All our students would benefit from a system with high and clearly defined academic standards, but, as Ravitch points out, it is especially important for poor children. In a system without standards, they often go to schools where little or nothing is expected of them. This is unacceptable, and in addition to being a way of raising student performance levels, Ravitch sees standards as a tool for achieving equity. Ravitch misses one very important piece, without which standards will never work. I'm talking about stakes.
Standards provide a way of connecting the entire education system.
If you decide what kids should know and be able to do, you also know what must be in your curriculum and textbooks and tests and teacher education programs. Systems in other countries recognize this. Ravitch does not. Ravitch's comments on the position of colleges in the standards debate are also somewhat off the mark. She speaks about the importance of colleges' developing higher standards but fails to recognize that it is not in their interest to do so.