James’ Gang

So former Arkansas Education Commissioner Ken James has joined America’s Choice.  It’s a catch for them and an interesting move, so I asked James what it means for a state chief to move to a job like this and whether we should take this as a signal on common standards.  His response:

After 36 years in public education and serving in all of the roles from classroom teacher, high school principal, superintendent, and the past five years as Commissioner of Education, I felt it was time to examine and work on the problems and issues facing education from a different perspective and lens. I have been aware of the detailed and extensive standards work by America’s Choice for several years, and the work is really second to none. I also think my extensive instructional background, site, district, state and national leadership experiences can and will provide a new perspective and definite value add to the existing and future work.

In my role as President of CCSSO, I am very proud that I was able to help lead the initial conversations and efforts around state led common standards. I don’t think anyone thought that at the end of the day, we would have 46 states and 3 territories sign on to engage in the exploration of this effort. We are at a pivotal time in this country and never before have we had the “stars” so well aligned (the President, the Secretary of Education, CCSSO, NGA, Council of Great City Schools, AFT, NEA, ACT, College Board and others), ready to move this work forward. We may never have this level of engagement and resources again and we cannot fail to seize this once in a lifetime opportunity. As a country, we must realize and embrace the fact that even those state standards that are touted and perceived to be the highest, fall short of the standards and expectations of the highest performing countries. Our work must focus on developing higher, clearer, and fewer standards that will provide our nation’s students with the skill sets to be functioning members in a global market place. I will remain actively engaged in the state led common standards work as the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at America’s Choice.

2 Replies to “James’ Gang”

  1. As a country, we must realize and embrace the fact that even those state standards that are touted and perceived to be the highest, fall short of the standards and expectations of the highest performing countries.

    Tell me again how California’s and Massachusetts’ standards fall short.

  2. I think there’s a revealing bit of language here that we should all take note of because it represents that major fallacy of the standards movement:

    “Our work must focus on developing higher, clearer, and fewer standards that will provide our nation’s students with the skill sets to be functioning members in a global market place.”

    Like many standards proponents, Mr. James believes that standards provide students with skills. Clearly, they do not. First of all, there has to be a teacher in there somewhere to do the teaching. This is how the skills are imparted. Second, the success of that imparting is measured by a test and if we repeat the procedures of the past, we will create tests that are relatively easy for our kid to pass and that do not cover the standards very thoroughly.

    And again we will know little about how our kids are doing in school.

    As excited as national standards folks might be, their enthusiasm is likely to dampen, and their frustration likely to grow, if they ever get to the point of venturing back into classrooms where those standards are in play. Getting a little chalk on your hands is a great way to find out how well things like national standards really work on a day by day basis. I suspect, however, that folks like Mr. James and his compadres will never do this.

    When I worked in the software business, we had an expression: “Everybody eats their own dog food.” That simply meant that programmers were required to use the software they created and to fix their own mistakes. I don’t suppose the national standards folks will step up to that standard of personal accountability.

    People who like standards like things to be the same. So national standards just seem like a bigger attraction than state standards because they provide more sameness. But are they likely to be any more successful?

    This is where I have to ask a very reasonable question: Aren’t we supposed to be using research to figure out what’s best for kids? What is the research base in the US on national standards? Given that we’ve never had them, I suspect the research base is thin to say the least.

    So, will national standards be rolled out en masse? Or will they be judiciously piloted and tested against appropriately devised control groups in replicated studies across the country over several years? Surely standards folks aren’t anti-research. But I never see them doing the hard work of actually validating their efforts scientifically in a responsible way.

    The only problem I have with standards is that I haven’t seen good results using them in the field. I see them used as tools of teacher control (and for this they’re only modestly effective at best) and I see them used as tools to base tests on (results not good here at all so far).

    And yet, we remain so enamored of standardizing education that we’re ready to move to the national level. What is the magical mystical appeal of standards? Just take one more look at Mr. James quote:

    “Our work must focus on developing higher, clearer, and fewer standards that will provide our nation’s students with the skill sets to be functioning members in a global market place.”

    There’s a subtle myth in the making here that standards – and not people – cause learning to happen. All we have to do is get the right standards and the right tests and things will be right all across the land. But obviously that isn’t true. Until we decide to address the much messier matter of teaching, little progress will be made.

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