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For the last two weeks, I’ve been raising objections to the idea that new standards — particularly new national standards — are worth the attention they get. It is ridiculous to think that they can be a meaningful lever of broad educational improvement. In fact, I do not think that they can have any significant impact at all.

Why Does Anyone Bother?

Hamlet spoke of customs “More honor’d in the breach than the observance.” I would not go quite that far when speaking of standards in education, but that is primarily because standards are in large part based on what is already actually done. To the extent that they are descriptive, standards are honored. But to the extent that they are prescriptive, they are rather impotent.

So, why all this attention to standards? Why is anyone bothering, and why does anyone pay attention? (more…)

• The Board of Regents approved a “credit recovery” policy that allows online makeup work. (Post)
• Harlem Success students visit farms to prepare them for farm-themed state test questions. (Times)
• Opportunity Charter School has one year to prove it can do the (almost) impossible. (GothamSchools)
• Hoyt’s bid to lift the state’s charter school cap wins praise, but legislators say it’s not needed yet. (Post)
• Nationally, the stimulus saved a quarter of a million education jobs, a report says. (Washington Post)
• The city says 14,000 education jobs were saved here, 10,000 more than the report claims. (Post)
• Forms for parents to consent to their child receiving the H1N1 vaccine went home yesterday. (NY1)
• Schools nurses say the vaccination campaign will take them away from other duties. (Daily News)
• In Los Angeles, school officials went door to door to get truant teens back in school. (L.A. Times)
• College counselors are taking on larger caseloads as schools cut budgets. (Times)
• Hawaii is responding to its budget woes by making its school year the shortest in the country. (AP)

• Other than cutting funds, where has Paterson been on education issues? Carroll asks.
• Merryl Tisch said she’s concerned that charter operators often don’t want to do turnarounds.
• The White House says the stimulus has saved 250,000 education jobs, a quarter of them in Cali.
• Emily Glickman says the Times’ Speyer piece forgot the other side of the G&T debate.
• A critique of the Kristof piece says he’s blaming parents while ignoring poverty.
• NYC Educator thinks the school aides should stay on so they can lock and unlock schoolyard gates.
• Small class size is key to the Icahn charter schools’ success, writes Leonie Haimson.
• A teacher emails the mayor to ask: if social promotion is over, why can’t her students add?
• In New Jersey, Christie vouchers, Corzine calls for pre-k, they agree on more charters.
• And SpecEd students may sue Hawaii if it goes through with “furlough Fridays.”

Opportunity Charter School's flags line 113th street in Harlem, where the school shares a building with P.S. 241.

Opportunity Charter School in Harlem is a rare species in the charter school movement.

Its student body is roughly half general education students and half students with learning disabilities. The two groups learn in classes side by side, following the “inclusion” model. And year after year, students entering the school have some of the lowest test scores in the city — a distinction that’s become a point of pride.

“Lowest achieving kids in New York City. Bottom 10 percent,” Opportunity’s assistant principal, Brett Fazio, said in an interview, with the same delight other school administrators reserve for science fair champions.

But the point of Opportunity, as CEO Leonard Goldberg dreamed it up when he was an administrator at a residential school five years ago, is to take the least and make them champions.

That hasn’t been an easy task and as a result, Goldberg’s school is in trouble. In part, this is because it’s a charter school, subject to the demands of the charter school ultimatum: set your standards high and meet them, or else.

At the same time that the combined middle and high school is preparing its first twelfth grade class for graduation, the city has put the school on probation. Opportunity has one year to improve its test scores or it will lose its charter, something that’s rarely happened among the city’s charter schools. (more…)

This and next week I am raising objections to the idea that new standards — particularly new national standards — are worth the attention they get. It is ridiculous to think that they can be a meaningful lever of broad educational improvement. In fact, I do not think that they can have any significant impact at all.

Problem #6: Local Control

Directly contrary to the urge for state or even national standards is the long standing support for local control of schools is this country. Parents and communities want to decide what is taught in their schools, and how it is taught.

• Northern Aggression? States’ rights? Slavery?
• Comprehensive or abstinence only?
• Whole language or phonics?

I don’t need to write “Civil War,” “Sex Education” or “Reading” and you already know what I am talking about. Of course, those are just some of the most visible controversies. There are legitimate differences in what to focus on in social studies, with obvious regional or local concerns with stressing local history. There is also the issue of tradition and what feels like arbitrary change when you have to live by someone else’s compromise.

To the extent that standards are voluntary — and certainly in the absence of inspections, everything not on a test is voluntary —there are powerful forces against adopting standards. (more…)

News from New York City:

• School aides are reporting to school today after a judge rejected the city’s bid to fire them. (Daily News)
• An Assemblyman is calling today for ditching the charter school cap so the state can get RttT funds. (Post)
• A Bronx charter school chain, Carl C. Icahn, wants to keep copying its original successful school. (Post)
• A new report has found that schools with arts also have highest graduation rates. (Times, Daily News)
• Principals and advocates say the schools just can’t handle any more budget cuts. (NY1)
• A school nurse in Queens highlights the challenges nurses face in the H1N1 era. (Times)
• At a parent rally yesterday, Bill Thompson accused Bloomberg of lying about schools. (Daily News)
• The principal of Luperon HS says Bill Thompson is unfairly blaming school failure on principals. (Post)
• The Post says both Bloomberg and Thompson have education pros and cons, but Bloomberg is better.
• A new private school on the Upper West Side caters to children who are shut out of G&T. (Times)
• The Daily News argues that last week’s NAEP scores don’t say anything about New York City schools.
• The Post, on the other hand, says the NAEP-state test score discrepancy is a cause for concern.
• A Brooklyn 8th-grader has been out of school for a month to avoid bullying, a columnist writes. (Post)
• New York Cares sent thousands of volunteers into 117 schools this weekend to beautify them. (NY1)

And beyond:

• Randi Weingarten: The new, tougher teachers contract in New Haven is a model. (Wall Street Journal)
• Readers respond to Nicholas Kristof’s column about the problem posed by teachers unions. (Times)
• Jay Mathews explains why the international math test doesn’t reflect school learning. (Washington Post)
• The future of D.C.’s school voucher program is suddenly looking brighter. (Wall Street Journal)
• The D.C. Council heard testimony about Michelle Rhee’s teacher layoffs until 4 a.m. (Washington Post)
• An Atlanta lawyer for death row inmates joined TFA and now works in a middle school. (Times)