See the front page story in the Times today about how the National Governor’s Association took a year to develop national standards, which now the Obama administration intends to pressure all states to adopt.
Chester Finn grandiloquently pronounces, "this is one of the most important events of the last several years in American education.... This is a big deal.”
A year to develop, and they now intend to give the public only three weeks to comment before forcing them down our throats?
As Jim Stergios, executive director of the Pioneer Institute, pointed out: “When was the last time you saw a national effort that was rammed through in three weeks?”
How about this standard, that 11th-12th graders are supposed to master; it's one of the most incomprehensible pieces of badly written verbiage I’ve read in a long time.
Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed.)
Maybe they're worried if anyone really had more time to examine and analyze these standards, we might just figure out how bad they really are.
You can read and/or comment on the standards until April 4 at http://www.corestandards.org/
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