House Holds Hearing on Common Standards

Recently, the House Education and Labor Committee held its first hearing of the 111th Congress dealing with the No Child Left Behind Act. The hearing did not directly address reauthorization in its entirety, but instead focused on common standards. In his prepared opening remarks, the Chairman, Representative George Miller (D-CA), demonstrated his support for common standards for all states by stating, “the unintended consequences of a system that varies from state to state is rather than striving for excellence, states are camouflaging poor performance.”

There were five witnesses from diverse backgrounds brought in before the committee to testify, but they were all there in support of common standards amongst the states. The witnesses were:

1. James B. Hunt, Jr. former Governor of North Carolina
2. Dr. Ken James, President of the Council of Chief State School Officers
3. Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers
4. David Levin, Co-Founder, Kipp Schools
5. Greg Jones, Chairman of both California Business for Education Excellence and the California Business Roundtable

Each witness described their own experiences with education and the need for common standards. For instance, Governor Hunt spoke of education in terms of economics. He described how as governor he traveled abroad to increase foreign investment in the state of North Carolina. Dr James spoke of the efforts of the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association to bring about common standards. President Weingarten described from a teacher and union perspective that in addition to standards, there is a need for “content-rich, sequenced curriculum and aligned assessments.” As for the Kipp Schools, David Levin said Kipp schools “administer a national, norm-referenced assessment in addition to the state assessments that their students must take.” Speaking from a business point of view with over forty years experience at the State Farm Insurance Company, Greg Jones also spoke of the need to have common standards throughout the country. He used the example of an “entry level skills test” that State Farm Insurance Company implements for all new employees regardless of where they are working.

Therefore, the common theme, in addition to the need for common standards, was that the standards must be developed by cooperation amongst the states and not developed by the federal government in a top down approach. This was a fear demonstrated by Representative Buck McKeon (R-CA), ranking member on the Education and Labor Committee. In his opening remarks, he emphasized that the “states created the federal government” and not the other way around.

Thus, there is a growing awareness of the need for common standards not just in math and language arts, but also in science and other subjects. As a result, common standards will almost surely be addressed again by Congress in the future.