Standards Movement

Early Development

Arguably, the 1983 report A Nation at Risk was the initial, federal call to develop educational standards. While suggested as a means to obtain the ideal learning society, the report mentions educational standards in terms of expectations for student learning. Though specific content standards were not provided in this document, it did form the impetus for the current standards movement.

The first entities to develop educational standards were national curriculum organizations led by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics in 1989. Other professional organizations quickly followed with their own subject-area standards.

Following the work of national organizations, states began to develop content standards. For those states without standards, the federal government made it a requirement. That is, as part of the 1994 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965, Congress mandated that every state adopt content standards in reading and mathematics by the 1997–1998 school year and establish science standards by the 2005–2006 school year. To date, all states have adopted state-level standards in these content areas, with the exception of Iowa, which has district-level content standards.

The state-level content standards adopted so far have come under criticism regarding their quality and quantity. External forces have functionally reduced what is actually taught in today's schools. As an example, some teachers prepare their students for the tests by teaching them how to answer the general form of the questions on a typical standards-based test. There is also increased attention being given to the need for national standards. Rather than allowing each state to set its own standards, policy reformers are calling for more uniform national standards.

Quality and Quantity of Standards Developed

While the federal government required states to develop standards in reading, mathematics, and science, little guidance was provided as to what constituted an educationally sound content standard. Specifically, no parameters were established for the breadth of the content to be covered or the depth of the learning to be achieved by the students following the curriculum developed using the state-developed content standards. Thus, while the actual number of state-developed content standards was minimal, supporting skills required to attain those standards were not. Further, not all content standards, and their component parts, were of equal value.

The quality of the standards developed varied, and continues to vary, from state to state. At various intervals, the Fordham Foundation (a conservative education policy think tank) has examined the quality of state-developed content standards and released reports (e.g., The State of Standards 2006). Such reports assess state-developed content standards and gauge progress made by the individual states. The Fordham Foundation asked content-area experts to review each state's current content standards; the content standards that were clear, rigorous, and “right-headed” about content were judged as superior. Three states—California, Indiana, and Massachusetts—have content standards ranked all equally high with a rating of “1.” Those states that were judged at the lower end of the spectrum were Alaska (ranked 47th), Hawa'i (ranked 48th), Montana (ranked 49th), and Wyoming (ranked 50th).

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