READ OUR BLOG

“The legislature has made a commitment to rigorous academic standards for receipt of a high school diploma.”  - From the bill enacting WASL education reform, 1993, (RCW 28A.655.065(1)).

Introduction

In the closing days of the 2007 legislative session, Governor Gregoire faced her first test on an issue she has made a top priority of her administration – education.

In March, she announced her plan to cancel the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) math and science requirements for students graduating in 2008 and delay them until 2013, twenty years after lawmakers enacted education reform based on rigorous academic standards.[1]

With her announcement, a movement to also delay the reading and writing WASL gained steam.  In mid-April, just ten days before the end of the legislative session, Senator Rosemary McAuliffe, the Chair of the Senate Education Committee, responded to a request from 42 school superintendents and sought to delay the requirement that students graduating in 2008 pass the reading and writing portions of the 10th grade WASL.  This occurred despite the fact that in 2006, 87% of students passed the reading portion of the WASL and 85% passed the writing portion.[2]

By the last weekend of the session, April 21st and 22nd, Governor Gregoire managed to overcome Senator McAuliffe’s effort, but the governor did sign a bill, ESSB 6023, which does cancel the 2008 WASL math and science standard and bars them from being implemented for five years.  The change means that five more statewide classes of high school seniors, approximately 340,000 young people, will receive diplomas without showing that they have a good knowledge of 8th grade-level math and science.

The irony is that gradually the WASL is succeeding as intended by creating practical and measurable standards for student achievement.  Increasing numbers of students are passing the math WASL and even more will pass before 2008. 

The push to roll back education standards

The eleventh-hour skirmish over graduation requirements highlights the fierce pressure being put on state lawmakers to roll back the last 14 years of standards-based education reform, dating to Governor Booth Gardner’s Education Reform Act of 1993.   The goal of the Gardner reform was to restore the value of a Washington state high school diploma by defining academic standards, upgrading curricula and developing a test, the WASL, to insure that students who have devoted 12 years to public education possess at least a basic level of skill in reading, writing and math.

A third goal of this law, to make “schools and school districts accountable for student achievement,” has not yet been undertaken by Washington, although Washington Learns, the special education commission appointed by the governor, promises recommendations for school accountability by December 2008.[3]

The standard of knowledge measured by the WASL

While a useful tool, the WASL test as currently administered contains serious weaknesses.  The 10th grade math portion of the WASL covers pre-algebra and basic geometry, material which students in other countries study in 7th or 8th grade.

The 10th grade reading and writing portions of the WASL cover material that is appropriate for 8th and 9th graders, but does not require students to acquire the level of reading necessary to succeed in college or in the workplace.

Students in Washington are only required to take two years of high school math, while other states, such as Texas, typically require four years of high school math and science before graduation.

Currently, a little more than half of high school juniors (39,533, or 57.7%), have managed to pass the math WASL.  Fully 42% (28,975) of juniors have so far been unable to pass the math WASL.[4]   While disappointing, these results are a marked improvement over 2000-2001, when only 38.9% of students passed the 10th grade math WASL.

In 2005-6 the percentage of juniors who failed was 49%, or 33,601 students.  This means that in the intervening year, 4,626 students have joined the numbers of passing students.  Increasing numbers are likely to pass in the intervening days between now and June 2008.  Delaying the math WASL requirement undermines the efforts of successful students and their teachers, and of students who are working hard in hopes of passing the test before 2008.

Washington’s weak methods for teaching math

Unfortunately, the legislature’s commitment to rigorous academic standards has been seriously undermined by the mistakes and failures of the current system.  The intense focus on the math WASL has revealed to the legislature and the governor that the methods used for teaching math in public schools are weak and ineffective in educating students.[5]

The Thomas B. Fordham Institute graded Washington’s math standards as an “F” in 2006 for fuzziness, reliance on calculators and focusing on “talking about solving problems rather than actually solving them.”[6]

Where’s the Math (at www.wheresthemath.com) is a group of math teachers in Washington dismayed by what they call the “new-age” math methods imposed on students by the state’s educational bureaucracy.   A thorough review of current math teaching systems, such as TERC/Investigations and Everyday Mathematics, reveals the confusing, burdensome and time-consuming methods dictated by our current math curricula for teaching basic problem solving in double-digit multiplication and long division.  Under these methods, if a math problem becomes too difficult, the teacher is to instruct the student to either guess or simply use a calculator to find the answer.

As a solution, members of Where’s the Math promote the adoption of rigorous, proven programs for teaching students how to understand numbers, such as Saxon Math method or Singapore Math.

The poor quality of public education in Washington

 Other statistics show that Washington policymakers should reinforce, not weaken, their commitment to rigorous academic standards.  It is clear that Washington’s K-12 education system is seriously failing to prepare our students to function as educated, independent adults in 21st century society.  The League of Education Voters puts it this way:

“Thousands of middle-class students drift through school unchallenged or unmotivated, unable to make the connection between school and the rest of their lives.”[7]

Large numbers are dropping out of the public education system.  For every 100 public school students entering ninth-grade, 70 students graduate from high school four years later, 30 students enter a community college or university, 23 students return for their sophomore year, and 16 students receive a diploma within six years.[8]

Washington Learns reports that one-third of the adult population has only a high school diploma or less, that the younger working-age population is less educated than their older counterparts, and that nearly one-quarter of employers report difficulty finding qualified job applicants with occupation-specific skills.

Washington’s college entrance rate is the third lowest in the nation, and half of recent high school graduates entering community college must take remedial math classes before they are ready for college-level math.  In addition, one third of those entering college must take remedial math.  Bill Gates puts the problem this way:

“My wife, Melinda, and I have heard the tragic stories time and again.  In Washington and other states, we learn about talented high-school students who don't fulfill their promise – not because they fail at school, but because our schools fail them.  They study hard, do well and get into college.  But in college, instead of the good grades they're used to, they get D’s and F’s.  They take remedial classes, but still they can’t keep up – so they quit.”[9]

The shortcomings of our K-12 system have resulted in a serious imbalance between workforce supply and job demand.  In 2004, 68% of Washington employers reported difficulty hiring workers with an undergraduate college degree.  The number of degrees attained by graduating students in key fields is falling well short of projected annual job openings.  In engineering the rate is only 51%, in nursing 34%, and in computer science 72%.  This is a serious and ongoing problem for the future of Washington state.

Money is not the answer – public schools already receive ample funding

Many policymakers, advocates and teachers union representatives claim that adding more money to education budgets will solve these problems.  However, public schools in Washington already receive far more money, in absolute terms, than at any point in the state’s history.

Between 1994 and 2006, Washington increased per student expenditures from $5,608 per student to $8,324 per student, an increase of 48%, substantially more than the rise in inflation.  Between 1982 and 2002, in inflation-adjusted dollars, operating expenditures on public schools increased over 92%, while school enrollment over the same period increased only 34%.

The two-year budget just passed by the Legislature increases spending on basic K-12 education by another $1.743 billion, a 14.8% increase over the previous two-year budget.[10]  On top of the basic level spending, the Legislature has spent over $1.7 billion in targeted education programs since 1993.  By any reasonable standard, public schools in Washington receive ample funding.

Proposals for commonsense reform

The problem is not lack of money, but rather the organizational structure of Washington schools. Washington’s public schools are controlled by centralized bureaucracies enforcing rules which undermine school and student achievement, and which stifle innovation.

In 2005 the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee surveyed all 296 school districts in the state.  Ninety-six percent of the districts reported that central administrators, not principals,  decide when to hire new teachers.[11]  More than half reported that central administrators decide which teachers to hire, and 86% reported that central administrators set the number and type of classified staff employed at each school.  In addition, each school principal controls less than 5% of the money allocated to his or her school.  The other 95% of the budget is controlled by pre-set formulas, long-term labor contracts and mandatory unions dues or by central office staff.

Seattle school officials have to some extent decentralized control of their schools through use of the weighted student formula (WSF) and school choice, with some beneficial effects on student achievement.  State policymakers should promote the use of this type of formula so that education dollars will follow students from school to school.

Also, parents should be allowed to choose among public schools without regard to centralized rules or arbitrary restrictions.  Educators, policymakers and advocates consistently say that parental involvement is the key to a successful school.  Allowing parents full control in choosing a public school for their children is the best way to get parents fully involved in their children’s education.

These and similar commonsense reforms will build on the growing success of the WASL and return Washington public schools to the academic success promised by lawmakers when standards-based education reform was enacted with such fanfare in 1993.

---