Setting Standards

I don't want this to devolve into a rant. I really don't. I'm afraid it might; the reason I've stayed away from posting about education- arguably the topic I know best- is that it is so frustrating to me. I did allow myself to get carried away in response to a post at Pharyngula... and quickly regretted it (see comment #96). On the same topic as a post by Bryan at "In Terra Veritas," which was the trigger for this post.

The fact is we already have a set of widely agreed-upon science standards! Two sets, in fact. One is by AAAS (1995), the other by NRC (The National Research Council, 1996). In terms of overall substance, these two efforts are very similar; in a fine reading of detail and clarity, I slightly prefer the AAAS version. The NRC standards address topics other than simply content, such as teacher preparation, classroom resources and so on. Either or both would be good additions to the library of anybody concerned with science literacy- they are inexpensive- whether they teach science themselves, are parents, or simply are interested in the topic. And even if you don't feel like paying a very reasonable price for the book(s), the texts and PDF's are available online.

My frustration is that because of a wide variety of factors (by and large, we have all been students; so has everyone we know; our tax dollars pay for public education, etc.), everybody feels as if they are qualified to make assertions about "how it oughtta be done." With absolutely no familiarity with what's out there. I'm not saying people shouldn't make recommendations, just that they should spend a little time learning about the subject before they weigh in on it. Because the blunt truth is, being a student teaches you nothing about teaching. Zip. Nada. Zilch. Squat.

One commenter that responded to my rant pointed out that in his experience, education research is poor. Oh, yes. I couldn't agree more. I estimate that maybe one published paper in 20 is worth the dead tree tissue it's printed on. Nevertheless, there is a tremendous knowledge base that everyone outside the science educators' community simply ignores.

Bryan is quite right in that enforcing national educational standards would be a violation of Amendment 10 of the constitution, and even if it weren't, probably would not be a good idea. Neverless, the Federal government has a wide variety of carrots and sticks available to it, and if I can keep my cool, at some point I will discuss some of them. There are many, many obstacles hindering improvement to education in this country. Widely agreed-upon sets of standards are not among them.