Comment

A growing number of states require students to pass common English language and math exams to obtain a high school diploma. In the midst of frenzied efforts in many schools to prepare students to pass the exams, one can easily lose perspective on the roles that American high schools have played over the last 120 years. Arthur G. Powell's essay provides this important historical perspective. He recalls that high schools have changed from institutions that prepared a small percentage of adolescents for college to places where almost all Americans spend their teenage years. As high schools grew to serve a growing number of Americans from all walks of life, they were asked to serve many functions. In Powell's words, "the genius of the American high school has resided in its capacity to avoid internal conflict by absorbing all conceivable purposes without embracing too strenuously any single one." As Powell says, a Golden Age never existed in which the American high school concentrated on developing the academic skills of all the nation's teenagers.

From his perspective as a historian, Powell sees two aspects of the American high school as new. The first is the "sustained effort to foster academic achievement among the largest possible fraction of youth" in American history. While Powell does not emphasize this, the current focus on developing academic skills is in large part a response to dramatic changes in the American economy. These changes have drastically reduced the number of jobs in which workers can earn a decent living by carrying out routine tasks. They have also increased the skill requirements for jobs that pay a middle-class wage.

The second relatively new aspect of the high school scene is that changes in pop culture, many of which have been facilitated by new technology, have increased the number of nonacademic, enjoyable activities competing for the time of American teenagers. American high schools are being asked today to develop the academic skills of teenagers more than they ever have in the past and to do this at a time when it is more difficult than ever to harness the attention of their clientele. As Powell points out, one element of the current situation that is not new is that the burden of preparing students to live in a changing economy rests squarely on the nation's schools.

Powell believes that fostering academic achievement among all American youth is a goal worthy of public support. However, he asks whether the policy instruments states have embraced to pursue this goal—standards-based educational reforms—will elicit unequivocally constructive responses. To understand this concern, consider the four elements of standards-based educational reforms.

1. Content standards that specify what students should know and be able to do, and performance standards that describe how students should demonstrate their knowledge and skills and what levels of performance constitute meeting the standard
2. Assessments that measure the extent to which students meet performance standards
3. Instructional materials and professional development that provide teachers with the knowledge, skills, and materials needed to prepare all students to meet the performance standards
4. Incentives for educators to do the hard work required to prepare all students to meet the performance standards, and incentives for students to devote the time and energy needed to meet the performance standards

Standards-based reforms create incentives for educators to focus instruction on the skills that are measured on the exams. When the exams are of high quality and are well aligned with content standards, earning high scores on the exams may mean that students have acquired significant knowledge and skills. However, Powell points out that scores on exams taken as teenagers are not what matters. He provides a number of anecdotes illustrating that mastery of subject matter sufficient to do well on standardized tests is no assurance that students will develop sustained intellectual interests—an important goal for schooling in Powell's view and in mine. Powell is concerned that, because standards...