.3 Increased Standardization

Teachers should have a lot more choice about what they can teach - 20 - 25% of the curriculum should be up to the teacher (standardized tests greatly limit this)

graphic: teacher, building an airplane in the classroom, administrator waggin a finger and saying "this isn't in the curriculum"

Teachers spend years in college to be trained to make professional decisions. They should be allowed a level of trust to exercise their expertise and assess what their students need to know, and decided what extra things can be taught. Each teacher is unique, and if they are allowed this freedom, they will bring different levels of enrichment to their classroom depending on their background. Standardized tests tend to detract from this freedom by forcing specific curriculum elements and then overemphasizing them.

	Why aren't many teachers given the discretion to pick at least a percentage of their material and make up their own tests?	Answer Here
	Mrs. Smith has taught English literature for many years in the same school system in Virginia. Because of the Standards of Learning for her class that were set forth by the state, she cannot assign and discuss any extra readings other than those listed for her in the guidelines. A student in her class is extremely interested in a particular book that is not on the list to do a report on. How should Mrs. Smith handle this student's request in regards to the SOLs?	Answer Here