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H I G H S TA N D A R D S
Giving All
Students a
FAIR SHOT
The goal of standards-based reform
is to help all students reach higher
levels of performance, not to set
impossible goals or create winners
and losers. Achieving that goal
requires implementing policies that
give all students a fair shot at meeting standards. States are moving in
this direction because they know
giving students a fair shot is the
only way to provide educational
opportunities for all.
www.achieve.org
H I G H S TA N D A R D S
Giving All Students a
FAIR SHOT
for all students, the idea that those bound for work
need a different and less rigorous academic preparation than those headed for college dominated edu-
academic standards.
In the 1990s, the creation of standards, new
belief that many students cannot handle an academically rich curriculum and are not capable of achieving
at high levels. And tying consequences to results creates incentives for schools to raise performance and
encourages students to work hard.
matter to students, parents, teachers and administrators. Reversing course would only reinforce the status
quo and deny millions of children the opportunities
standards have been set, but they do not always provide the clear guidance teachers need. And schools do
not yet have access to top-quality curriculum materials aligned with the standards. Without these tools,
teachers are right to cry foul if they are being held
accountable for raising student performance.
In order to provide teachers with the right tools,
standards must be as strong and clear as possible. Low
or vague standards cannot guide teachers to develop
challenging and creative lessons that will stretch students minds and enable them to achieve at high levels.
Although standards vary widely across the
country, there are encouraging signs that their
quality is improving markedly. Achieve has set out
to identify some of the strongest standards and to
H I G H S TA N DA R D S : G I V I N G A L L S T U D E N T S A FA I R S H O T
Public Support
Two recent surveys show the extent of public support for
high standards. They also show that the public supports
holding students accountable for performance if schools
provide them with instructional support.
In a survey sponsored by The Business Roundtable,
three-fourths of parents and other adults support
requiring fourth graders to pass a test to be promoted.
But support increases to more than 80 percent if
students are given extra instruction and additional
opportunities to take tests.
to tackle the tough challenge of producing instructional materials aligned to the standards. Most of the
materials used in schools today are produced by commercial publishers, who tailor them to the needs of
many states and school districts. Because the standards are so different across the states, aligning materials to one particular set of standards is difficult.
Although some states have the authority to establish a
statewide curriculum and approve textbooks for
statewide use, the development and use of curricular materials often is a local decision. Educators and
policymakers in those states must find creative ways to
arm local districts and schools with high-quality
materials, such as providing models or encouraging
districts to pool resources to develop new materials.
One way in which states can influence the
development of standards-based materials is by
banding together and creating a larger market. One
such example is the Mathematics Achievement
Partnership (MAP), a consortium of 11 states
brought together by Achieve. MAP is developing a
common set of expectations for middle school mathematics, and participating states will administer an
eighth grade assessment based upon them. While the
partnership plans to develop materials, it also may
stimulate enough demand to encourage publishers to
align their materials with the expectations the states
have jointly produced.
86%
be promoted if
given extra
81%
instruction and
another
87%
opportunity
Total
Parents
Other
Dont know
(9%)
H I G H S TA N DA R D S : G I V I N G A L L S T U D E N T S A FA I R S H O T
Critics of current reform efforts contend that the policies begin and end
with tests and that the purpose seems to be to flunk students or drive
low-performers out of school. Nothing could be further from the truth.
those receiving state funds must meet minimal qualifications. States also could change the salary structure
tying professional development to improving teachers abilities in low-performing schools. For example,
PREPARING TEACHERS
In addition to having high-quality curriculum materials, teachers also need the knowledge and skills to
teach all students to high standards. Educators and
policymakers increasingly are recognizing that
teacher quality is perhaps the most important factor
in raising student performance, and efforts to
enhance their skills are rising high up the agenda in
most states and the federal government.
As part of that agenda, professional development, which is intended to enhance the knowledge
and skills of teachers already in the classroom, is getting more attention. Yet while policymakers increasingly are recognizing that professional development
has received short shrift in the past, they also are
becoming aware that simply doing more of the same
will not do. Many current efforts are unrelated to the
content teachers are expected to teach, and the typical
one-shot sessions are quickly forgotten. What is
needed are sustained opportunities for teachers to
build content knowledge and expand their repertoire
of skills and strategies to help children learn English,
mathematics and other subjects.
States can do a great deal to support effective
professional development. Many providers are private
organizations with good ideas but little evidence of
H I G H S TA N DA R D S : G I V I N G A L L S T U D E N T S A FA I R S H O T
dents, either as part of in-school or after-school activities, on weekends, or during the summer. The state
In order to ensure
tests give students a fair
shot, states must make
sure they truly measure
what students are expected
to learn. Policymakers
should not just assume
that tests adequately measure their standards. As
Achieves work has
found, many state tests
do a good job of measuring some knowledge and
skills included in the standards, but states have more
work to do to verify that
tests tap the full range of
knowledge and skills students should demonstrate. For example,
Achieve has discovered
some tests tend to measure
continued page 7
H I G H S TA N DA R D S : G I V I N G A L L S T U D E N T S A FA I R S H O T
follow.
identify inequalities.
under which test policies can withstand such challenges. In the leading case of its kind, a federal
than blacks) because the state had an interest in setting educational standards and because it provided
the due process claim, ruling that the state had given
H I G H S TA N DA R D S : G I V I N G A L L S T U D E N T S A FA I R S H O T
CONCLUSION
cies begin and end with tests, and that the purpose
seems to be to flunk students or drive low-performers
pose of the tests, again, is to allow students to demonstrate that they have attained the required knowledge
and skills; it is not to catch them failing. If students
study and do pass the tests on a later try, so much the
better for them, for the schools and for the state.
Third, tests can be fair to students only if there is
a reasonable phase-in period before they count.
Students cannot be expected to pass a test if the
instruction they are receiving is only now being
aligned to the standards they are expected to meet.
How much time is needed? Courts have ruled
that two years is too little but that four years is adequate. It is important not to allow too much time,
however, or else the pressure is off. Educators who
need to make changes will lose their focus. Moreover,
states should not become gun-shy if initial results are
low. They almost always are, since students and teachers had been operating under the old system. But
experience shows that performance typically improves
as students and teachers become accustomed to the
new expectations and build new practices around
them. By the time students and schools are held
accountable, the scores will be higher than they were
at the outset if everyone takes change seriously.
H I G H S TA N DA R D S : G I V I N G A L L S T U D E N T S A FA I R S H O T
www.achieve.org
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