science teaching syllabi) from a historical and political point of view. I argued that standards are developed for particular poli- cal agendas in order to maintain the privileged position of certain groups (i. e. , urban residents) in a society at expenses of others (i. e. , rural residents). Thus, underneath standards is systematic discrimination and injustice. Since then, I have had opportunities to study the issue of standards in much more breadth and depth. This book, Linking Competence to Opportunities to Learn: Models of Competence and data mining, provides me an opportunity to examine standards from a different perspective: opportunity to learn.