Top 10 — "what students should know and be able to do."

I interviewed 4 people: a 14 year old going into her freshman year of high school (respondent A); my 18 year old daughter (respondent B); a 25 year old clerk at a local coffee shop (respondent C); and 47 year old owner of bakery in my town (respondent D).

Their responses scattered among the following "content areas."


I was very interested in the responses that they had in common:

• All 4 respondents listed writing as an important standard for students. One of the respondents was somewhat general — "Communicate well in writing."; Others were more specific, including one respondent who listed, "Write a critical analysis of literature."
• Three of 4 respondents stressed that learning the 4 mathematical operations as important; Respondent B qualified her response, saying that being able to perform the operations, with confidence, was key; Respondent C thought that learning the standard algorithms was very important.
  
• The three youngest respondents accounted for all 6 responses in social studies. Three of these responses related to learning history; Two respondents stressed the importance of shaping attitudes of learners regarding foreign cultures, stressing the danger of egocentric thinking.
  

Respondent D was the business owner. He stressed skills in three areas: acquiring and managing information; the efficient use of resources, in particular time; and interpersonal skills. In the table above, I categorized these responses as Habits of Mind and Study Skills. These are three of the five competencies discussed in the report, What Work Requires of Schools: A SCANS Report for America 2000, U.S. Department of Labor, June 1991. It should be noted that the other respondents had a least one response in these categories. Respondent A thought "producing quality work" was an important standard for learners. Respondent B said students should be able to "work well with others — even people that are quite different from yourself." Respondent C's response about presentation skills, being able to "speak publicly, using conventional language, free of colloquialisms," is an interpersonal skill often required in business.

I can't say that I disagree with any of the responses I received. Having said that, I also lean heavily toward standards that stress the importance of thinking skills:

• critical analysis: determining relevance and importance.
  
• Efficient note-taking and ability to summarize.
• Research process — skilled at gathering information from sources to answer a question, and this goes hand and hand with the next one . . .
  
• . . .Read with a purpose: when reading informational text, read and scan quickly, then pay added attention to portions that support a research question.
• The ability to gather and interpret data.
  
• Write and speak persuasively. This goes beyond being able to write and speak well. It requires knowing one's audience and tailoring the communication to influence that audience.

Several standards that are also on my top 10 include:

• Works well with others, not just in a cooperative manner, but in order to contribute to achieving the groups' goals.
• Reading for pleasure. Reading increases your vocabulary, expands your outlook, and gives insight to the human condition.