Beyond Good and Evil

A once-skeptical consultant argues that standards can actually inspire teachers.

By Tim DeRoche

As recently as this past year, I would have told you that the standards and accountability movement was a necessary evil. It was necessary that we raise our expectations for poor and minority students. It was necessary that we make student-achievement data public. It was necessary that we use test results to weed out incompetent or unmotivated teachers.

But, I would have added, certainly the best students and teachers would find this new environment stifling. The creativity of these high performers would certainly be cramped by standards and tests targeted at the lowest common denominator. Standards and testing would make education, well, more standard , more average.

It turns out I was dead wrong. During 2004, in my role as a consultant with the Broad Foundation and the National Center for Educational Accountability, I was a part of a team that visited five extraordinary urban districts in the country. What we saw was astounding: Many teachers are embracing standards and testing. These tools, when used correctly, have an incredibly positive effect on teacher morale. Educators thrive when expectations are clear and when they have immediate access to data...