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Link to: December 2000 Issue pdf. file format (best for printing)

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T                  he sun was bright and the
                 southwest surroundings con-
                 tributed to the grandeur of this
special event that joins state chiefs who
are passionate about reform with their
colleagues across the U.S. at federal,
state and local levels.     More than
400 reform-
ers turned
out to hear
the chiefs
dispel the
myth that
standards
and testing
are dead and
gone.                                                                While
reform is aplenty, there are a few states
that stand out as leaders across the
reform spectrum. It just so happens that
in most of those, there’s a state school
chief that has helped shape his/her
state’s educational progress. And not so
coincidentally, they have joined forces
in the Education Leader’s Council,
which represents thirty percent of the
nation’s school children.       Arizona State Superintendent of
Public Instruction Lisa Graham Keegan
and Pennsylvania Secretary of
Education Eugene (Wild Bill) Hickok
(pictured above) preside over their
respective states dynamic charter com-
munity and revolutionary standards and
assessment programs. At the ELC con-
ference this year in Phoenix, Keegan
debated the merit pay issue arguing that
if a teacher’s students aren’t improving,
they shouldn’t be in education. She
commented that contract negotiations
should be over student advancement,
not lunchroom duty. ELC Chair Hickok presided over
the meeting and at one
session, implored people to focus on history in their state’s cur-
riculum, noting that “if a people are lit-
erate about their past, there is hope for
their future.”       The other ELC Chiefs are equally
stellar individuals whose leadership
shows that it’s possible to buck the sta-
tus quo and survive to tell about it.
Coming from Texas just days after the
barrage of attacks on the TAAS test,
Texas Commissioner Jim Nelson com-
mented that minority achievement is
rising: “…From the inner cities of
Houston to the barrios of El Paso –
when you raise the standards, work with
the schools, provide the teacher training,
kids respond and do well.       “People may complain that the tests
are stressful,” he noted, “but let me tell
you, being stupid is stressful.”       Bill Moloney, the sage Colorado
Commissioner of Education talked
about the “manufactured backlash”
against high standards, and pointed out
the results of the recent nonpartisan
Public Agenda survey that shows over-
whelming support for high standards,
with fully 82 percent of parents believing
their schools have been “careful and rea-
sonable” in implementing new standards.       Virginia’s Secretary of Education,
Will Bryant spoke of how students in
Virginia had been unprepared and of
the millions spent on remediation for
college students. “Before 1995 we had
no accountability,” said Bryant, “so we
tied the tests and accreditation to stu-
dent achievement, and scores are now
going up.” Commissioner Linda
Shrenko spoke of Georgia’s kinder-
garten test that helps teachers under-
stand their students’ readiness to learn,
and noted that the test helps catch stu-
dents in danger of failing early, “rather
than wait until 3rd grade to find out that the student can’t read and Mom
and Dad have to pay for a tutor.”       Florida’s Lt. Governor Frank Brogan
dissected the excuses of the education
establishment for its failure to help chil-
dren who need help the most.
Describing how educators argue that
many children do not succeed based on
their demographics, Brogan went
through them one-by-one, concluding
“Now we’ve cut out children of color,
children who come to our shores speak-
ing a different native tongue, children
from single parent households and chil-
dren who receive free and reduced
lunches. Who does that leave? That
leaves what I
call the filet
mignon.
Once you
cut every-
thing else
away, the
only children
my col-
leagues want
to be held
accountable
for are the
children who have done well since the
beginning of time.”       “Public education was created for
everybody,” Brogan declared. “We espe-
cially created public education to make
certain all the children I just profiled
had access to the same education that
the children of the upper and middle
class have always had access to. But the
inflexible, intolerant, and rigid system of
today that is two-fold — one for those
who do well and one for those who
don’t — that system has got to go.”       These “winners” are paving paths for
reform, and as their ranks swell, so will
the opportunities that are created by
their efforts.  Education Reform: The Future Looks Bright The Annual Meeting of the Education Leader’s Council Keegan and Hickok Brogan 8