Some good news on the education front: A major problem with No Child Left Behind is that the law allows states to create their own standards and assessments. So while states like New York, Massachusetts, and California use fairly rigorous tests, states like Wyoming, Pennsylvania, and Ohio have dumbed their standards and tests down, meaning that students' scores mean very little in terms of their ability to compete on the job market or in college admissions. Now the National Governors' Association, an influential group because of the localized nature of most education policy, has come out in favor of international benchmarking for state curricula. This means that states, when devising curricula and standards, would consider the best practices of high achieving countries like Finland, and the skills and knowledge tested by international assessments, such as the OECD's Program for International Student Assessments. This move by the NGA will hopefully create the political willpower in Congress to address the problem of dumbed down local standards in the reauthorization process for NCLB. Hat tip: GothamSchools. --Dana Goldstein
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