It was pretty obvious to most of us that the relationship between Randy Dorn, Washington's new Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the state legislature didn’t get off to a perfect start. Shortly after taking office, he announced sweeping changes to the state assessment system; changes made without much input from the legislature.
They weren’t happy. But we didn’t know the extent of their unhappiness until just last week, when the House and the Senate each passed massive education bills. Which, according to verse three of Schoolhouse Rock’s “I’m Just a Bill,” meant that the two houses then got to switch papers so that they could scrutinize and criticize each other’s work.
I looked at these bills and quickly became overwhelmed. They’re really long. Remember, I teach third grade all day. Anything longer than a paragraph freaks me out. So I decided to focus on the section about accountability: how the state is going to make sure our students learn. And for the most part, I like what I see.
For the most part. Let me go through it bit by bit. And by “it” I mean House Bill 2261, Section 302, article 4.It’s on page 34, if you’re reading along at home.
First, they want to “adopt and revise performance standards.” Great idea. Standards should always be under constant revision. The world changes quickly, and what was important to know twenty years ago, or even two years ago, might not be important anymore. My only problem with this is that it’s limited to standards in reading, writing, math and science. What happened to social studies? These are state lawmakers, for crying out loud! Have they no self-esteem? What about PE? Art? Music?
Moving on. The next part talks about identifying the scores that students must achieve on the state test in order to show competency. I’m OK with that, even though I know what’s coming…
Yep; here it is: the part where they use those scores to identify which schools are good and which ones aren’t. Oh, they don’t put it quite so bluntly. They talk about “ways to recognize exemplary schools” and “identifying schools for which state support will be needed.” I'm all for providing more support to those schools that need it. That’s good. That’s an improvement. What I don’t care for is the identification and recognition part. We already know about those schools. As Alfie Kohn has consistently said, "Standardized tests are an exquisitely accurate measure of the size of the houses near your schools." (And no, I’m not a big Kohn fan, but sometimes he’s right.) Far more often than not, high performing schools serve high-performing families in high-performing neighborhoods. I had a mom just last week ask me why the test scores in our school are so much lower than the scores across town. What could I say? I told her that we’re all using the same materials, we go to the same workshops and came out of the same colleges. The difference, I told her, was the group of students we serve. She clearly didn’t care for that answer.
The next part is about using performance incentive systems to improve student learning. Merit pay, in other words. Great idea, as long we become the first state in world history that figures out how to do merit pay in a way that’s fair to all teachers, doesn’t accidentally promote bad teaching and doesn’t encourage school employees to cheat or lie. Good luck with that.
The next section mandates that the assessment system is fair to schools that serve high-needs populations. Great idea. Back when we were allowed to actually look at the WASL while our kids were working on it, I noticed a lot of questions that were far more accessible to kids from middle-class white families than for students of color and those from economically disadvantaged families. We need to pay attention to that.
Then there’s a section on accrediting private schools, as long as they don’t allow “secret societies” among the students. I don’t even want to know what that’s all about.
And then the hurt comes down on Mr. Dorn. First there’s a section on hiring an executive director to “reside” in his office. That can’t be good. If I were the SPI and the legislature starting talking about hiring an executive director to work in my office, I’d worry about the level of trust.
But that’s nothing compared to the last section. Here it is, in its entirety: "Adopt a seal that shall be kept in the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction." Holy cow! They must hate him! Like most of you, I have been to Sea Lion Caves on the Oregon Coast. And like most of you, the first and most lasting impression of that place was the stench. Granted, seals and sea lions are difference species, but I strongly suspect that their hygiene habits are very similar.
If I were Randy Dorn, I’d take immediate steps to repair the relationship between my office and the state legislature. Otherwise it’s going to be a long and miserable four years.