Tucker responded to a few common arguments from critics of the standards movement. The standards agenda reduces great teaching. We've had those tests for years and years and nobody's made that complaint. The standards agenda reduces the curriculum. Oh, I don't think so.
Bad standards do that.
If you've got standards that are essentially trivial then you will drive out good teaching and good curriculum. Standards operate to close opportunities for low-income and minority students. What the standards have done is to focus attention as never before on the kids who are not making it. Patricia Harvey brought a successful career in Chicago Public Schools and as a director at the National Center on Education and the Economy to her position as superintendent with Saint Paul Public Schools in Minnesota. Harvey offers many examples of how standards have benefited her district's diverse student body.