Standards Based Education: The Base for Improving Schools

             Since nearly twenty years, education in the United States has been strongly impacted by "standards movement". Linked proximally to evaluation and answerability, standard-based reforms, not like most other educational systems like open education, behavioral goals, and least ability, has gained ground in an extremely severe and all-encompassing manner. Right from parents to policy-makers, there is an ardent countrywide support to use standards as the base for improving schools. (The Virginia Standards of Learning).

             Define Standard-based education.

             As per Collins Cobuild dictionary, "a standard is a stage of quality or achievement, particularly a stage which is considered to be good enough. It is something used to calculate or approximate the quality or degree of something, for instance, the degree of superiority of a piece of work." In the sphere of education, a standard is a word that describes a growing body of knowledge and set of expertise which is the foundation for quality education. They put across what every student must know and be capable to perform, however do not state pedagogy. (Why have a standards-based curriculumĀ and what are the implications for the teaching-learning-assessment process?) .

             The quintessence of a "standard" is to depict a level of knowledge or performance that is necessary for some reason. For instance, there is a standard fixed by the telephone companies relating to the manner operators communicate with the customers, by the State Government to deliver driving licenses, a intensity of accuracy is necessary for building autos, and a set of unambiguous strategy for assessing gymnastics, diving, and ice skating. In an identical manner, teachers employ objectives of the students to find out what will be imparted, and as a criterion for making grades for student"s work. Each of these "standards" has two parts: an account of what will be recognized or performed, and a suggestion of quality of its performance.

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