Date sent: Wed, 5 Feb 1997 02:17:29 -0600 (CST)
From: LindaP (Texas)
Subject: Backlash- Tucker


>Subject: Backlash- Tucker
>
>January 11, 1995
> 
>Backlash Puts Standards WorkIn Harm's Way
> By
>Karen Diegmueller
>The movement to set national academic standards, in which several years of
>work and
>several millions of taxpayer dollars have been invested, is in danger of
>falling victim to a
>political backlash.
>While the voluntary standards proposed for U.S. and world history have served
>as the
>primary lightning rod for critics, other projects have not gone untouched.
>The U.S.
>Education Department has backed away from paying for a new
>English-language-arts
>project, and the draft science standards have come in for some sniping.
>What is more, in recent weeks, there have been signs that even the venerated
>benchmarks
>for mathematics will be challenged.
>The question now is whether the quest to establish rigorous academic
>standards
>nationally and at the state and local levels can survive increasing pressure
>and waning
>political support.
>The new Republican majority in Congress already has indicated that it will
>reopen debate
>on standards-related provisions of the Goals 2000: Educate America Act and
>the
>Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and G.O.P. lawmakers in the state
>legislatures
>may follow suit.
>"I am really concerned that the back-to-basics movement--the rote memory in
>math and
>phonics--fits right in with that political agenda," said Fred Tempes, the
>director of
>curriculum, instruction, and assessment for the California education
>department.
>At a meeting in Washington last month, John F. Jennings, who recently retired
>after 27
>years as a top Democratic aide to the House Education and Labor Committee,
>briefed the
>national-standards projects' directors on what they might expect from
>incoming members
>of Congress.
>They will be arriving in Washington, Mr. Jennings said, under the presumption
>that
>existing structures, programs, and legislation "ought to be thrown out."
>"There is going to be a great deal of skepticism on the part of many members
>of Congress
>on the standards movement," Mr. Jennings said.
>But some educators and policymakers still believe that the standards movement
>will ride
>out the troubles that have befallen it.
>Marc Tucker, the president of the National Center on Education and the
>Economy, and
>Christopher T. Cross, the president of the Council for Basic Education, both
>point out that
>polls show overwhelming public support for national academic standards. The
>two private
>education-reform groups have long advocated rigorous academic standards.
>"I am very optimistic," said Mr. Tucker, whose center, based in Rochester,
>N.Y., is
>collaborating on the New Standards Project, which is developing a variety of
>standards
>and assessments.
>Unconfined Damage
>For the first few years, it seemed as though the drive to set voluntary
>national standards in
>major subjects was proceeding smoothly, at least publicly.
>Then last March, the first fissure developed.
>Citing major problems with the English-language-arts work, the Education
>Department
>refused to continue financing the project and said it would seek new
>proposals. (See
>Education Week, 03/30/94.)
>Then last fall, Lynne V. Cheney, who had championed the drafting of history
>standards
>when she headed the National Endowment for the Humanities, wrote a caustic
>review of
>the new U.S. history standards for The Wall Street Journal.
>She charged that they unfairly portray the United States and its white male
>leadership as
>oppressors and downplay the role of traditional historical figures. (See
>Education Week,
>11/02/94.)
>Even as the attacks against the U.S. history standards--and later those for
>world
>history--mounted, many educators believed the damage would be confined to
>history.
>But that view is changing. Emily O. Wurtz, a senior education associate for
>the National
>Education Goals Panel, noted at the recent project directors' meeting: "The
>success or
>failure will depend on what people are saying about all the standards. It's
>not an
>inappropriate read to think that the standards are at risk."
>That the peril is spreading is evident from remarks that Ms. Cheney made in a
>recent
>interview.
>She said she has been fielding complaints about the pioneering and widely
>praised
>mathematics standards, which were developed and financed by the National
>Council of
>Teachers of Mathematics and have been in circulation since 1989. Most of the
>complaints
>stem from a de-emphasis on computational skills.
>"I was in error before when I said the trouble was going to be in the softer
>areas," Ms.
>Cheney said. "I think the standards across the board need to be looked at
>more carefully."
>Salvaging History
>By and large, last month's meeting of the project directors focused on
>salvaging the
>history standards and safeguarding the whole national-standards movement.
>Gary Nash, the co-director of the history-standards project, outlined several
>steps the
>project leaders plan to take.
>First, the group has been soliciting endorsement letters from the nation's
>most prominent
>historians.
>Second, it is seeking private funding to publish a book containing only the
>content
>standards and excluding the suggested teaching activities, which have proved
>to be the
>more troublesome part of the history package.
>The project leaders are also scheduled to meet this week in Washington with
>some of the
>leading critics of the history standards, such as Diane Ravitch, a former
>assistant secretary
>of education, and Albert Shanker, the president of the American Federation of
>Teachers, in
>an attempt to fine-tune the more problematic areas. Ms. Cheney has also been
>invited.
>Revised volumes will be published.
>Mr. Nash cautioned that "it's not so easy to include Native Americans and
>enslaved
>Africans without changing the tone of a textbook, a curriculum guideline, or
>anything
>else."
>At the urging of others at the December meeting, the history-standards group
>decided to
>reach out to someone who may seem an unlikely ally--Rep. Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.
>If he is
>amenable, they will put together a delegation of historians to visit the new
>Speaker of the
>House, himself a historian.
>Despite the history group's attempts to win over its critics, there are signs
>that turning the
>tide may be difficult.
>Waning Washington Support
>"If people are going to write standards based on political correctness," said
>Rep. Bill
>Goodling, R-Pa., the new chairman of the House education committee, "I can
>assure you
>we will have to rethink the whole thing--whether the federal role has already
>grown too
>large, whether we'll need NESIC."
>Nesic--the National Education Standards and Improvement Council created by
>Congress
>to certify model national standards and standards states submit
>voluntarily--is in deep
>trouble on Capitol Hill and may never get off the ground. (See related story)
>And Mr. Goodling, a retired educator who has sometimes been supportive of
>voluntary
>national(See education issues.
>Observers also see little support coming from the Clinton Administration,
>which has
>emphasized standards development at the state and local levels for both
>philosophical and
>political reasons.
>For example, in deciding not to pay for a new project for the development of
>English-language-arts standards, Education Department officials reasoned, at
>least in part,
>that the money might better be used by states to write their own.
>Although the department has pledged to supplement funding for an
>economics-standards
>project, the level will be "nowhere near the large-scale effort that went on
>in the original
>funding," said Marshall S. Smith, the undersecretary of education.
>The department is even making the effort to refrain from calling the national
>standards
>"national standards."
>"There really aren't national standards yet," Mr. Smith said. "There have
>been standards
>developed by clusters of national organizations in their areas. They aren't
>endorsed by
>anybody that is representative of the nation."
>States of Uncertainty
>How standards will fare at the state level is also uncertain.
>A survey by the National Conference of State Legislatures showed strong
>support for
>standards among the chairmen of legislative education committees. But the
>survey was
>conducted before the big G.O.P. gains in November's elections.
>In Montana, for example, religious conservatives--who have tended to be
>critical of the
>standards movement--were largely responsible for the election of about 30 new
>legislators
>in November, according to Julie Davis Bell, the director of the N.C.S.L.'s
>education
>program.
>"Clearly, when you look at these numbers and know standards is one of the
>things that
>has mobilized [religious conservatives], you can predict you are going to see
>some pulling
>back in the states," said Ms. Bell.
>Regardless of the shift in political power, however, many states are forging
>ahead.
>Illinois, for instance, has a Republican Governor, Senate, and House--the
>latter for the first
>time in 40 years. But educators there planned to start developing standards
>this week.
>Delaware, which has been out front in setting state standards, is also moving
>forward.
>But Pascal D. Forgione Jr., the state superintendent of public instruction,
>acknowledges
>that the woes of the national standards could affect state efforts.
>"There is a concern that the static from the national level may clog up our
>radar screen," he
>said.
>However, even some critics of some of the standards-setting projects are
>unwilling to give
>up on the whole idea.
>"I don't know the first model of an automobile or a computer or anything that
>works," said
>Mr. Shanker.
>Ms. Cheney also said she does not want to abandon the concept of standards.
>"I think the whole idea of having rigorous standards is still widely
>applauded," she said.
>"It just may be something that has to be developed at the state and local
>level instead."