Title:
National Standards for US Schools Gain Support From
States
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Education Report.
See text below
Text:
Americans have never had national education
standards. Goals for what public schools should
teach are set by state and local school boards.
Their members are often elected. But some Americans
say the lack of national standards is wrong in a
competitive global economy. Former President Bill
Clinton said it was as if somehow school boards
"could legislate differences in algebra or math or
reading." President George W. Bush and Congress
expanded federal intervention. His education law,
still in effect, required states to show yearly
progress in student learning as measured by the
states' own tests.Now, the Obama administration
supports what are known as the Common Core State
Standards. These were developed in a year-long
process led by state governors and chief state
school officers. Texas and Alaska were the only
states not to take part. The standards are in two
subject areas, English-language arts and
mathematics. They establish goals for each year from
kindergarten through grade twelve. The aim is for
students to finish high school fully prepared for
college and careers. The developers considered
standards in other countries, along with almost one
hundred thousand public comments. One way the
Education Department is trying to persuade states is
with money. States are competing to share in almost
three and a half billion dollars as part of a school
reform competition. They earned extra points in the
Race to the Top if they approved the standards by
August second. States are trying to recover from the
recession. There are concerns that some could accept
the standards and then lack the money to follow
them. The final standards were released June second.
A report in July said about half the states had
approved them.The Thomas B. Fordham Institute is an
education group in Washington. It says the standards
are clearer and stronger than those used in
three-fourths of the states. But the comparison also
found that existing English standards are "clearly
stronger" in California, Indiana and the District of
Columbia.States that approve the new standards have
a right to add up to fifteen percent of their
own.And that's the VOA Special English Education
Report. Transcripts, MP3s and archives of our
reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also
find us on Facebook, Twitter and iTunes at VOA
Learning English.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
