Arey, Kelly, "When Standardization Replaces Innovation." Education Week, May 8, 2002.
Imagine your principal has commissioned another teacher to "fix" your classroom by rearranging the furniture and taking down students' work to make more room for posting school rules.

Jan, Tracy. "Schools Built on Teaching Method." The Oregonian, September 18, 2004.
At 64, Charles Arthur is opening a string of charter schools that sprang from an after-school reading program he started five years ago. His charter schools teach reading using Direct Instruction, a controversial curriculum that emphasizes learning in bite-sized sequences.

Kohn, Alfie. “Beware of the Standards, Not Just the Tests.” Education Week, September 26, 2001.
A number of prominent educators are finally raising their voices against standardized testing—particularly multiple-choice, norm-referenced tests; particularly tests with "high stakes"; and particularly in the context of a federal mandate to force every state to test every student in grades 3-8 every year. Yet even as more opinion leaders come to understand the damage attributable to testing mania, it is still rare to hear objections to the standards movement as a whole.

Quirk, Kathy. "Study: Direct Instruction Not the Best Way to Teach Reading." University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee News, January 14, 2004.
A three-year study of methods of teaching reading shows that highly scripted, teacher-directed methods of teaching reading were not as effective as traditional methods that allowed a more flexible approach.

“Toward a ‘One Size Fits All’ Curriculum for Teaching Reading?” Michigan for Public Education Newsletter, Winter 2000.
Will Michigan Be the Next State Where Phonics is Mandated?