Teachers are super-human considering the complexity of working environment they are embedded in and the various, even conflicting at times, expectations asked from them. A classroom of 20 students contains 20 different needs and learning styles. Teachers are required to differentiate instruction to cater to all of, not merely some of, the learning needs, but, at the same time, they cannot differentiate too much for fear of being partial. Teachers are required to teach to standards and held accountable for the testing outcomes, but, at the same time, strive to motivate the same students whose motivation has been dampened by the same testing procedure. Teaching is not only difficult but contradictory in nature.
Learning standards are never in short supply, but now technology standards want to jump on the burden. One may wonder that now that there are technology standards, is there any need for accountability and testing tomorrow? The answer is not clear but the history of education has taught us one thing: Standards always pave the road for the upcoming testing mania, and standards, more often than not, are misused to monitor and constrain teachers rather than used to help teachers to teach better. Standards seem not the end but the means to control. Never underestimate those authority’s will to test.