Rockies V Red Sox, Better Baseball than Standards

Fourteen years ago in Colorado we started a baseball team. Tonight, they'll play their first World Series game ever, facing the Boston Red Sox in famed Fenway Park.

As nervous as I am for my team in their competition, I'm much more concerned about how Colorado students will do when competing for jobs against those from Massachusetts.

A new report from the Fordham foundation compares state standards and tests used under the No Child Left Behind act. It found some pretty shocking differences in what we ask of our students depending on where they live. For example, here's a question from Colorado for fourth grade math:

Seems easy enough, right? Now here's Massachusetts:

That's a whole lot more difficult, and while it might give those fourth graders headaches now, they'll be grateful when they graduate significantly more prepared for the jobs that will await them. Students in Colorado and elsewhere deserve that same level of preparation, and that's what American education standards are all about. Baseball might be America's pastime, but education is America's future.