Why National Standards and Tests?: Politics and the Quest for Better Schools / Edition 1

by John F. Jennings

Overview

The common view today is that state schools are not good enough, and that something must be done to make them better. Setting academic standards is one way to raise the educational achievment of students. Jennings gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at how congress and the Executive Branch have wrestled with this issue, and reviews the major debates about whether or not there should be testable national standards for all American schools.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761914754
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	04/02/1998
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.63(d)

Table of Contents

The Need to Improve the Schools
Why Raising Student Achievement through Higher Standards Was First Proposed
Origins of National Standards and Tests
How President Bush, Corporate Leaders and the Governors First Advanced the Idea of Raising Standards
The 1992 Presidential Campaign and the Transition to a New Administration
How Bush and Clinton Differed on Education, but How Clinton Continued the Fight for Higher Standards That Bush Began
Goals 2000 in the US House of Representatives
How Liberals Expressed Concerns About the Fairness of Standards, and How Conservative Opposition to the Idea Grew
Goals 2000 in the Senate and the Conference Committee
How the Concept of Raising Standards Triumphed, but Only after Liberal Concerns about Equity Lost and Increasingly Strident Conservative Opposition Was Overcome
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act
How Other Federal Programs Were Refashioned to Raise Standards, and How This Victory Further Hardened the Opposition of the Political Far-Right
The Conservative Assault on Raising Standards to Improve the Schools
How the Conservative Opposition Tried to Undo Standards-Based Reform and Failed Because Clinton, the Business Community and Governors Fought Back
The Elections of 1996 and Clinton's Second Term
How the Conservatives Were Rebuffed, and Clinton Revived the Idea of National Standards and Tests

Editorial Reviews

The story of how national leaders encouraged the establishment of national standards for education during the period 1989 to 1997, as seen by a senior staff member to the House Education and Labor committee. Focuses on the interplay between Congress, the President, and business leaders in drafting legislation towards the establishment of national standards. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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