State firm on school quality

Mar 15, 2010 — The Boston Globe

By James Vaznis

Mar. 15, 2010 (The Boston Globe delivered by Newstex) --

The Patrick administration will not adopt national academic standards if they are lower than those established in Massachusetts, long championed as having among the most rigorous expectations, according to the state's education secretary.

The proposed national standards, released last week, outline which English and math material should be taught at each grade level in the nation's schools, as the Obama administration tries to prepare a future workforce to compete aggressively in a global economy.

That means, for example, in English every third-grader, regardless of where the pupil lives, would learn how to find the moral in a folk tale, fable, or myth, while in math all eighth-graders would learn to use the Pythagorean theorem.

The standards, under development for more than a year, are moving closer to Massachusetts' benchmarks, but still need to be strengthened in some areas, said state Education Secretary Paul Reville, noting that education officials are still analyzing the national standards.

``I'm cautiously optimistic that this will end up in a positive place,'' Reville said, ``but we are not going to endorse anything that is not at least as rigorous as our own standards.''

Debate is percolating over whether the proposed national standards would represent a major setback for Massachusetts, whose students routinely score in the top tier on national standardized tests.

The Pioneer Institute, a conservative-leaning public policy research organization in Boston, for instance, said the nationals standards, as written, would undo 17 years of work in Massachusetts that began with passage of the 1993 Education Reform Act to bolster the quality of the state's schools.

``We are trying to sound the alarm,'' said Jim Stergios, the institute's executive director. ``Massachusetts has the highest standards in the nation. Why would you want to change course?''

The Obama administration's push for uniform standards, which is being led by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, aims to remedy an inequity in the American education system: Some states such as Massachusetts and California have set much higher standards than places like Mississippi.

While adopting the standards would be voluntary, the Obama administration has said that it intends to withhold millions of dollars in grants for low-income students in states that refuse to join the effort - regardless of the quality of their existing standards.

The administration also says states that embrace the standards will have a better chance of receiving potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in its ``Race to the Top'' competition, which rewards education innovation. Massachusetts has applied for $250 million from that program.



The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, which sets the state's academic standards, will probably discuss the national benchmarks at a special meeting later this month.

One member - Sandra Stotsky, a former associate education commissioner who oversaw the development of the state's standards - ridiculed the national benchmarks, saying they rely too heavily on broad ``empty skills'' and lack rich academic content at each grade level.

``The national standards are not nearly as good as Massachusetts','' Stotsky said. ``They are generic skills that can be applied to any grade level that you want. They don't give teachers any guidance about what makes a standard at Grade 8 any more difficult than at Grade 6.''

Most states, except Alaska and Texas, initially signed on to help develop the standards. But some states known for high standards are now expressing hesitation about putting them into place unless changes are made.

``Our initial review would indicate in some areas Virginia standards exceed these draft standards, and in some areas we may have some gaps we may want to address,'' said Charles Pyle, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Education. ``There has been no discussion to walk away from our standards of learning. That would be a step that would be extremely disruptive to students, teachers, and instruction.''

It is unclear whether states would have to adopt the national standards word for word or whether they could augment them with existing ones so long as the state standards were higher. Adopting new standards is unappealing in lean economic times because it can require the wholesale replacement of textbooks and additional training for teachers.

It also can prompt an overhaul of a state's testing system, which often is based on prescribed standards, as is the case for the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System.

The prospect of bringing national standards to Massachusetts is generating wide-ranging reaction among groups that work directly with school districts and some concerns that there would be a push to create a national test, based on those standards, that could replace the MCAS.

``In principle, national standards make sense because a child in Mississippi deserves to be taught at the same level as a child in Massachusetts,'' said Anne Wass, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the state's largest teachers union. ``But if the standards lower things in Massachusetts I wouldn't think that is good.''





Glenn Koocher, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, said he found the standards to be ``comprehensive'' and on par with Massachusetts.

``The nation will finally march to the same beat as Massachusetts,'' Koocher said.

Richard Stutman, president of the Boston Teachers Union, said he favors having national standards.

``I think a wider and broader measure would be better for the country so we know how we are all faring and how we can improve,'' Stutman said. I think Boston public schools would measure near the top.''

The public comment period, criticized by some groups as too short, ends early next month.

Reville said that Massachusetts has been held up as a model in the writing of the national standards and that the drafters have been receptive to the state's recommendations for changes after previous drafts were made available. For that reason, Reville said he believes Massachusetts can still shape the final version.

``Since we are leaders in this area, we have a civic responsibility to participate in the process, but in the end we will have to make a decision [whether] to endorse these standards,'' Reville said. ``We shouldn't be so arrogant to think we don't have anything to learn from other states.''

Newstex ID: BGL-1035-42886018