Publishing Solutions Group

National Education Standards?

Ken Scherpelz

There is a movement afoot to create national education standards in language arts and math. This effort, called the Common Core State Standards initiative, will be “research based and internationally benchmarked to top performing countries”, according to its supporters, which include the National Governors Association, the Council of Chief State School Officers, and U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan. 

Having worked with educational content standards from most every state in every discipline, I have certainly seen discrepancies among different states as to what skills should be taught and at which grade level they should be presented. National content standards could help to create a more consistent curriculum state to state, which is especially important in a mobile society like ours. Without national standards, children can find themselves repeating skills instruction or missing out on critical instruction simply because their family moved at the “wrong” time.

We at PSG will monitor this story as the debate continues. In the mean time, PSG can work with you to develop programs that align to the existing state standards.