Our conference today--on national education standards and the lessons that might be learned from other countries--is spurring some discussion. Debra Viadero from Education Week sums up the intriguing story that MSU's Bill Schmidt told in the policy brief he co-authored (and presented). Essentially, he compared the reactions of Germany and the United States to news of their students' sagging test scores in the 1990s--Germany eventually adopted national standards; the US hasn't??????yet (though as we all heard today, renewed efforts are underway). Will the two nations' stories converge this time around? That's to be continued,??? Debra writes. Read even more about what was discussed at today's event. The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development also blogged (and twittered ) about it!