Common Standards for K-12 Education? Considering the Evidence: Summary of a Workshop Series (2008) / Chapter Skim
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6 Political and Legal Considerations
6 Political and Legal Considerations
Pages 53-58
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From page 53... ...
POLITICAL FEASIBILITY Any major policy change will impose political costs, McDonnell explained, and she suggested six factors that policy makers are likely to consider in deciding whether the educational and political benefits of moving to common standards outweigh the political as well as the financial costs. Her analysis was based on the recent history of similar education reforms, the theoretical and empirical literature on policy design, and interviews with leaders in the five states that were included in the analysis conducted by Massell, described in Chapter 2.
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From page 54... ...
Moreover, the multistep process allows numerous opportunities for opponents of the idea to mobilize, which means that advocates would need to consider the likelihood that groups will mobilize in support or opposition to the change. Given the history of bitter disputes at the national and state levels over curricula, McDonnell found, many policy makers are unwilling to consider any change more drastic than modest, grassrootsbased approaches to common standards.
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From page 55... ...
IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATIONAL ADEQUACY LITIGATION Litigation over equity and adequacy has had a very significant effect on education policy over the past decade or so, and it is likely to have important implications for any move to common standards. Goodwin Liu provided an overview of the history of school finance litigation, the ways the issue of educational adequacy has been treated by the courts, and the relationship between legislated standards and adequacy lawsuits.
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From page 56... ...
In a 1973 ruling, however, San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, the Supreme Court found that the federal courts should not adjudicate issues of school finance equity.
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From page 57... ...
In Kentucky, for example, an adequate education was defined as one that provides every student with seven components, which include oral and written communication skills; knowledge of economic, social, and political systems; grounding in the arts; and others, but it does not include performance to a particular level on standardized assessments. The result in Kentucky was the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990, which was an early model for the standards-based reform movement, but Liu noted that political momentum to embrace standards and reform the system had already existed in that state prior to the ruling.
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From page 58... ...
Any effort to litigate this claim could succeed, in Liu's view, only if sufficient groundwork had been laid in developing public consensus as to what constitutes educational adequacy. The cooperation necessary to develop common standards could serve as a critical element in developing a consensus that would reassure the Court that it was not going far out on limb in finding a right to educational adequacy.
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