California Teaching Standards are an example of how industries codify their objectives and establish guidelines for practice. Although I am not an educator, I can appreciate the California Teaching Standards because of how specific and relevant they are to daily practice. If more professional organizations had codified lists of standards, rather than relying on arbitrary and subjective means of assessment, then fewer miscommunications would arise.
Having worked in the corporate sector, I know what it is like to have a painful lack of standards as specific as the California Teaching Standards. In several of the firms I worked for, I sought but could not find absolute guides that could help me to understand my roles and the tasks designated to my post. Without standards, employers find it easy to make workers do tasks that were not included in their job descriptions. Without standards, employees cut corners in order to make it look like they accomplished...
The standards communicate values, missions, and goals to create a community of individuals committed to meeting those same values and goals. The medical profession has similar standards, and without them, we would not trust our doctors. It makes sense to have professional standards. The standards can evolve, as the organizational cultures change and as the society changes. For example, the underlying teaching philosophies might change over time. This would lead to an alteration in the articulation of the California teaching standards. The primary standards include engaging and supporting all students in learning and developing as a professional educator. In my profession, we have no standards other than those that are expressed in the company's mission statement. The mission statement is more of a reflection of company values than it…
