Recent debate over the effectiveness of No Child left Behind, is fueling another debate over whether or not we need one set of national curriculum standards for all schools in the United States. Each state now sets its own standards. Children in Portland, Oregon are held to a different set of math and reading standards than those across the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington. That seems crazy since math is math and reading is reading, whether you’re in Oregon or in Washington.

Some states are lowering standards so that students will pass high stakes tests and districts will avoid the consequences that result when they fail to meet their annual yearly progress goals. What we see is results such as those in Mississippi where a state test showed 89% of fourth graders scoring at proficient levels while only 18% scored on a proficient level on the National Assessment of Educational Progress — a highly regarded national measure of achievement.

The debates seem divided along political party lines, with the Republicans siding against National Standards, claiming that states know what is best for their students. The Democrats, along with education reform and business groups, take issue with the inefficiency of what appears to be a hodge-podge of standards.

Michael Dannenberg, of the New American Foundation, an educational policy group in Washington D.C., believes the United States is on an inexorable march toward national standards and it is not a question of when, but how. I tend to agree with him, since it is difficult to defy the logic of national standards. What do you think?

A state senator, Phil Journey, from Kansas is about to introduce a bill that would permit teachers to spank kids who need an extra dose of discipline. The bill is designed to protect school districts and their employees from lawsuits, according to a recent Kansas City Star article. It also requires parents to sign permission forms allowing schools to spank their child.

Journey’s bill is in response to a number of newspaper articles regarding the frustration of teachers from the difficulties in maintaining classroom discipline. He simply wants to give teachers another tool to use for maintaining order in the classroom while avoiding lawsuits over the use of corporal punishment.

Twenty-nine states have banned corporal punishment in schools. Kansas is not one of them. Of those that have not banned such punishment, nine have passed bills that grant the kind of protection Journey is seeking for Kansas.

Opponents of the bill just don’t believe spanking is all that effective. Some argue that modeling behavior that we don’t want children to exhibit will only worsen the situation. All said, I’m betting on the bill not passing.

According to an article in the Miami Herald, Dade County Florida’s teacher union is suing the school district over plans to allocate their $19.6 million share of the state’s $147.5 million fund for rewarding merit bonuses to “special teachers.” The union claims the program, known as the STAR Plan, violates the state’s constitution. If the district and union don’t reach an agreement by March 1, the funds will be lost forever.

The STAR program was designed to give bonuses to the top 25% of Florida teachers. The bonuses were to be given on the basis of instructional performance and student performance on high-stakes tests.

The union wants the money to go to improving salaries for all teachers so the state can retain teachers in general, claiming all teachers are woefully underpaid. The union believes that 75% of teachers who do not receive bonuses would not have the incentive to improve instruction. Opponents also say the criteria used for determining bonuses would drive teachers from low-performing districts. They further argue that teachers are going to be reluctant to have slow learners in their classes.

The union specifically claims that the plan runs counter to constitutional provisions that call for equal funding for all districts. They also claim the plan establishes two groups of teachers, those who teach to the high stakes test and those who don’t.

Plans for only four counties have been submitted and approved by the state. Many other counties are against the program and officials from these counties have pointed out the program’s flaws.

No doubt the controversy swirling around merit pay will not be confined to Florida as other states consider the pros and cons of rewarding top-performing teachers.

In the Atascadero California School District, where more than 50% of the students are from financially disadvantaged families and 20% are learning English, a new approach has been implemented to help all students who struggle in math or reading. Rather than send students to special-education classes, two of the district’s schools set up learning centers staffed by teachers, tutors, and language specialists. The program is designed to give extra help to all students who need it, not just those designated as special-needs students.

In the program, called “Walk to Learn,” students leave their regular classes and walk to a room with several learning centers, where they receive small group instruction. One group might be working on multiplication facts, another on sound-symbol relationships, another on vocabulary enrichment, and yet another on a writing assignment. Some students may attend up to three extra-assistance sessions a day.

Since the program was initiated, a Santa Rosa elementary school has students performing at a level equal to the top-performing schools in the state of California. The middle school, since doing away with special education classes and adopting the learning center approach, has seen attendance go up and truancy and suspensions go down. Every school in the district has now established a learning center in place.