The more thoughtful discussions do recognize the complexities of standards. It will not surprise you to know that Bank Street is uneasy about some of the standards that are popular today and particularly, about how performance will be measured. Progressive education has always been characterized by opposition to standardization, believing that human beings are, above all things, not standard. But we live in a world that increasingly standardizes for efficiency. For example, men s shirts now come in dual sleeve sizes, such as 32-33,which usually turns out to be too long for a 32 and too short for a 33.
Standardization is cheap, and if nothing really fits, the consolation is that it almost does.
This may work after a fashion with shirts. I do not believe it works with people. And surely not with children. This is a system of pouring in exactly what you hope will pour out, unmodified by its passage through the mind of a child. There s not enough talk about helping students meet standards, about the resources we need to make sure that each child has a fair chance to excel, about the supports for children who do not initially succeed.