Draft of National Education Standards Released

(March 10) -- A group of educators released today the first draft of a proposed set of national core standards for children in kindergarten through 12th grade. The call for national standards is supported by 48 states, the District of Columbia, two territories and the Obama administration, but it has its critics too.

"I'd say this is one of the most important events of the last several years in American education," Chester Finn Jr., a former assistant secretary of education, told The New York Times.

The Common Core State Standards Initiative, headed by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, has had input from teachers, civil rights groups, English-language learners and the College Board, among others. It is an effort "to create the next generation of K-12 standards that help ensure that all students are college- and career-ready in literacy by no later than the end of high school," according to the group's Web site.

The standards apply to English language arts, history, social studies, science and math. They include specific goals, separated by grade and subject. Fifth-grade reading standards, for example, expect students to be able to explain how similes and metaphors give meaning and rhythm to a poem. Fourth- and fifth-graders are expected to read books like "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "The Black Stallion." By ninth and 10th grades, students are expected to be reading William Shakespeare and John Steinbeck, or the equivalent.

"These standards represent the best effort so far to transform today's patchwork quilt of 50 sets of state standards into one set of strong, consistent expectations for what all students should know and learn," Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement.

The Obama administration showed its support for the initiative by awarding states that adopt the standards 40 points out of a possible 500 in the federal Race to the Top competition, in which states are vying for a piece of the $4 billion pie slated for schools.

Only two states, Texas and Alaska, did not join the core standards initiative. Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott sees the standards as one step toward a full-scale federal takeover of schools.

"We do not favor federally imposed one-size-fits-all national standards and tests," Scott said in a statement in December. A study ordered by the Texas Education Agency found that Texas' standards met or exceeded those of the Common Core State Standards Initiative.

While Alaska did not sign on to the initiative, the state has not ruled out the standards completely and is taking a wait-and-see approach.

"In some cases our standards are more rigorous than theirs, and in some cases their standards are more rigorous than ours," Eric Fry, a spokesman for the Alaska Department of Education, told AOL News. "It's a mixed bag."

Valerie Strauss wrote about other major concerns on her blog "The Answer Sheet" in The Washington Post today. For one thing, she said, kids won't be able to learn at their own speed and according to their own individual development under a set of core standards.

"Once, schools gave youngsters a chance to learn how to read according to their own development. Now, a child who still can't read by the end of first grade is in deep trouble from which it can be hard to emerge," Strauss wrote.

She adds that the standards focus on English and math, ignoring other essential subjects like the arts and physical education.

The first draft of core standards is open for public comment through April 2.