16
cation since the construction of the first one-room schoolhouse. As a result, the
level of standards of schools tends to reflect the socioeconomic status of the com-
munities in which they are located: the wealthier the community, the higher the
expectations and the higher the academic standards.
The impetus for the general movement towards higher standards in the area of
education can be traced to the increasing importance in the American economy
of information as opposed to industry. This movement has created the need for
a work force with higher-level skills and knowledge than in the past. The percep-
tion that this need is not being met has resulted in persistent
and severe criticism
of the quality of America’s public schools and dismay about international compari-
sons that consistently rank American students at or near the bottom in academic
achievement. Added to these criticisms is the allegation that schools are partly to
blame for the steady erosion of the United States’ position as the world’s pre-
eminent economic superpower. (
A Nation at Risk
1983) All of these require, the
critics maintain, that academic standards be raised.
One of the driving forces behind the movement for higher standards,
as men-
tioned, is the poor performance of American students on international studies of
academic achievement compared to their peers in other industrialized countries.
In a 1991 International Assessment of Educational Progress, 13-year-olds in the
United States ranked near the bottom of the list with an average of 55 percent
and 67 percent correct answers on the math and science assessments. Only two
countries in the comparisons turned in worse performances, while a wide variety
of countries scored significantly better. For example, 13-year-olds
in Hungary,
Korea, the former Soviet Union, and Switzerland posted average scores ranging
from 70–78 percent. Germany and Japan were not represented in this survey, but
results of the Second International Math and Science Study put students from both
Germany and Japan well ahead of U.S. students in both science and math.
These international comparisons and pressure from the business sector in the
United States have focused attention on ways in which public education can be
improved. As a result, the discussion of standards for
learning and teaching has
grown in magnitude in the United States in recent years as policymakers, legisla-
tors, educators, parents, and community leaders have all grown increasingly con-
cerned with students’ achievement levels.
The word ‘‘standards’’ has been used in many ways during these often-heated pub-
lic discussions. Sometimes the word ‘‘standards’’ has been used to represent estab-
lished levels of achievement; in other instances it has
been used to refer to com-
monly shared sets of academic subject content, such as those embodied in state
curriculum guidelines.
17
To understand the influence of standards in the United States we cannot restrict
ourselves to a discussion of formalized rules and regulations governing the edu-
cation system, although national goals and state regulations and guidelines will be
discussed in this chapter. These guides to standards have developed significantly
in recent years, and school districts have felt their influence.
Curriculum guide-
lines in particular have been used to set standards in many states and have been
linked to state-administered achievement tests. However, any discussion of stand-
ards in the United States must also include a description of the more informal
mechanisms by which schools maintain and promote desired levels of achieve-
ment. Achievement levels for schools and for students have traditionally been set
by community expectations, and communities continue to influence curriculum
and instructional decisions made at the school level.
Standards, therefore, are also
a result of local decisions, such as those governing the selection of textbooks and
those affecting a school’s policy on the promotion or retention of students. These
mechanisms for establishing standards will also be discussed.
Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: 
