National Education Standards?

An optimistic step towards a national set of learning standards is beginning to be developed. The proposal includes English and math skills that should be obtained before high school graduation. While the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 aimed to improve national scores in order to compete with other countries, I find it difficult to accurately analyze our improvement as a nation if a national test or national standards don’t exist. I think that if national standards were implemented for K-12, with a national standardized test to account for them, we would be able to create more change for our national education system and create strong improvements. With national standards it would be easy to compare state to state and help individual schools see where they need to improve curriculum and instruction. With these national standards, I think states could still create their own standards that may supplement the national one. The national standards would serve as the minimum expectations for students and could always be supplemented for an even better education. I think that these national standards would help states that are currently lacking to be more accountable for their educational scores, while at the same time providing a way to equalize education nationally.

Anderson, N. (2009, September 22). Skills set drafted for students nationwide. The Washington Post.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/21/AR2009092102289.html?wprss=rss_education