In this study, we examine unintended consequences of a school district's standards-based reform effort.

One assumption underlying accountability policies is that results from standardized tests and other sources will be used to make decisions about school and classroom practice. We explore this assumption using data from a longitudinal study of nine high schools nominated as leading practitioners of Continuous Improvement (CI) practices.

Standards-based reform was proposed as a means to bring coherence to the education system and trigger reforms and investments targeted at greater learning. These benefits have materialized in some states but not others, depending on their strategies for change. This article proposes mid-course corrections needed to ensure that standards-based reforms support student success, rather than punishing those who are already underserved.

This article focuses on how a statewide reform initiative, when envisioned as a professional development opportunity, impacted teachers’ capacities to become change agents in their classrooms and districts and how individual district contexts shaped the development of those capacities.

Based on an interview study of fifty 1st- and 2nd-year teachers in Massachusetts, we describe a lack of curricular support for new teachers despite the progress of standards-based reform.

This article addresses informal classroom assessment in a manner consistent with a practitioner's perspective. Using results of teacher interviews, we present an alternative view of practitioner objectivity. This leads us to frame the reliability and validity of obervation for classroom assessment in a non-statistical way.

This essays argues that U.S. society has lost track of a crucial conversation regarding the purposes of education in favor of one focused on high standards. The result is a failure to see the complex connections between school and society.

Background to the key notions underlying the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics

One mathematician's view of the NCTM standards document

A discussion of the danger of losing the essence of mathematics

This article addresses the development, content, and potential for implementation of nationallly developed science education standards, including their adoption and effects at the state level.

A commentary on the national standards for science education from the perspective of a university faculty member in the physical sciences.

The author explores further the areas of agreement and disagreement across the articles about the general issue of active learning, teaching for understanding, or, at the risk of raising a red flag, constructivism.

This article questions whether the National Collegiate Athletic Organization (NCAA), an organization whose central role is regulating college and university sports, is really the appropriate group to dictate high school course standards. The article describes a growing national challenge to NCAA policies and procedures, and proposes next steps.

This article examines current debates about educational standards, accountability systems, and school reform from the perspective of Deci and Ryan’s Self-Determination Theory.

This article argues that new high standards are necessary and desirable, but that alone they are not enough.

This article discusses the recent history of development in accountability in a variety of educational settings, focusing on the national standards for educational achievement and the complexity of problems in setting those standards. It highlights student diversity, cultural pluralism, and the development of equitable systems of educational assessment.

This article explores the principal elements of Goals 2000, the origins of the "new federalism," the education legislative record of the Clinton administration, and what further efforts are necessary to meet the needs of American students.

This article explains briefly the provisions of Goals 2000, emphasizing its support of ongoing educational change at the state and local levels and state flexibility to develop diverse approaches to reform. To illustrate this flexibility, this article describes reform activities in Vermont, Delaware, and Oregon, and explains how these states are using initial Goals 2000 funds.

This article focuses on opportunity-to-learn standards, which define a set of conditions that schools, districts, and states must meet in order to ensure students an equal opportunity to meet expectations for their performance.

Goals 2000 defines the federal role as one of support and facilitation to improve all schools for all children while maintaining state and local control. The article discusses Goals 2000, looking at the beginning, the legislation, the national agenda, the state and local agenda, its passage into law, budgetary constraints, and the future.

The author speaks on the nature of the curriculum and appropriate standards in education from an economist’s point of view, and considers the issue of national standards from an international perspective.

The author suggests that we need to construct national standards that encourage and inspire school people; that allow for a pluralistic response to the pursuit of goals; and that standards need to be systematically reviewed and renewed in order to avoid typical bureaucratic anachronisms.

Taking plurality, multiplicity, and community into account in establishing standards

An argument is presented for a common core of basics for all students. In addition, national standards are considered within the contexts of a pluralistic society and societal goals. Costs and benefits of adopting national standards are examined in light of the experiences of other countries with centralized educational policies.

This paper explores from an organizational theory point of view issues related to standards for entry into teaching, differential staffing models, and school management. The focus is on the central issue of control versus autonomy in the organizational structure of schools.

The author questions whether the tension between what is "liberal" and what is "useful" is one of the oldest problems in education.

Study compared subject requirements for college admission with those for ongoing study in the corresponding subjects reflected in the college liberal arts program''; author concludes that colleges have arbitrarily determined high school curriculum, and urges reform.