Washington State's Governor Christine Gregoire is making ready to take an ax to Washington State's education funding:
Gregoire unveiled several education reform proposals Tuesday that she hopes to shepherd through the Legislature.
The biggest proposal is a statewide teacher-evaluation system that would fire teachers who don't meet a standard by specific deadlines. That proposed standard is "proficient" — the second highest of four proposed levels....
Under Gregoire's proposal, teachers and principals would be placed on probation if they receive an "unsatisfactory" rating, and they would be fired if that they don't improve to basic by the end of the school year.
Evaluation: Evaluation is systematic determination of merit, worth, and significance of something or someone using criteria against a set of standards.
Evaluation, testing, it's all a crock because the real testing, the real questions are not asked.
How about: What is the role of poverty in student achievement?
What is the role of access to health care in student achievement?
Poverty and access to health care are never factored in when looking at student achievement. The immediate American response is to almost always fire the teachers and staff and dump even more testing upon poor, innocent little students.
In contrast, Finland is the current international darling of accomplishment in education and Finland's approach is the opposite of the American approach:
In the 1970s, reports Darling-Hammond, Finland’s student achievement was low. But in the decades since, they have steadily upgraded their education system until now they’ve reached the top.
What’s more, they took what was once a wide achievement gap between rich and poor, and reduced it until it’s now smaller than in nearly all other wealthy nations.
Here’s how:
* They got rid of the mandated standardized testing that used to tie teachers’ hands.
* They provide social supports for students including a free daily meal and free health care.
* They upgraded the teaching profession. Teachers now take a three-year graduate school preparation program, free and with a stipend for living expenses. In Finland, you don’t go into debt to become a teacher.
* The stress on top-quality teaching continues after teachers walk into their schools. Teachers spend nearly half of their time in school in high-level professional development, collaborative planning, and working with parents.
These changes have attracted more people to the teaching profession — so many that only 15 percent of applicants are accepted
.
Quality education in Finland is also fueled by some strange Finnish ideas:
Besides high-quality teachers, Dr. Sahlberg pointed to Finland’s Lutheran leanings, almost religious belief in equality of opportunity, and a decision in 1957 to require subtitles on foreign television as key ingredients to the success story.
He emphasized that Finland’s success is one of basic education, from age 7 until 16, at which point 95 percent of the country goes on to vocational or academic high schools. “The primary aim of education is to serve as an equalizing instrument for society,” he said.
Equality of opportunity?
An equalizing instrument for society?
What an un-American conceit!
In the meantime, one million Washingtonians are without health insurance, 85,000 are due to lose unemployment benefits and low-income working parents are losing access to the thing they need most to stay on the job: a government subsidy that helps pay for child care -- at a time when they are forced to work longer hours in order to make ends meet.
Making ends meet. That seems to be the chief occupation of the 99 percent.