[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 149 (Thursday, December 1, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: December 1, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
NATIONAL STANDARDS FOR GEOGRAPHY AND NATIONAL STANDARDS FOR CIVICS AND 
                               GOVERNMENT

 Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, 2 weeks ago draft national 
standards for the teaching of civics and government in grades 
kindergarten through 12 were released by the Center for Civil 
Education. At about the same time, draft national standards in 
geography were also released by the Geography Education Standards 
Project. I have long been an advocate of the development of standards 
in the core academic subjects as a way to improve our Nation's 
educational system and the academic achievement of America's young 
people. Accordingly, I am very happy to see two more installments of 
proposed national standards announced to the public. I want to 
congratulate the Center for Civic Education and the Geography Education 
Standards Project for what appear to be two very solid and 
comprehensive efforts to produce standards in these important areas.
  I would like to take this occasion to comment on the standards 
process, of which these latest releases are a part, and on the 
importance of academic standards to the improvement of education in 
America.
  In 1991 Congress created a National Council on Education Standards 
and Testing--NCEST--and charged it with advising the Congress and the 
Nation on the desirability and feasibility of establishing world class 
education standards for the United States, methods to assess their 
attainment and a mechanism for establishing those standards. I was 
privileged to serve on that Council and joined in its report, ``Raising 
Standards for American Education.'' That report concluded that national 
standards were needed to provide more equitable educational opportunity 
for all Americans and to increase the competitiveness of the economy. 
That report further called for high, nationwide, voluntary standards as 
a resource to State and local reform efforts and recommended that an 
new council be established to review standards and, with the National 
Education Goals Panel, participate in approval of such standards.
  The Goals 2000 legislation--Public Law 103-227--which we passed last 
spring carries forward the recommendations of NCEST. It provides for 
the establishment of the National Education Standards and Improvement 
Council--known as NESIC--to encourage the development of standards, to 
review standards and, as appropriate, certify them. The NESIC, which 
has not yet been appointed, is to consist of experts in various aspects 
of education. The members will be appointed by the President from 
nominations made by the Goals Panel, the leaders of the House and the 
Senate, and the Secretary of Education. Its members are to be evenly 
split in political affiliation.
  When appointed, the NESIC will adopt criteria for the certification 
of standards and will review the standards submitted to it in 
accordance with such criteria. Criteria for review have suggested in 
the excellent report ``Promises to Keep: Creating High Standards for 
American Students'' which was prepared for the Goals Panel last 
November by a panel consisting of such distinguished individuals as 
Shirley Malcom, Chester Finn, David Hornbeck, Richard Mills, among 
others. Those criteria for standards include the following: world-
class, important and focussed; useful; reflective of broad consensus-
building; balanced; accurate and sound; clear and usable; assessable; 
adaptable and flexible; and developmentally appropriate. These or other 
similar criteria may be adopted by NESIC for purpose of reviewing 
standards submitted to it. If standards meet such criteria, NESIC may 
certify the standards. NESIC will also consider other issues, such as 
whether there can be more than one set of national standards certified 
in a single subject.

  NESIC will submit the standards that it certifies to the National 
Education Goals Panel for its review. The Goals Panel, on which I 
serve, may disapprove those standards within 90 days of receipt; 
otherwise, the certification will stand as a kind of ``Good 
Housekeeping Seal of Approval'' to guide States in their selection of 
standards for their schools. Those States may adopt these certified 
national standards if they choose; alternatively, they may develop 
their own standards and seek certification for them from NESIC; or they 
may adopt standards without certification or decline to adopt any 
standards at all. The standards are purely voluntary, but it is my hope 
and expectation that all States will adopt the NESIC certified 
standards or comparable State-developed standards.
  Thus, the standards process envisioned by Goals 2000 is one with many 
steps--the first of which is the development of the standards 
themselves by interested groups. The civics and government standards 
and the geography standards are steps in that initial process, but not 
the first steps. Other standards have already been developed and 
released. In 1989, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics 
released standards for mathematics which are now in use in about 30 
percent of the country's school districts. This year has seen the 
announcement of standards in the arts and in history in addition to the 
civics and geography standards which were just released. I understand 
that science and foreign language standards will be announced soon. The 
process is moving along and we are getting closer to having a set of 
world-class standards in each of the nine core academic subjects 
identified in the Goals 2000 law.
  Having challenging, world-class standards for our students to meet in 
the core academic subjects is critical to the efforts to improve the 
educational level of our citizens. For too long, we have concerned 
ourselves with making sure that our students meet minimum standards, 
with the result that while many students do reach those minimum 
standards, not enough meet the higher standards that students in other 
countries meet. As a nation, we need to challenge ourselves and our 
young people to do our best, not just get by. The adoption of national, 
voluntary standards in the core academic subjects will send a very 
strong and positive message to our young people: that the entire Nation 
wants and supports the best for them.
  National, voluntary standards are important because they set an 
agenda of excellence for all students, not just the privileged or the 
gifted. I have not yet met a parent who does not want his or her child 
to meet high standards--and when I talk to students in my State of New 
Mexico, they say that they want to be given the same opportunities and 
held to the same expectations as students in other States.
  Further, in our highly mobile society, national standards will 
provide some uniformity and predictability and, I hope, the opportunity 
for the first time for students to know that whatever school they may 
attend will share academic objectives with other schools across the 
country.
  I also expect that the standards process will help us all focus on 
and understand what we as a nation expect from our schools so that we 
can set about supporting and helping the schools meet those 
expectations.
  The standards which I see being certified as a result of the process 
set out in the Goals legislation should be realistic but tough and 
provide a benchmark for all schools in the Nation to meet. Local 
districts can choose how to teach in order to meet the voluntary 
standards, but they will be guided in their curriculum decisions by 
consistent, challenging standards. The kinds of standards I am talking 
about are not a list of facts which each student will be expected to 
memorize by a certain age. Rather, they are standards such as those set 
out in the civics standards--for example, by grade 4, ``a student 
should be able to explain the purposes of rules and laws and why they 
are important in their classroom, school, community, state and 
nation.'' Or, by grade 12 ``students should be able to evaluate, take 
and defend positions on the proper relationship between the national 
government and the state and local governments.'' These and similar 
standards are critical for our students to meet, no matter where the 
school or the circumstances of the student.
  There are many reasons that we should all be pleased that the process 
of developing standards in the core academic subjects is proceeding. 
There is still a long way to go: these standards must all be reviewed 
by NESIC before certification. I have always envisioned that the NESIC 
review would encompass dialog and revisions so that the standards which 
emerge meet broadly accepted criteria. Nevertheless, the announcement 
of these civics and geography standards signals another major step down 
the road toward educational excellence for our Nation.
  In conclusion I would like to note that it is fitting that civics 
standards should come at this time, following historic elections which 
have changed the majority in both the House and the Senate for the 
first time in over 40 years. This dramatic change in the majority of 
Congress was accomplished in an election in which less than 40 percent 
of the voters exercised their right to vote. The commentators have 
written at great length about the anger of our citizens as expressed at 
the ballot box--but there has been little commentary on a more dramatic 
fact--the fact that a majority of those entitled to vote chose not to 
do so in this election. There may be many reasons for that low level of 
participation in our democracy, but I believe that one of those reasons 
is a lack of appreciation and understanding of the system and the 
important role that individuals must play in it at all levels of 
government.
  The newly announced civics standards seek through ambitious and 
challenging standards to provide an understanding of that system to 
students at all levels as they move through school from kindergarten to 
graduation. As a member of the Goals Panel which will review the 
standards if they are certified by NESIC, I do not want to prejudge 
them at this point. But as I looked through them I thought to myself 
how wonderful it would be if all students in America could leave high 
school with a firm grasp of the material covered by these standards and 
a commitment to responsible, informed and active participation in our 
democracy.
  Again, my congratulations to the Center for Civic Education, to the 
Geography Education Standards Project, and to all the groups and 
individuals who participated in the drafting of these standards. They 
have made an important contribution to the process which I hope will 
transfer our educational system and give all of our students the chance 
to be the best in the world.

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