Katherine writes, ?In the past, too many states set standards and administered assessments that had no real teeth.? Teachers then ignored these edentulous standards, ignored these gummy assessments, at least until the ?few weeks leading up to test administration.? Katherine believes that pairing a national curriculum with the new Common Core standards could remedy such problems?so long as each state also builds toothy accountability mechanisms. But why, precisely, would states do so? They generally do the opposite. Which brings us to this: Logically, you can't very well have national standards, a national curriculum, and state-based accountability, anyway. How long before we get a newfangled, gleaming, comprehensive system of national accountability? What to name it . . . .
?Liam Julian