T-781
Winning at games educrats play
Across the country at all grade levels
the education establishment is rewriting public
school course standards.
Derail its OBE (Outcome Based Education) agenda by insisting on ...
three purposes, not one
Educrats want very vague course standards, supposedly for local curriculum directors to flesh out. Make them
admit that this same document really must also define textbook content
and student exit test standards.
specifics, not generalities
Educrats' vague course standards permit overgrading student underachievement. Make them publicly face your
incessant, unanswerable charge that without specific course standards
they cannot define academic rigor.
"should," not "shall"
Do educrats' course standards tell what students shall learn or should learn? Make them clarify
them to mean "should," or teachers will have endlessly to reteach a dumbed-down
curriculum to the level of the slowest.
"what," not "how"
To your call for academically-rigorous course content standards, educrats will retort that
you want to dictate teaching methodology. Make it plain to the media that your concern is the
"what," not the "how," of learning.
mandates, not options
Educrats word course standards deliberately. Make the point that textbook publishers and test writers read
what follows "including" in a standard as requirements; they interpret
what follows "such as" as suggestions.
• • •
In this battle, we suggest that you:
- concentrate on the required courses, not electives.
- prioritize your work on the required courses in the order in which they will come up in your state's textbook adoption cycle over the next few years.