To ensure a reasonable standard of quality and to protect respect for public institutions and professions, an authoritative group is appointed to carry out an objective review of the research and to decide upon a standard of practice. The federal government then endorses this standard and benefits are provided to those whose professional practice is consonant with it. For example, in medicine, once such a standard is set, private insurance companies and U.S. government programs such as Medicare will only pay for procedures that are in keeping with the established standard.
Physicians also gain some protection against liability if their practices match the standard.
In the latest battery of National Assessment of Educational Progress scores, Maine's 4th graders ranked No. 1 in reading proficiency. Yet virtually all the national press attention recently in reading reform has been focused on California. It's ironic to me that we give so much attention to reading legislation in a state that ranked dead last on the same national test. Miami Study Critiques 'Success for All' Success for All, one of the most highly praised models for turning around entire schools, got mediocre grades in an independent evaluation of the program conducted by Miami-Dade County school officials.