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What role does and should our government play in education? As the head of government relations for NWEA, I am frequently immersed in such discussions and would like to engage you all as well.

My experiences and personal beliefs lead me to believe that our government plays four critical roles in ensuring a quality education for all kids in America.

They are:

1. Setting standards for our students


2. Funding education programs


3. Making sure schools are held accountable for providing a quality education


4. Researching best practices in education

Today, I’d like to begin discussions around the first two roles – standards and funding – by breaking down what each means in education.  

Setting standards for our students

This entails setting research-based expectations for student achievement, growth and success.

Right now, our government is hard at work partnering with the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Offices (CCSSO) to draft a set of national standards called The Common Core State Standards Initiative, the latest round of which are open for public review and feedback until October 21, 2009.

And while the debate rages on about how large of a role the federal government should play in this process – with many believing some power on curricula decisions should remain with the states and individual schools – we can all probably agree that some level of consistency needs to be established.

Common Core Standards Initiative

What is the Common Core Standards Initiative? According to their website, the CCSI is “a significant and historic opportunity for states to collectively accelerate and drive education reform toward the ultimate goal of all children graduating from high school ready for college, work, and success in the global economy. The initiative will build off of the research and good work states have already done to build and implement high-quality standards. The standards will be research- and evidence-based, aligned with college and work expectations, include rigorous content and skills, and be internationally benchmarked.”

The Initiative’s leaders are also working on a national assessment program, which will be comprised of multiple forms of assessment (summative, formative, interim, etc.) that are aligned with the common core state standards. The role of these assessments will be to make sure the new standards are “embedded in our education system.”

Funding Education Programs

The second role of government I’d like to engage discussion on is the Funding of education programs: The government has a responsibility to fund the programs necessary to ensure a quality education for every student. A frequent criticism of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is that there was a lack of priority on funding, especially in proportion to the effort spent on the other three roles I’ve laid out (standards, accountability and research).

A question our government leaders must ask themselves is – are we even appropriately funded to be able to meet the standards we’ve set for our students?

Today, the guidelines for our education stimulus programs are out for public comment and are expected to be finalized around the end of the calendar year. It’s going to be another year of spending cuts and raising taxes. Our education budgets only recovered about 80% from the last recession so it will take a while to recover from this most recent economic set-back.

Creating Systemic Efficiencies

We have to create systemic efficiencies if we’re going to improve the quality of education in America.

One way schools, districts and state departments of education can streamline is to reevaluate their current assessment program. Is your school/district/state utilizing assessment to streamline or create efficiencies? Are you collecting the right data? What are you doing with that data to help improve student learning?

These are all questions our government should – and will – be asking our schools in the coming months and years of continuing economic struggle.  What do you think?

I encourage and invite you to engage in this discussion. Leave your comments and questions on this topic in the Discussion Forums. I’ll be continuing this discussion and look forward to your thoughts, questions and comments.

About This Author 

Charles Merritt currently serves as Vice President of Government Relations for the Northwest Evaluation Association. Charles currently leads NWEA’s efforts to fulfill its mission through public policy. His responsibilities include educating lawmakers and other constituents on the benefits of adaptive assessment and importance of differentiated instruction. He comes to NWEA from the Education Commission of the States.