I’m disturbed by the questions that weren’t asked last week after state Superintendent Terry Bergeson admitted: “We can’t hide the fact that we gave diplomas last year to kids who couldn’t read.” She plans to remedy this outrage with a new $42 million, five-week summer program to teach basic reading, writing and math skills to high school students.
Here are some of the questions I think Superintendent Bergeson should answer:
1. Nearly sixty percent of our state’s tenth-grade students failed at least one core subject on the WASL last year. How do you expect a five-week, $42 million summer program to make up for the apparent failure of ten years of full-time schooling at a cost of billions?
2. You were leading the charge more than a decade ago in the state’s major education reform efforts, which promised that, by the year 2000, Washington’s students would “leave grades four, eight and twelve having demonstrated competency over challenging subject matter, including English, math and science,” and that at least 90 percent of our students would be graduating from high school. You have been the state’s top education official for the last nine years. How do you explain these broken promises?
3. Your office commissioned a review of the tenth-grade WASL, which concluded that reading standards amount to 8th or 9th grade content nationally and math standards amount to 6th or early 7th grade content internationally. Why do you continue to claim this test is rigorous and these standards are high?
4. If our state’s education reform efforts are still not working (as shown by a large majority of students failing) after twelve years of implementation (an entire generation of students from kindergarten through high school), isn’t it time to admit we may be headed in the wrong direction?
Our current public education system is not a work in progress; it is a failure. It stifles rather than cultivates the most important factors in student achievement: highly qualified teachers in every classroom; clear and rigorous academic standards; strong school leaders; local control for parents, teachers and administrators; and meaningful parental involvement.
You can’t solve a problem until you acknowledge it exists, and you can’t solve it with the same kind of thinking that created it. Change is uncomfortable, but failure to change in this case is unacceptable. It’s time to do what works.
Posted by Marsha Michaelis at December 02, 2005 12:27 PM | Email ThisMy daughter is in all the advanced programs at an Eastside school and, for the most part, I'm happy with the education she is receiving. As parents we must be forever vigilant in paying attention to what they are being taught.
She was telling me about the anti-Walmart movie they had just seen in Social Studies and I spent an hour re-educating her. Just one example. I also sent a letter to the school claiming that I work for Walmart, etc., I don't, but I couldn't resist. I told them that this must be removed or rebutted. They assured me it would.
I'l be watching.
Posted by: Jeffro on December 2, 2005 12:50 PM... what in the BLAZES are they doing during the regular school year that they have to teach the basics during the summer?
Jeffro answers:
She was telling me about the anti-Walmart movie they had just seen in Social Studies
Jeffro is lucky his daughter was subjected to this indoctrination in social studies and not in algebra.
/concerned progressive citizen of Seattle
Posted by: doug on December 2, 2005 01:33 PMYou beat me to the punch and it is obvious that everyone posting so far gets my point. This is what they are doing instead of teaching the basics. I would not have my kids in a Seattle/Washington Public School without a whole bunch of supplemental home schooling and reschooling.
Ask your kids this question - is the air and water cleaner or more polluted than it was 30 years ago, 20 years, 10 years. based on their answers, start reschooling.
And finally, I'm a product of Seattle Public Schools and apologize for my poor spelling and bad grammer. I do want more for my daughter.
Posted by: Jeffro on December 2, 2005 01:35 PMI have obeserved several teachers who were overly concerned with the student's "feelings". Common statement, "I do not want to single them out as failing". And let's not forget that there are more "drugged" students in school today.
As we continue to allow Liberal Democrats to run the schools, this trend will continue. The effect will always be an increase in the number of "uneducated" high school graduate students, not a decrease.
Posted by: Mike P on December 2, 2005 01:39 PMThe Educational Industrial Complex is self-sustaining, self-absorbant and arrogant as heck. If any other industry lobbied like they did, they'd be called special interests long ago. Oops - we call Boeing a special interest.
Time to call special interests special interests Marsha. And go get 'em!!
Oh and let's build a parliament so we can have Marsha hurl these questions at Terry the Terrible's face as they do in B.C.
Posted by: A Watchdog on December 2, 2005 02:07 PMAnd isn't it true that in WA something like 1/4 to 1/3 of the students don't graduate?
For a fix, how about a K-12 system that actually holds teachers and kids accountable for teaching and learning 3 Rs during all the years it's supposed to. Passing kids through without the most basic skills is a travesty and a colossal failure of public schools.
What you will find at our private school, for instance, is a complete lack of time wasted on bowing down to the idols of 'diversity' and all the liberal buzzwords; but you WILL find all kinds of intellectual honesty (e.g., they don't pretend that Christmas isn't a national holiday) and real core knowledge being taught, and they are being taught to THINK for themselves and compentently express themselves in speech and on paper. And they can do MATH! And they know all kinds of history (U.S. and otherwise)! It's a wonder to see!
When our school's college advisor meets with colleagues from public school at her professional gatherings, she notes that they always moan that they worry about the lack of preparedness for college that their students are getting. On the other hand, SHE knows that isn't a problem at our school and is so grateful that she can be confident of her kids' preparedness for higher learning. I could see that with our school's rigorous program that even when our students finish middle school, it's evident that those kids are more prepared for college than many public school h.s. kids. I mention all this to show that it IS possible to give WA public school kids a great education. There just has to be the will and desire to do it on the part of WA's education system. And I know there are some good teachers out there who are hamstrung by the poor expectations of others and the inadequate curriculum they are given to teach. They also aren't allowed to enforce the behavior standards that many of them wish existed in their schools.
I really feel sorry for all these kids that weren't given the education they deserved. But when keeping the WEA members happy is the primary agenda down in Olympia (instead of schoolkids and parents), this is what you get. Sorry, it's just the truth. And there is no excuse for it. Look at it this way, if you hired a private tutor for your child and the result the tutor got out of your kid was that he couldn't read and couldn't do math etc. just like the students Bergeson describes, WOULDN'T YOU FIRE THE TUTOR? So why are these terrible standards accepted in public schools?
I hope that parents see the light and demand a change in priorities down in Oly. But with Gregoire in the gov mansion and 'bought and paid for' by the WEA, that isn't likely to happen. If she can prove me wrong and show a huge increase in the graduation rate and student abilities in basic skills, I'd love to see it. But I think we know that isn't likely.
Yeah, and I am going to stay anon but I can assure you that much of my high school experience was more dominated by bullying instead of learning because the high school wouldn't hunt down the half-dozen or so bullies running the school. As far as I'm concerned the "administrators" are just as guilty as the bully-terrorists and deserve some Bush Doctrine.
That aside: Guess what happened to me instead? I got diagonsed Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, flunked out of university (but hope to make a comeback) and had to spend $$$ on (good) therapy & sleep medication. Lucky for you Joe and Janelle Taxpayer - I'm not sending anybody the bill. All that'd do is take $$$ from the kids for the administrators and the rest of the industrial complex would protect themselves.
Our public schools are an incredible, absolute failure. It's time Marsha Richards or Lynn Harsh ran for Superintendent of Public Instruction... and a Bush(-esque) Doctrine.
Posted by: A Watchdog on December 2, 2005 02:44 PMTo put my concluding thoughts differently: Time for serious accountability.
Posted by: A Watchdog on December 2, 2005 02:46 PMWith our third son (who is now twenty years old), I went to school with him for a day when he was a six grader. I was appalled at what I saw. We immediately pulled him out of public school, and started a home school program. He later graduated from high school after going through the Running Start program where he spent his Junior and Senior high school years at North Seattle Community College. He did very well inspite of the liberal bias of most of his instructors because during his sophomore year at home, I gave him a 12 hr video tape course in "Argumentation," which used to be called Rhetoric, or Debate. (The most productive $80 I ever spent.) He became very skillful in countering the liberal bias, and earned very high marks because of it.
Home schooling isn't as hard as most people think, and just imagine what would happen to the public (government) school (indoctrination) system if everyone did it!! If you want to change the public school system, start home schooling.
My daughter’s Japanese teacher has yet to provide anything resembling a syllabus, they have had only one graded test, and the class will end next February. The teacher lacks any credibility to be a Japanese teacher (except that she is “certified”). No goals, no expectations, no real learning.
I’m convinced that almost every public school in this state is mediocre. However, if you are an actively involved parent, you can get your child a good education.
Note: did anyone else see the irony in Terry Bergeson’s statement that she expects miracles to happen? Miracles… like in divine intervention?
ronin - Yeah. At least at Skagit Valley College, my mentor w/ the initials AMW and call-sign "Seraph Angel" shuts her door and does actual prep work. I never saw that in K-12.
I say get somebody from outside of the system as Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Posted by: A Watchdog on December 2, 2005 03:25 PMIf you're a parent, you are obligated to make sure that your child gets an education that allows them to be competitive in the market place. The worthless Seattle schools are what they are because the parents in those districts sat on their butts and did nothing, except voting yes on every levy buying into the equasion, "money - accountability = learning" liberal philosophy.
No it's not about rich vs. poor. I know many asian refugees that came here with nothing. They were very involved in their kids education. They were very involved.
To a large degree, Up Quark has the right idea, but I subscribe to a simpler program. Supplemental home schooling. This involves a certain amout of re-educating, old school techniques like phonics, lots of hands on and lots of dicipline. Don't forget shame and guilt as motivators for your teens.
It really does come down to the parents.
Posted by: Jeffro on December 2, 2005 04:05 PMAnd what about those whom are (gasp for want of bigger vocabulary) victims of the parents who don't execute?
That said, I agree: "Let's place blame where it belongs ... the lion's share belongs to the Edu-ganda Socialist System we have in place."
Posted by: A Watchdog on December 2, 2005 04:15 PMWell-said :-). And hopefully you or Marsha or Lynn Harsh will challenge her in 2008. Time the conservative bench took a swing...
Posted by: A Watchdog on December 2, 2005 04:57 PMI agree, it is sad that there are parents out there that don't execute, I was one of those kids. My mom was left with six of us to raise on her own. Two of us graduated highschool and college, four dropped out. My parents never even saw any of our report cards. No interest. All of my brothers have managed to go back to school, get technical degrees and are all doing well. How much better with concerned parents? Who knows. My main point is, the buck starts and stops with us. As has been mentioned, let's rally behind reforming the system with new and better leadership. That starts with us but ultimately, what our kids get out of the system is up to us as well. think of it as a multi leveled fix. I completely agree, it's time for a conservative bench to take a swing.
Posted by: Jeffro on December 2, 2005 05:35 PMI have had a chance to view the daily offerings of my sons' online public school program. Some of what they have at this particular school is actually pretty good. On the other hand, some of it is REALLY AWFUL! There is obviously no quality control in place, and obviously someone (at this particular school or higher up in the educrat food chain) has a liberal agenda to push onto these children. It kind of slaps you in the face! Honestly, for the longest time I thought the people who complained about liberal bias in our schools were exaggerating the extent of this abuse of power. Now that I have first-hand experience with it, I am sorry to aver that it is true.
What our family is doing is taking advantage of online classes through the public school system. That way, the school keeps records (which is something I hate to do), and provides something of a framework. And, we get to look at the bias and confront it. I think that is actually a good thing. For example, one of my son's science lessons (a lesson which was supposed to "teach" scientific methods for conducting experiments) was incredibly disgusting. The student was supposed to cut some stalks of celery, then place the stalks of celery in glasses of water which were tinted with varying concentrations of food color. A glass of plain tap water served as the "control". The food color was supposed to "represent" possible pollutants. The students were supposed to make qualitative observations about the health of the celery, then draw conclusions about how plants absorb pollutants from the environment and how they react after absorbing them.
It took no time at all to come up with about a bazillion things wrong with this project. So, we discussed those things and looked at some historic experiments that were considerably more airtight! We read an article from Discover magazine about the subtle influences of maze construction methods on rat behavior (a very interesting article, as many experiments have involved the use of rats navigating mazes). I also hunted and found a copy of "The Art of Scientific Investigation", which is out of print but takes a hard look at experimental procedures. It takes issue with the concept of "scientific method" as the only means of attaining scientific knowledge. It also mentions the role of factors, such as persistence and dumb luck, in scientific discovery.
My point is, those kids who did this science project in the classroom got that same lesson and may have thought they were being taught something of use. As with most grade school lessons, it would have been conducted within the walls of the classroom and the parents would never have known it took place. This is not the fault of uninvolved parents. Unless, of course, involvement in this day and age means you have to be standing in the classroom all day. In that case, you might as well homeschool. I would also like to say that my parents were not even remotely involved with my school (they may have passed through the doors twice), yet I graduated with the ability to read, write and do basic math.
Unionization is indeed what is wrong with the system, and unless we can remove it from the picture, there is no sense throwing additional money at public schooling. Summer school isn't going to cut it. Terry Bergeson needs to be replaced.
Posted by: Peggy U on December 2, 2005 07:15 PMStill, I won't be supporting any school taxes as long as the WEA and the NEA have control of the education in this state aided & abetted by a Democrat-supported Governor & Legislature.
They waste too much money as it is & have nothing to show for it except uneducated kids. Have you looked at your tax bills lately? Why give the unions more money to waste? Use it yourself to supplement the inept instruction in the schools.
Posted by: Clean House on December 2, 2005 07:35 PMBellevue holds high expectations. Students don't get to drop a class because they are failing. They have to stick with it. I have talked to many graduates about how well they were prepared for some of the top colleges in the country, and they are doing well. They are generally better prepared than their peers in writing, and have a solid background in history. Math needs some work, but the district realizes it and is working on it.
So what is the point? Get involved with your school. I get sick of listening to parents who gripe all the time. They tend to parachute in, see something they either misunderstand or take out of context, and then conclude that the whole school stinks. I'm not saying that this is what any of you do, but I've seen enough to know that a lot of complaining parents really aren't involved.
Very simple, and guaranteed to send the WEA into hysterics: Universal vouchers, coupled with privatizing all the schools.
In order to retain price discipline (ie, make sure all the schools don't just charge whatever amount the voucher is for) any voucher money not used each year would be put aside in an account that could be used for any sort of post-HS education-college, tech school, whatever. This would be conditioned on graduation from HS. No graduation, no money.
Posted by: Heartless Libertarian on December 3, 2005 12:30 AM
You are right when you say moving your kids is the only meaningful message you can send. However there is more to raising a family than finding the right public school. You also have to have a job within a reasonable distance and be able to afford to live in the district of your choice. Also, I know of someone who went through a great deal of effort to move into a desired school district, only to have the districts rezoned a year later.
I'll tell you why it is.
Look around. How many people do you know that belong to the WEA? I'd be surprised if you knew anyone outside of the teachers who teach your children. Now how about everyone else?
But let's compare for a moment the political life of these two classes of people.
For the most part, teachers are politically active. They vote. They campaign. They donate money to candidates (whether they want to or not.) This is what makes them the most powerful group in WA. They talk up a storm, but they hit the pavement as well.
For the most part, everyone else isn't politically active. They are more than happy to lay back and let the socialists take over. They're concerned about their time and money and think it is better spent watching TV and buying the latest DVD player.
This spells disaster for us who understand what is happening. If we sit back and let it happen, it will. It is. You don't have to look very far to find the evil roots of tyranny sucking the life out of the people.
How do you stop it? If you want to absolutely crush the union, here's what you do. You get one friend who isn't politically active politically active. You do this by showing them how easy and rewarding it is. You invite them to meet your favorite local politician, who would love to help get your friend involved. You find an issue they care about and start helping them get their issue implemented. You show them that the democrats are the center ring of the political circus, but it's only a show they put on, and real politics is completely different. See, politics is about PEOPLE, and hearts and minds. It comes down to how many votes are cast. And fortunately, there is still a majority of intelligent and wise Americans in this country who would rather cut down tyranny than feed it.
What happens when the people get off their sofa, grab the reigns of government, and assert their authority over public employees? If you look at history, especially in our own country, you can see quite plainly what happens. Things change, in a big way. And I'm not talking ancient history. I'm talking Iraq War, 2004 presidential elections, and what Stefen is doing to fix our election system in King County. (You want to watch what one person can do in our country? Watch Stefen.)
Next time you hear someone complain about how things work (or don't), I want you to tell them: I don't remember seeing you at the last school board meeting. I don't remember seeing you on the streets waving signs or at the campaign rallies. As far as I'm concerned, you're the reason we have the problems we have. Get off your butt, and do something to fix it. This is America, and WE THE PEOPLE made it, and WE THE PEOPLE better get off our butt or we won't be able to keep it!
This goes to all the home-schoolers as well. They should've taken over these school boards long ago, and displaced the WEA as the most powerful political group. They certainly have enough numbers to do so, not to mention the cash, wit, and understanding!
I can tell you from personal experience and from direct observation that a small group of concerned citizens can take and hold the school board of a major city! Look at Federal Way!
Posted by: Jonathan Gardner on December 3, 2005 02:24 AMThis would fix the problems in a big way.
But we have to be careful. The liberals will put strings on it so that you can only spend the vouchers in a public school. Or if it left the public school, they would still leave half the money in the public school. Or they would put so many rules and restrictions on the schools you can spend the money on that the schools would have to underperform like a public school to get the money.
If we can get unrestricted, fully funded vouchers, that would be the panacaea.
Posted by: Jonathan Gardner on December 3, 2005 02:33 AMYou missed the part where I said privatize all the schools. Olympia would be completely out of the business of actually providing school. They would just provide money. All Olympia would do is set the standards for what would have to be achieved at each grade level.
Posted by: Heartless Libertarian on December 3, 2005 06:27 AMHillsdale College used to accept military veterans who were being paid under the "GI Bill." That money went directly to the veteran after he/she enrolled in a college of choice. In that respect, it functioned much like a voucher, and the Feds then tried to impose regulations on Hillsdale. Hillsdale fought it and lost. Then, they stopped accepting anyone who was receiving Federal money, and set up privately funded endowments for scholarships.
In this country, because of the Supreme Court, vouchers won't work. It gets down to the Golden Rule -- he who has the gold makes the rules. (Now, New Zealand is a different story. The gov't provides the money, but the parents make the rules. What a novel idea?) But, here even if the Feds only provided 10 percent or less of the funding, the rules that come with it would kill the program.
If you want to change the rules by which schools operate, you have to change the funding to all private, which is why I support home schooling. It doesn't get any more private than that.
While researching this subject years ago, I found that even so called "private" schools had to accept a certain amount of government regulation, and the only way I could escape it was at home.
I know it is not for everyone, but Washington state is very friendly to home schoolers, and it might help more of you out there than you think.
Posted by: Up Quark on December 3, 2005 09:45 AM
You missed the part where I said privatize all the schools. Olympia would be completely out of the business of actually providing school. They would just provide money. All Olympia would do is set the standards for what would have to be achieved at each grade level.
HL... better check our progressive Washington State constitution which requires the state government to provide free basic education to all children. I'm not sure if the particulars of "providing" are laid out, so perhaps funding private schooling would be constitutional. Still, you have a very tough hill to climb with that one. I say go for it!