This op-ed was written by Paul Pastorek, former Louisiana state superintendent of education. It appeared in the Seattle Times.

The Big Easy is about food, music and Bourbon Street, not about innovation, right? Wrong! New Orleans is at the center of an education revolution that is developing an “education system” that defies conventional wisdom.

If, as they say, an ill wind blows no good, then Katrina, while devastating in many ways, was not an ill wind. It provided an opportunity for New Orleans to wash away not only the old decrepit buildings, but a decrepit education institution that was the seed of poverty and crime in the city.

So in 2006, community leaders conducted neighborhood meetings to consider promising ideas for school reform from around the country. Instead of focusing on the latest fad for the superintendent to force-feed every educator, we focused on what climate would be necessary to motivate educators to search for their own best practices tailored to each child. Competition was the answer.

The community identified the portfolio-management model to administer public schools. Its most prominent feature was discarding the traditional command and control of a school district central office, which micromanages its version of a “one size fits all” approach to educating children. Instead, the new central office would: 1) set goals; 2) allow schools (meaning principals and teachers) the autonomy to direct the school; 3) hold each school in its portfolio accountable to meet goals, and 4) if the school met goals, offer the principal the opportunity to run more schools — or, if the school failed to do so, it would be removed from the portfolio and replaced with new management.

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The following is prepared testimony given on Friday in the House Education Committee in favor of HB 2428, which would allow for transformation zones and public charter schools in Washington state. Written testimony sometimes varies from the spoken testimony, as panelists are dissuaded from reading from a script.

Members of the committee, my name is Robin Lake. I’m Associate Director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington. I’ve studied charter schools and urban school reform for more than 15 years.  Today I’m here as a parent. My kids attend a Title 1 public school in South Seattle.

Charter schools are by no means a panacea but they are an important opportunity for excellence. More than two-dozen urban school districts around the country now partner with high performing charter schools. They’ve turned to charter schools because after trying for decades, they continue to have inexcusable achievement gaps and dropout rates.

Leaders in these cities don’t see their job as running a school system. Instead they believe they have to oversee a system of schools in the city that ensures success for every student. They believe that their work is too urgent and too important to close off any viable options. Instead of trying to compete with charters, they are sharing buildings and transportation with them and using them to serve the kinds of kids they have failed for decades.

Charter schools in these cities have proven effective. In fact, rigorous studies show that charter schools consistently outpace district schools in urban areas and with low-income students. As importantly, they offer evidence proofs of what’s possible. The presence of even one high performing charter school in a city proves that public schools can overcome influences of poverty.

We can point to a very small numbers of “no excuses” schools in our state. Only 5 of the 22 schools recognized as innovative by OSPI serve a high poverty student population. We need hundreds. We can’t create “no excuses” schools by offering waivers or by threatening schools to change. We can only do it by opening new schools that have a rock solid plan and are determined to succeed no matter what.

We have a choice. We can continue to insist that Washington could theoretically close achievement gaps without charter schools while we continue to fail too many students. Or we can start opening high performing charter schools next year. We have 20 years of experience to draw on and this legislation is the best of breed. We can get the breakthrough results that Denver, New York, and dozens of other cities have had. We know how to create high performing charter schools. We know how to oversee them so that they serve students equitably and effectively.

Maybe Washington will be the first state to dramatically improve the odds for kids in poverty without charter schools. But creating schools that work seems like a much safer bet.  Washington needs to act with urgency to pursue every opportunity for excellence.

Hope Teague-Bowling is a National Board Certified teacher at Clover Park High School in Lakewood, WA and a member of the LEV Foundation Board of Directors.

In order to understand my perspective on the issue, it’s important to understand a few premises for my thoughts.

1. What’s best for students should be at the center of education conversations.
2. What’s best for adults is usually the driving force for policy debate.
3. All children have the right to a quality education, regardless of race, sex, socioeconomic factors, special needs, etc.
4. High-performing schools rely on three things: a) strong leadership, b) sound instruction, and c) common culture of high expectations.
5. Privatization makes a few things better but NEVER a) education, b) health care, c) police services/military.
6. Change needs both internal systemic reform and external revolution.
7. All charters are not created equal.
8. Strong charter laws can protect children from being the victims of bad charter schools and the replication of current status quo practices.

I have come to these beliefs over the course of my life experiences — a product of homeschooling by two public school teachers, an undergraduate degree from a private college, a master’s in teaching from a liberal grad school, a year of working as a para in an alternative school, six years of public school teaching in both rural and urban communities, and years of reading, hearing, and living the debates about education in the United States.

Since I believe that all children deserve the right to learn in a safe environment with access to rigorous courses and high expectations, it is essential to me that schools provide this. However, the reality is that we are more segregated in public schools than ever. More children (particularly the poor, people of color, and urban – I’ve read a few things too about inequalities in very rural communities) are being tossed to the wayside by adults. Sadly, there are too few schools truly addressing the instructional needs of these students which now encompasses social and emotional factors unheard of fifty years ago. With the current economic crisis, schools are are ill-equipped financially, but most importantly school boards, district officials, and often teachers are culturally incompetent and untrained instructionally to handle the increasing diversity of student needs in their communities. To complicate matters, most districts have an insane amount of rules and regulations established to protect themselves against lawsuits. In reaction, union contracts are written to protect teachers against an unfair district. This lose-lose approach creates the biggest losers — the students. Both groups of adults are so busy worrying about their own butts, they are reluctant, often outright closed, to new ideas, particularly “non-traditional” approaches to meeting student needs. We (public education institutions) are doing the same things we’ve done for decades when our society, communities, and students’ needs have changed (quite drastically in my opinion). You cannot do the same things over and over again with the same bad methods and see improvement. It doesn’t work. If I eat crap and never work out, I will continue to get fatter and fatter. Why am I shocked when I hop on the scale? I have to change something.

In my experience, adults are the most reluctant to change, especially adults in positions of power or those benefiting from the current structure. I am heavily involved in my local union and WEA as a whole. I’m on my exec board and attend events, conferences, meetings, etc – all with the idea that I want my union to represent my beliefs about education, and more importantly, I want it improve the teaching profession. In the last three years of union activism, I almost daily encounter teachers, district employees, and others (all adults) who are threatened by anything new. You ask them to try a new food, a new strategy for teaching content, anything, it doesn’t matter. They are reluctant to even engage in possibilities.

I work in a school with what I would say are some of the most dedicated people I’ve ever worked with. We just received a state award for innovation because we are a STEM school that has a robotics program, our math team teaches to standards, and we collaborate regularly. Most of the teachers in my building are a pedagogically sound, no-excuses-mentality bunch dedicated to success of all students. That is until you start to watch classroom instruction. Or talk about how to reach the unmotivated ELL kid who is struggling to survive in an English class. Or ask build an interdisciplinary course with another teacher. Or ask a hard question about their grade book. Or discuss what real innovation might look like. This is when the status quo appears. This is when a tiny vision of learning becomes clear. Folks only want to do what makes them comfortable, what fits in an eight-hour work day schedule. Administrators and teachers are only open to creativity when it fits in a neat little package.

The last six years, I’ve obsessively read up on the subject of public charters. I’ve worked in a middle class rural-ish school, an alternative school, and a high poverty/urban school. For “fun” on my days off, I visit other schools to see what they are doing to meet their students’ needs and change their communities. I regularly kick it with teachers who teach in the Lincoln Center – a school within a school who’ve modeled their program off of high-performing charter school strategies. In the last six months, I’ve had the privilege of attending two different field trips – one to Houston and one to New York City to see an array of public charters in action. I saw KIPP, YES Prep, Green Dot (a national charter network that is unionized), Harlem Success Academy, Apollo 20 (public school that was converted, still works within district contract), and several others. After confirming my belief that high performing schools don’t have to look the same, it dawned on me that there are three consistent elements that these schools have in common. These three characteristics of high performing schools functions like a three-legged stool. Their success relies on 1) Leadership, 2) Instruction 3) Culture.

The leadership at these schools is amazing. It is shared – teachers and administrators (who often are called team leaders or some other name that changes the power structure of the relationship) and parents are teams. They actually work together. They fight for the same causes, together. They function under a social contract that all parties sign – usually to the effect of “we will work our hardest to ensure your child excels, etc.” It’s not just lip service, they do it. Together. This leadership model is the foundation for their philosophy about instruction. They utilize high-yield strategies. They differentiate for each kid. They expect all kids to achieve. They help all kids achieve. Together. Teachers watch other teachers. They have time to plan interdisciplinary instruction. They make time to address the social and emotional needs of their students. Building leaders are in the rooms of their teachers daily. When a teacher is off track, they call them out – in a straightforward, yet loving way. Why? Because it’s about the kids. Not them. Not their comfort level. Not a contract that says everything must be written down and only certain things can be said to a teacher. This brings me to the last leg of this stool – culture. The culture of these schools is insane. There isn’t a “gotta” culture amongst the leadership (teachers and principals). The buildings (in some cases schools are in one hallway or trailers!) radiate with positive messages about student achievement. Each policy, disciplinary practice, lunch schedule, extended day model, extended year model, and all the other boring stuff in a school that often gets blown off, is intentional. Every adult in that school has agreed to support that culture. My building is a classic example of lip service and limited action. I’m stressed out, overworked, and fighting for change within a system that pretends to care. There are caring, hard working adults just like me in my building, but we are all spinning our plates alone. We meet as a team and try to problem solve, but at the end of the day, few of us are carrying the load for the entire team. We are balancing a child’s future on a one-legged stool. This is unsustainable and prevents true progress.

So back to the essential question I hear often – why can’t this be done in a traditional public school? It can. But it takes all three of those elements in full force to make it happen. It takes adults who buy and promote a common culture. It takes parents, teachers, and building leaders to work as a team. It takes hard work, a desire to improve, a determination to grow, a willingness to push buttons, and uncomfortable conversations about measurements of learning.

This brings me to premise #6, how change works. Generally, people who want to improve a system work for reform from within. You organize, team with others, try to get involved in all kinds of committees/power structures, etc. But what happens? You beat your head against the same damn walls that aren’t going anywhere. So the next option is to go outside the system and try to bring actual revolution. Break the Egypt analogy or anarchist comparison or whatever. What happens there? Sometimes true change happens, sometimes it doesn’t, sometimes it goes back to the way it was.
In all cases, to bring true reform or revolution there must be a catalyst to start this change. Revolutions begin as a festering wound, an unsatisfying reform; the failed promises of leaders who pacify the masses with trite freedoms — the Band Aids for this wound. I see high performing charters as a catalyst. I view charters as approaching change internally and externally. It’s working “in the system” in terms of educating students, hiring quality teachers, using external measures (state tests, etc) to determine success. It also works “outside the system” by shining the light on the district, parents, and teachers who are in it for their summer vacations. It forces other people to go stop and go, “Hey, what are they doing over there? Can we do that here?” It allows teachers who actually want to make a difference make a significant difference!

When it comes to a charter law in WA state, here’s what I won’t support:

1. More segregation of marginalized populations.
2. Middle class/upper class kids getting more resources and fancy schools where they can be artsy (“boutique” schools as my husband call them).
3. The working class/poor, etc being left with the dregs in public schools – institutionally and financially.
4. Privatization of education.
5. No accountability to state/federal education mandates (think for second language learners, special education, etc).
6. No option for unionization if staff wants it.
7. Gate-keeping applications (I hate the idea of a lottery but it seems more equitable).
8. More mediocre schools that are failing to meet the emotional, social, and mental needs of children and youth.

And probably a couple other things I’m forgetting. I’ve seen the charter bill that is being proposed. It takes care of the above concerns I have. Is it perfect? Is there no way for anyone to manipulate it? Nothing is perfect. There are always holes that someone will find, but does that mean we shouldn’t examine it with a critical eye or accept it with reservations? Not to me.

In case you are interested in another perspective, here is a veteran teacher who agreed to travel to New York City to entertain the idea of innovative ways of doing things in education. Check back in his blog history – he was extremely against charters a few years ago, and I think he offers some unique experience/perspective.

Let’s be real – some of the research comes from think-tanks is questionably biased and funded by for-profit entities. However, their points are thought provoking and much of their research actual research. Robin Lake from the Center for Reinventing Public Education looks at the issue from a variety of angles. Additionally, this report focuses on the issue at the federal level.

If you’ve made it this far, congrats and thanks for reading. This is a hot button issue and I’m not out there to change minds. I’m more interested in open dialogue and hashing through issues than making it a for/against debate. Bottom line, I’m tired of adults making excuses at the expense of kids.

Macy, a student at Whitworth University in Spokane, shares how her public charter school education transformed her life. Her charter school focused on helping low-income students be the first in their families to go to college. All of her classmates graduated from high school, and 94% went on to attend four-year universities.

“Preuss taught me that the color of my skin and where I come from doesn’t have to determine where I go in life,” Macy says.

“I think Washington state hasn’t passed charter school legislation because of money and the fear of the unknown. But I ask that you please support charter schools in the state of Washington because every child should have the same opportunity as I did. Join me in the fight to make sure that children and their families have better school options and are not limited by the five numbers in their zip code. Because a great education shouldn’t be the exception. It should be the rule.”

Watch more testimonials about public charter schools.

Here we are on the cusp of a big football playoff weekend and all I can think about are the brand spanking new pieces of legislation introduced this week which, if passed, could have a significant impact on student achievement – namely the achievement gap. So, on with it.

Chartering a New Course: This week, a bipartisan, bicameral group of legislators introduced two bills sure to capture the imagination of parents and pols alike. One is focused on teacher and principal evaluation, while the other would bring public charter schools to Washington.   Representative Eric Pettigrew, Senator Steve Litzow, Senator Rodney Tom and others unveiled the new legislation at a press conference this week.  Pettigrew acknowledged that the charter piece, in particular may be a tough lift and controversial, but worth the fight. The teacher/principal bill is similar to the current teacher, principal evaluation pilots being tested, but would ultimately tie the teachers’ performance to staffing decisions. The charter legislation (which caught a bit of national edu-naut attention) would allow non-profit organizations to operate up to 50 charter schools in the state. The schools would focus on serving the disadvantaged, closing the achievement gap by providing another option for parents and kids who would otherwise have none. (Unless they have the money to go to private schools) As with anything, the devil here is in the details, and the bill outlines the public infrastructure that would authorize and hold accountable any charter operators applying to open schools. Unlike public schools, charter schools can be – and should be – shut down if they fail to serve their students adequately. Other states with charter management organizations (CMO’s) have seen fantastic results for kids traditionally left behind. Washington’s achievement gap is beyond an embarrassment. It’s a downright dirty shame. While some schools of excellence have worked hard at implementing what’s been learned (through public charter schools) to be effective for disadvantaged kids, statewide, we’ve failed. We’ve used the same tools over and over to try to close the gap. To no avail. It’s time for a new tool in the toolbelt.

There will be a lot of misinformation cast as truth throughout this debate. Hear from parents whose children attend public charter schools in California.  Get armed up with info.

Washington Way: In other Washington news, some opine that given the unanimous (I’d said the decision was 7-2, it was unanimous. They disagreed on whether the court should stay engaged in oversight and two dissented there. My bad.) decision, that the legislature wouldn’t dare cut school days this session. That doesn’t mean basic education is off the table, but even a budget balancing bureaucrat can see that school days are actually basic education. Alliteration. Cures all ills for the poorly written.

A new report out of the University of Pennsylvania paints a nasty picture of our state’s leadership on higher education. The report says our ranking in college completion masks the fact that we import a whole lot of those graduates. It lays much of the blame at the feet of our legislators whom they say have “abdicated” their responsibility. Ouch.

Here’s what Superintendent Dorn had to say about all the education issues of the day.

Elsewhere:

• I’m not sure how many times we’ve said it, but when it comes to getting the jobs of today and tomorrow, education matters. And, yes, even for manufacturing jobs.
• But don’t tell that to Rick Santorum.  Who apparently thinks that poverty is a fiction of the establishment elite. Or put another way;  Rick Santorum has gone and lost what little was left of his mind.
• While Race to the Top was a watershed moment in moving education policy, it continues to be challenging in some places to implement.
• Chicago Public Schools are awarding grants for the most innovative use of their extended school day. Oh. An extended school day. Now wouldn’t that be nice…
• When two studies collide, it can be a good thing. The Education Trust West released a study this week showing that kids of color and low income kids are more likely to have the weakest performing teachers. The study underscores the need for a strong evaluation system – tied to hiring policies. The study mentioned here last week, showing the impact of highly effective teachers on student outcomes makes it all the more clear that great teaching matters – and may matter most to disadvantaged students.

Well, friends, that’s it. You know exactly what I’m going to say next. Wait for it…. GO Packers! Have a great weekend.

Rep. Eric Pettigrew and Sen. Steve Litzow, flanked by parents, community members and educators, announced two major education bills Thursday that will seek to improve the learning and achievement for all students, especially those attending low-performing schools.

“These bills would have impact right now,” Pettigrew said.

These bills are one step in the right direction, and we can’t wait for the perfect solution for the adults in the system, Litzow said.

“We have all been failing a generation of kids,” he said. “We cannot ask them to wait any longer. We must be taking steps.”

Pettigrew (D-Seattle) and Litzow (R-Mercer Island) are the primary sponsors of both bills in the House and Senate, respectively. Rep. Bruce Dammeier (R-Puyallup) and Rep. Glenn Anderson (R-Fall City) are each co-sponsoring one bill in the House, and Sen. Rodney Tom (D-Bellevue) is co-sponsoring both bills in the Senate.

The first bill promotes instructional excellence in Washington’s public schools. It builds on the state’s new teacher and principal evaluation system and calls for a comparable statewide system so all educators can be evaluated fairly based on individualized professional and student growth, and a consistent training of evaluators.

The second bill’s primary focus is to the close the achievement, or opportunity, gap in Washington. It authorizes the use of public charter schools and the creation of a transformation zone, or statewide school district, to increase opportunities and alternatives for students and those in persistently low-performing schools.

“These reform bills will provide the framework required to make sure every classroom throughout the state has a great teacher,” said Litzow, the ranking minority member of the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee. “Over the past decade the system has been trending in the wrong direction; Washington is one of only nine states where the opportunity gap has been growing and this legislation is key to transforming basic education for the benefit of Washington students.”

The two bills are expected to be submitted today and will then be assigned bill numbers.

Pettigrew believes Washington must use all alternatives to create a positive impact on the opportunity gap, including authorizing public charter schools and establishing a transformation zone.

“It’s time to confront the fact that our school system is failing the same set of students, year after year,” said Pettigrew, the Majority Caucus Chair in the House. “Traditional efforts over past decades have failed to close the achievement gap, and today we have the opportunity to lay the foundation for a new approach. This bill will provide a much-needed alternative for students who wouldn’t otherwise have one, without compromising the effectiveness of our public school system.”

Although the two bills deal with vastly different subjects, they both have the same goal: improve the learning and achievement of all students.

“As we discuss how to ensure every classroom is a quality learning environment for every child, it is critical that we recognize that innovations in learning are critical,” said Anderson, a co-sponsor on the teacher/principal evaluation bill. “Reaching every child in a way that shows them the path to be successful in school is what we should be striving for. These bills are a step in the right direction.”

The first bill creates a performance management system for educators based on the teacher and principal evaluation system currently being piloted in Washington. Beginning in the 2013-14 school year, the bill requires each teacher and principal to have an individual growth plan designed to help them increase their skills based in part on their performance evaluation.

“The most important thing we can do for our students is provide them classrooms with the highest quality teachers,” said Dammeier, ranking Republican on the House Education Committee. “This educator evaluation legislation will help adequate teachers become good, and good teachers become great. It will strengthen our schools and bring about better outcomes for our students.”

The bill also requires common components of the evaluation system to be developed and used by school districts to ensure fairness and comparability of evaluation results. Multiple measures of student growth data must be used as a significant portion of the evaluation.

In addition, the bill states that teachers and principals who receive the lowest evaluation rating – a 1 on a scale of 4 – for two straight years would lose tenure, or provisional status. Teachers and principals can gain tenure if they receive a 3 or 4 three times within a five-year period. A fair and rigorous dismissal process would also be established for those who fail to improve after receiving individualized training.

“Much effort has gone into better evaluating teachers and helping them refine their craft through real, meaningful feedback on effectiveness and potential for growth. That effort is wasted unless we take the next logical step and use that information to promote effectiveness, and ensure that our best teachers remain in our classrooms. This bill will help to do that.”

The second bills creates a statewide transformation zone, or school district, and authorizes the use of public charter schools in Washington, which would be joining 41 other states with charter laws.

The bill builds on Washington’s existing authority to intervene in the state’s lowest-performing schools by creating a transformation zone, a practice many major cities and states are beginning to use. The schools in the transformation zone, using existing state and federal funds, would be allowed increased flexibility to improve student learning through such innovations as hiring a staff that best meets the needs of students, longer and/or more school days, and use of technology to facilitate learning.

In addition, the bill authorizes the use of public charter schools that primarily serve educationally disadvantaged students to address the state’s persistent achievement gap issues. The charter schools, held to the same state and federal accountability measures, would be required to have an open enrollment and be operated only by non-profit organizations with proven track records in other states.

Among those standing with the lawmakers in support of the bills were representatives from Microsoft, the Washington Roundtable, Partnership for Learning, League of Education Voters and Stand for Children.

This is a summary of a bill introduced to the state Legislature today focusing on excellent instruction. We’ll update when a bill number is assigned.

A Bill to Close the Achievement/Opportunity Gap
Bill sponsors: Rep. Eric Pettigrew (D-Seattle) and Sen. Steve Litzow (R-Mercer Island)

In Washington, students from low-income families and students of color have fewer academic and economic opportunities than the population as a whole – and the problem is getting worse. The opportunity gap is created by inequitable access to quality schools, educators and educational programs, as well as the inequitable allocation of resources across communities. Too often, a student’s zip code dictates the student’s academic and career opportunities.

No student should be forced to stay in a chronically under-performing school. Additional opportunities should be given to these students, through two proven, outcomes-based alternatives.

Establish a Transformation Zone. Build on Washington’s existing intervention authority in the lowest-performing schools by creating a Transformation Zone. This zone should oversee the supervision, development and encouragement of school improvement efforts, which includes:

• Contracting out the management of low-performing schools– to proven learning management organizations.
• Requiring the use of performance contracts and revoking contracts if building managers fail to meet them.
• Allowing flexible use of funds to implement innovative reforms, such as strategic staffing, longer school year, longer school days and technology-based learning.
• Recognizing employees’ rights to collectively bargain.
• Attracting the best teachers by providing increased support and autonomy.
• Attracting high-performing principals to work in Transformation Zone schools through increased autonomy and flexibility to manage budgets, time and curriculum; and to hire, assign, reassign and dismiss staff.

Authorize Public Charter Schools. Forty-one states allow public charter schools; Washington does not. In many of these states, non-profit charter management operators (CMOs) have succeeded where traditional public schools have not—especially at closing opportunity gaps.

In recent years, the research on charter school effectiveness has grown, enabling us to identify effective providers and practices through data. The data show that, if properly managed, charters are an effective alternative for students in chronically under-performing schools.

Washington should establish a public charter school law that learns from other states’ experiences and replicates best practices:

• Require the majority of public charter schools to focus on serving educationally disadvantaged students.
• Require public oversight by, and accountability to, the State Board of Education.
• Recognize employees’ rights to collectively bargain.
• Require open student enrollment to prevent discrimination or cherry-picking
• Require admission by a fair, a transparent and an equitable lottery system, when demand is greater than capacity.
• Allow only qualified, public benefit non-profit organizations governed by boards of directors, to operate public charter schools.
• Limit the number of public charter school authorizers.
• Establish a public charter school cap.
• Establish a rigorous process for closing poor-performing public charter schools.

Recent data released from Seattle Public Schools uncovered achievement gap we haven’t talked about before: African American students performed significantly lower on testing than black students who speak a language other than English at home.

The results got Paul Hill, director of the Center for Reinventing Public Education, to talk about how other cities have taken this kind of disappointing information and used it to spur real change. In an editorial for the Seattle Times, he notes that the first step in making the change happen for many cities was admitting that they did not have the answers yet. He goes on:

These admissions have led other cities to open themselves up to experimentation in schools serving the most disadvantaged: longer school days and years; no-excuses instructional models; new sources of teachers; partnerships with businesses and cultural institutions that can provide enrichment and role models; use of online instruction to teach subjects like science where school staff are often not qualified; new schools run by national institutions with track records of improving achievement for the most disadvantaged.

While the achievement gap challenge remains, Hill writes that hand-wringing and good intentions will get Seattle nowhere. Instead, he advocates for an attitude of experimentation and perseverance, saying “What matters as much as what a city tries is its attitude — of determination to look for solutions anywhere they might be found, acknowledge failures and small successes, but keep searching for better.”

Read the whole editorial here.

Texas schools are taking a serious look at their zero-tolerance discipline policies, and many are realizing they need to make changes, according to a story by NPR. Certain offenses like fighting, disrupting class, or even using profanity can get students a “ticket” that, instead of sending them to the principal’s office, sends them to court.

Observers say that they’re seeing thousands of students being passed through the ticket and court system that’s meant for adults who have committed crimes. Once students have been ticketed by school police, they are required to go to court, where they may receive large fines in addition to being suspended or expelled. Further, after ticketed students have attended court, they are not always allowed to return to their home schools, and are instead required to attend “alternative” schools that focus on discipline and compliance with the rules.

Many of the students at the alternative school are dealing with extremely difficult situations at home, and often don’t have much adult support in their lives. The students also worry about what will happen in their futures. One 14-year-old says she doesn’t think she’ll be able to get into college after being sent to an alternative school. Twelve-year-old Danielle Delgado says of her future: “I’m pretty sure I’ll do fine,” she says, but then adds in a whisper, “I’ll be back here. … I’m a bad child.”

Stigmatization like this is just one of the hugely negative effects zero-tolerance discipline policies have on students. These policies that are meant to be objective and keep kids safe are often applied subjectively and keep kids from learning. LEV is bringing the school discipline conversation to Tacoma next Thurs, Dec. 8th. Join us and tell your legislators to stop school pushout.

Stop School Pushout: Diplomas Not Handcuffs
Thurs, Dec. 8th – 6:30pm
The Evergreen State College – Tacoma
Register here!

Listen to or read the whole story from NPR: In Texas, keeping kids in school and out of court

We are but a weekend away from the silly season – Seattle voters got a jump start on silly, but we’ll get to that in a moment. It’s that time of year where we give thanks, start and quit diets, make shopping lists and then panic shop anyway, and of course drink beverages that you wouldn’t be caught dead holding any other time of year. And that’s just the Friday after Thanksgiving. Enjoy and be safe. The Round Up will be recovering next Friday, so we’ll be taking the day off. I know. A sad pall just fell upon readerdom.

The Seattle Way: Seattle voters may have turned the school board inside out last week. President Steve Sundquist was ousted and it looks as though fellow Director Peter Maier may be out as well. While some think this is just great news, many of us believe otherwise. Two other incumbents were retained, which is good news, but with significant decisions on the horizon – like hiring a permanent Superintendent (which is an oxymoron these days, because urban superintendents have all the staying power of the Seahawks passing game) –  losing these two couldn’t be more ill-timed. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the district, Interim Superintendent, Susan Enfield, released the district’s report card this week showing some gains (graduation rates up!) while also daylighting the on-going struggles in closing the opportunity gap. In news only a Seattleite could love, despite making some steady gains in nearly every area, the district may revise its goals downward. This would be very bad news for kids in the south end of town where performance trends lower. Have you ever revised your goal weight upward while on a diet? Me too. But this isn’t a diet.

Irony. Ironical. Ironically: You know how they say irony is dead? Last Sunday I flew to New York with a group of educationers to visit schools. Traditional public schools and public charter schools. As we taxied down the runway upon landing, I checked my email to find this missive regarding the King County Democrats’ opposition to charters. Reading the arguments against public charter schools therein was a lot like running past the mirrors of a funhouse. There’s some truth, but most of it is inflated, distorted, wrong. The one truth; there are way too many underperforming charter schools. These schools should be shut down. Charters revoked. That they aren’t, frankly, mirrors the way we don’t intercede in failing traditional public schools fast enough, strongly enough, enough already. The rest of these arguments are as tired as David Hasselhoff’s Speedo. Walking through the halls of the Harlem Success Academy and KIPP Academy, I saw the kids who most often fall between the cracks in the traditional system. Creaming?  In New York, where public charters and traditional public schools are co-located, the kids on the first floor look exactly like the kids on the fifth floor. They come from the same neighborhood. They have the same socio-economic background. The difference between being on the fifth floor or the first? A lottery ball with a number on it. The difference in results? Closed opportunity gaps. The writer may be right that Washington has many successful schools, but we also have an opportunity gap that will take 105 years to close if we continue to do business as usual. If we could keep an open mind we might learn that there are many positive attributes to highly effective public charter schools. Like closing the gaps. Raising the hopes and expectations for kids who historically have not succeeded in the traditional system. Putting disadvantaged kids first is a pretty good hallmark of the best of these schools, the kind of legacy that’s shouldn’t be ignored.

Racing Stripes: The Department of Ed released news on a third round of Race to the Top funds this week. The losers from round two get a shot at the $198 million left over from the $698 million designated for Race part III. Remember $500 million goes to an early learning initiative. Meanwhile, Massachusetts and Ohio community based groups have issued reports on their Race experience to date.  Massachusetts is also one of 11 states applying for waivers from elements of NCLB, short of the 17 that signaled their intention to apply.

Weekend Reading: For your edification and amusement;

• One union leader’s take on a new approach to collective bargaining
• If you want to end massive inequality  in income, occupy your schools.
• Running for Governor? Your platform awaits.
• More proof on why PreK matters.
• Change is hard. But in Federal Way, they don’t run from it.
• And finally, you look Ravitching.

That should keep you full until Turkey Day. Go have a weekend.

The Excellent Schools Now coalition (of which we are a member) has released a new vision for our state A+ Washington: A Way Forward for All Students. The vision focuses on bringing the input of a wide range of stakeholders to provide solutions for the challenges that face our education system today. This effort is more valuable than ever, as our state faces a deep recession with more difficult economic times looming. As we note, now is the time to focus on improving education and eliminating opportunity gaps. We know that these investments will yield a skilled, knowledgeable workforce and can help create the jobs that we need to boost our economy.

A+ Washington proposes five strategies to achieve the results we need to create a workforce ready for success:

1. Expand access to high-quality pre-kindergarten through 3^rd grade education
2. Provide all students with access to excellent teachers and leaders
3. Position the state’s students for career and college readiness
4. Implement flexible and transformative approaches to K-12 education
5. Develop effective data and accountability systems

The coalition will measure the success of these strategies by tracking specific outcomes. The outcomes include eliminating the opportunity gap between all groups of students and making sure all students enter kindergarten prepared for success. Additionally, because we are focused on students’ futures, outcomes like graduating from high school career and college ready, making sure students are internationally competitive in math and science, and increasing the number of students who achieve post-secondary degrees, like living wage certificates, associate’s degrees, industry certificates, and bachelor’s degrees are important.

A+ Washington came together after a lot of hard work with stakeholders all across education. This is a living document, where the best thinking and balanced feedback from all stakeholders can be continually incorporated.

Read the full, PDF version of the plan here.

We’ve been talking a lot about the significant benefits of investing in early learning (here, here and here, for starters), and the research just keeps coming to support it. A study published this week clearly shows that better reading in third grade comes from students who have had a combination of pre-k and full-day kindergarten. Benefits of this early education combination can be seen in students from all backgrounds, but gains are the most significant for students of color and students from low-income families.

For instance, students who had attended preschool and half-day kindergarten were 18 percent more likely to show proficiency in extrapolating from what they read than those who had not attended preschool but had attended full-day kindergarten. That number rose to 20 percent for low-income students, 24 percent more likely for Hispanic students, and 25 percent for English-learners.

The study used data from National Center for Education Statistics with specially designed tests that followed more than 21,000 students from kindergarten through 8th grade. For pre-k information, the study relied on reports from parents that their students had attended a center-based day care, like preschool, nursery school or Head Start, the year before entering kindergarten. Because the data comes only from parent surveys, the study did not compare results from different quality pre-k programs. The authors suggest that if their report was able to isolate high-quality pre-k programs, it would likely show an even greater impact of pre-k on student achievement.

Other major findings from the study are:

• Mother’s education still has a major impact on children’s reading scores
• Early education works best as a partnership between providers, parents, schools, school boards and the community
• While full-day kindergarten and pre-k both make impacts individually, together they make the biggest difference in a child’s reading ability by third grade

Read the full study.

Working with a $30,000 grant awarded by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), closing the achievement gap, Federal Way’s Sacajawea Middle School continues to do what it can to improve education. At a recent board meeting Principal David Brower and assistant principal JoAnne Landis explained how they spent the $30,000.

“Because of this grant, we were able to create opportunities to bring people together and increase leadership in our school,” Landis said. This included creating a team of parents and school staff to meet and discuss data and other important issues twice a month, a multicultural event, leadership conferences, and a two day workshop for staff.

As a part of the grant, Sacajawea Middle School partnered with Hudtloff Middle School to help the Clover Park District school close their achievement gap.  “Overall, we were asked to investigate and share how we closed the achievement gap, and our plan for continued work,” Landis said. “In essence, the end outcome was to tell our story, our story at Sacajawea, about what we’re doing well and what our findings were.”

Principal Brower believes that there are five essential components to his school’s success;

1. A strong working relationships between teachers, school staff, and parents.
2. Partnerships with community organizations. Brower cites Federal Way’s Communities in Schools program as an example.
3. Good, reliable data.
4. Shared vision and backing from the district.
5. Supportive district policies. In Sacajawea’s case, this included policies such as Standards Based Education and academic acceleration.

For assistant principal Landis, the work does not stop, “…we’re continuing our partnerships with community organizations and other schools, and knowing that time to see and work with other teachers, outside of our individual buildings, is very powerful as well.”

The full story can be read over at the Federal Way Mirror.

Latino Action Group liaison to Tacoma’s Vibrant Schools committee, Liesl Santkuyl, discusses giving Latino parents a voice and suggestions for how we can close the opportunity gap. One way Santkuyl believes we can end the opportunity gap is by ensuring teachers and other educational staff be culturally competent.

As briefly mentioned in our previous blog about the new social networking site, “Teacher Wall”, NBC will be doing a week long programming series, dubbed “Education Nation.”  As you may have guessed, the second annual series will focus on the state of U.S. education. Next week (the week of September 25^th) Education activists, teachers, students, parents, policy makers, and business leaders will assemble for an Education Summit to discuss the science behind early learning, what makes a great teacher, the changing demographics in education and much more. Details concerning the panel discussion topics and speakers can be found here.

In addition to the Education Summit, NBC will host a Teacher Town hall, which promises to be the largest gathering of teachers from across the nation.  The event will focus on issues that educators face and spotlight teacher success.  NBC will be live-streaming the event and strongly encourage teachers to join the conversation online through the Teacher’s Lounge, online forum created specifically for educators. The Teacher Town Hall will be taking place Sunday, September 25^th and will be moderated by Brian Williams. More information can be found here.

If you’re interested in learning more about Education Nation and its programming, head on over to their website.

The results of the SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) for the Class of 2011 were released yesterday by the College Board (full reports for the nation here and Washington here). Washington has the highest SAT scores among states with at least 50 percent of the graduating class taking the test. Mean scores statewide were 523 on the Critical Reading, 529 on the Math and 508 on the Writing, compared to 497 for Critical Reading, 514 for Math, and 489 for Writing nationwide. This is worth celebrating, but, as we’ve said in the past, it’s important to look at who is taking the test, along with how well they do.

Compared to last year, Washington, along with the nation, has done fairly well bringing more students of color to the SAT, particularly students who identify as African American. However, Latino students are still grossly underrepresented as test-takers in Washington State.

And while Washington students who reported their families make $20,000 or less continue to make up nearly 10 percent of test-takers (9 percent this year, compared to 8 percent last year), there remains an almost linear correlation between income and test scores, with a 120 point gap between the average lowest income students and the highest.

Another notable part of these statistics is the core courses of Washington State SAT takers. We see, as we did last year, that students who take the SAT and plan to go to college take more of each core subject than required by the state for high school graduation.

And it’s not just the number of years of courses these students are taking that matters. As we saw last year, students who took higher levels of math scored higher on the SAT in every category. However, the number of students who reported reaching Calculus by the time they took the test decreased by nearly 10 percent from last year.

So, as we celebrate our successes in having more than 50 percent of students take the SAT and increasing the number of African American students who are participating in the test, let’s keep in mind the progress we still have to make in closing gaps and getting our students truly college ready.

As the president of the Pierce County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, principal with Blanco Media Group, publisher of El Aquila (a bilingual newspaper circulated in the Pierce County area) and father of two young children, Miguel Blanco is involved with Vibrant Schools Tacoma Coalition because he wants the school district to minimize the achievement gaps for Hispanic kids and all kids attending Tacoma schools. Blanco believes that one of the ways to close the achievement gap is by empowering the residents to have a say in the school system.  For Blanco, this includes addressing language barriers and changing education policy. “Now it’s time for those who understand the shifting demographics to start being inclusive so in years to come we have a very well-educated or acculturated society that understands their responsibility and civic duty.”

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LEV CEO Chris Korsmo sat down with Inside Olympia host Austin Jenkins and Stand for Children WA Executive Director Shannon Campion to talk about what education reform organizations see as a priority in today’s political and economic climate.

Warren Smith, Sr., has 27 years experience in policy positions as former school board and State Board of Education director. Warren believes we can close the education opportunity gap simply by believing all children can succeed, a common belief among Teachers of the Year. Warren says the education opportunity gap does not exist because some children are “ignorant, can’t learn, and unteachable. They’re down there because there’s a system that doesn’t recognize their learning style, their learning rate. They start out behind in kindergarten – the system doesn’t allow that [catch-up] time, and that’s the problem.”

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Rashad Norris is the outreach director at Highline Community College. By teaching students how to advocate for themselves, Rashad is closing the education opportunity gap one student at a time. Are we really going to wait until he teaches each and every kid of color how to advocate for themselves to close the opportunity gap? What can the rest of us do?

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Thanks to Danny Westneat for his July 9th column on longer school hours. He cited the right facts, but drew the wrong conclusions.

The gist is that over summer all kids forget some of what they learned in school. Kids of color and low-income kids fall back EVEN MORE. He suggested that summer breaks probably widen gaps in student performance between ethnic and racial groups.

He rightly quoted solid research that found our school day and year to be simply inadequate in the 21st century. He wrongly downplayed a Congressional proposal that would give grants to schools that extend the year for all students. Perhaps in a summer-induced haze, he left out the critical facts that add dimension to this grant opportunity for our schools.

Kids of color comprise more than 30 percent of our total public school population. More than 40 percent of ALL students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. Huge numbers of both groups are behind their peers in test scores, rigor of coursework, graduation rates, and college-readiness. There’s some demographic overlap, but we’re still talking about a huge number of students who already are behind and who lose critical ground over summer. This is too serious for sentimental opining about kids seeming less weary. Weary is being stuck in a dead end job for 20 years because you fell behind in school and never caught up.

With so many students struggling system-wide, we must consider every option to give them more learning time with effective teachers. That may mean lengthening the school day, week, and year in some schools. Eliminating summer break entirely may not be the answer, but we should be willing to do even that if it helps struggling students succeed.
While Mr. Westneat is wistfully “spreading summer’s spirit” in the San Juans, many struggling students have bigger worries. They are not on track for a career or for college. They are not learning the skills they need to thrive in society. They are not on track for a family-wage job. These are the kids who need a break, even if it means prying summer vacation from Mr. Westneat’s nettle-stung fingers.

Last week, the International Examiner published a story by Collin Tong, a freelance journalist for Crosscut and Seattle-based stringer for the New York Times. He reported on the challenges and opportunities facing our schools in closing the educational opportunity gap (Washington is one of nine states where the gap is actually growing).

Tong interviewed LEV’s CEO Chris Korsmo and Lisa Macfarlane, senior adviser at LEV, and many other education leaders in the community for the story. Here’s an excerpt below:

League executive director Chris Korsmo sees the problem of closing the achievement gap as systemic. “Frankly, it hasn’t been a priority. People talk a good game, but there is not a statewide plan to close the gap,” she said. “We need a plan that makes it a priority to close the achievement gap, and then we need to align resources to it.“

Both Korsmo and Macfarlane agree that lack of public support is a major part of the state and city’s inability to align those resources in a more effective way. “If we can get more people to understand the fierce urgency of changing outcomes for kids, we can create pressure for change,” Korsmo said.

“That is the most difficult part – creating public will and the urgency. Right now, we are creating a pipeline to poverty, or worse, to prison, for nearly half our children of color in Seattle,” she added. “We can and must do better, and the community has to get engaged to get it done. “

Macfarlane points to some disturbing statistics. “It’s more than troubling that only 27 percent of the children growing up in south Seattle and south King County [designated as the Community Center for Education Results’ Road Map region] manage to get a postsecondary degree that has labor-market value.”

“The degree attainment for black and brown kids is 10 to 11 percent,” she added.

The $231 million 2011 Families and Education Levy that Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn proposed, in Korsmo’s opinion, is a key part of the solution. “The levy is a good example of how to support closing gaps and getting more kids ready for college.”

Read the full story in the International Examiner.