New Democrat Update - January 2007
BRAVE NEW WORLD
State House Speaker and Colorado DLC Co-Chair Andrew Romanoff (D-Denver), along with Senate President Pro Tem Peter Groff (D-Denver), are taking the first steps toward a comprehensive reform of the state’s public education system. A report issued last month by the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce - a bipartisan panel of former cabinet secretaries and governors, federal and state education officials, as well as business and civic leaders - is spurring the effort.
Romanoff plans to set up a task force to evaluate the Commission’s recommendations and customize them to Colorado’s specific situation, indicating that “the report will provide the basis for our conversation.” The document clearly summarizes the challenges facing the state and the rest of the nation.
“Whereas for most of the 20th century the United States could take pride in having the best-educated workforce in the world, that is no longer true. Over the past 30 years, one country after another has surpassed us in the proportion of their entering workforce with the equivalent of a high school diploma, and many more are on the verge of doing so. Thirty years ago, the United States could lay claim to having 30 percent of the world's population of college students. Today that proportion has fallen to 14 percent and is continuing to fall.
While our international counterparts are increasingly getting more education, their young people are getting a better education as well. American students and young adults place anywhere from the middle to the bottom of the pack in all three continuing comparative studies of achievement in mathematics, science, and general literacy in the advanced industrial nations.”
The Commission’s proposed reforms are truly revolutionary. Among a number of other sweeping measures, the panel calls for requiring graduation exit exams, implementing charter districts, making creativity central to the curriculum, doubling teacher salaries, overhauling the current testing system, and funding preschool for all 4-year olds and all low- income 3-year olds.
Clearly, the Commission’s reforms are controversial and require additional debate. As former President Clinton education secretary Richard W. Riley says, "The question this report raises is whether our country has the kind of education system that is needed to maintain America's standard of living for our children, our grandchildren, and future generations. I very much hope that it will spark the kind of tough, honest debate on that topic that it so richly deserves."
The Commission’s major premise is right on target - the kind of systemic overhaul necessary to offer all students a high-quality public education is not taking place. That's why the time has come for a whole new look at public education - not just inching ahead with incremental reforms, but a total transformation of how we educate our children.
The state task force should avoid getting bogged down in arguments between the need for more investment or more reform. That is a false choice. Investment without accountability is a waste of money. Accountability without investment is doomed to fail. Colorado needs both because reform itself requires more resources.
Before asking taxpayers for additional money, the task force should recommend that measures are taken to ensure the state and school districts are getting the maximum “bang for the buck.” Cutting unnecessary legal or administrative expenses - and reinvesting them in more productive uses - can go far toward improving student achievement.
One way to accomplish that goal is the two-pronged approach taken by former Virginia Governor Mark Warner. First, auditors and management specialists from the state Department of Planning and Budget worked with individual school systems to identify administrative savings through better organization and management. Once efficient practices were identified, audit teams shared them with other districts, spreading savings across the state. Warner also implemented a statewide performance review that monitored how effectively school districts used their resources to increase student achievement.
The Colorado task force should also consider recommending that every school be required to sign a performance contract that sets clear goals for student achievement. Using all the carrots and sticks we have at our disposal, schools should be impelled to reach these goals. Those that fail would have their licenses revoked and be shut down. In diverse neighborhoods all over America, there are examples of schools that work and provide their students with a real education. We should not tolerate anything less.
Pushing schools toward a year-round schedule should be evaluated as well. In an Information Age with 24/7 cash flows and business cycles, our antiquated public school calendar is still based on the pace and seasons of farm life. Schools should examine ways to operate year-round, giving children more instruction time and minimizing the learning they lose over the long summer vacation when working parents must scramble for day care.
In addition, public schools should no longer observe "school day" hours. Instead, their doors should be open longer. That extra time should be used to give children more opportunities to learn and to keep them off the streets while their parents are at work. Schools should also be centers for lifelong learning and community activities.
The task force should look at providing full-day kindergarten and moving toward universal access to preschool. Numerous studies have concluded that the early years of a child's development play a disproportionate role in shaping his or her future cognitive abilities. At a time when parents are trying harder than ever to juggle work and family, an investment in universal pre-kindergarten is both timely and urgent. In the end, it will save taxpayer money.
Finally, districts should be encouraged to follow the Denver Public Schools’ lead and pay teachers more, based on the improvement they bring to their students. At the core of education is the relationship between teacher and student. Both intuition and research show that good teachers are critical to learning.
Teachers who add value to the classroom by bringing measurable improvements to their students over the course of the school year should receive bonuses commensurate with the increase in their students' achievements. A performance-reward pay scale, along the lines of Denver’s new teacher compensation system, would add a material incentive to an educator’s professional and personal dedication to do well by his or her students. It would also be society's concrete statement of the value of a teacher's very important work.
Simply put, teachers should be treated as professionals. The state, in partnership with districts, should invest in professional development programs that deepen content knowledge and help engage all children, as well as their families, in learning.
New Democrats have long believed that modernizing and improving public education requires setting high standards, offering parents and students more public school choices, providing adequate resources and demanding real accountability. In the case of abysmal, chronically low-performing schools, more intervention is required, including new leadership and staff.
For too long, Republicans have offered false solutions to the state’s public education challenges (The failed Amendment 39 initiative - the so-called “65 percent solution” - on last November’s ballot is only the latest example). Which is precisely why Democrats must aggressively take on this important cause.