Standards-Based Reforms: Problems and Possibilities

Urban Special Education in the Context of Standards-Based Reform

“…The larger socioeconomic issues previously discussed impinge on student performance. Falk (2002) has asserted, To ensure that standards get used in helpful ways, they need to be linked to other kinds of standards-standards for opportunities to learn and standards for professional practice. However, a comprehensive approach to reform also must address these issues of equity (Starratt, 2003).…”

“…This has led to the uncompromising standardization inherent in the standards movement-the idea that whatever standards are set should be uniformly applied to all students, with the possible exception only of those with the most severe disabilities. Falk (2002) reported that 18 states used this practice. In other cases, significant consequences occur also for individual students when standards are not met.…”

An Integrated Curriculum Using State Standards in a High-Stakes Testing Environment

“…The first problem has to do with the single indicator used to judge students' academic progress-the test score. A number of states are using tests that are either not aligned with standards they are supposed to measure, or that are norm-referenced rather than criterion-referenced tests (Falk, 2002). It is very difficult, if not impossible to accurately assess student knowledge of content specified in the state standards by using tests that do not cover the same material.…”

“…These changes have included squandering valuable classroom time teaching test taking skills and other test prepping activities (Falk, 2002;Thompson, 2001), narrowing the curriculum to only information and subjects that will be on the test (Bauer & others, 1990;Corbett & Wilson, 1991;DarlingHammond & Wise, 1985;Falk, 2002;Hargrove, Jones, Jones, & Harding, 2000;Shepard, Dougherty, & Cutts, 1991;Smith, 1991;Thompson, 2001), and, as discussed earlier, forcing some administrators into discussing policies that further narrow the curriculum to only those subjects tested that have the most severe consequences-for example, a passing score requirement for high school graduation.…”

A qualidade da educação e a disseminação de sistemas de avaliação

“…Alguns estudos ao longo do tempo apontaram tanto as potencialidades quanto os limites das reformas empreendidas a partir dos anos 1990 (CHATTERJI, 2002;FALK, 2002;GAMORAN, 2007). Outros estudos utilizaram dados de avaliações nacionais como referência para analisar as reformas de unidades federativas (SWANSON; STEVENSON, 2002), bem como outras evidências empíricas acerca das reformas e sua repercussão na mudança de práticas escolares (SLAVIN, 2002).…”