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CER Op-Ed
Impact Magazine, Foundation for Florida's Future
An old concept, but a relatively new phenomenon in public education reform, accountability is taking on a life of its own as various states try to respond to a public clamor for better schools.
There's no grand consensus as to whether there was one great seismic event that started it all, but observers readily acknowledge two factors: the dumbing down of our schools, and the political response by Governors and CEO's who attended the 1996 education summit, to get the ball moving in the standards court. Standards provide accountability by setting measurable expectations for what students should learn. As politicos like to say, 'what did you know and when did you know it?' is important information to have.
Despite evidence of failure that would make other countries fight a civil war, even these happenings have only created a modest aftershock in the education field. Were it not for the new leadership in a few states, the effort to impart in our children a demand for excellence and love of learning might not even hit the Richter scale.
A New Wave of Standards
The election of 1994 brought in a new brand of state education leader. Gone are the days of commissioners of education constrained by the same establishment 'groupthink' that characterized most public school officials. The public's demand for quality in education has swept in a group of dynamic leaders who are willing to think outside the box. These commissioners have eschewed the comfortable mediocrity driven by the desire for job security and have demanded action and serious reform on behalf of children. These non-traditional voices, leading education policy in a few states, could seriously impact the way schools do business.
Florida commissioner Frank Brogan ran his campaign proposing substantive changes to ensure educational opportunities for all children. And like him, reform-minded leaders were selected in Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Virginia. In states such as California, Virginia and Massachusetts, solid appointments to state boards of education made these bodies much more responsive to the demand for a real high stakes, standards setting process.
The most important factors to be considered in measuring the quality of standards are rigor, specificity and measurability. States that have done a good job in the standards area are those that have been able to successfully resist the political pressure to set the bar to low. The words of the late Albert Shanker, former president of the American Federation of Teachers still ring true, "For years we have asked too little of our children and that is exactly what we have gotten." Quality standards must also be content specific in order to be measurable. States must avoid the trap of the outcome based education approach which results in vague unmeasureable goals with no accountability.
Carry Me Down to Ole' Virginia
Virginia is one of those states that has always been perceived as very conventional. Nothing very extraordinary happens there--it's a nice place, has great beauty and good people, but nothing that makes one think of radical change. Yet of all the Governors who attended the 96' education summit, Virginia's Governor George Allen was already a significant distance down the road leading the way to radical change in the standards area.
In 1994, Allen appointed a Champion Schools Commission and tasked them with "the role of guaranteeing that the final outcome would be rigorous, specific and measurable standards." Over the course of the next four months, the Commission held many public hearings, meeting with over four thousand individuals who came to share their concerns. Draft upon draft was crafted, introduced to practitioners, redrafted and resubmitted. Finally, after many months, the Commission produced the Virginia Standards of Learning, a document that started the new wave of standards and breathed life into other states seeking to do similar things.
The Virginia Standards of Learning is a 1/4 inch thick guidebook listing specific criteria for children in each of 13 grades to meet in the core subjects of Math, Science, English, History and Social Science. Using over a dozen models of well formed theories and curriculum, the Virginia Standards encompass broad and deep levels of knowledge. Children in first grade, for example, are required to master specific knowledge and skills such as "group concrete objects by ones and tens to develop an understanding of place value." Reading instruction by third grade requires students not only to appreciate literature but to demonstrate concrete skills such as "write descriptive paragraphs" and "demonstrate comprehension of a variety of printed materials." Science requirements in the higher grades require children not only to know facts about biological concepts, but be able to compare DNA sequences in organisms.
The first draft of the history standards was criticized as being too difficult for younger students, and was tempered to respond to those criticisms. But even a cursory glance at the document reveals a set of learning that to some appears controversial for today's era of less stringent teaching, but much in line with the McGuffy Reader, an old one-room schoolhouse classic.
Education Reform States Follow Suit
Since Virginia's standards-setting effort was ratified, states such as Arizona relied heavily on their work to help guide them in their process. Community hearings and meetings were held with thousands of people in Arizona, and the result was a set of standards in reading, writing and mathematics that will be part of an annual assessment in grades 3-12, eventually leading to a graduation test. Virginia, too, is in the midst of adopting an assessment that evaluates students at grade levels 3, 5, 8 and 11. These periodic assessments to determine if they are measuring up to the standards will assure graduates of a diploma that means something. Virginia also plans to deny accreditation to schools where more than 70% of children fail the assessment, sending a signal that there is a serious problem needing attention.
Massachusetts standards writers are currently embroiled in attempts to approve history standards that are just as strong as Virginia, yet political wrangling among state education leaders is slowing down their process, although math, science and English standards have already been approved.
Pennsylvania released in June its proposed academic standards, which were designed in the areas of math, reading and writing to replace the vague outcome-based education goals now in place. Governor Pete Wilson appointed the California Academic Standards Commission to design standards for its new wave, which currently has given its approval to draft standards in math, reading and writing.
Finally, Florida has made some good progress in joining the new wave. The Sunshine State Standards were released during the 1995-96 school year, and are clearly a cut above what was previously required of children in the Sunshine State's schools. Children in Florida now have to have a 2.0 GPA to graduate, up from a very low 1.50, and the standards that were adopted are in the classroom now. Correlated assessments are being field-tested.
A Formidable Task for the Future
Significant challenges remain to instituting these standards in these states. And as each state is unique, there are lots of variations on the standards reform movement from state to state. An extreme example of how politics can drag this process out is Minnesota. Their efforts to set meaningful standards have spanned twenty-six years, and while that very political process has yielded little, schools have been tailoring their plans to some of what has been adopted. Texas has some standards in place that are reflected through the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills [TAAS] test, of which passage is required to graduate. Debate continues, however, on the rigor and specificity of new proposed standards. And Michigan, which has instituted standards and a test to let colleges and employers know of a Michigan student's achievement, is currently embroiled in a controversy in which parents have been opting their children out for fear of failure.
It is clear that standards are only one piece of a very complex puzzle. The trend towards instituting consequences for schooling, however, is finally getting teeth, and can be a very important measure of in allowing the public to finally sift through all the conflicting school reporting and discern whether or not schools work, and children are learning.
Studies have consistently revealed that low expectations will yield unsatisfactory results. If the bar is set higher, children can indeed learn. But mere rhetoric and goal-setting won't get us there.
Accountability for students, teachers and schools is the key. Increasing educational options to parents through various school choice programs is the issue that policy makers must address. For if one is faced with an environment that simply doesn't respond to the call for higher standards, there is an injustice in requiring that child to stay put.
And if teachers are not being trained to administer these new, rigorous standards, and evaluations of performance for all school staff are not pegged ultimately to achievement, there can be no real improvement in a school.
A strong foundation of required knowledge is needed; broad enough to not stymie local control but specific enough for schools to be held accountable. Simultaneously, there must be ways for the accountability process to work. Closing down failing schools, providing choices for children in failing schools, allowing teachers to start their own charter schools are all reforms, that, not so coincidentally, are happening fastest in the states that have created this new wave of standards.
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Jeanne Allen is author of THE SCHOOL REFORM HANDBOOK: How to Improve Your Schools and president of The Center for Education Reform in Washington, DC. CER is a national, non-profit research and advocacy group founded in 1993, with over with 12,000 members today. For more information, please call (202) 822-9000 or (800) 521-2118, or send e-mail to cer@edreform.com..