That’s one reason why governors and state commissioners of education across the country are committing to a common core of state standards in English-language arts and mathematics for grades K-12. The Common Core State Standards Initiative encourages states to collectively drive education reform toward a goal of all children graduating from high school ready for college, work, and success in the global economy.

Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine summed it up this way, “Today, we live in a world without borders. It not only matters how Virginia students compare to those in surrounding states it matters how we compete with countries across the world.”

To find out if your state has joined, read the press release.

WASL has been criticized as too expensive and unfair to minority students. The proposed “Washington Comprehensive Assessment Program” would be shorter and quicker to take. Students in grades 3-8 would take the Measurements of Student Progress and high schoolers would take High School Proficiency Exam. The new tests would:

• Include more short response (such as fill-in-the-blank) answers for reading and math tests.
• Have fewer extended-response questions, from about 40 percent of the test questions now to no more than 25 percent.
• Eventually all be administered and graded via computer

• Systems thinking to analyze and understand complex phenomena.
• Inquiry activities to develop understanding of scientific ideas.
• Application of the science they are learning to solve real-world problems.
• Understanding of the domains of science: physical science, life science, and earth and space science.

“In the United States, we teach a mile wide and an inch deep. The folks that are doing better on national standardized tests teach less, more deeply,” said Mary McClellan, science director for teaching and learning at the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. The new, recommended science standards cover fewer concepts per year, but investigate each topic in greater depth.

Peter Mangione, the co-director of WestEd’s Center for Child and Family Studies in San Francisco said, “Knowing some letters is helpful to learn when you’re a 4-year-old. We don’t have to have them reading, but that preliminary exposure can be helpful. But should we spend all that time doing that? No. We have to keep it in balance, and play, we know, is central in children’s lives. We need to look at who young children are, what their learning and developmental needs are and how adults can support that. And if we do that, we will help children be ready for the next stage of life.”

School leaders in Seaford, Del., had noticed for some time that very few average students took the most challenging courses in the town’s secondary schools. As was the case in most small school systems, many Seaford families did not expect much. Parents and teachers did not want to push kids beyond their limits.

But Seaford educators became convinced that with extra help, many more students could be taking algebra in middle school and college-level courses in high school. Four years ago, they began offering special tutoring, summer classes and Saturday classes. The number of Advanced Placement classes at Seaford High swelled from four to 14.

Here is another example of the impact of expectations on results.

California’s standards are excellent in every respect. The language is crystal clear, important topics are given priority, and key connections between different skills and tasks are explicitly addressed. Computational skills, problem-solving, and mathematical reasoning are unambiguously supported and integrated throughout the standards.

California’s Framework is not perfect. But it comes as close to perfection as any set of mathematics standards in the country, and should be a valuable model for other states.

A focus on individual needs makes a lot of sense to me. After all, one-on-one instruction is what TeamUP! Tutors provides. But it’s far more challenging to provide that type of attention with a class of 34! Kudos to the teachers.

We Americans used to understand the concept of educational progression — of instilling fundamental skills early and completely so that they became natural extensions of children’s lives, thus equipping them for moving into higher realms of learning and reasoning. But somewhere and somehow, we lost our way and began embracing panaceas that promised educational gain without pain.

As Walters points out, “Innumeracy — a chronic inability to understand and apply mathematics to work and daily life — is rampant.” Our children have to invest the time to learn the basics. Then they can continue to build their knowledge. Not just knowledge of what’s in a text, but an understanding of the world around us. There are just no shortcuts to learning. It takes time, patience, and guiding hands – teachers, parents, tutors, and friends.