In January, Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty announced his plan to kill the five year old "Profile of Learning" standards, which focus on measuring "higher-order thinking" based on projects and reports instead of traditional pencil and paper tests, and replace them with new, more rigorous content-based academic standards. [For more information, see http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=8#370.] That set the stage for a considerable tussle about what the new standards should look like - a struggle that's exacerbated by the legislature's insistence on enacting the standards into law. To date, the Minnesota House has approved a new set of standards created by Pawlenty's education commission and spearheaded by his outstanding education commissioner, Cheri Yecke. Last week, however, the state Senate passed a different plan with standards that ostensibly improve upon, rather than replace the "Profile of Learning." The two sides now have two weeks to hash out their differences in a conference committee before the legislative session ends.
"Profile of learning: Senate passes new academic standards," by John Welsh, Pioneer Press, May 3, 2003