Maybe it was just the one thing Ted Kennedy and George W. Bush could agree on.
It's the right idea, (insisting on a quality education for every child) warped by a wrong idea (that student achievement can be coerced "on the cheap.") where the end is supposed to justify the means.
As a result, Kentucky schools, which were already examining the performance of all subgroups of students under Senate Bill 168, saw its attempt to build a performance-based, school-centered assessment system disheveled by the combination of NCLB's bad method and unrealistic targets.
And, none dare oppose.
The Climate of Reform
The most prominent strategy employed in the schools under NCLB has involved a climate of coercion; the assumption being that students weren't doing better because of racist (or perhaps, classist) teachers. To some unmeasurable extent, this must surely have been true. But in my experience, for the vast majority of teachers it clearly was not.
The situation called for leadership. What it got was top-down management.
A lot of good teachers got the implicit (sometimes explicit) message that if a student failed, it was their fault. Period. No excuses.
A (brief?) philosophical interlude
It used to be that if a student came into a teacher's classroom and was unprepared, unwashed, unfed, and undisciplined and uncooperative - it was a parent's or student's responsibility.
Theoretically, the school provided equal opportunity. It was up to the student to take full advantage of what the system had to offer and pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. The problem with this philosophy was that it produced a system of "good schools" and "bad schools" and it put little pressure on teachers to work harder to reach "difficult" students. There was genuine effort but inadequate funding and no system-wide "stick."
In NCLB, President Bush found a piece of hickory; and he did not spare the rod.
Under the new logic, all children can learn - and if one does not, it is because the teacher hasn't done enough. Any teacher perceived to NOT be "on the bus" is said to be "making excuses" - proof of one's lack of dedication...or racism...or classism...you name it. It's what some school administrators call motivation.
The philosophical shift from equality of educational opportunity to equity of student achievement outcomes is about twelve years old. Is it also on its last legs?
Results (writ large) fall short
What about the results? Well, most of the results of a quality education are unmeasurable. But using what does get measured, three different 2007 studies ranked Kentucky's student achievement at 34th or better. Not the penthouse, but out of the basement. Today's goals are skyhigh and not only include overall growth, but growth and excellence for every subgroup of students.
KSN&C reported in March,
This year, Kentucky Department of Education officials told the [state] board that fewer than 40 percent of the state's public schools are on target to meet those goals.
So what have Kentucky's educational leaders said about it?
Board members said the state needs to develop a "sense of urgency" to find a solution. "I think it's a doable task," [former state board Chair, Keith] Travis said. "That will be the main objective of whoever the new commissioner will be."
[Almost Commissioner Barbara] Erwin - drinking deeply from the Kool-aide - said she [thought] it [was] possible for every child to be proficient by 2014. "Absolutely," she said. "I believe it is our moral and ethical responsibility (to see) that all children can reach those goals."
A More Rational Approach Meets a Deteriorating Budget
Jon Draud, most recently named the commonwealth's education commissioner, took a more reasoned approach that acknowledged both the possibilities and the realities.
Draud's top priority is to assure that Kentucky students meet proficiency standards by 2014, as NCLB requires. "But that must become a goal for more than educators if it is to be reached," Draud told H-L.
"We have to create a sense of urgency, to have people concerned about this again, like they were in 1990 for Kentucky's education reform. The business community has to lead the way," said Draud."Most research says for education reform to work, the business community has to be involved. It takes collaboration and cooperation. Without getting all the stakeholders involved, we're not going to reach proficiency," he said.
Those comments were made at the time Governor Fletcher was touting a much rosier fiscal outlook. Now the state is predicting a tepid 2.4 percent growth in revenue for the first year of the next biennial budget. That's a sharp decline from revenue growth of more than 9 percent in 2005 and 2006.
The budget crisis throws a major shadow over future prospects. Having neglected education funding in the mid to late 1990s, when there was no crisis, the legislature now finds itself in a box. 
The Casino Gambling Solution
Will casino gambling solve the problem? No, but it sure will help - if we're all very patient. Assuming Kentucky voters approve such a measure, it will take several years to realize the $500 million in annual fiscal support Governor Steve Beshear estimates.
What happens until then?
President Lee Todd informed the UK campus by Email Friday,
We will continue to make the case as strongly as we can that the state must support the UK Business Plan as the mechanism for achieving our statutory mandate to become a Top 20 public research institution and for making the gains we all want in education, health care and economic development for Kentucky.
Todd's laser-like focus on quality is commendable - and the only "right" position a top-notch university president can take. But if the state coffers are empty, and there is no retreat from the pursuit of excellence, then the only remaining option includes large tuition increases.
But tuition increases pose affordability problems for many Kentucky students who are operating in the same economic climate as the schools, and will keep the goal of doubling the number of college graduates out of reach.
Surely by next year - with the budgetary shortfall estimated at $525 million - cuts will bite into P-12 education, which has largely escaped, so far. But P-12 won't be raising tuition.
How deep will the P-12 cuts be? ...and for how many years? If NCLB goes down (while I don't advocate it, that's OK by me) and Kentucky reduces its financial commitment to reform, and the hickory stick is put away, how many more schools will fail to meet their 2014 targets?
Will poor fiscal stewardship at the state level spell the end of real education reform in Kentucky?
What now?
What happens in the long run depends on the people of Kentucky. It seems clear that Frankfort politicians advocating tax hikes will be as rare as hen's teeth. But clearly, some kind of taxation has to be a part of any real long-term solution. The alternative is the abandonment of reform - which would galvanize Kentucky into the bottom realms of state economies for decades to come.
Only a strong push to continue improving the quality of Kentucky's schools and workforce from the grassroots citizenry will provide the motivation our state leaders need to do right by our children. ...all of our children.
Building that support will require persistent leadership over time. Citizens need to be informed about the successes our schools have produced, the looming budget crisis and its likely impact on our future economy. Teachers need to wake up. Kentucky needs champions who will tirelessly dedicate the time it takes to travel the state and regenerate the kind of support for reform we saw in the late 1980s.
Draud has the right approach in mind. Drawing support from the business community is critical. Going community to community is critical. Building alliances is critical. Spending time is critical. His plan is reminescent of earlier State Superintendents Robert J Breckinridge and John Grant Crabbe who used the bully pulpit to rally support we need. It's what a champion does.
The people of Kentucky need an education on the value of investing in education.
The ultimate constitutional responsibility lies with the legislature. But in the end, Kentuckians will get the schools they support; the schools they insist upon. In that sense, Kentucians will get the schools they deserve.
3 comments:
Richard Day’s (RD) comments could benefit from a broadening of perspective.
RD writes, “As a result, Kentucky schools, which were already examining the performance of all subgroups of students under Senate Bill 168, saw its attempt to build a performance-based, school-centered assessment system disheveled by the combination of NCLB's bad method and unrealistic targets.”
First of all, SB 168 was pushed down our educators’ throats by the legislature. On their own, educators contently ran the old KIRIS assessment from 1992 to 1998 without any notable reporting about any education gaps. Even today, while gaps are indeed “reported” under the CATS assessment, there is absolutely no accountability for schools with abnormally high gaps, nor any rewards for schools with exceptionally low gaps. In fact, the CATS accountability formula totally ignores gaps.
It took NCLB, warts and all, to finally introduce “accountability” instead of mere lip service for education gaps. There is no evidence that Kentucky’s educators were ever going to do this on their own.
Even today, issues about teacher attitudes concerning the gaps remain a real problem in some schools. There are too many teachers in this state who too readily declare kids learning disabled when it is just as likely that weak teaching is a major causal factor. Obtain a copy of some of the school system audits from the Kentucky Department of Education (these are not on line) to explore how we still have teachers who don’t believe all kids can learn. Check the Covington Independent District’s recent audits for one very pointed example.
RD writes, “What about the results? Well, most of the results of a quality education are unmeasurable. But using what does get measured, three different 2007 studies ranked Kentucky's student achievement at 34th or better.”
OK, how about a list of those unmeasurable results? Are all really unmeasurable?
I hear this comment frequently, but I usually don’t see any details. Maybe we can come up with some good metrics for some of these outcomes.
RD writes, “The budget crisis throws a major shadow over future prospects. Having neglected education funding in the mid to late 1990s, when there was no crisis, the legislature now finds itself in a box.”
I agree with this, but not for the reasons I suspect RD would provide.
About a year and a half ago, the legislature’s Education Assessment and Accountability Review Subcommittee (EAARS) began taking progress reports on a study on education efficiency the Legislative Research Commission (LRC) had been directed to create. Some of the revelations were stunning. The chief one was that the state’s MUNIS education accounting system was in chaos. Accounting codes had been changed, but the Chart of Accounts had not been updated, so local school administrators had no good way to know what money belonged in the various accounting classifications. Things were so bad, the LRC reported in August, 2006, that there was no way to determine the overall amount that had been spent on professional development, let alone how much was spent on the sub-areas of that program.
One year later, nothing has been announced about any improvements to MUNIS. There has been more than enough time to fix this program. It is an essential tool to creating an “efficient system of common schools,” which is a constitutional requirement, by the way (Section 183) (Yes, the word “efficient” is in the constitution).
Thanks to the absence of any real efficiency studies of education in the commonwealth and the fact that this situation has now existed for nearly 18 years under KERA, it could be argued that reform has violated the Kentucky Constitution just as effectively as the situation that existed in 1989.
“Will poor fiscal stewardship at the state level spell the end of real education reform in Kentucky?”
Great question. Without efficiency studies, poor fiscal management is guaranteed.
Thanks for the comment. I’ll respond to some pieces in bold.
“First of all, SB 168 was pushed down our educators’ throats by the legislature. On their own, educators contently ran the old KIRIS assessment from 1992 to 1998 without any notable reporting about any education gaps.”
True. But we start out with a fundamental problem here. Who are the “educators” you refer to? There is no such monolithic group called educators (although, I surely have used the term for rhetorical purposed myself).
The fact is some educators were very interested in assessing and raising the achievement levels of historically marginalized students and were looking for the means to deliver additional services.
But taken as a whole, you’re right. The insistence on accountability for student achievement certainly did not start with “us.”
Educators eat what the legislature feeds them. There’s little alternative – and maybe that’s the way it ought to be. The point is - these same “educators” didn’t think up KERA or KIRIS either.
My comments were focused on the legislature because that’s where the constitution places the responsibility for providing an efficient system of common schools.
Even today, while gaps are indeed “reported” under the CATS assessment, there is absolutely no accountability for schools with abnormally high gaps, nor any rewards for schools with exceptionally low gaps. In fact, the CATS accountability formula totally ignores gaps.
It took NCLB, warts and all, to finally introduce “accountability” instead of mere lip service for education gaps. There is no evidence that Kentucky’s educators were ever going to do this on their own.
No Kentucky school can reach their targets without significant novice reduction, and gap narrowing. True, NCLB is a bigger stick. But it goes too far to suggest “absolutely no accountability” and ignores the unseen pressure applied within the school districts, the teacher and principal firings, and other actions.
Case in point: My recollection is that the first analysis of achievement gaps is Kentucky was done by Susan Weston when she was with the Kentucky Association of School Councils. (…1995…1996 or so?) Under that analysis Cassidy School, where I was principal, had the largest achievement gap in the state. It got A LOT of attention. There was genuine concern. Our efforts over the years produced steady progress, (we never missed a CATS target and only one NCLB target) and in 2006 Cassidy was recognized by the Fayette Educational Foundation for having closed 80% of the gap while exceeding 90 on the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System.
From my perspective, there was plenty of accountability. Much less support from the state…but don’t get me started on that. Even if one accepts the argument that NCLB was necessary – surely the warts were not. A fair accountability system might have saved NCLB from the scrap heap where it now appears to be headed.
Even today, issues about teacher attitudes concerning the gaps remain a real problem in some schools. There are too many teachers (and parents) in this state who too readily declare kids learning disabled (or OHI, ADD, OCD, …EIEIO) when it is just as likely that weak teaching is a major causal factor.
…OK, how about a list of those unmeasurable results? Are all really unmeasurable?
I hear this comment frequently, but I usually don’t see any details. Maybe we can come up with some good metrics for some of these outcomes.
Not today…but this is something worth discussing in much more detail.
Take IQ for a quick example. Do you really believe that the sum of your experience and capability can be reduced to a single “g” factor called an IQ? Yet we act as though it truth, I assume because we don’t’ have anything better.
I agree with former Harvard GSE Dean Ellen Lagemann’s assertion that America has a romance with quantification; one that exceeds its capability. The fundamental problem is that we are working in the social sciences and our measures aren’t as good as they are in the natural sciences. Our variables don’t hold still. Yet we talk about research results as though they were truth.
Fact is if education was a natural science, it would be like meteorology – highly localized and ever changing. Still not quite the kind of thing you want to bet the bank on.
About a year and a half ago, the legislature’s Education Assessment and Accountability Review Subcommittee (EAARS) began taking progress reports on a study on education efficiency the Legislative Research Commission (LRC) had been directed to create. Some of the revelations were stunning. The chief one was that the state’s MUNIS education accounting system was in chaos….
…One year later, nothing has been announced about any improvements to MUNIS….
MUNIS is a DOS-based accounting system that is limited and unfriendly to unaccustomed users, like me. In and of itself it has no real significance. Besides isn’t Infinite Campus, presently being piloted, supposed to correct some of its shortcomings?
The real problem, as I understand it is much bigger. The entire electronic “non-system” used by KDE, EPSB and other critical state agencies was constructed piecemeal and its component parts don’t communicate with each other very well. We’re talking databases is some places – nothing but spreadsheets in others!
There has been more than enough time to fix this program. It is an essential tool to creating an “efficient system of common schools,” which is a constitutional requirement, by the way (Section 183) (Yes, the word “efficient” is in the constitution).
Thanks to the absence of any real efficiency studies of education in the commonwealth and the fact that this situation has now existed for nearly 18 years under KERA, it could be argued that reform has violated the Kentucky Constitution just as effectively as the situation that existed in 1989.
Yes indeed, “efficient” is the word. And don’t forget the equity language, “throughout the state.”
The 1891 Constitution which requires “an efficient system of common schools throughout the state” came during the Progressive era, a time when education and scientific management were applied to government and other organizations as a means of improving the human condition. To be efficient, the school system maintained by the legislature must reach its goals without wasting resources.
As he wrote the opinion in Rose v Council for Better Education, Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert F. Stephens studied the Constitutional Debates to determine the legislative intent in establishing an efficient system of common schools. From the debates he read Delegate Beckner’s stirring comments, “A system of practical equality in which the children of the rich and the poor meet upon a perfect level and the only superiority is that of the mind.” Beckner described four justifications for establishing a system of common public schools that he called “fit nurseries of immortal spirits that have divine purposes to fulfill on earth.” He said the common schools were essential to the prosperity of a free people, that they should embrace all children, assure that students understand our government and should be given to all - rich and poor alike.
From this Stephens set forth a renewed mandate for the Kentucky General Assembly. The Supreme Court confirmed that sole responsibility for its creation and sustenance lay with the legislature.
The system of common schools must be adequately funded to achieve its goals. The system of common schools must be substantially uniform throughout the state. Each child, every child, in this Commonwealth must be provided with an equal opportunity to have an adequate education. Equality is the key word here. The children of the poor and the children of the rich, the children who live in the poor districts and the children who live in the rich districts must be given the same opportunity and access to an adequate education. This obligation cannot be shifted to local counties and local school districts.
The court instructed that in redesigning Kentucky’s schools, certain essential, and minimal, characteristics of an "efficient" system of common schools must be satisfied. Stephens wrote,
1. The establishment, maintenance and funding of common schools in Kentucky is the sole responsibility of the General Assembly.
2. Common schools shall be free to all.
3. Common schools shall be available to all Kentucky children.
4. Common schools shall be substantially uniform throughout the state.
5. Common schools shall provide equal educational opportunities to all Kentucky children, regardless of place of residence or economic circumstances.
6. Common schools shall be monitored by the General Assembly to assure that they are operated with no waste, no duplication, no mismanagement, and with no political influence.
7. The premise for the existence of common schools is that all children in Kentucky have a constitutional right to an adequate education.
8. The General Assembly shall provide funding which is sufficient to provide each child in Kentucky an adequate education.
9. An adequate education is one which has as its goal the development of the seven capacities recited previously.
The court declared, for the first time, that every Kentucky child had a fundamental right to an adequate education.
“Will poor fiscal stewardship at the state level spell the end of real education reform in Kentucky?”
Great question. Without efficiency studies, poor fiscal management is guaranteed.
Efficiency studies are necessary - but not sufficient.
...or is Infinite Campus only replacing STI?
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