The national standards housed at the Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory (McREL), use an "information and skills format" to organize their Standards and Benchmarks (McREL, Content knowledge: Process, Differing Types of Content Description). These include "procedural" descriptions of processes that students should understand, "declarative" descriptions of information students should know, and "contextual" skills students should be able to demonstrate in a specified context.

The Texas system follows the national format, but with interesting and complicated differences. For in effect, Texas has two separate systems. The Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) defines the skills and knowledge teachers are legally required to teach. The Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAKS or TAAS II) is the test by which teachers, schools, and districts are evaluated. The specifications of these documents do not match, neither in content nor in emphasis. Although the old test, which was developed before the TEKS were written, has now been replaced by TAKS that purport to be in better alignment with TEKS, there still remain significant differences among these three documents, differences of which teachers and administrators should be aware.

Overall Structure of the Systems

National. The national system identifies ten standards that Level IV (Grade 9-12), or high school, students should possess. The first four standards address writing: process, style and rhetoric, grammatical and mechanical conventions, and research techniques. The next three address reading: general skills and strategies, and the understanding and interpretation of literary and informative texts. The eighth standard addresses listening and speaking; the ninth, viewing; and the tenth goes into great detail about the media.

TEKS. The TEKS addresses all but one of these component parts, but with differing emphases and greater complication. It also provides grade level descriptions, English I, II, III, and IV, rather than grouping all benchmarks as generic high school expectations. TEKS follows the national standards by focusing first on writing, specifically purposes, process, grammatical conventions, research skills, evaluation processes, and for twelfth graders only, a category called "analysis" that focuses on communication among writers. The TEKS next address a series of reading skills: vocabulary, comprehension, varieties of texts, cultural diversity, literary responses, literary concepts, analysis and evaluation, and inquiry and research. TEKs expands listening/speaking to include critical listening, evaluation of oral performances, purposes of oral communications, and two kinds of presentation skills: informative and literary. TEKS then organizes viewing and representing skills into interpretative and analytical abilities and requires students to produce increasingly lengthy documentaries.

Interestingly, the national emphasis on the media has been demoted by TEKS into five minor pieces of larger categories. Media is briefly mentioned as a component of bias and persuasion at the 9th grade level only (12D - Reading), in oral evaluations of media at the 9th and 10th grade levels, (15C ­ Listening/Speaking), and as three separate components of Viewing/Representing which remain virtually unchanged throughout the high school experience (20E, 21A). In contrast, the national standards on media contain twelve focuses that explore various social dimensions of media messages; their structure, production, and reception by audiences; and ethical considerations.

TAKS. The TAKS uses a uniquely different organizational strategy, a series of six "Objectives" with specified subcomponents that focus on many but not all of the TEKS. Virtually ignored are the Listening/Speaking TEKS and the construction of visual representations. Reversing the Writing-Reading hierarchy implied by the official state and national standards, TAKS Objectives focus first on culturally diverse texts: reading, understanding the literary elements, and analysis and criticism thereof. TAKS then focuses on writing: production of composition for a purpose and within a context, command of grammatical and mechanical conventions, and proofreading skills.

Emphases of the Different Systems

National. The national system breaks the literary genres down into more detail than do our state standards. National standards also include a strong emphasis on the grammatical conventions, which are somewhat neglected in TEKS. Yet it is in the realm of complex, metacognitive thinking skills that the national standards most distinguish themselves from the state's.

National standards ask high school students to synthesize information from multiple sources and draw conclusions from their research (Standard 4). Standard 5 asks students to self-correct their own reading processes and understand the philosophical assumptions underlying texts; it also includes a strong emphasis on understanding the relationship between audience, authorial intent, and the techniques that create and enhance messages. National standards also ask students to recognize the complexity of characters and relationships among characters (Standard 6), and require an understanding of archetypes and symbols. It stresses personal connections between reader and text and further requires that the student distinguish personal responses from authorial intent. National standards ask listeners to understand both the political and cultural implications of power, to understand their own reactions to an oral presentation, and when making such presentations, to adjust their delivery appropriately. In the realm of visual media, the national standards include conventions and how they may be manipulated and edited to achieve a purpose. Students are also expected to identify stereotypes and understand that responses are mediated by culture.

Significantly, the national standards require students to gain a complex and nuanced understanding of broadcast and print media. Students are expected to understand the economic, aesthetic, political, and social purposes of media; the influence of power, law, ownership, and control on various aspects of media; the way messages are constructed and how that structure affects viewers' perceptions; the relationship between media and the marketing of products; the audience's influence on the media; the media's influence on culture and society; and ethics.

These understandings are far-reaching. In a related cognitive emphasis, National standards don't just discuss what students must do and know, they emphasize strategies by which students acquire information. The complex understandings promoted by the national standards would greatly benefit students who wish to pursue higher education. They are, however, difficult to require of students because their subjective nature makes them difficult to evaluate.

TEKS. The official state standards, or TEKS, for twelfth graders reveal significantly different emphasis. They focus more on the personal, stressing the value of personal writing (introduction) "as a tool for reflection, exploration, learning, problem solving, and personal growth" (4H). Each Texas student is required to "accumulate and review his/her own written work to determine its strengths and weaknesses and to set his/her own goals as a writer" (6C). Twelfth graders should also demonstrate personal integrity and "speak responsibly to present accurate, truthful, and ethical messages" (16H).

Further, we find a decidedly interpersonal emphasis in the TEKS. Students should "make relevant contributions in conversations and discussions" (16F) and "provide appropriate feedback in a variety of situations." (15E). The state devotes entire sections to peer evaluation (6) and communication with writers outside the classroom (7).

One of the most laudable emphases of the TEKS system is its focus on questions. These are mentioned as both initial and ending research tasks (14A, G) and as an integral part of listening (15D), writing (4A), and studying (8H). In earlier grades, questioning is defined as a reading strategy (English I, 7C) although it seems to have been inadvertently omitted from the corresponding twelfth grade category (8C).

By expanding certain aspects that the national standards merely gloss, TEKS gives more prominence to literary analysis (12C & E, 13A-B, E-F), research of self selected topics (14), cultural diversity (10), and the production of visual representations (21). These state standards are longer and more detailed than the national. In their extraordinary detail, they produce interesting challenges, not the least of which is including them all in one curriculum.

TAKS. The TAKS information booklet emphasizes that it is "a completely reconceived testing program. It includes more of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills" than did the TAAS and "has been developed to better reflect good instructional practice" (Information Booklet, p. 1). It further reverses the writing-reading hierarchy to focus first on reading, especially on culturally diverse reading. In fact, cultural diversity is mentioned as a major focus of each of the reading objectives While diversity is discussed in TEKS (10), the importance of cultural diversity has expanded dramatically in the test.

TAKS also includes a strong emphasis on proofreading, a critical skill barely mentioned in the national standards or TEKS and actually deleted from TEKS' twelfth grade requirements (surely an editorial oversight). And this is no minor emphasis; TAKS requires students to proofread for content and mechanics in Objectives 4, 5, and 6, for organization, content, style, and conventions in Objectives 5 and 6, and for clarity and effectiveness in Objective 6.

TAKS demands other skills that have been traditionally addressed by college composition professors. It defines writing as a recursive process in each of the three writing objectives (4-6). The last two emphasize grammar, usage, and conventions regarding spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and standard formatting devices that are omitted or glossed by TEKS, In this respect, TAKS is closer to the national standards than to TEKS, although the test does echo the state's focus on higher-level conventions such as agreement, parallelism, and tense. TAKS also repeats TEKS' idealistic requirement to produce an error-free final draft.

Quantum Leaps Required of Seniors in the TEKS System

An interesting array of unprecedented expectations, or series of quantum leaps, are required of twelfth graders by the TEKS. Under "writing process," for example, after three years without such instruction, twelfth graders must learn paragraphing, sequencing, and transitions (2B, F); they must also be able to suit vocabulary, organization, and rhetorical devices to an audience or purpose (2C), vary their sentence structures for effect (2D), and rethink various aspects of their composition in order to accomplish specific tasks (2E).

Similarly, after three years of evaluating other students' mechanics and content and responding appropriately to reviews of their own work, twelfth graders must suddenly decide if a specific piece of writing accomplishes its purpose, evaluate published pieces, and reflect upon their own writing processes (6).

In the analysis and evaluation of literature, twelfth graders must expand their abilities to include conciseness, correctness, and completion; the effect of stance and position on credibility and structure; logic and critical thinking skills; and the effect of organization and language on readers' perceptions.

And finally, in the area of research, students who had previously been allowed to accept sources at face value must suddenly evaluate their credibility and appropriateness (14D), organize their research (14E), and generate questions for further study (14G). These skills do not arise naturally with greater maturity in twelfth grade, and some are quite difficult to teach.

Conclusion

Both the national and state standards are breathtaking in their lack of specificity. Although the McREL site provides links to abbreviated lesson plans that fulfill some of its requirements, all the various systems analyzed here are open to interpretation and adaptation to suit the personalities of teachers and classrooms, the requirements of districts and departments, and the availability of resource materials. None of the organizational websites specify how one might go about teaching any given standard nor information on how to assess a student's mastery of the material. TAKS is at least an attempt to assess mastery.

Happily, there are a wealth of locations from which to draw specific recommendations on how to teach. The North Central Regional Education Laboratory (NCREL) offers specific information about how to teach children from different cultural backgrounds with varying levels of proficiency in English. It specifies research-based strategies that meet the needs of students with wildly different academic abilities. NCREL also offers a wealth of practical suggestions for dealing with difficult classroom situations and a host of well-researched and clearly defined learning strategies to incorporate into our curriculums. As additional resources, PBS and the New York Times are worthy of mention for their delightfully detailed lesson plans with links to worthy enrichment material. And many reputable organizations offer conferences, workshops, and classes that address the deficiencies of the published standards.

From my perspective as a university-level instructor of academic composition, I find the national focus on complex metacognitive skills extremely attractive. I also find the national emphasis on strategies for learning laudable, for we are not in the business of instilling information under the banking theory of education, but instead of equipping students with the skills necessary to define and pursue their own scholarly objectives. The national standards recognize and honor the connection between writing and thought that is essential for any scholarly pursuit. As a university professor, I must also applaud the state's emphasis on the recursive nature of writing and the detail with which TEKS defines the research process.

From an alternative perspective as an instructor of professional writers, I am decidedly attracted by the TAKS emphasis on proofreading (a.k.a., copyediting) and the state requirement for error-free final drafts, a minimum requirement for publication in most respectable markets. The ability to appreciate and incorporate culturally diverse perspectives is also a decided bonus for anyone who desires to publish in the mainstream professional world. And of course, the emphasis on research found at both state and national levels will prove critical to anyone who desires to publish.

But perhaps the emphasis that I find most important, in both the university and professional settings, is the ability to offer educated opinions and support them with clear evidence drawn from reputable sources. This skill is absolutely essential for anyone who desires to claim status as an educated person in our society or to offer opinions that will be valued by the public. This skill is not easily acquired, but its inclusion in the national standards, TEKS, and TAKS will, one hopes, ensure that it's taught earlier and so better incorporated into a student's metacognitive structures.

Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory (2002). K-12 standards: Content knowledge: the Process of this work. Retrieved on June 20, 2002 from http://www.mcrel.org/standards_benchmarks/docs/process.asp

Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory (2002). K-12 standards: Language Arts Standard and Benchmarks. Retrieved on June 7, 2002 from http://www.mcrel.org/compendium/Benchmark.asp?SubjectID=7&StandardID=1

Texas Education Agency (1998). Chapter 110: Texas essential knowledge and skills for English language arts and reading, subchapter C. high school: §110.45. English iv (one credit). Available from the Texas Education Agency website, http://www.tea.state.tx.us/teks/

Texas Education Agency (2002). Grade 11 exit level English language arts: Objectives and TEKS student expectations. Available from the Texas Education Agency website, http://www.tea.state.tx.us./student.assessment/taks

Texas Education Agency (2002). Information booklet: 11 Exit level English language arts. Available from http://www.tea.state.tx.us./student.assessment/taks/