Standards and diversity

Standards are intended to represent the community’s beliefs about the knowledge, skills, and understanding that all students should develop, to increase accountability and promote student progress. Yet there is a seeming contradiction between standards and the varied learners in today’s classrooms. Standards seem to suggest “one size fits all,” yet students are very diverse in their knowledge, skills, and interests.

Setting goals that work for all learners is challenging, particularly in a classroom where print-based materials, pencil and paper, and traditional teaching methods predominate. With inflexible materials and methods comes the assumption that all students will work towards goals in the same way, using the same media and materials, and reaching the same performance criteria. It is difficult to be clear about what the real learning goal is when the means of attaining it becomes confused with the goal itself. Thus for example, learning to create a narrative becomes confused with writing a narrative in text.

Distinguishing goals from means, and articulating goals that accommodate multiple pathways and multiple levels of attainment are critical steps in reaching diverse learners. All students can work towards the same goal or standard, but how and to what degree students develop and demonstrate their learning can be as varied and creative as are the teachers and students themselves.