Mike and Checker write in today's National Review Online that part of the reason the Common Core education standards have fared well politically (adopted by 29 states at last count) is because they avoid the vagueness and political correctness of past attempts at national standards:
They expect students to master arithmetic and memorize their times tables; they promote the teaching of phonics in the early grades; they even expect all students to read and understand the country's founding documents.
Of course, standards without implementation and accountability are meaningless, write Checker and Mike, who named Massachusetts as a positive model for both:
When high expectations for schools and students are combined with smart implementation in thousands of classrooms, policymakers can move mountains. That's the lesson we take from Massachusetts, which has established high standards, well-designed assessments, a tough-minded (yet humane) accountability system, rigorous certification requirements for teachers, and a high bar that students must clear to earn their diplomas. The Bay State has been making steady achievement gains in reading and math in both fourth and eighth grades.