Over time, the overwhelming demands of standards based reform have become even clearer, as has the need to sequence reform components to make them manageable and feasible. Teachers are furious when new assessments come on line before the standards, to which they are supposedly tied, are developed and before any curricular materials are available. They are even angrier when such new assessments are incorporated in accountability systems that carry consequences. Yet such disconnects in sequencing are not uncommon, at the state and district level. The most important factor influencing the progress of reform development and ultimately whether standards reforms can support meaningful changes in teaching and learning is the capacity of the system.
Capacity is essential at every level.
Districts must do much of the same, focusing on daily support to schools going about the difficult process of improving instruction. Teachers and administrators must develop new approaches to teaching and learning, while frequently managing new site-based governance policies and developing ways of relating to one another and to parents. Parents are expected to support new, more challenging expectations for their children, understand and respond to new, very complex accountability systems, and see that schools are supported with adequate resources. Everyone needs help. There are some signs that the need for greater capacity is recognized.