A Report to
Academic
Achievement and
Accountability
Commission
respectfully
submitted by
Juanita Doyon
public
school parent
Contents
Presentation
of
The
Importance of Easy Communication
Parental Rights and Responsibility
School Board Member Concerns-- Views
from Around the State
A Letter from My Mom
Increasing the Significance of Site
Councils
Top Concerns for Education
A Few Random Questions
... and Thoughts
Position Articles on High Stakes
Testing
Mr. Patrick, Commissioners, Dr. Bergeson,
Certainly, each generation has its own unique set of
problems and its own set of advantages, but, in a time of revolutionary change
in communication and accessibility of information of all kinds, our children
face a far more intense and fast moving environment than any other
generation. Add to this a general
depreciation in family support, societal values and common sense, and our
children are presented with a constant barrage of high stakes situations and
choices.
Despite the differences in the world around them,
children today need from adults the same things children have always
needed: loving and caring relationships,
consistency and fairness in discipline, high expectations for learning, actions
and attitude, adequate resources to serve their physical, emotional and
educational needs, and unconditional respect and acknowledgment for
achievement.
The professional educators who work with our children on
a daily basis have a unique position to fill.
Aside from parents, teachers are those in the best position to fully
understand the circumstances that affect the lives of the children they
teach. In many cases teachers and other
school staff become the best chance children have for stability.
Teachers deserve every support we can extend and all the
respect we can muster. They do not
deserve the doubt that is reflected on their profession by a speculative
testing process that portrays their efforts failure and their methods obsolete!
We trust teachers to care for and teach our children,
and we should trust them to evaluate progress.
Teachers are trained in all forms of student assessment and should be
given the freedom to use these assessments to monitor student achievement. Parents should be given the freedom and
responsibility to share in this process.
As you consider your final recommendations, I hope you
will remember that a statewide system must contain ample variety of options and
assistance. My hope is that your plan
would most forcefully address the assessment and accountability of educational
leaders at the local and state level.
They are the people ultimately responsible for the placement and support
of teachers and students and the allocation of resources.
I would like to share a letter that a Bethel Jr. High
teacher wrote upon the very tragic loss of a student this past week. I believe this letter demonstrates completely
and simply the bond that can develop between the people in a school. It is most important that the living dynamics
and achievements of a school never be reduced to a pencil and paper test.
MICHELLE SCOTT-BEACH; and the advanced drama class;
Last Sunday, a young man named Adrian Dentis
lost his life swimming in
"Lo! She is one of this confederacy!" How well we all remember
that line as it flowed from
Whether he was effortlessly earning perfect scores in his honors classes,
setting records in the track and field, or amusing all with his ingenious wit,
there is another group, a family if you will, who wishes to salute him for the
final time.
For three years
We know he is gazing down on us, smiling. We love him and miss him very
so very much.
MICHELLE SCOTT-BEACH; and the advanced drama class;
The
Importance of Easy Communication
The communications parents receive from school should be
easy to understand, to the point, and as time conserving as possible. Consider for a moment that parents have a
wide variety of involvement levels, reading skills and attitudes toward the
education of their children. I believe
it would be to the benefit of schools to simplify the reform system to parent
friendly terms. It is not in the best
interest of education to proliferate its own foreign language or to be
exclusive in its tools or methodologies.
Some terms to avoid: essential learnings,
analysis and interpretation, figurative
language and imagery, effective transitions, coordinate grids, pictographs,
conjectures, ordering numbers (would this be like “ordering” a happy meal or
perhaps a “super-value meal #5”--Chicken Mcnuggets). On and on goes the educational jargon,
turning parents off to helping their children succeed. If education “experts” feel they must use a
different language from conversational English, they should please save it for
state mandated learning improvement days-- when the students are at home!
Current practice of sending home lengthy explanations of
new teaching strategies and suggestions on parenting are ineffective. Parents are busy people, as we all know. We want personal suggestions when we ask for
help, not piles of pamphlets that assume we don’t know what our own child
needs. Until we prove ourselves
incompetent and apathetic, please give us the benefit of the doubt.
Report cards have changed in many school districts to
reflect benchmarks and other reform concepts.
As one parent, who used to teach in public schools and now has a 5th
grade son, told me recently, “I get nothing from the "new" report
card....it's horrible! The last year's conferences were a bust because of the
stupid pressure from EALRS and WASL!!
Makes me mad. I'm so glad I'm not
teaching now! Teachers aren't allowed to teach!”
Report
cards and conferences, that used to be parent friendly communications and
updates, have become technical briefings.
Most teachers are able to maintain some human warmth in delivery, but
only so many charts and graphs can be presented in a warm and friendly
manner. And can we blame teachers for
loosing some of the will to reach out to parents, when their state and
districts require a massive tracking system for each student? Writing traits, reading achievement profiles,
math accomplishment benchmarks-- and none of it shows a true picture of student
success.
Parental
Rights and Responsibility
Individual parent and student rights often become a
controversy, when behavioral problems arise on the part of students. There is no law that I know of to govern
parental responsibility as it translates to involvement with public
schools. If our country is to survive
and thrive in a time of technological advance and societal change, our schools
must offer the highest quality education to all students. Students who demonstrate good behavior cannot
be allowed to perform below their potential at school because teachers are
distracted by students with more basic human needs. It is the responsibility of professional
educators to meet the educational needs of all students while those students
are in their care. It is the
responsibility of parents and all of society to demand excellence in education
for all children and help assure that the basic human needs of all children are
met inside and outside the classroom.
Our public schools, working with our legislature, need
to develop a set of standards by which parents are responsible for their
children inside and outside of school.
If parents are to maintain their rights over educational choices, there
need to be laws in effect that require parents to be responsible for their
child’s behavior and involved in assisting the school in their child’s
educational needs. As our school system
now operates, a great burden is placed on teachers and other school officials
to see that students are provided an appropriate education-- no matter what
level of support or lack of support is available from parents or guardians and
no matter what form of behavior the child demonstrates. Students who are cared for appropriately at
home and come to school ready to learn often experience an impediment of
learning because of deficiencies on the part of others.
How simple (and dull) life would be if our children were
pink or blue pegs who rode silently along in our little plastic cars as we
drove past signs that said things like, “Roll for school choice,” and “Instill
parental value system now.”
Being a parent is a difficult job, but somebody has to do it. Sometimes parents, schools and government mix
roles and forget who should have ultimate power and responsibility to care for children.
The following are emails sent and received concerning
the ReLife program for middle school students with
behavioral disorders.
School Board Member Concerns-- Views
from Around the State
One week ago, I acquired the email addresses of school
board members in every school district in our state, from the WSSDA site,
accessed through OSPI. Since then, I
have been labeled an “organization”... “harvesting emails,” and the email
addresses have been removed from the public site. My objective, as a parent and a taxpayer, was
to contact those most knowledgeable about individual school districts, share
some of my ideas and concerns about high stakes testing and other areas of
Tonasket: “Say, I enjoyed your message about
the WASL.. so, Tell me what you think about the current move to change school
levy's and bonds to a simple majority.. from the current status.. The Evergreen
School Board is currently spearheading a move to change it.
Perhaps, we need to change all tax laws to require the
supermajority vote.. and then we in the eastern part of the state would not be
funding a stadium for Paul Allen...”
Riverview: “Fascinating address list! Could you please explain
why the last political bodies with local control should
care about OSPI and the WASL?”
to send them to me!
You must not be too busy, if you have the time to
waste as you've been to day unless you are wasting the
time of your
employer.”
Ocosta: “I appreciate you sharing your concerns, but in the
future when you continue to do this, please put a small description of the
content of the letter in
the subject line instead of just "a
letter....." That would be much
helpful. Keep
pounding away.”
and open minded individual-- I am open to all
information including
diverse points of view.
Should I not choose to read any future emails-- my
"delete" button
consumes little of my time or energy to use.”
Mukilteo: “I would be willing to discuss issues
with you from time to time, however my
school e-mail address automatically forwards to my
office e-mail. While you
certainly have a passion for issues related to public
education, I'd
appreciate you changing out my address for your thoughts
to my personal
e-mail.
Since I don't agree with all of your premises, I'm sure
we can have a lively
exchange of philosophy. . .”
believe that you have a lot of insightful things to say.
Please DON'T
take me off of your mailing list. I would really like to
hear from you
in the future.
There is one thing that you could do for me though. When
you
send out a mass email, please create a master list in a
blind
carbon copy so that you aren't forwarding all of these
email
addresses to everyone on the list. I realize anyone
could obtain the
addresses the same way as you did, but I think it makes
people
touchy when they see they've been forwarded to everyone
in the
State. Also this will eliminate forwarding of every
direct reply you
receive to the original email.
Hope this helps.
Thank you again for your interest and dedication.”
Our reform
movement came from parents and business people that said we are not expecting
enough from our kids and graduating many without skills that they need to be
successful. We, as a system were not being held accountable for those
deficiencies. The result of course is the state testing.
I believe we have to offer system
alternatives to testing that will demonstrate student success and
accountability. That's where the problem lies. I don't know the answer......and
would welcome any suggestions!”
Steilacoom Historical: “I enjoy your
feedback.”
I would like to share how often I have been told to say
something a different way so no one gets angry. Or, that is a trigger word
don't use it or if you see that name as an endorsement that means they are o.k.
I wish people would stop looking for conspiracies and start realizing there are
good people out there trying to make a difference.
...the problem of placing a workplace model in a school
is that firing students(holding them back a grade) because they don't work out
is unacceptable. If I as a school board member were told to keep a child back
because of a test, my inclination would be to immediately eliminate grade
levels. If the object is to learn, then let us teach them.”
exercise their brains, make a decision about what kind
of society they want
and vote accordingly,
The Charlie Brown quote applies here. "We have
found the enemy and he is
us".
The sixties quote was "If you are not part of the
solution, you are part of
the problem."
It is my personal belief that it is the people we share
our thoughts and
ideas with on a daily basis that influence the future
course of events. The
more people we touch with these ideas and thoughts, the
greater our
influence.”
We have received over 50 pages from you and responses to
your e-mails in the
last couple days.
They come into my office and I have to print them out to
pass on to my wife, who is the School Board Member.
Each of your
letters carries two and a half pages of header, and
averages four pages, to print out.
One of the
replies, (with headers) required eight full pages to print
out. This gets
expensive & time consuming for me. (Us).
If you have
something concerning "
feel free to send a personal e-mail, but no more group
messages please.”
Unknown: “Dear Spammer You sound like sour grapes to me. Just because you can't get your way, you want
the majority to step aside and let spoiled brats like you prevail.
Sorry Charlie, no banana. Jail sounds like a good option for you.”
Same Unknown, next day: “Get used to the
idea! Public Schools are the most
inefficient form of education that we have.
To have an efficient process, education must be
removed from the public sector and run as a business by
a private
corporation. Some
one must be in charge that does not have to yield to
individual political whims. When you have candidates for school board
spending thousands of dollars on their campaigns,
something is wrong.
Our only hope is for the charter school movement, or
promote private
schools, as has happened in other schools.
You are barking up the wrong tree and that is why you
have so many levels of
educational government.
Someone tried to consolidate the levels back in the
70's and look at what you have!
The state legislature needs to put the educational
process into private
hands and eliminate the "goldfish bowl"
problem. Every student needs a good
education, but it is a privilege and not a
"right".”
Darrington:
“I find too many lacks, and way too many wants
or Me
Me Me 's in public education. Never enough what can I DO to help. My goal
(some say Passion) is that every child that enters the Darrington school
district graduate
with ability and passion.. the ability to work and
thrive in our community whether that be Darrington or the world and the
passion to want to never stop learning or trying to
teach others .. I also
would like our students to have pride in our education
system, also skills
to use their abilities to go anywhere and do what ever
they choose. I used
to ask the youth of Darrington
ARE you ready for college,? Have you
taken
the p.s.a.t. and are you ready for the S.A.T.
Now, however, I ask them
do you have enough credits to be what ever the next
level is for the
individual I am talking to . Why the change of question, because we had
a girl at graduation time a 1/2 credit short of graduating, this is just
unacceptable to me . [She is emaciated , her mom an dad
were drug and alcohol
addicted and totally irresponsible ... by their own admission, they told
us that she was rising her younger brother while they
were at the local bar
or high .The girl was going to school , getting her
little brother off to
school, and working a job . I say if she could do that
only be short a ½
then we should give it to her, after isn't' our goal as
a board and
community to get kids ready for the real world ? they were
asking to just
let her walk with her class, she has commit to finishing
the credit.
However, bound by our board policy we could not let her
walk not having
completed the required credits] so those are my concerns. I am with you on the top
heavy admin the unequal spread of money's in our state.
I am interested
in know
everything is to know about financial
aid and Career development
for all students
. Keep me informed please”
“...to speak about the harm of the wasal
so far haven't found anyone really thinking its sliced
bread....”
Highland: “Here are a few basic ideas that I
believe would make the largest difference in education in our state: 1. More days for students in the class room
(closer to the numbers in other countries that are doing well in testing). 2.
Grandfather out the system of tenure so teachers continue to be
evaluated with the ability to remove ineffective employees. This could nicely dovetail with raise
increases for other teachers that do a great job. Monitor the types of classes teachers take to
get credits, many have nothing to do with their field yet they work toward pay
increases.”
the status of education in the state of
network for communicating with others on educational
issues of importance
to me and my school district. Take me off your e-mail list ! !”
Kalama: “Take me off this list
immediately!!!!!!!!!”
Northport: ”My main concern are the Home Schooled. Our district faces a declining
enrollment with approximately 200 students being home
schooled in the
district. Because
of many reasons these students/parents will not register.
Many times when these students are returned to pubic
education they are
seriously lacking.
What to do??
My concern about testing is this. We are all different in many ways and all
have different abilities, so how can a test become a
measure for everyone?
If school time must be spent getting students ready for
a test instead of
performing to his or her potential best, what or how
much is being lost?”
Yelm: “Please remove me from your
mailing list. Too work has gone into
WASL and I support it 100%. Thanks
anyway. I will be deleting all your e-mails
in the future, without reading them. Get
a life.”
Port Angeles: “I am a former teacher and husband of
school board member here in Port
Angeles. I read
with interest with some of your concerns about education,
particularly the WASL.
I am in favor
of the WASL in principle, that is teaching kids to think
and reason. The testing procedure is unreasonable under
the usual school
testing procedures. One does not perform well under test
stress(that is abut
50 % of the kids) Lets find a way to accomplish the
standards without the
intense pressure.
My concern for
education ( I taught for 37 years) is of a different
nature. I am concerned
much more about learning than I am teaching.
Students have been "taught" a great many
things but they don't seem to keep
it. I would like to see ways to have information go to
long term memory
storage. Why do they (we) forget. I enjoy little kids
and watching them
learn. (It is intense , focused and random)
I have
another concern that we (educators) don't have a clear idea of
what literacy is. How many hundreds of students that I
know who are doing
just fine (some much more than fine) who did not perform
at a high level in
school. What is it we want students to know ? What does
a society want and
need from each of the graduating classes? I believe we
need to know how each
student is smart not how "smart " they are
with some unwieldly instrument.
Wouldn’t it
be interesting to have each student come to a place in
school and say " Im ready
for the test " and have it
administered then. The
teachers could teach .
Wouldn't it
be interesting to have a group of parents and teachers and
others in the community really get serious about a
survey of what
constitutes literacy for them.
Just some random thoughts . I do believe the WASL is
here to stay , lets
work with it's skeleton and work with the belief that
all kids are capable
learners.”
Oak Harbor: “Some of your information is right on
the mark. We here in Oak Harbor have had
30 years of failed levy's and we keep trying to get one passed. Our
voters here are very reluctant to vote anything for the
schools....especially a hot lunch program. There are 6600 students in WA
state that do not have access to a hot lunch program,
and 6000 of those
reside in Oak Harbor.
SAD!!!”
Sumner: “Thanks for the note and the
perspective. I look forward to
your thoughts and comments.”
South Kitsap: “Please remove me from your mailing
list. I do not like receiving unsolicited mail. Thank you.”
Central Kitsap: “Why am I on all of these email
lists? What is your personal e-mail
address? I have a lot of mail that I
would like to send you.”
Response to Central Kitsap:
Dear --------,
I apologize if I have offended you in any way with my
communications. I have removed you from
my email list of school board members from around the state, as you
requested. However, I will respond to
your questions.
"Why am I on all of these e-mail lists?"
You were on my email list because: 1. You are a school board member. 2. I am very concerned about the policies
that are currently being formulated for Washington State Public Schools. 3. I believe that an increase of
communication between stake holders and decision makers at all levels of public
education can only increase its quality.
"What is your personal e-mail address? I have a lot
of mail that I would
like to send you."
This is my personal email address, and if I was a school
board member, I would expect that parents of public school children would be
able to reach me on my email address either at work or at home to offer comment
on issues that are of statewide importance to public schools and school
children. As a parent, I would be happy
to read any opinion you as a school board member have about the education of
our children.
Since you as a school board member in Central Kitsap are
obviously not interested in reading my parental commentary I will bother you
with it no further.
Have a good summer.
Juanita Doyon
Bethel District and Washington State Public School
Parent
Advocate for the Improvement of Parent/School
Communications
May the Good Lord Bless and Keep Us All!
Betty
Bullock
419-208th
St E
Spanaway,
WA 98387
To The Academic Achievement and
Accountability Commission;
I
grew up in an age when school was the main focus of a child’s life. No TV, no video games, no computers. We did have radios that we glued ourselves to
once or twice a week to listen to our favorite serials.
My
family moved around a lot and I was rather shy but adjusted to a lot of school
changes. Our last move brought me to a
small town where in eighth grade we had to pass state exams to go on to high
school, because our school was not accredited.
I
passed the tests and moved on to high school where I enjoyed debate, drama,
orchestra, sports and academics. I managed
to stay on the honor roll even with all of my diverse interests.
This
may all seem like there is no point, as it is so personal, but let me get to
the point now.
I
have one sibling, a sister, who is fourteen months older and was one grade
ahead of me and had a passion for reading (I hated it). At eighth grade graduation she was
valedictorian. At her high school
graduation she was valedictorian. In
1940, my senior year, one day my mother said to me, “You could be valedictorian
too, if you would just try.”
Only
I can know what my feelings were. I have
never forgotten it and never will. I had
failed my mother’s WASL test even though I was a good, diverse student.
If
our schools and teachers are accredited, let’s trust them.
Betty
Bullock
Increasing the Significance of Site Councils
In
the Washington State OSPI “Comprehensive Learning Improvement Plan,” it is
stated that “Educational improvement is a bottom-up process encompassing the
whole community, recognizing that ‘It takes a whole community to raise a
child.’”
For
several years, I have held to the belief that Site Councils could offer the best hope of effective,
representative, community-based decision making and, thus, community buy-in to
the improvement of education for all children.
As
they now exist, site councils are not a significant entity toward the goal of
parent and community engagement in school, district or state education
policy.
The
very idea that individual site councils would be completely free to develop
their own by-laws, operating principles and membership quotas, set them on a
course of sure impotence on anything but an individual building level. Schools do not operate without networking
with and dependence on districts and school boards. School boards and districts in turn operate
by networking with and dependence on state education agencies. By relegating site councils to
building-only,
decision making abilities, there has been no offering of a
meaningful
say in our own destiny.
Several
things must happen on the state and at the district level before site councils
fulfill their most beneficial role in the education world of Washington State.
Site
Councils are in place in most if not all districts. They are officially recognized education
entities. Washington State OSPI, the
State Board of Education and our State Legislature could choose to increase the
value of site councils, by finding ways to ensure equitable membership and
by-laws across the state, and by working
with districts to facilitate site council input to the decision making process.
For
your consideration, I have included the Site Council Rubric Survey I developed
several years ago and an illustration of what site councils could offer our
schools and communities.
Top Concerns for Education:
1. Diversity and complexity of funding, leading to an inequity of
educational quality in the State of Washington.
Bethel School District has failed 8 bond measure in 10
years, while we grow at a rate of 300 students per year. I've discovered that some districts never
even bother with Bonds. They have enough
of a tax base to run "Construction Levies" and pay as they go. State monies come with strings. The placement of education initiatives on the
general election ballot should be a sign to our state leaders that funding laws
need to be simplified and modified for a more equitable and realistic
distribution of funds. Average per FTE
spending in our state has increased by nearly $2,000 dollars over the past 8
years. I have not fully researched the
areas of spending this covers, but I believe this is money spent at the local
district level. This should indicate
that there is no lack of monetary resources for the educational needs of our
students.
2. Waste of resources, through too many layers of educational government.
We have a State School Board and a Superintendent of
Public Instruction, Educational Service Districts and House and Senate
committees on Education. Why do we need
an Accountability Commission? OSPI SBE
WSSDA ESD AAAC SESB... --Somebody isn't
earning their pay!
3. Lack of leadership assessment, both at the state and local level.
There are varying levels of scandal and corruption in
our school districts. Some have little,
some have much. The "human"
factor is present in every area of our society, including our schools. Is there a section of OSPI that tracks
principals and other administrators who are removed from their positions or
resign under distressed circumstances, to ensure that they are not hired by
other school districts? Are school
districts held accountable on an intense enough level for the monies they
oversee? Who assesses the State
Superintendent? And who holds the whole
bureaucracy of the OSPI accountable?
Testing students and pressuring teachers is not a viable solution to
ineffective leadership.
4. Total centralization of education decision making.
I joined a site council in the Bethel District 8 years
ago. At that time it was our duty to
draw up a strategic plan for school improvement. We chose 5 areas of needed improvement for
our school to focus on for the year.
Through the years, this charge has been whittled away, until, for the
last 4 or 5 years we have had no choice in areas. They are directed from the state, through the
district to be reading and math. WASL
score improvement is the ultimate goal!
New curriculum has been slipped in under our noses by the purchase of
text books that are totally aimed for the Goals 2000 agenda of the federal
government. Parents have been begging
for text books for years, but these are not necessarily the textbooks we had in
mind.
5. Apathy or lack of engagement on the part of parents and community
members.
With a loss of power and input to decision making,
parent and community members have less desire to be involved in schools. Parents don't understand the math homework
their kids bring home, much less WASL sample questions. When we question those who should have the
power, we are treated with condescension and told we are the only ones who have
voiced concern. We are told that the
"experts" know best and they have the good of our children in
mind. Someone is forgetting that they
are still our children and we should be considered the "experts" who
care for them, unless we demonstrate otherwise.
A Few Random Questions
Have
current state educational leaders placed too much emphasis on one testing
format? (WASL)
Was
there an appropriate trial period of the new standards-based test and
curriculum, before it's implementation and administration was required
statewide and scores were published?
Are the following