Invest in Schools and Students, not Standards

This is a version of an editorial I wrote for the New York Times in September. Basically we were asked to respond to the recently released draft of the National Governor's Associations Common Core Standards.

I agree with much of what is currently contained in the document. We do need students who are able to critically interrogate texts. We do need students who are able to address a research question and collect credible data. We need students who are able to use technology as a tool to distribute valuable information to authentic audiences.

My problem is that the real problem in education has very little to do with the absence of national

standards. Without investing in educational resources how can we effectively evaluate educational outcomes? If we are sending students to schools (and we are) that lack adequate resources such as books, computers, credentialed teachers, and modest class sizes, how can we hold the students responsible for whether they learn?

Far too often the schools that lack adequate resources are located in rural and inner city communities and they serve our most disenfranchised populations. The groups most targeted by standards (and it is thinly veiled) are also the groups in my state who receive the fewest educational resources. If I wanted someone to climb a mountain, but I didn’t provide him or her with the tools or the training, I should expect failure. Now if I were to provide all of the tools and training, I could legitimately expect a higher degree of success. The difference is not in talent, but in preparation.

I would rather focus on the material and human resources needed to create effective schools. In Los Angeles County, for example, English classes have as many as 40 students! It would be far more beneficial to cut class sizes than to introduce new standards. You cannot simultaneously disinvest in education and expect it to get better; things just don’t work that way.

I would like to see a genuine investment in education as our national priority. I applaud Congress for allocating $100 billion in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to the improvement of our educational infrastructure. Much of this money, however, will merely offset the estimated $80 billion in cuts in education spending at the state and district levels because of the economic downturn. The amount is substantial until we place it in the context of the $700 dollar stimulus or the $900 billion contemplated in health care plans in Congress.

We need to transform literacy instruction. But we will not achieve our goals if we raise standards without raising our investment in our students, our teachers and our schools.