Standards, Equity, and the Curriculum of Life

Abstract

Introduction:  In the last decade or so there has been a fervent public interest in educational issues, practices and beliefs. Public debates in Canadian media have focused on such issues as mainstreaming, whole language vs. phonics, separate schools, multiculturalism and anti-racism in schools, accountability, standardized testing, teacher testing, and concern about educational standards. The call for common national standards, the arguments to evaluate more thoroughly students’ achievements, as well as the complaints about the lowering of standards in schools, demonstrate the need to seriously examine the issue of standards which has become so predominant in educational debate.