If they are to matter, then standards must be wanted and sought, negotiated, lived with, reexamined and revised by the students and teachers who want a shared language for discussing quality. What makes the work different from the conventional discussion of standards is that John takes it out of the political, rhetorical realm and into real classrooms. Here, everything changes.
Standards assume multiple meanings and undergo considerable negotiation.
They become something different from what policy makers believe about standards. Classroom teachers will learn from this book. Policy makers might learn to be more cautious about the power of standards to make schools better. In this timely volume, John Kordalewski explores how standards are negotiated and created within classrooms. Appreciating the current emphasis on and popularity of standards, Kordalewski addresses how they actually play out in classrooms from the point of view of students and teachers.