Achieve, Inc.
November 2002
Achieve, Inc., the CEO-and-governor led standards-based reform organization, recently issued this 25-page account of reform progress by three of its favorite states (all of which had invited Achieve to review their work in this area.) The conclusion: after a decade or more of effort, standards-based reform is showing good results in all three but they're going about it very differently. "While the states used the same three-part strategy [standards, testing, accountability], the tactics they chose varied a great deal. Each state faced a unique set of circumstances and made different choices along the way. The different paths&suggest that there is more than one way to achieve high standards." For example, Massachusetts has focused entirely on "student stakes" while Maryland laid the accountability burden on schools, and Texas did both. Other differences are interesting, too, as is the ubiquity in all three states of "consistency, consensus and comprehensiveness." This report is a little on the boosterish side, perhaps not giving quite enough ink to stumbles and obstacles that these states encountered along the path, but, then, it was meant to encourage other states. One can only hope that NCLB's valiant effort to standardize many aspects of states' approach to standards-based reform will still permit this kind of constructive variation in more places. See for yourself at http://www.achieve.org/dstore.nsf/Lookup/reportthree-statefinal/$file/reportthree-statefinal.pdf.
