History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
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Without Dollars and Sense Powerpoint
Past Educational Opportunity Reports
State-federal tensions loom in standards effort
- 01-20-2010
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By Michele McNeil/Education Week
In the latest push for common academic standards, coming up with the standards themselves may be the easy part: The political sensitivities that scuttled virtually every previous attempt are very much on the minds of those leading the effort this time around. How much of a federal role is appropriate—or even legal—in a quest for common standards nationwide? Is local control in education an outdated tradition or an immutable political reality? And to what extent is there societal consensus about the skills and knowledge every student should be expected to master? In the 1990s, Republican President George H.W. Bush and Democratic President Bill Clinton both ran into state, school district, and congressional opposition on just those issues as they tried to steer the country toward national standards. Aware of that history—and the lesson that a push for nationwide standards will not work if it stems from the federal government, no matter which political party is in charge—the nation’s governors and chief state school officers are proceeding cautiously. (more...)
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