STANDARDS-BASED SCHOOLS VS. PORTFOLIOS & HANDS-ON AND/OR VOCATIONAL LEARNING

INTRODUCTION

In an age of endless proposals for educational reform, the solutions to educational problems all too often tend to rely on an idea that is essentially part of the (if not the) problem STANDARDS. The latest craze in educational reform, known as "standards-based reform," is a far cry from reform; in actuality, it is little more than an oxymoron. A Southern California middle school principal best summed up the problem with standards-based reform when he said:

Standards-based reform' means that a teacher is able to say to a student: `At the end of the year, or this week, or this lesson, you will be expected to do this, or you will know when this happened, or you will have to perform this.' It's a teacher's expectation of what a kid can do and learn, what kind of benchmark he/she can reach.

Sure, it may sound great compared to the educational path we have been dragging students down for years; but, when all is said and done, "standards-based reform" is a poor attempt to repair the years of damage caused by standardized tests, tracking, and the disregard for diversity among students through the use of a system that is based on the bomb that caused the mass destruction of our nation's educational system in the first place (i.e., standards).

I. Standards-Based Reform & Standardized Tests

A. Pros

1. Emphasize the OUTCOME rather than the process; what students should learn instead of how they should learn. Shifts the primary focus away from the content of the curriculum and toward what learners will achieve; this allows teachers more freedom in their methods of teaching because they are told what their teaching must achieve rather than how they must teach.

2. Are an improvement compared to the current education in some parts of the nation.
a. Education systems in some parts of the nation are currently so ineffective, virtually any kind of reform would be an improvement.

B. Cons

1. Lack respect for diversity.

a. Students are viewed as numbers rather than as individuals.

b. Create a nationwide standard of learning.

i. create the same learning goals for different students with different interests.
ii. emphasize the notion that everybody needs to learn the same thing

2. Ignore the real problems such as under qualified teachers, understaffing, overcrowding, lack of supplies, inadequate facilities, etc.

3. Linked to "accountability,"

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