When Are Standards Sub-Standard?

Texas is currently in the process of revisiting its “Pre-kindergarten Curriculum Guidelines”–a name that’s something of a misnomer, because the guidelines are really more like a set of standards for what prekindergarteners should know and be able to do, as opposed to specifying a detailed curriculum. Vanessa, a Texas pre-kindergarten teacher who blogs at Inside Pre-k, thinks this revision is well overdue, because the current guidelines are insufficiently ambitious in their expectations for pre-kindergarteners’ learning.

Vanessa’s comments raise an important point. It’s not enough for states simply to have standards for what young children should know and be able to do. Pre-k standards must also be aligned with K-12 standards –and both pre-k and K-12 standards must be sufficiently rigorous.

Unfortunately, elementary school standards themselves are too low in many states. A recent study by researchers from the Northwest Evaluation Association, published by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, finds the bar for third grade proficiency in many states is much lower than it is for eighth graders. In other words, children who score “proficient” on third grade assessments are not really on track to meet eighth grade proficiency standards when they get to eighth grade. As a result, parents, teachers and policymakers may believe elementary school students are doing better than is actually the case.

Texas is a particular culprit here: If Texas set its proficiency standards for third grade at a level that put children on track towards proficiency in eighth grade, the share of Texas third graders scoring proficient on state reading assessments would fall by 20 percentage points, and the percentage of Texas third graders proficient in math would fall by 11 percentage points. If Texas is setting the bar too low for its third graders, it shouldn’t surprise us if the bar for pre-k is low as well.

We at Early Ed Watch often emphasize the need for PK-3 alignment. But PK-3 alignment is only a first step: Third grade standards need to be aligned with standards for later grades, and so on–and everything needs to lead up to a final goal of ensuring students leave public education with the skills to succeed in college or the workforce. Aligning early learning to too-low elementary school standards defeats the purpose.

Texas, at least, is thinking about alignment. Its Pre-Kindergarten Curriculum Guidelines are intended to “provide a means to align the prekindergarten programs with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS).” That’s an important step towards PK-3, and ultimately P-16, alignment. But Texas still has some work to do on that score.