Making Standards Work

Advice from the directors of Project Achieve about how to make standards-based reform a success for the long term.

Calling standards our best hope for improving achievement, Marzano advocates reducing the number of standards and initiating standards-based assessment.

Criterion-based assessments alleviate the necessity of relying solely on high-stakes tests to measure student achievement.

The Florida A+ Program has motivated principals to focus on strategies that improve test scores, but reaction is mixed about the impact on achievement.

In California, principals gear up to help low-achieving students through individualizing instruction, identifying new programs, and expanding schedules.

How can teachers use standards to integrate the curriculum?

We can realize the promise of standards only if we make them developmental and flexible, not one-size-fits-all.

Five helpful ways for teachers to make sense of standards.

Why and how we must realign spending and staffing to match our commitments and goals.

In states that mandate curriculum-based external exit examinations, students realize significant benefits.

The author sketches a portrait of an effective teacher, who manages to meet the demands of standards while fostering a community for learners.

Listening to the conversations of elementary students yields insight into their thoughts about learning.