Introduction Public education standards reform has been in progress for over a decade with Common Core State Standards being implemented in majority of public school systems since 2009. The big question that surrounds this reform is whether or not these government mandated policies and guidelines are fulfilling their promise in guaranteeing that “No Child is Left Behind.” Lefkowits and Miller (2006) started a “National Dialogue” in 2001that span over four years to find answers to this question. This paper will evaluate the outcomes of this dialogue concerning assessment, accountability and public participation, as well as the long-term promise of the standards movement. There will also be a discussion about long-term goals in relation to Common Core State Standards and how this affects curriculum.
Assessment, Accountability, and Public Participation
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Participants communicated that they felt it will take more than holding schools accountable for test results and rejected the “one-size-fits-all” approach (Lefkowits & Miller, 2006). In addition, there was a general sense that school communities must share responsibility and more resources must be provided for success (Lefkowits & Miller, 2006). Lefkowits and Miller (2006) say concerning assessment and accountability specifically, policy makers and the general public understand these concepts very differently. Standardized testing does not provide the full view of student achievement and does not really answer what parents want to know about student performance (Lefkowits and Miller, 2006). Funding, disciplinary issues, student-teacher ratios, and narrowing of the curriculum where also hot topics with participants, none of which are address by the current standards