National Equity and School Autonomy

Abstract

Porter supports Clune's focus on outputs, rather than inputs and procedures. However, he feels that national and state standard setting and systemic reform would lead to more school improvement and education equity than would the one-school-at-a-time approach. The focus on outcomes leaves much room for local discretion in curriculum, regardless of the level at which the outcomes are specified. Porter proposes holding schools accountable for student achievement against national achievement standards. He agrees with Clune that schools not meeting the standards need to be given technical assistance, while acknowledging the difficulty of finding needed resources. Porter further proposes high standards-excellence-rather than minimums. He acknowledges that excellence with equity might require uniformly excellent education available to all students-at a much higher price than that for true adequacy.