EDUC 636 Fall 2010 On Campus: The changing legislative landscape

I do not think that the reforms Finn refers to have outlived their usefulness. No system should be responsible for policing itself or for creating all of its own measures of success and internally designing approaches to satifying those measures. External establishment of common standards (the common core) and the further creation of standardized measures to determine whether the common standards are met is essential if we are to make the gains necessary to maximize educational opportunity for all children.
NCLB and the Reach for the Top grant money are right minded, yet flawed, attempts at doing what is best for all of our children. The common core, along with measures to determine whether content is beng learned that are consistent across state boundaries will hopefully counteract the downward slide of state testing standards and help to put us back on an upward trajectory for achieving results.