Poor Performance Not New

• In his second paper, Stedman dissects the standards movement’s faulty premises and diagnoses its educational and political failure. There was not a general decline of excellence caused by the social and educational movements of the 1960s. Nor were the schools responsible for the few declines that did occur. Indeed, the historical record, going back more than a century, shows that poor achievement is a long-standing problem and not one caused by a modern collapse of standards. These findings indicate there is a deep structural problem with the way schools are organized. Until that is confronted, achievement will remain poor and students will remain disengaged and superficially compliant.

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