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This article considers how educational standards are established and maintained, and how they can be improved in American schools. The authors argue that curriculum (what is taught) and assessment (the way we judge what is learned) play the largest role in shaping what is demanded in schools and thus what our students can be expected to learn. Neither issue has received adequate attention in current debate over the state of our schools and the compelling need for school reform. This article addresses both issues in a historical and comparative perspective and argues that higher standards are within reach through the development of new and parallel initiatives in curriculum and evaluation. The authors outline potential improvements through (a) upgrading the curriculum, (b) utilizing new forms of assessment, and (c) rethinking the concept of tracking to .focus on high standards in the middle school. They consider these steps as being among those most likely to meet current needs.
Resnick et al. (Mon,) studied this question.