Continuous improvement: modeling what we teach

Spectrum

Alaska has reached crucial mass in its effort to implement a standards-based educational system. It took leadership to turn in this direction under former Gov. Hickel. It took commitment and follow-through from Gov. Knowles to take it to the next level and see it implemented.

Today, we value an educational system driven by performance and accountability measures. Yet, to simply desire a particular outcome is not enough. Nothing of serious consequence happens without commitment and follow through. When you require improvement, it takes hard work and resources that are well-placed.

Gov. Knowles' Education Funding Task Force recommendations are the culmination of years of effort and some of the best thinking in the state by education professionals and the business community. The bipartisan task forces was charged with creating a five-year plan for education — with an adequate financial base — to make sure no child is left behind.

They built on findings of the statewide Education Summit 2000, held in Girdwood in October, and the Education Funding Adequacy Study produced by the Department of Education and Early Development in January.

The Education Summit involved more than 300 teachers, parents, school board members and administrators who came together to study results of the first-ever Alaska High School Graduation Qualifying Exam and benchmark exams.

Participants reviewed test score data to identify the areas of greatest student need, then moved on to identify the cause of those needs. With a template for action, districts could replicate the process in individual schools and further focus on targeted plans for improvement.

Summit participants also identified statewide strategies to improve student achievement. The key strategy focused on more time — more time for teacher preparation, more time for student intervention, more time for curriculum alignment to the performance standards and providing teacher recruitment and retention incentives.

The task force also considered a study by the Department of Education and Early Development on the adequacy of education funding in Alaska. The department documents stagnant funding under the current funding formula, made recommendations to restore the buying power of education funds, and identified improvements to the formula.

In November 2000, the Association of Alaska School Boards considered the strategies for improvement developed at the summit. Our membership debated and passed numerous resolutions supporting them. Recognizing that time is money, school boards urged the Legislature to provide the investment necessary to achieve those strategies. Our resolutions were another part of the task force discussion.

The end result is a modest approach by the Education Funding Task Force to increase the state's financial commitment to education over a five-year period, and to link that increase to identified strategies for improvement.

It is inevitable, upon seeing the price tag of its recommendations, that some policy makers will question the credibility of Gov. Knowles' task force. To ignore this report in its entirety, however, is a huge mistake. Ignoring the facts will not raise student achievement; investing well-placed resources in our children will.

Lawmakers praise school districts like Chugach, where the education systems has been transformed by performance standards and meaningful assessments. It is important to note that it took Chugach four years to get to this point. Strong leadership, innovative ideas, committed teachers, business involvement and community support contributed to their success. It also took a significant financial commitment through grants and other sources outside the funding formula (equal to 60 percent of the district's foundation support) to achieve that success.

Professional educators, the business community, and the public — through their locally elected officials — have identified what it will take to fully implement successful education reform . . . from simply requiring seat time to demanding our kids (and educators) meet performance standards.

Now it is up to state policy makers to exercise leadership and ensure our citizens can enjoy that bright future we talked so much about.

In "Helping Kids Succeed — Alaskan Style," an Alaskan states: "If you don't model what you teach, then you're teaching something else." If education is, in fact, Alaska's highest priority, let's show it by making a well-placed investment in our children.

Carl Rose is the executive director of the Association of Alaska School Boards.