CB>Quotes are taken from a message written by Tom to Charles on 06/05/96...
CB>TC>CB>Setting standards that do not force our schools to move forward 
would 
  >TC>>a waste of time.
  >TC>
  >TC>You make two key points here.  The first is setting standards and not
  >TC>forcing compliance is a waste of time.
CB>I disagree.  If the standards are worthy of consideration, they will be
  >adopted.  It's cheaper for the Federal Government to sponsor it once
  >than for all 50 states to repeat the process themselves.  A ready made
  >curriculum and corresponding evaluation plans would save the state
  >education departments a heap of developmental funding.
At what cost in relation to local control ?  Since the bulk of funding
is from local taxation I believe those who pay the bills should control
the curriculum to some extent.  The fastest way to screw something up is
to put the Federal Government behind the wheel.
CB>TC>The state of Arkansas on three
  >TC>occasions I know of tried to raise standards and was sued by the good
  >TC>ole NAACP.
CB>I have not heard about this.  Was the NAACP successful in its suits?
  >What was their point?
Yes they were successful.  Their point was that minority students were
unjustly being excluded from Honors and Advanced Placement curriculum
choices by having prerequisite curricular and grade point requirements in
place.  They did loose one case however as it never made it to court.
They were trying to block the raising of the grade point requirement to
participate in sports activities.  It had always been a 1.5 GPA and the
state raised it to 2.0 GPA.  A 2.0 in regular courses means you need
only about a 50% comprehension if that.
CB>I agree that some local control is important - and it is a part of our
  >heritage.  But I disagree that a set of quality standards won't be
  >adopted (in large measure) by most school districts.  If the standards
  >and assessments are well formulated, districts will jump at the chance
  >to raise standards when local lawsuits and griping will be minimized
  >because of widespread acceptance.
I think Shiela pointed out one possible downfall would be that lesser
districts would not want to adopt such standards.  IMO it will not be in
the foreseeable future as a National anything to most seems to be a RED
flag.  The mood of the overall country is not very receptive or at least
that is my view from here.  TC
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 X QMPro 1.53 X All rising to a great place is by a winding stair.
--- Maximus 2.02
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