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Cooking up standards The Plain Dealer - (5/30/97) One of nine topics the Plain Dealer has chosen to
highlight this year as As Ohioans prepare to pour untold millions into education, they ought to know what they will get for their money. Everything and then some, answers the State Board of Education in an draft document approved this month. According to "Standards for Ohio Schools," students should
expect preparation in subjects ranging from English to career planning, from mathematics
to family science, from health to the arts, to foreign language, to technology to . . . to
. . .to . . . Maybe the officials who drew up the standards weren't paying attention
when top researchers concluded that U.S. students lag behind other countries in math
because teachers cover too many topics to cover any of them well. Maybe they never heard the adage, "If everything is a priority,
then nothing is." Whatever the case, although accountability among public entities is a
worthy aim, this mammoth menu of mandates will end up undermining officials' goals. Like
the cook who added heaps more spices because a dash enhanced the brew - and thus made the
meal inedible - officials have taken their standards so far that the entire effort looks
unworkable. The list of required subjects is too long to allow sufficient depth of
study. It also assumes too much homogeneity among students. Yes, young people should
experience a breadth of options as part of learning, but mandating mastery in so many
areas may doom individuals who excel in some but lag in others - a description most people
would match. Think of the virtuoso musician who breaks into hives at the sight of a
computer-keyboard, for example, or the budding philosopher who balks at the idea of
long-range career planning. Likewise, performance requirements for whole districts create pitfalls
of their own. The state's standards mandate a drop-out rate no higher than 3 percent in
1997-98 (and, thereafter, a graduation rate no lower than 90 percent); an attendance rate
of at least 93 percent; a vocational education placement rate yet to be determined; and a
75-percent passage rate on each part of the proficiency tests for fourth, sixth, ninth and
12th grades. Not only must school districts show that their students meet these
standards on average, they also must show that the standards are met by students for whom
English is a second language and by subgroups of students identified by sex, ethnicity and
race, and socioeconomic level. (And local officials thought federal compliance
forms were tough to figure out.) Those who fail to meet the state's expectations must explain exactly why
they've faltered and how they will improve; then they must do so, in a measurable way,
each and every year. Districts that continue to stumble face the prospect of a complete
state takeover. At first glance, these heavy sticks (and, to be fair, the standards do
include carrots for high achievers) appear to be just the measures to jog recalcitrant
systems. Yet those who spend time in Cleveland's schools know only too well that state
involvement represents no guarantee of improvement; indeed, state control here has
demonstrated a remarkable propensity for administrative paralysis. If the state education
bureaucracy's brain power and problem-solving skills paled terribly in the face of one
system's challenges, it's hard to imagine that the state has adequate resources to both
police and then rescue dozens of districts across Ohio. The draft approved this month now awaits legislative approval. But
before representatives rubber-stamp the 100-plus pages of recommendations, they first
should consider the implications of all those words. As they know stand, the standards give districts impossible - and, in
many cases, ill-defined -goals. Worse, the standards warn of consequences that, as it now
stands, the Ohio Department of Education is in no shape to enforce when districts fall
short. Accountability is a laudable concept, but only when the methods are worthwhile and
the ends achievable. If standards are the answer to schools' failures, the department and
Ohio's lawmakers need to confine their focus to solid academics and try again. |
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