How can we as educators ensure that we are focusing on standards while simultaneously developing student creativity? by: Douglas B. Reeves

Standards yes, standardization, no.

We embrace standards not because they are perfect, but because they are vastly superior to the Bell Curve—the way that students were evaluated before the standards movement.  The Bell Curve gave us the worst of all worlds—it made some students inappropriately complacent just because they “beat” other students, and it labeled other students as failures even if they were proficient.  Neither the Wisconsin State Standards nor the new Common Core State Standards are perfect, but they are far better than the Bell Curve.  Embracing standards does not mean that teachers have to be like robots—the same standard can be taught in a variety of different ways.  Wisconsin teachers have, as have teachers around the world, created new scenarios and new performance tasks to teach standards in different and unique ways so that students are engaged in learning.

Fairness yes, mindless repetition, no.

One of the fundamental commitments of standards-based reform is that of fairness—all students have an equal opportunity to achieve proficiency.  But that does NOT mean that teaching needs to be reduced to mindless repetition and identical instruction.  Think of a great music class: the end goal may be playing “Minuet in G,” but each student will learn and improve in different ways.  Standards-based education does not have to work against teacher creativity; rather, effective implementation of standardsdepends upon teacher creativity.

Teacher judgment yes, teacher anarchy, no.

The use of standards does require a combination of teacher freedom and teacher support for standards. For example, there are many different ways for teachers to help students reach proficiency in informational writing. But it is not acceptable for teachers to say, “I will not teach informational writing because I don’t believe in it.”  The new Common Core State Standards make clear that all students, K-12, will benefit from more informational writing.  That is consistent with The Center’s research that nonfiction writing helps students in math, science, social studies, reading comprehension, and other areas

http://www.leadandlearn.com/blog/2011/01/focusing-standards-while-simultaneously-developing-student-creativity