In 1983, Education Secretary Terrel H. Bell published A Nation at Risk,a report concluding that U.S. students’ academic skills were far behind those of students in other industrialized countries. High school seniors were so far behind, the report claimed, that a relatively high number of them—at least 10 percent—were functionally illiterate or lacked basic math skills.

In response to this report, many educators initially supported the push for national educational standards in the early 1990s. As part of a list of educational goals intended to be met by the year 2000, policymakers backed the creation of standards in thirteen subject areas. These standards, which would be compiled by groups of professional educators, were to explicitly state what academic skills and knowledge students should have after completing grades four, eight, and twelve. Under the 1994 Goals 2000 law, states would...