As a teacher I disagree with the comment that schools are set up to service teachers. That is not true. I spend as much time justifying what I teach as I do teaching. With that said, I believe that more pressure needs to be put on students and parents. How can I be expected to teach someone that misses 30 days of school in a semester? When students miss this much, nothing ever really happens to them or the parents. Also, when students are doing poorly, and I contact parents, I am lucky if I even get 10% of the parents to actually talk to me. With standards based assessments, teachers and schools take all of the pressure. What happens to students when the don't pass the assessments... NOTHING. What happens to schools when students don't pass?Well there are many levels, but ultimately the entire staff can be fired.

I do agree with a national standards based assessment. This could solve problems with students when they move from one place to another. Teachers won't necessarily be the exact same place in their teaching, but at least students nationwide should have the same background knowledge coming into class.

I do need to stipulate that a national assessment should evaluate teachers and students. If a student fails he/she should have to repeat the grade. If a teacher has a certain percentage of students that fail, then that teacher's employment should be evaluated.