PERSPECTIVE ON EDUCATION : Honig Legacy Outlives Conviction : His new curriculum frameworks and achievement standards have become models for the nation.

About 150 years ago, an idealistic young lawyer named Horace Mann gave up his law practice to devote himself to public education. Appointed as state superintendent for Massachusetts, he became the leading reformer of his age. He flailed away at antiquated textbooks, poor teacher training and rote memorization; he tried to persuade the business community to see schooling as an investment in economic growth; he campaigned relentlessly for greater financial support for public education.

His criticism of traditional methods made enemies. The conservative ministers of Boston lashed out at Mann after he criticized those who taught reading through memorization of the alphabet, a time-honored method. The ministers charged that Mann had a conflict of interest because he had endorsed a reading book written by his wife.

The controversy between Mann and the Boston ministers has long since been forgotten by everyone but historians. What remains as Mann’s lasting heritage is a philosophy of common schooling for all American children.

Mann’s story suggests some parallels to the tragic situation that has engulfed former California State Supt. Bill Honig, who was convicted of directing state money to a school improvement project managed by his wife. For a decade, Honig has made enemies by fighting for improvements in public schools. His critics were many, and they got him. In Mann’s case, the critics threw rhetorical barbs; in Honig’s case, they used a conflict of interest charge to destroy him in the courts.

What cannot be undone, fortunately, is Honig’s legacy as an educational reformer. Honig took office in 1983, when the landmark report “A Nation at Risk” was published. Other states appointed commissions, study groups, task forces. Honig launched a strategic plan to reform public education in California.

First, he persuaded the state legislature to raise taxes for the schools in exchange for his commitment to raise standards and student achievement. Next, he began a far-reaching program to redeem his pledge by reconstructing what children learn in California.

In every subject area, Honig brought together teachers and scholars to determine what California’s children should know and be able to do in the 21st Century. In mathematics, history, science, the arts, language arts and health, the panels created curriculum frameworks that became national models.

Each of the frameworks incorporated cutting-edge thinking about what children should learn. In most instances, they replaced uncertainty and inconsistent pedagogical theory with a clear and forceful vision based on higher standards for all children. The mathematics curriculum, for example, incorporated the problem-solving approach endorsed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics; it now is being used by other states trying to improve.

The new frameworks became a driving engine for reform. To meet the higher standards, textbooks had to become more interesting, more committed to teaching thinking and problem-solving; teacher education had to become more substantive, and teachers had to learn the new ways of teaching children. And, student assessment had to change, with the focus shifting away from multiple-choice to questions that asked students to demonstrate what they knew.

The revolution in California has had national implications, with other states using the California frameworks to raise their own standards. Before the California frameworks, most state frameworks were little more than lists of minimum skills and requirements, which, predictably, produced minimum learning.

Under Honig’s tireless leadership, California launched a national movement for systemic change. While most of the hastily patched-together reforms of the past decade in other states have made no discernible difference, systemic change may be the only kind that will affect the educational system from top to bottom, from textbooks to tests to teacher education.

In the last two years of the Bush Administration, Honig’s ideas became the basis for a new federal role in education. The Education Department made grants to individual groups of teachers and scholars to develop voluntary national standards and provided funds to states to create new curriculum frameworks and student assessments based on high standards.

Just Wednesday, new Secretary of Education Richard Riley testified before Congress that the Clinton Administration was embracing a strategy of systemic change, beginning with new, higher standards for what children should know and be able to do in every major subject area. Without realizing it, Riley was placing the Education Department’s endorsement on the strategy that Honig created in California and polished over the past 10 years.

Bill Honig will be remembered as the architect of the new national school reform movement. Under his leadership, California became a beacon for educational reformers across the nation. The monument to his influence will be felt for years, not only in the schools of California, but throughout the nation.