Educational Standards

At a time when demands are everywhere for high educational "standards," what standards should govern our educational system? How should we measure achievement at various educational levels? What measurements of achievement are realistic? What problems arise from influences on the criteria for educational standards from various sources-political (legislature, courts, school boards, etc.), professional (teachers, educational administrators), and personal (parents, children)? In light of enormous differences in social, cultural, and intellectual backgrounds among students, how should we measure the success of individual schools? Finally, what are the gains, the risks, the consequences of a real commitment to high educational standards in the United States?

The post- World War II years saw the continued decline of urban education as a result of the accelerating movement of middleclass residents from the cities to the suburbs. While surrounding communities expanded, urban areas began to suffer from the erosion of their tax bases. Accordingly, financing for the inner city schools plummetted, and so did educational standards.

Most of us view the latter part of the 1950s as the start of a gettough policy in education. But even the early part of that decade saw a strong back-to-basics movement to combat the widely held belief that students were not reading up to standards. What we most remember, however, is the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) of 1958, enacted by the Eisenhower Administration.

Reports in the early 1980s concerning the decline of educational standards refer to the very real problems, frustrations, and fears of the previous decade. It should have come as no surprise, therefore, that we took a long hard look at all of the schools-urban and suburban-and discovered low standards and expectations. Today, fewer than half of the nation's public high schools require more than a year of science and mathematics. Fewer than one in ten high school students study physics. Only 16 percent take one year of high school chemistry. Many students graduate with only the equivalent of grade school levels in mathematics and science. In many elementary schools, science labs are nonexistent or inadequate, and even high school lab equipment leaves much to be desired.

Business leaders can demonstrate their commitment to education directly by supporting the Adopt-A-School programs and, indirectly, by working with other citizen groups that favor high educational standards both at the local school board and the state legislative levels. To encourage closer relations between business and schools, administrators and teachers might make open-house presentations to local business groups and organizations- in exchange for which business could train school administrators in new management skills that could be effectively applied to education.

Another consideration relevant to computers and educational standards is the increasing use of computers as an alternative source of education. Already, microcomputers are able to deliver supplemental instruction in areas such as mathematics and French at a modest cost in the home. This fact is freeing parents from total dependence on schools. It is a fact that educators would do well to notice.