ABSTRACT
The establishment of high standards to promote quality in the educational enterprise has a long and honored tradition in the United States and elsewhere. The author has over 40 years of professional service from which to review and reflect on the evolvement of standards. Over the years, articles in professional journals have called for higher standards with regularity and a variety of mechanisms have been activated to see that high standards existed. These standards had a softer impact on educational accountability and were less intrusive in the daily practice of teaching than standards employed today for accountability. Today’s standards are focused on performance, they are objective, they usually are measured and reported publicly, and they usually are associated with rewards and sanctions.
