Whether these standards are generated at the national, state, local, or personal level, knowing one's destination and purposes helps shape the learning experience for teachers and students. This is a daunting list. For most schools, it is representative of a process of educational transformation. Such a transformation takes time, planning, commitment, re-education, and periods of transition. Yet once the desired results and standards have been agreed upon, they can drive the process of transition.
Standards can begin to shape classroom cultures.
They can be targeted productively in the classroom within the context of existing curricula. In the classrooms and schools where this process of transition has begun, the growth of individual students who have been given the opportunity and the means to develop in these outcome areas is observable and impressive. We know that if we want our students to have command of essential knowledge, be competent problem solvers, demonstrate leadership, exercise self-direction, work collaboratively, and work with an ethic of quality, traditional education models are inadequate.