The Columbian’s Sept. 9 editorial on Washington’s poor finish in the national Race to the Top (RTTT) education grant was a tough but necessary read. As one of three members of the state’s steering committee for the state’s application, I can tell you that I share in the newspaper’s disappointment.
The Columbian claims it was questionable time management, an effort to chase pocket change rather than meaningful change. The editorial also proclaims that the state has reacted to our RTTT failure with ‘crickets,’ a silence of passive defeat.
I disagree. The Race to the Top process was a catalyst to change in this and many other states. Race to the Top spurned key education reforms, including: a new accountability system to improve our persistently lowest-achieving schools, new teacher and principal evaluation systems that factor in student success, and improved standards and clear assessments through the provisional adoption of the common core standard.
None of these are a panacea — there is clearly more work ahead of us.
We need to ask more of our teachers. They need to be willing to adopt and adhere to proven, research-based successful practices, and they must be held accountable for student learning. We must also have a plan for compensating, promoting, and retaining teachers and principals, using student growth as a significant factor, as well as a plan for retraining or replacing ineffective teachers.
We need to ask more of our administrators and local board members. The academic achievement gap and the high school dropout rates need immediate and specific attention. We cannot accept mediocrity, and we must have leaders who are willing to learn from other successful districts/schools and impart those same practices in their own local buildings.
We need to ask more of our parents, the primary teachers. They must take ownership in their children’s education, supporting their children and the education system in a crucial partnership. They must invest in learning through study support, sharing in the excitement of the day’s lessons, and making sure their students are held accountable for their work.
No easy task
We need to ask more of our legislators and state education leaders, as well. Education must be fully funded, and that includes the prompt implementation of the State Board of Education’s new college- and career-ready graduation requirements, a diploma that will leave all options open for our graduates. We must also make the 2010 Education Plan (currently in its final stages), an essential road map for the highway of across-the-board school improvement. The Education Plan takes into account lessons learned from our Race to the Top application, setting Washington on a new course to K-12 improvements.
These changes will not come easy. But we also know that Washingtonians have grown tired of, as the Columbian article states, impediments to progress.
If we allow the status quo to continue unabated, then The Columbian’s perceptions are correct. Complacency and passivity will make ‘progressive reform’ unattainable.
Hopefully, Race to the Top will mark the beginning and not a setback. As a parent, education leader, and public school advocate, I see our poor performance on Race to the Top as a call to action. Now, more than ever, we must redouble efforts to make Washington’s public schools a premiere K-12 system.
Jeff Vincent of Bainbridge Island is chairman of the Washington State Board of Education (www.sbe.wa.gov/).
