As reported by The Hoff at Education Week's NCLB Act II blog, earlier this week the nation's governors unanimously agreed to work toward common (i.e., national) standards. Were it not for our imploding economy this surely would have been front-page news. Think about it: the governors are open to throwing out their own standards--the heart of their education accountability systems--in favor of frameworks that would have reach from coast to coast. This is a big deal!
Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman (R) told Hoff:
"We want states to improve their standards, and one way to look at that is through international benchmarking."But he insisted that the process shouldn't "federalize education."
The setting of standards has "got to be done by the state and local governments," he said.
As I mentioned back in December when the National Governors Association, along with Achieve and the Council of Chief State School Officers, released a report on international benchmarking, this bottom-up, "let's all hold hands" strategy is the one most likely to succeed politically, and perhaps substantively. It's not going to lead to national standards overnight, but it gets us started on the path. Which is long overdue.
