Should a student in Honolulu be held to the same educational standards as one from Chicago?

That's the idea behind Common Core State Standards Initiative, which Hawai'i has joined along with 46 other states and two territories.

The initiative would create a national set of standards in English language arts and math for public school students from kindergarten through 12th grade.

In principle, it's a good idea.The standards would set rigorous academic targets tailored for success in college and the workplace, and would be internationally benchmarked to ensure the standards are competitive in today's global society.

If the initiative proves successful, subjects beyond English and math could be added.

For Hawai'i, participation in the initiative can lead to benefits that are worth pursuing. Common standards would give our public school students a useful measurement of how they stack up against their Mainland peers. Educators from participating states, working from the same blueprint, can share best practices and ideas to improve their own schools. And it could help bring Hawai'i's public school system — long criticized, fairly or not, as weaker than many Mainland equivalents — measurably closer to the best national quality standards.

Of course, creating the common core standards, expected by the end of the year, is only the first step.

Implementation would require adjusting classroom curricula and replacing the current Hawai'i State Assessment with a test to measure student performance based on the new standards. Even so, the move could save money; participating states can use economies of scale to lower costs by adopting a common assessment test and the same teaching materials.

Full participation in the program remains voluntary. And there's enough flexibility in the initiative to allow for some local customization.

Hawai'i's education officials will need to closely study the common core standards concept as it develops and decide if it makes sense here. Adoption of the standards could be, as schools superintendent Pat Hamamoto put it, "a defining moment" of change for public school education in Hawai'i.

That certainly makes it worth a good, hard look.