The Standards as Reform Paper - Essay Example

Findings: The literature review shows that standards could be, and has been used to bring about educational reform, but there are areas of demerits in the use of standards as a vehicle to bring about educational reform. Unless these demerits are addressed the use of standards are unlikely to live up to its promise of being an effective vehicle for promoting educational reform. Conclusion: There is the requirement for further studies to provide a better understanding of the manner in which standards can be used as a vehicle to promote educational reforms, and also the existing demerits in the standards themselves and the means to address these demerits, so that the use of standards becomes more effective in promoting educational reform.

Standards-based reform as means to bring about higher academic standards, and accompanying assessments to evaluate the level to which these standards have been achieved emerged in the 1980s, and has since then gained strength. This concept of educational reform is steeped in the requirement to bring about clarity in the content and performance standards, and measure the achievements in this required direction, and came from the a national inspiration to make the nation more competitive in the new global economic environment.

The advantage that standards based reforms brings is that with the increased standards expected from the students at the school level it would be possible for them to have a more successful experience at the college level. The use of standards offers the promise of bringing about educational reform that spans across the students, teachers administrators, and the community as a whole. The experience over the last two decades provides the means of evaluating whether this promise has been met or is still to be achieved.

(Thurlow, L.M., 2002). The standards are written statements on what is valued, and the manner in which they can be utilized to evaluate the quality of education that is being imparted. The