Incentives for Standards-Based Instruction

Over the last twenty years, America’s Public Educational system has changed their teaching policy directions to focus more on standards-based instruction. Laturnau (2001) states, “Standards-based instruction (SBI) is at the forefront of education reform because it presents a way to ensure that all students are exposed to challenging curricula and prepared to contribute positively to an increasingly complex world.” During the Clinton administration in the year 1994, there was a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) which begun this strong move towards SBI. The SBI idea was then continued on under the Bush administration through the passing of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001. Shepard, Hannaway, & Baker (2009) write “In a recent survey of policy makers, standards were acknowledged as the central framework guiding state education policy.” The standards-based instruction idea is one that requires states to exclude no particular student and also includes guidelines for evaluating the educators that the American people trust to teach our future generations to be sure that no child is left behind and every student academically succeeds.

Arizona’s English learner standards can be used as a guide for differentiating instruction by incorporating English language learner (ELL) activities and manipulating lesson planning to include ELL learning components that are equivalent to the English learner components. On the Arizona’s department of education website (www.azed.gov), they do a great job of breaking down the standards for each academic area by grade levels. For example… If I were a kindergarten teacher interested in educating my students about the art of dance, I would download ...

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... did not matter to them how each teacher taught or what tools they used to teach SBI. As long as their students met their academic goals and stayed on task towards achieving their promotion to the next grade, this is all that mattered to them at the end of their work day.

Works Cited

Laturnau, J. (2001). Standards-Based Instruction for English Language Learners. Pacific Resources for Education and Learning. Retrieved on March 18, 2012 from: http://www.prel.org/products/pc_/standards-based.htm

Shepard, L. & Hannaway, J. & Baker, E. (2009). Standards, Assessments, and Accountability: Education Policy White Paper. National Academy of Education. Retrieved on March 18, 2012 from: http://www.naeducation.org/Standards_Assessments_Accountability_White_Paper.pdf

Web Links

www.azed.gov

www.smilemakers.com

www.pbs.org

www.thirteen.org

www.teachingtips.com