A nagging doubt about national standards by Grant Wiggins | Eclectic Technology | Scoop.it

In this post Grant Wiggins shares some of his concerns about national standards. He notes "The problem of allowing each state to do things its way has resulted in states low-balling expectations for kids on their tests...A terrible scam has been going on for decades where kids and their parents are led to believe that graduates are college and workplace ready when they are not – simply because no one has had the guts to set a valid passing score."

He then asks "why is there only one set of graduation requirements in this modern world? Why can’t kids major in a favored area in middle and high school? Where are our plumbers and carpenters going to come from? Why can’t there be many different kinds of diplomas, as there used to be?"

He continues to explore these issues, reflecting on his experience as both a teacher and student. More and more we hear talk of "individualizing education' and this post makes one look at alternate way we might approach a variety of issues. He also has several excellent links, a post on "new players in the natioanl readiness test" by Catherine Gewertz and one by Yong Zhao on "the lack of correlation between high international scores and entrepreneurialism."