An Educational Reform Designed for Students
by For members of the general population who do not see the inner workings of education and see it only as a public service, what is known about school standards is introduced to them through public sources. Public sources serve those who would benefit from standardization.
The reality is addressed by Donald E. Purcell, “Standards generally go unnoticed. They are mostly quiet, unseen forces…” (Purcell, 2003). As long as children are successful and adequately meet the expectations of their parents, their teachers and their schools, there should be no need for standardized measurements. They are created so that no child will be left behind.
Forgetting that some students do not possess the abilities to meet standards and forgetting that gifted and talented students suffer from the sometimes lower levels of standards, who do they serve? They serve the average student. Therefore, the current state of education reform in the United States is to keep everyone average. That certainly does not sound appealing nor does it sound like what the elected officials in Washington D.C. are hoping to accomplish.
National, state and local level standards are not perfect yet they are currently given absolution. Far too many see a problem with the system for the country to accept them as the only way to correct the problem of lower test scores, lower graduation rates and lower national averages. However, standards must be part of the solution as they are an effective way to initiate and measure change when created and implemented properly. The current practice of placing bandages over standards to make them current must be abolished and the nation must create a new standards-based educational reform from scratch. This is the solution which will have a positive outcome.
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