 Standards-based
Education in Minnesota
Karen Seashore Louis, Director, CAREI
Standards. The word evokes many different responses among educational
professionals in the United States and other countries.1
For some, the first reaction is to look at the increasing influence
of state government and national organizations on the content introduced
into our classrooms. For most of this century, schooling was fiscally
and politically a local issue, and educational reform was emphasized
in neither national nor state policy. Thus, the "standards movement"
represents a major shift. Many argue that we need state and national
standards in order to ensure that all children have the opportunity
to be exposed to the knowledge that they will need to prosper in
the next century.
For other educators, the term standards is associated with "teacher
bashing" or other critiques of local schools. We need standards
because we don't have them, the reasoning goes. Not surprisingly,
in Minnesota, which prides itself on the quality of its educational
performance compared with other states and countries, the use of
standards is often viewed as a code word for efforts to micro-manage
schools and to privatize education.
Finally, standards are part of the taken-for-granted work of
teachers and administrators. Even in the absence of defined state
standards, each teacher and school develops an idea about what students
should know and be able to do at a given point in their "school
career." Standards are applied when teachers make assignments and
assess students' work. Standards may not be absolute, but they are
an inherent part of the day-to-day life of schools.
This volume of Research / Practice is one of two volumes
that highlight issues related to emerging national standards in
the sciences and mathematics. This is an area where the University
of Minnesota has developed a significant leadership role, ranging
from the well-established program in the Mathematics department
for talented high school students (known by its euphonious acronym,
UMTYUMP-the University of Minnesota Talented Youth Mathematics Project)
and long standing efforts in the College of Biological Sciences
and the Bell Museum to increase support for students' understanding
of the life sciences, to more recent endeavors, such as the "Brain
Train," a traveling exhibit on human neurological development funded
through the medical school. Here we focus less on what the science
and math departments have done for the K-12 educational system,
and more on what we are beginning to know about changes in science
and mathematics education. The assessments of the effects of standards-based
reform on teachers and students are led by faculty and staff in
the College of Education and Human Development-in CAREI and in the
Departments of Educational Psychology and Curriculum and Instruction.
The articles in these two issues are designed to whet your appetite
for more, but not to lead you to believe that all the answers are
in with regard to the new standards.2
We begin with an overview of the way in which the National Science
Foundation's Local Systemic Initiatives Program to reform math and
science education have been implemented in Minnesota schools (Lawrenz
and Post). This article highlights the collaboration that has developed
between national curriculum groups, local educators, and community
leaders is less advantaged communities, both rural and urban. We
then move on to a discussion about how technology, and especially
the World Wide Web, can be used to increase the level of student
inquiry in a standards-based curriculum (Dexter). Included is an
example of how to use technology in a mathematics classroom (Wyberg).
We finish with an article about how schools and science museums
can work in partnership to help each other achieve their goals (Ingram).
Future issues of Research / Practice will focus on other
applied research on standards-based curriculum. The College of Education
and Human Development houses the state's Office of Educational Accountability,
which provides analytic support related to the effects of the new
state tests. In addition, we have many faculty, graduate students
and staff who are engaged in research on literacy, writing and social
studies-areas where consensus around national standards have been
slower to emerge, but which are deeply important to the educational
of our students. We hope that you will enjoy this issue, and look
forward to future discussions of standards and education in Minnesota.
1 A fuller discussion of standards-based
reform policies is presented in my 1998 article, "A lighter feeling
of chaos" Daedalus.
2 For more information about the University's
efforts to work with K-12 schools on science and math education,
log on to the easily searchable "Youth and U"
inventory on the CAREI website
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