Will Education Standards Really Help Failing Schools?

Lindsey Burke / February 26, 2010

President Obama’s proposal Monday to link Title I funding to adoption of education standards has the education world abuzz. During a speech to the National Governor’s Association, President Obama stated:

I want to commend all of you for acting collectively through the National Governors Association to develop common standards that will better position our students for success.and today, I’m announcing steps to encourage and support all states to transition to college and career-ready standards on behalf of America’s students.
First, as a condition of receiving access to Title I funds, we will ask all states to put in place a plan to adopt and certify standards that are college and career-ready in reading and math. Once you’ve got those standards in place, you’ll be able to better compete for funds to improve teaching and upgrade curricula and to make sure that we’re delivering for our kids, we’re launching a competition to reward states that join together to develop the highest-quality, cutting edge assessments required to measure progress; and we’ll help support their implementation.

What does this imply for the supposedly “voluntary” common standards effort underway in many states? The New York Times ran this statement from the White House: (more…)