Education Week The Case for National Standards and Testing 1 of 2 http www edweek org ew articles 2008 09 17 04gardner h28 html print 1 Published Online September 16 2008 Published in Print September 17 2008 COMMENTARY The Case for National Standards and Testing By Walt Gardner The schools differed so widely in their curricula methods of assessment and graduation requirements that it was impossible to know with any degree of certainty if students were being well educated Although powerful changes were transforming some schools the outlook was utterly hopeless for two thirds of them If you thought this criticism was a page torn from a study of K 12 schools today you d be wrong It was from the landmark Flexner Report in 1910 that evaluated medical schools across the country While it s always risky to compare professional education with general education there are parallels that constitute a cautionary tale if the United States ever expects to fulfill its duty to the young This caveat is particularly timely as the presidential election approaches and the demands of the new global economy make education a priority issue Alarmed by the uneven quality of the more than 150 medical schools enrolling some 25 000 students in the late 19th century the American Medical Association created the Council on Medical Education in 1904 to investigate ways to restructure the existing system of educating doctors The council in turn asked the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching for help Its president Henry S Pritchett chose Abraham Flexner in 1908 to head the study because of his experience as a professional educator What Flexner reported about medical schools almost a century ago mirrors many of the charges aimed today at K 12 schools in the inner cities and in remote rural communities He described the California Medical College for example as a disgrace to the state whose laws permit its existence He What Abraham Flexner reported about medical schools almost a century ago mirrors many of the charges aimed today at K 12 schools in the inner cities and in remote rural communities termed Chicago s 14 medical schools the plague spot of the country No city or state escaped Flexner s scathing indictment Yet he also gave high praise to schools meeting his exacting standards including Johns Hopkins Pennsylvania Harvard Yale and Western Reserve If he were alive today he would have little trouble identifying K 12 schools that deserve the label of excellent or execrable What Flexner firmly believed was that the best way to improve medical schools was to establish a single curriculum with uniform assessment Why should the location of a medical school determine what students learned in first year anatomy By the same token why should location determine what students learn in 8th grade math This question has direct relevance to the debate today On one side are those who want to allow each 1 3 2009 9 45 AM Education Week The Case for National Standards and Testing 2 of 2 http www edweek org ew articles 2008 09 17 04gardner h28 html print 1 state to establish its own definition of proficiency and develop its own curriculum They believe in local control They say that raising standards will exacerbate the already appalling dropout rate On the other side are those who demand a single standard of proficiency and a national curriculum to assure its achievement They believe in a central authority They want a high school diploma to mean something beyond certifying seat time They ask why geography should play such a decisive role in determining what students learn Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act it is the former group that currently holds sway despite the acknowledged disparity in knowledge and skills between students from state to state and between scores on state tests and scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress Flexner realized that raising the bar in a democracy was much more difficult than doing so in an autocracy Organizing a universal curriculum in America would be an uphill battle he knew because of the stigma attached to differentiation in education But Flexner refused to be deterred The duel between differentiation and democratization in K 12 lives on today even though virtually all our competitors abroad separate out students as early as the end of elementary school While we can disagree over when and how to do so the reality is that college is not for everyone That s why vocational education deserves greater recognition and respect In fact if Alan S Blinder the former vice chairman of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System is correct the only jobs that will be secure in the next decade will be those that can t be sent offshore electronically That means auto mechanics electricians and plumbers for example will be working steadily while college graduates are collecting unemployment checks Abraham Flexner was no doubt buoyed by his belief that the nation was ready for a change The timing of his report coincided with the zenith of the Progressive movement Today the country also seems poised to embrace fundamental change in the way it educates the young That s because the achievement gap between the socioeconomic classes persists despite the investment of huge sums of money and countless hours of intervention over the years Patience after all has its limits even among zealous supporters of public schools The legacy that Flexner leaves is his belief that education without high standards ultimately shortchanges all stakeholders While his focus was overwhelmingly on medical schools his message applies to K 12 schools as well Walt Gardner taught for 28 years in the Los Angeles Unified School District and was a lecturer in the University of California Los Angeles graduate school of education He can be contacted at walt gard verizon net Vol 28 Issue 04 Pages 26 27 1 3 2009 9 45 AM