While some unimaginative sorts still argue that national standards and tests are politically infeasible, former John Kerry campaign aide Robert Gordon makes the case that a bipartisan coalition could turn the idea into reality. We currently have a form of education federalism that is the worst of both worlds, he argues: the feds are mucking things up, while the states are playing games and lowering standards. A grand consensus is possible if Washington sticks to setting goals and measuring progress, and communities are empowered to run their schools. Or as the New America Foundation's Michael Dannenberg put it in an Education Sector forum last week (the transcript is forthcoming, we hear), "civil rights trumps everything on the left, and competitiveness trumps everything on the right." National tests in return for local control; civil rights combined with economic competitiveness-this idea might not just be politically palatable, but powerful too.
"Why the Idea of National Education Standards is Crossing Party Lines," by Robert Gordon, Education Week, March 15, 2006 (subscription required)