AFT report finds vague, repetitive content standards across states
Union: Federal government should underwrite consortia on standards, curriculum, assessment
With evidence in hand that states' academic content standards lack specificity and depth, the American Federation of Teachers is renewing its call on the federal government to fund efforts by state consortia to develop model standards, curricula and assessments.
Such funding, AFT officials say, would not only improve instruction in low-income schools but also rejuvenate the standards-based reform movement by putting better curricula in the hands of teachers. The funding would also improve test quality, therefore decreasing the pressure on teachers to resort to "drill and kill" multiple-choice test preparation.
"A federal funding stream would be a very helpful way of avoiding the political controversy over national standards," AFT Executive Vice President Antonia Cortese said. "For our poorer students in urban areas, we believe strongly that good state standards would help them get the same kind of education that a suburban child would get."
AFT's position reflects that of several national groups, notably The Education Trust, which has lobbied Congress to put $750 million annually into curricula -- suggesting that the issue could receive more attention when Congress resumes NCLB reauthorization.
Findings
AFT's Sizing Up State Standards 2008 examines whether states have strong standards in place in elementary school through high school in the core subjects of English, math, science and social studies. Strong standards, the report says, are grade- and course-specific and define content and skills so that the standards can be used to underpin a common curriculum. Standards that failed to meet AFT's criteria were repeated from grade to grade, articulated for grade spans rather than for each grade, or were vague and missing content.
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