Below are my thoughts on the effect of standards in the classroom. Enjoy!
What is the “Standard” Student?
In a perfect world, standards would be used to identify if all students across the board are learning the same things. However, flaws in the world of standards makes this nearly impossible. In theory, standards are great! Yay equality! In reality, there is not a “standard” student. All students are different. They learn at different levels and different ways. They learn at different speeds and have different talents. No two students are alike enough to even create a “standard”.
I think the worst part of the top-down educational reform is the exuberant testing used to prove that the students are “standard”. The pressure to prove that the standards are being taught is driving all classroom creativity out of the window. Being a student of No Child Behind, I was taught HOW to take tests — not how to think. If this is the goal, then what should the “standard” student look like? Thinking about it,I am eerily reminded of the giver.
When the a student’s creativity is suppressed in a space, that space is no longer academically safe to them. In other words, we as teachers are no longer sharing our classroom with our students. As Ripp expresses in her book, Passionate Learners, a classroom should belong to both the teacher and the students. This way students WANT to be there. They feel comfortable there. They are WILLING TO LEARN there. In my opinion, an English classroom should be a safe space for students to fail and then try until they succeed. The challenge for teachers is this: make your space a haven for creativity while simultaneously teaching your students how to take tests. No student is “standard”, so let’s show them all how to be extraordinary.
Jessica McLeod-Waddell, MA, MEd, CPCC 
Hey Jess!
I completely agree with you when you mention how the standards have a way of making the classroom seem unsafe and uninviting. As mentioned in Ripp, the classroom is not for the teacher or for the board of education, it is ultimately for the students. When teachers are given standards that MUST be met by each student, teachers begin to strip away their creativity and begin to become like robots that teach only test takings strategies. It’s no wonder that statistically, student’s scores in critical thinking and writing plummeted. When teachers are not given the space to think outside the box to teach what is truly important, than the students not only are hindered from learning but they also begin to lose the excitement that comes from the adventure of learning. As teachers, we teach because we know there is adventure and excitement in learning, but when the standards are limiting us from doing what we do best, which is to teach what we know, our classrooms become a gray, boring jail cell for the students.
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