Despite my many bets to the contrary, the movement for national learning standards [1] still lives, says Jay Matthews, education columnist and blogger for the Washington Post. More than 40 states (including Maryland, but not Virginia) plus the District have enlisted. They are executing plans for instruction in all grades and, eventually, common assessments in math and English language arts. It sounds great. But it won’t help and won’t work. Such specific standards stifle creativity and conflict with a two-century American preference for local decision-making about schools…