STANDARDS AS REFORM

Standards as a Vehicle for Educational Reform

Standards as a Vehicle for Educational Reform

Introduction

There is no doubt that standards are effective tools for educational reform. Standards set and help in defining what students need to be able to do with their knowledge and what students will learn throughout the year. By creating standards within the regional district can involve leaders, parents, educators and community in the decisions related to what students will be learning, or need to learn. One of the most pressing concerns in education today is the need for education reform (Vohs, 2004). Education standards focus on the sequence and scope of curriculum in schools which have been a difficult idea for several teachers and schools to accept. Thus, teachers and schools have realized the importance of implementing or designing content, coursework and course that reinforces education standards. Standards give a roadmap to teachers so that they can know required knowledge and skills by their students. An environment is created which helps teachers to work together and collaborate because they know they will be teaching the same thing to their students (Schmoker, 2009).

This paper will examine what the field of education was like prior to the implementation of academic standards and will reflect on the effectiveness of standards as a vehicle for education reform.

Field of Education Prior to Implementation of Academic Standards

Before the implementation of academic standards, the field of education was surprisingly effective. It is fairly common knowledge that some of the nations great thinkers, such as Abraham Lincoln, were even self-taught, and up through the early part of the 20th century in many school districts people that only got as far as the eighth grade in school had an equivalent or better education than those that graduated from high school in recent years (Schlechty, 2001). ...