Are standards fatally flawed?

I'm generally a supporter of standards in education. It may seem like that's a trivial statement. After all, who supports education without standards? Yet it turns out to be a major source of division. On one side, we've got those who insist that education has got to mean something if we're going to spend so much on it. The arguments against standards are more varied. Some worry about disparate impact on racial groups. Others worry about politicization of the curriculum. And of course some are teachers who would, understandably, like not be be judged in any way, least of all by the performance of their students. This last group is vocal.

Lately I've gotten to wondering whether the idea of standards is fatally flawed. There are plenty of difficulties with implementing a standards program, most of which can presumably be worked out. But there's one big problem: what happens to the students who can't meet [typo corrected] the standard?

The logic of simply not giving them a diploma is rock-solid. You didn't demonstrate the necessary skill to justify a diploma; therefore, in order to protect the value of the diploma for those who did so demonstrate, we can't give you one. The benefit/cost calculation is impeccable. But the political calculation is not. What are you gonna do with all those students who don't graduate? More specifically, what are you gonna do with all those ninth-graders who realize they will never graduate and simply drop out?

Funneling non-academic types out of high school and into the job market as apprentices, say, is a great idea. It will suit both those students and the ones who remain in high school better. Unfortunately, that's not where we are, and I see nothing in the discussion of standards that addresses this fundamental problem. Instead, the response seems to be that we must help all students rise up to meet the standard. This is not reality and is doomed to failure.

Certainly good teachers and good schools can eke a little more out of bad students. But does anybody really think that just working a little harder is going to do the trick? If you're serious about a standard you must start by acknowledging that some students will never be able to meet it no matter what they do, and that the number who can't meet the standard varies directly with the difficulty of the standard. In other words, the harder the standard, they fewer students will meet it.

Is this controversial? It shouldn't be. We've been dumping resources on education for decades and we've seen little change in the outcomes. It's possible that we just haven't tried the right trick yet, but the more likely explanation is that we're bumping up against some fundamental limits on what can be accomplished. But let's not get hung up on this point. Maybe there's some whiz-bang Ed School theory about how with just the right blend of carrots and sticks you can make a kid with an IQ of 85 into college material. Even if that's possible, do you really think it will happen? In other words, the issue isn't whether most students could meet the standard; it is whether they actually will. That they won't is indisputable. There are too many examples showing us the stubbornness of this fact.

We've seen the beginnings of what happens when academic standards meet political reality in Washington State. Washington's WASL was supposed to ensure that high school graduates meet a high standard in several areas, including reading, math, science, and writing. So far so good. Unfortunately, right from the beginning trouble brewed. In the first sample tests, most students could not pass the math section. What was the response from the political establishment, you ask? Why, they stood up in support of the standards. They braved the outrage of their constituents whose children were in danger of not graduating high school to protect the value of the high school diploma.

No, I'm kidding. They dropped the math section from test and delayed using the remainder as a graduation requirement. What else could they do? In the end, eliminating the WASL was the only plank in the platform of the guy who defeated the incumbent Superintendent of Public Instruction. She lost her job because she proposed and defended meaningful standards. She was right, but her strategy was a Darwinian loser, politically.

We're stuck. You can't have meaningful standards and still give out high school diplomas to pretty much everybody. The solutions to this dilemma seem not to be on the table. Much as it pains me to say so, it seems inevitable that the standards will ultimately lose this battle.