Who profits from the standards crescendo?
Politicians profit because their touting of standards offers proof that they care about education. You don’t have to know anything to be in favor of standards. Publishers profit because districts won’t dare not to order the new books based on the new standards, books that promise to deliver the skills tested on the new tests. Test makers profit because they are grinding out the new tests that promise to show how students measure up. Who loses? Clearly, students lose. If, by grade four, after four years of standards, e.g., intensive direct, explicit, and systematic instruction in phonics, a student does not exhibit mastery of fourth grade skills, then Standardistos say he must loop back through the same skills sequence. Standardistos offer no hint that if four years of this lock-step instruction doesn’t work, then it might be a good idea to try something else. For the sake of the students, we must shout, “Stop the conveyor belt and let the kids get off!” You spend a portion of your book
