Standards Academic Standards in Education

Standards

Academic standards in education have been the sources of some contention ever since their implementation. Proponents of the movement hold that they form the basis of equal education for all, while others believe that they have little or no effect on the quality of education received, or indeed that they might even have a negative effect. It appears unlikely that an agreement will be reached soon. While the debate rages on, the word "standards" itself is somewhat misleading. While there are common national standards for K-12 education, each state also has its own specific standards, which are not always in agreement with each other. This in itself is also often used as an argument against the use of standards.

Prior to the implementation of standards, school students were taught according to a set curriculum, generally at the discretion of the teacher, with some guidelines from the educational department. Students were not held to specific or rigorous standards, but there were common outcomes required for each student to pass. At the time, "affective education" was also the norm in the United States. This philosophy held that the creation of "feeling citizens" was the height of educational achievement, rather than instilling concrete knowledge or skills.

According to Jones (n.d.), this created a "rising tide of mediocrity" in the school system, where student performance on the SAT and similar tests was notable. In addition, scientific advances by the U.S.S.R. during the 1960s created a sense of panic for parents, who increasingly called for more focus on cognitive skills than on the affective paradigm in education.

The standards movement began with an increase in standardized assessment at the state and local levels in the country, accompanied by increased course requirements. By 1980, state-mandated testing was implemented in 29 states. This number grew to 46 states in 1990.

According to the Committee on Standards for K-12 Engineering Education (2010, p.15),

standards, as they are known today, were developed by a "consensus process" at the national level. Coalitions of organizations and subject-interested individuals were involved in the process. Interestingly, this creation of "standards" began as a state effort, with each state creating its own standards for education, according to what was considered important for schools by citizens in each specific state. Challenges regarding consistency were therefore part and parcel of the standards issue to begin with. Later, a movement was established to create more common standards.

The historical ideal behind content standards is that they draw on relevant studies to determine and support the progressive development of conceptual understanding. In reality, however, there is only limited evidence to support the usefulness or even the need for standards.

Mathis (2010), for example, directly states that there is little evidence to support the notion that national academic standards in any way improve the quality of students produced by schools that follow these standards. According to the author, the focus on standards serve only to detract from other vital reforms faced by the school system today. Mathis holds that there are many influences beyond the purely academic that affect test scores. Quality and equity will only be addressed when these in-school and out-of-school concerns are addressed.