Tepid reforms won't get us to the 'Top'

This editorial appears in the Feb. 21, 2010, Yakima Herald-Republic.

Boldness and politics seem to be mutually exclusive terms these days, and that's abundantly clear in the latest effort by the Legislature to climb aboard the money train marked "Race to the Top."

This lucrative initiative of the Obama administration offers $4 billion in education grants to states in hopes of bringing accountability and improved outcomes to our nation's schools. Washington lost out on the first round -- actually, Gov. Chris Gregoire decided against even letting the state compete.

Instead, the governor and education leaders chose to seek legislative action to reform our schools and transform Washington into a prohibitive favorite for the competition. How could Education Secretary Arne Duncan resist our package of new reforms?

However, before anyone starts handing out party favors to celebrate the anticipated windfall from Duncan's largesse, it might be prudent to see what overall effect these proposed reforms would bring.

Sadly, not much.

Even sponsors of recently passed Senate Bill 6696 are not pleased with the results. State Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima, supported the measure but agreed the reforms fall far short of what is needed to make the grade in the Race to the Top.

The Obama administration wants strict accountability in the classroom, and that means connecting a teacher's performance to student test scores. In other words, we should be able to track how well students do from the day they enter the classroom in September until they leave in June.

That's not contained in SB 6696. Sure, it has some language about evaluations of teachers and principals, but it leaves the task of drawing up how that's going to be handled to each school district. That means a possible 295 different ways of assessing how well teachers and principals have performed.

King said he tried to change that through an amendment, creating a standard system of evaluation that would be linked to student test scores and would be overseen by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. It would bring both consistency and accountability, the hallmarks of what Race to the Top is all about.

That certainly makes sense to us, but it apparently didn't to lawmakers. King's amendment was brushed aside.

The Senate bill also fails to embrace the inclusion of charter schools, which the Obama administration has consistently pushed as an option to replace failing schools. This was a nonstarter given the adamant opposition by the state's influential teachers union, which for years has fought the establishment of charter schools. Though these schools can offer innovations, they also require close monitoring to ensure a quality education is provided. They also often open the door to nonunion teachers, and the Washington Education Association is not going to let that happen in this state.

While the Senate bill takes small steps in the right direction, there's nothing in the measure that rises to the level of the boldness for which Race for the Top requires. This is not a tortoise-and-the-hare contest where slow-but-sure wins.

Improving our schools takes political courage. And from what we see in the current reforms, that's clearly lacking.

* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Bob Crider, Spencer Hatton and Karen Troianello.