Prioritizing Standards

So much energy has been expended on discussing standards in education. They have been a hot topic in education almost since they first coalesced in the 1990s. What happened before that time? Did we not have any standards in education? Was it all a chaotic free-for-all? I don't remember that being the case.

Like many "new" initiatives, the number and use of standards started small, ballooned into something large and rather unwieldy and may now be settling down into something more useful and manageable. At various times there have been so many standards to consider some have estimated that covering them would require students to stay in school many years longer than they do now.

There are many proponents and opponents for having a nationalized set of education standards. The discussion really started to heat up when NCLB was passed in 2001. Currently, the Common Core standards are the focus with most states saying they will use these once they're all complete.

In his book, Rigorous Curriculum Design, author Larry Ainsworth discusses the challenges and benefits of using standards and outlines a process for making them useful in classrooms—where students and teachers dwell. After all, it doesn't really matter what the standards are if teachers don't, can't, won't use them to inform their educational practices. Here's a quote from RCD:

"The reality is that Canadian and U.S. educators are faced with the daunting challenge year after year of trying to teach, assess, reteach, and reassess their students on far too many grade-specific and course-specific learning outcomes. I present these examples for no other reason than to support my assertion that educators must be able to determine— through a thoughtful, collaborative process— the Priority Standards or Essential Outcomes they consider necessary for their students to know and be able to do."

Ainsworth, Larry (2011-04-16). Rigorous Curriculum Design: How to Create Curricular Units of Study that Align Standards, Instruction, and Assessment (Kindle Locations 824-827). NBN_Mobi_Kindle. Kindle Edition.


In this section of the book, Ainsworth also quotes other education leaders Robert Marzano, Douglas Reeves, and W. James Popham, who are calling for a better approach to standards. Here's a link to the book:

Rigorous Curriculum Design

Ainsworth goes on to outline the process he uses to "prioritize" standards. Our team of teachers at school is currently working through this process together. Our goal is to establish where we want to go with our students so we can then use that information to backwards plan our projects and educational activities.

Below are the steps in general. For a more complete picture, get the book.

"Left to their own professional opinions when faced with the task of narrowing the voluminous number of learning outcomes, educators naturally “pick and choose” those they know and like best, the ones for which they have materials and lesson plans or activities, and those most likely to appear on state or provincial tests. But without the benefit of specific criteria for prioritization, everyone is likely to make certain choices that are different from those of their colleagues. Priority Standards are collaboratively decided, so there is an absolute need for objective selection criteria. These criteria, briefly introduced earlier in this chapter, are: 

• Endurance (lasting beyond one grade or course; life concepts and skills) 

• Leverage (cross-over application within the content area and to other content areas, i.e., interdisciplinary connections) 

• Readiness for the next level of learning (prerequisite concepts and skills students need to enter a new grade level or course of study) 

A second set of selection criteria, often used interchangeably with the first, looks at the standards through the “lens” of students and also considers standardized state or provincial assessments, college entrance exams, and career and technical education competencies— an important criterion for selecting Priority Standards that cannot be ignored in the current climate of high-stakes testing: 

• School (what students need to know and be able to do at each level of learning) 

• Life (what students will need to know and be able to do to be successful after the conclusion of formal schooling) 

• Tests (those concepts and skills that are most heavily represented on external, high-stakes assessments)"

Ainsworth, Larry (2011-04-16). Rigorous Curriculum Design: How to Create Curricular Units of Study that Align Standards, Instruction, and Assessment (Kindle Locations 987-988). NBN_Mobi_Kindle. Kindle Edition. 

That last bullet point, "Tests" is an unfortunate reality in my opinion. Although assessment is very valuable and necessary, the assessment value of standardized tests, especially in their current formats, is very small. But, these tests are currently what is in vogue for education administrators and politicians.

I am looking forward to working through this process completely with my team. The main challenge, of course, is time, but we have made this a priority for this quarter (and summer) so we'll be better prepared for next year.