Most of the respodents (83 percent) said they care "very much" about the issue of national standards, and 17 percent said they care "somewhat."
A large majority (85 percent) of respondents said it's a good idea to have national standards for what students should know and be able to do in the various subject areas, while 10 percent disagreed, and 6 percent were unsure.
More than half (59 percent) of respondents described themselves as "very familiar" with the national standards in their subject areas, while 34 percent described themselves as "somewhat familiar." Only 7 percent of respondents said they were not familiar with them.
Just over half (52 percent) of respondents said the national standards in their subject areas influence their daily work "often," while 29 percent said the standards influence their daily work "sometimes," and 19 percent said the standards don't influence their daily work.
Asked how local curriculum developers should use the national standards, half of respondents said "they should adapt them, based on local conditions," 29 percent of respondents said "they should follow them closely," and 21 percent said "they should consider them one of many resources only."
A clear majority (70 percent) of respondents said they believe educational equity would be increased if the same performance standards were applied to all students nationwide. Only 10 percent of respondents said equity would be diminished, but 20 percent were uncertain.
Asked whether national standards will have a significant impact on public education, 66 percent of respondents said "Yes, they will in the long run," 26 percent said "Yes, they already have had one," and 7 percent said "No."
Asked whether national standards will create, in effect, a national curriculum, 43 percent of respondents said "Yes, and that's good," 40 percent said "No," and 17 percent said "Yes, and we should avoid that."
"National standards are dangerous to the local decision-making process. A school knows what is best for its students, not the federal government."
"My use of the NCTM standards in math has made it a lot easier for me to teach my students with confidence and to let parents know what I'm teaching and what value it has. I can point to the NCTM as an expert in the field."
"We should have national standards because, in effect, textbooks have been creating national standards for years. It would be better to have something that textbooks need to adhere to, rather than the other way around."
"National standards are important as far as setting the stage for what all students should learn. However, the standards should not be written or imposed in such a way that they diminish the academic freedom of educators. Teachers need to have freedom to teach according to the interests of their students and their own talents."
"I fear the development of national standards. These things have to be decided on a local level. I think it's good to develop national standards as a guideline; the problem is, whenever the government gets involved, what is initially developed as a guideline will become mandatory for everyone, and then we will have our children marching in line like robots to the national tune."
"I'm a scientist at Sandia National Laboratories, and I'm working with the education department in New Mexico on the writing of performance standards. I believe that the focus on national standards is extremely important. Disseminating information about them is also important so that people will understand there's a lot of latitude in curriculum allowed while maintaining high national standards."
"We have a lot of evidence that countries that are significantly outperforming us have national standards and in fact a national curriculum. They've treated teachers as professionals and given them time to learn to teach in ways consistent with that national curriculum."
"Local school districts should have the right to set their curriculum based on some broad guidelines developed by each state."
"For the last 13 years I've been in curriculum development at the state level, using local teams to develop curriculum, and we rely heavily on national standards. Local school districts in our state (N.D.) have found no problem at all in adopting those [standards] and having those [standards] adopted by local boards of education. I think the discussion about national standards is long overdue."
"National standards are an absolute necessity. I'm appalled that politically it's not feasible to establish national standards and that states and districts are having to establish the standards on their own. Without coherent national standards, I don't see how we could ever have equity in American education."
"The biggest problem with national standards right now is that they are too much of a representation of cultural literacy along the lines of E.D. Hirsch, as opposed to being standards that could be applied generally across the country and still be adaptable for what's appropriate in different regions."
"A student moving from southern France to northern France would be able to pick up right where they left off, where if a student moves from California to New York, God knows where they'd be in the curriculum. So I do feel national standards would be a good idea."
"National standards certainly could create a major barrier for students with special needs."
"The issue of national standards is, to put it bluntly, a fake. Making standards for a country our size, with a population our size, is absurd. Local communities can easily subvert them or reconstitute them or ignore them. It's more of a political issue than an educational one. However, issues such as testing and quantitative evaluation, which will be part of national standards, will have a negative impact."
