Objective and Exact Standards
The effort to lay down by investigation satisfactory standards of school work is one of the most productive lines of educational inquiry which has ever been instituted. Like all great movements, this movement of standardization has been misunderstood and opposed, but it is steadily gaining ground and promises to be the largest contribution of this generation to education.
In essence it consists of a careful, systematic measurement of what pupils accomplish. If there are at hand measurements of the actual achievements of pupils in various subjects in all the grades, it is safe to compare any single performance with the general average. It should be noted that this does not imply a demand that every pupil’s work be like the average. There are pupils who do their work under unfavorable conditions, as, for example, pupils who have difficulty in reading because they hear no English at home. Their results should not be expected to reach the average, at least in the early grades. How far the results are from the average should, however, be definitely known. Explanation can then be given. Where conditions are not unfavorable the demand can be the more vigorously made that the average expectation be reached.