Posts published in August, 2009
New Overview of National Education Standards Controversy.
Paul E. Barton of ETS has a very informative and balanced summary of the history and current context of national education standards called Getting Beneath The Surface. He outlines choices, risks, difficulties, and potential of national standards. It is only 40 pages long, but has most of the issues and useful citations.
Go to www.ets.org
Some High School Exit Exams Lower College Preparation
Professor Laura Perna from the University of Pennsylvania examined the impact of state exit tests on college prep in the May 2009 issue of Educational Policy. She found that: “High school exit exams shape college enrollment by limiting high school graduation; diverting attention away from ensuring that students are academically prepared for college toward ensuring that students obtain the minimum academic requirements for graduating from high school; reducing time for college counseling; and reducing students’ real and perceived academic qualifications for college. Second, the ways that state testing policies shape college opportunity vary across and within states.”
High school exit policies are complex to design correctly, and the college implications are often overlooked.
