What’s Up With All These Standards in Education?
Posted by PLB Registrar · 1 Comment
Standards in education are generally developed for the following reasons:
Accountability
Holds teachers, schools and districts responsible for much of what goes on in classrooms.
Achievement
Ensures that higher levels of learning can be attained.Assessment
Guides teachers in how to assess what the student knows about material or how they can manipulate and apply the information. The issue of assessment is addressed in depth in section 4 of this course.Focus
Reminds teachers to focus on specifics previously determined subject and topic needs.
Transparency
Enables clear communication and publication processes for everyone involved in children’s education regarding what is to be taught in schools.
From Professional Learning Board’s online continuing education course for teachers: Integrating Standards in Teaching
Standards assist students who move from school to school, or state to state to be successful.
Here is an example, a young girl who moved to Kansas from Arkansas at the age of 12. She is assessed to see where her levels of knowledge are. What they discover is she does not know how to read or do math at a 6th grade level let alone a 7th grade level which is the grade she was in when she lived in Arkansas. Then after assessing her, Kansas teachers placed her into special reading and math programs for a period of time. Then, she will be assessed again to see if she is learning. There are also special education assessment tests the teacher can administer. Standards were used at the different schools she attended.
Teaching is the main focus and standards facilitate learning.