Standards-based education reform and student achievement outcomes

Standards-based education, which was created on order to establish fair and consistent expectations for all students and to provide accountability in schools, has had a positive impact on education in America.

The work of Kate Menken and Phillipe Holmes entitled: "Standard-Based Education Reform and English Language Learners" states that "Standards and assessment have been pivotal themes in recent reform efforts, and to cut across much of the federal legislation passed by Congress in the last decade to improve the education of all students." (2000) Menken and Holmes relate that six broad education goals for improvement of education and to raise the achievement of students were passed into law by Congress in 1994 in the 'Goals 2000: Educate American Act. This required that states adopt "challenging academic content and performance standards and assigned aligned with these." (2000) Standards contained in the standards-based reform make identification of "what students should known and be able to do so as they progress through school. They are meant to be anchors, aligning curriculum, instruction, and assessment." (Menken and Holmes, 2000) There is contained within the standard movement "a strong emphasis on educational equity." (Menken and Holmes, 2000) the intention of the standards is to "make expectations clear and measurable..." As well as setting high expectations for all students. (Menken and Holmes, 2000)

I. DDESS REPORT on STANDARDS-BASED EDUCATION OUTCOMES

According to the U.S. Department of Defense Education Activity, Domestic Dependent Elementary and Secondary Education the differences that exist between the standards-based and norm-referenced systems are those listed in the following table labeled Figure 1 in this study.

Differences between Standards-based and Norm-referenced Systems

Norm-Referenced

Standards-Based

Believe some students are naturally smarter than others.

Believe virtually all students can "get smart" through effort.

Content subject matter varies with different groups of students.

Content subject matter is the same for all groups of students.

Assessments compare what students know to what other students know.

Assessments compare what students know to standards and benchmarks.

No objective criteria to deploy resources -- students who need the most often get the least.

Resources are deployed as needed for all students to meet standards -- students who need more get more.

Professional development episodic -- one-time workshops.

Professional development focuses on improving instruction so all students meet standards.

Source: (DDESS,

According to the report of the DDESS, standards-based systems increase student achievement in the following ways:

Teachers know what the standards are and choose classroom activities and teaching strategies that enable students to achieve the standards.

Students know the standards, too, and can see scoring guides that embody them. The students can use them to complete their work.

Parents know them and can help students by seeing that their homework aligns with the standards.

Administrators know what is necessary to attain the standards and provide professional development, resources and materials to ensure that students are able to reach the prescribed standards. (DDESS,

Linda Darling-Hammond is noted as having stated of standards-based education that the standards "come alive when teacher study student work, collaborate with other teachers to improve their understanding of subjects and students' thinking, and develop new approaches that are relevant and useful for them and their students." (1997; as cited in DDESS,

III. TEACHER'S VIEWS of STANDARDS-BASED INSTRUCTION OUTCOMES

NCREL relates the statement of Barbara Morgan, a teacher who states that the standards make the provision of a strong focus for learning stating: "I think the standards have helped focus the curriculum so that there is more across the schools and up and down the grade levels. We have an understanding of the content we want kids to learn, but I think we have a long way to go in how the students best learn it and how we get them excited about learning." (NCREL,

According to Kathy Johnson, a teacher of four-grade mathematics and Science at Oak Park Elementary School in Michigan: "The curriculum must represent the most important knowledge, skills, and attributes that schools want their students to acquire because these learning outcomes will serve as the basis of assessment instruments. Likewise, instructional methods should be appropriate for the designed curriculum. Teaching methods should lead to students learning the outcomes that are the focus of the assessment standards." (NCREL, nd)

IV. STANDARDS SUPPORT REVIEW - ALBUQUERQUE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Standards-based education which is a process designed for the planning, delivering, monitoring and improving of academic programs is reported by the Albuquerque public schools to be beneficial in the following ways:

Standards provide clarity and a fixed point of reference for students and teachers on what content and skills to teach at each grade-level;

Standards guide instruction that is focused on student learning.

Standards provide a common language with which to have conversations about educational attainment.

Standards help ensure equal educational opportunities.

Standards assist in identifying struggling students.

Standards meet federal guidelines. (Albuquerque Public Schools, 2006)

Benefits derived from the standards for key stakeholders are stated to be those as follows:

Teachers - consistent use of standards "makes it easier to analyze the performance of groups of students by and across grade levels. In this way, teachers can identify gaps in the curriculum and areas of low performance by students; a growing body of research indicates that when correctly implemented, standards-based systems increase student learning because they clearly describe learning expectations;

School District Administrators - Standards are useful to administrators because they provide a common reference point for the creation of local curricula and professional development. The standards help resolve debates about what to teach - and they force use of data over intuition in making instructional decisions. They also help establish clear priorities for resource allocation;

Parents - Standards are useful for parents because they indicate expectations for their children. Further, the standards help assure equity. The standards are for all students in all schools;

Teacher Educators - Standards are useful for teacher educators because they establish the content that pre-service teachers will be responsible for teaching; and Students - Standards are useful for students because they clearly describe learning expectations. Students know what they are expected to learn. They know how to meet high standards and are prepared for future academic study, as well as success on the state achievement testing system. (Albuquerque Public Schools, 2006)

SUMMARY & CONCLUSION

Standards-based education is clearly beneficial not only to students but as well is beneficial to teachers, parents, school administrators, and other stakeholders in making a provision of what is required and expected from each of the stakeholders in raising the standards of educational instruction and learning. Standards-based education guides instructional methods through establishing the content that should be learned by students clearly and benefits are increased learning and levels of achievement for students.