Strengthening America’s Competitiveness through Common Academic Standards

An official chat on national standards took place this morning in the House Education and Labor Committee. The hearing was intended to examine how states can better prepare their students to compete in a global economy by using internationally benchmarked common standards.

Congressman George Miller, Chairman, opened the hearing with the following comment:

Today our Committee will examine the great momentum that is building for improving our schools and our competitiveness though internationally-benchmarked common academic standards.

Our nation faces unprecedented challenges that threaten our competitiveness. We face an achievement gap within our schools but we also face an achievement gap between the U.S. and other countries whose educational outcomes are surging while ours are stagnating.

President Obama and Secretary Duncan recognize that our economy’s fate is directly linked to addressing both achievement gaps.

They know we won’t be able to build the world-class education system our economy needs and our children deserve unless all students are taught to rigorous standards hat prepare them for college and good jobs.

We all know the statistics – we’ve fallen to 21st in math achievement, 25th in science, and 24th in problem solving. We used to be number one in college completion. Now we are 18th...

... Let me be clear: I want this committee, and the Congress, to do whatever we can to support this state-led, bipartisan effort. That’s why we’re here today – to learn more about this work and to hear from you all about how the federal government can best support it.

We forged a good start by making historic investments in education in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

We created an unprecedented, $5 billion Race to the Top fund that will allow Secretary Duncan to encourage states to innovate. This includes improving standards and assessments so they are aligned with career and college-readiness.

This fund will lay the foundation for the significant changes we’ll need to make to truly improve our schools, make sure students graduate with the skills they need, and cultivate a workforce that can compete globally...

As NAEP shows us year after year, the unintended consequences of a system that varies vastly from state to state is rather than striving for excellence, states are camouflaging poor performance.

The result is a generation of students without the complex skills and knowledge needed to succeed in the jobs of the future...

This from former North Carolina Governor James B. Hunt, Jr:

Let me be clear from the very beginning. We need a set of common state standards that are rigorous and relevant, and we must stop fooling around. Today, the variability in state standards is off the charts. There should not be 50 different versions of algebra I across the nation. It’s just not logical; students in California learn the same as students in North Carolina.

We must be vigilant in our development of common standards that are fewer, clearer, and higher. The process for getting there must be based on evidence of what’s necessary and sufficient for students to succeed in college and in work—not on including everyone’s, or every interest group’s, opinion. It should be a tight common core that teachers can teach and students can understand and master.

This from former drive-by Fayette County Superintendent and current Educatin Commissioner of Arkansas, Ken James.

First and foremost, this is a voluntary, state-led effort to establish a common core of standards across the states. Let me be clear, this is not an effort to establish federal standards. The effort to establish a common core will build directly on the recent work of leading states and initiatives that have focused on college- and career-ready standards. Leading states will be called upon to participate and add their knowledge to the standards setting process, and it is expected that leading states, based on their prior work, will be furthest along toward adoption of the common core. Furthermore, no state will see their standards lowered as a result of this collaboration. Rather, the purpose of the common state standards initiative is to raise the bar for all states by drawing on the best research and evidence from leading states and experts regarding, among other things, college- and work-readiness, rigorous knowledge and skills, and international benchmarking.

KIPP co-founder David Levin testified:

When the KIPP network reaches 100 fully grown schools, it will serve the same number of students as the public school district in Atlanta, Georgia. And yet, as a national network the lack of common standards makes it difficult to gauge how well KIPP is meeting its ultimate goal: preparing all of our students with the character and academic skills for success, self-sufficiency, and happiness in college and in life.

Currently, states set their own standards and determine how hard or easy it will be for students to pass. The result? We have passing hurdles that are very high in some states and close to the ground in others. According to Education Next, which reviews the rigor of state standards each year, only three states—Massachusetts, South Carolina, and Missouri—have established world class standards in reading and math. Some states, like Georgia and Tennessee, have established such mediocre expectations that nearly every student is considered to be on grade level.

With states held accountable for meeting the standards they set, there’s an unfortunate incentive for states to set the bar low...

President of the American Federation of Teachers Randi Weingarten said

We should start with standards. The AFT supports the development of rigorous common state standards. Our reasons are straightforward. We live in a highly mobile, instantly connected world in which knowledge travels on highways we can’t even see. Our students need to be able to navigate through that world—to study, work and live in states other than the one in which they were educated, if they so chose or if circumstances demand it. Their ability to do that, and to do it well, will be limited if we don’t change our current patchwork of varying state standards.

Politics K-12 conducted a little Live Blogging: The Common Standards Hearing here.

Court test of abuse allegations starts in Fayette County today

WOMAN ALLEGES SEXUAL ASSAULT BY TEACHERS

One of Fayette County's most controversial and headline-grabbing lawsuits in recent years will go to trial today.

Nearly four years ago, Carol Lynne Maner, 44, filed a lawsuit against the Fayette County Board of Education claiming it ignored and concealed a pattern of alleged sexual abuse of her by four teachers, an assistant principal and a guidance counselor in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The allegations immediately created a shock wave and produced vehement denials by the alleged abusers and the Fayette schools superintendent in August 2003, Ken James. He said her suit "has no basis, no merit."

Since then, another former student, Thomas "Beau" Goodman III, 42, joined the suit with claims he was sexually exploited by a teacher. Maner is considering a book deal and has aggressively made her case in the local media and Court TV radio, a satellite radio station...

...To succeed, Maner and Goodman must prove more than just that the alleged abuse occurred. They face a tougher burden of proving that the school board effectively had a policy or custom of inaction when it came to sexual abuse.

The trial is likely to hinge on two central issues: who knew what and when; and whether officials with policy-making authority for the board concealed sexual abuse allegations. If they can't prove concealment, Maner's and Goodman's claims will be barred by the statute of limitations...

...The employees accused of wrongdoing or inaction are no longer employed by the school district.

Maner and Goodman are suing on two grounds. The first is that the alleged acts violated their civil rights. The second claim is that the alleged abuse effectively denied Maner her right to an education. Specifically, she says it violated the federal Title IX Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibit discrimination in educational institutions receiving federal funding...

...Police have never filed criminal charges in the case, even though Maner says she filed a report with police at the time she filed suit. Many of the sexual encounters occurred after Maner turned 16, the age of consent in Kentucky...

...Maner's lawsuit alleges seven years of sex abuse resulting in a lifetime of emotional and psychological trauma and years of drug abuse.

Maner claims that the abuse began in 1976 at age 14 when she was allegedly abused and introduced to marijuana by two Beaumont Junior High teachers. She says that when she went to a guidance counselor for help, he molested her as well.

Maner's mother reported her suspicion that a teacher was having a sexual relationship with her daughter to the superintendent at the time, Guy S. Potts. The matter was referred to a principal who did nothing to stop the abuse, the lawsuit alleges...

...The alleged abuse continued when Maner entered Lafayette High School in 1979. She claims that she was sexually abused numerous times by drama teacher Robert Gardner -- who later became a high school principal and is now retired -- and an athletics coach. She said an assistant principal also attempted to abuse her.

In previous interviews, Gardner has denied the allegations and questioned Maner's motives...

This from the Herald-Leader.
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Before it imploded in November 2004, (amid a contentious fraud lawsuit against the publisher and copious mudslinging in the press) Lexington had a spicy tabloid newspaper called Lexington Snitch that ran an admittedly one-sided, slash and burn story on the allegations.

Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana join states in shared math test

The Zanesville Times Recorder in a story by Nancy Zuckerbrod (AP Education Writer)reports:

"Nine states have come together for the first time to develop a common high school math test, a move described by some as a step toward national educational standards."

The group of states includes Kentucky, Arkansas, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.

Mike Cohen, president of Achieve Inc., a Washington-based nonprofit (created by the nation's governors) that is helping design the standards told the Associated Press that the states are considering making scores on the test available to college placement offices to help determine the level of coursework freshmen are prepared to take. “This is a state-led effort to create consistent standards and assessments. It would not have happened if the federal government had tried to make that happen,” Cohen said, adding that he expects additional states to join the nine.

Since NCLB allowed states to determine their own definition of "proficient" many more students are able to achieve proficiency on the state tests than on national math and reading tests. This has prompted many to conclude that some states are setting their standards too low. Some in Congress are advocating provisions that would encourage states to voluntarily adopt common standards.

Bruce Fuller, a professor of education and public policy at the University of California at Berkeley told the AP that the law penalizes schools that don’t make adequate progress, so they are tinkering with "proficiency" to avoid penalties and meet their 2014 goals. “As this mischief is exposed out in the states, it’s going to further support this push for national standards,” he said.

While the math test is still in development, Achieve Inc. is moving ahead to other subjects.

Former Fayette County Superintendent, now Arkansas Commissioner of Education Ken James is on board. “These youngsters aren’t going to stay in our respective states for the most part,” James said. “They’re going to need portable skills, and we should be able to agree on what those portable skills are going to be.”

With states bailing out on high standards at present, it's difficult to predict how many will ultimately sign on. The percentage of participating states will have to be near 100% for the effort to be meaningful and that may put pressure on federal officials to soften penalties against states that presently fail to meet high standards, as an incentive to join. At present 29 states have agreed in principle to "prepar[e] all students for college and work."

Since the Constitution makes education a province of the states, increased federal control over the most important aspects of schooling may well give rise to new legal challenges.

And more from the Courier-Journal.