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On this 25th anniversary of Nation at Risk, a chorus of education commentators has lamented that serious problems persist even after a quarter century of education reform. Rather than allow such gloomy assessments to stifle faith in reform, we should consider this oddly reassuring point: We've sooner pantomimed than truly enacted the most promising reforms.  Many of our best systemic reform ideas have yet to be thoroughly tested on a large scale.

The American Federation of Teachers' new review of state content standards bears out this point.  Sizing Up State Standards 2008 finds that, while states have made progress in writing strong academic standards, many still have a long way to go in clearly defining what students should learn.  Meanwhile, clumsy testing and accountability measures have eclipsed every other aspect of standards-based reform. Without uniformly strong standards, aligned curriculum, aligned professional development, or adequate support for struggling students, the report maintains, current accountability systems create perverse incentives to impoverish the taught curriculum. 

Here's a brief breakdown of some major findings in the report: 

• Sixteen states received high marks for their standards, while 35 have "inferior standards overall" and 7 lack strong standards in any subject or grade. 
• Standards in English and social studies are generally weaker than those in math and science. 
• "High school standards are the weakest."
• "States with weak standards have three main problems: Standards are repeated from grade to grade, are clustered for a range of grades (e.g., 9-12), or are incomplete or vague."
• States need to provide teachers "instructional guidance" and other resources to help them realize high standards in the classroom.