This guest post was written by Fordham research intern Katie Wilczak. She attended the House hearing yesterday morning.
Speaking yesterday at the Committee on Education and Labor's hearing "Strengthening America's Competitiveness through Common Academic Standards," Dave Levin, co-founder of KIPP schools, offered a refreshing voice to the oftentimes redundant discourse on the need for national academic standards. Levin shared his experiences managing KIPP schools in 19 states across the nation, stressing the limitations imposed by the maze of standards and assessments in place in each state. Similar to our discovery that NAEP results reveal the inconsistency of state assessments and AYP score cards, KIPP's unique national assessment reveals sharp discrepancies in state expectations for student performance. Levin argued that, along with national standards, states should adopt a common assessment tool that will accurately hold students and teachers accountable for their performance on a level playing field. Most importantly, Levin stressed that adopting national standards and assessments will allow educators and politicians to collaborate across state lines, share experiences, techniques, and outcomes of innovative programs--all of which will lead to the adoption of programs that produce the highest results for students.
You can view the webcast here: http://edwork.edgeboss.net/wmedia/edwork/fc/fc042909.wvx