself aware of the knowledge and skills applicants must have in order to be accepted. Then, the education community must establish the required knowledge and skills as standards that students are required to meet in order to graduate from its schools.

I wrote this blog to point out the big irony that will become apparent this minute: State standards in education ― especially in states like Wisconsin, have been and continue to be the end results of this exact type of partnership. State standards in education are the products of countless hours of brainstormed sessions and intense discussions that looked at student success from a wide array of perspectives. In short, education standards are the cumulative efforts of businesses, trade schools, technical schools, colleges, universities, and school districts.

Currently, most of us, who took the time to truly understand “the standards,” are producing incredible results. Most of us, who moan, groan, and complain, while largely ignoring the standards, are producing failing results. A few of us, who thoroughly understand standards, are completely frustrated and justifiably so. These three drastically different results are the failure of the second step in the process of using standards in schools: effective implementation of standards. Although this area doesn’t diminish the accuracy or importance of school standards, it decreases their effectiveness and frustrates many teachers.  I will discuss this point tomorrow. 

by
James A. Porter