Benson High School in Portland is one of many public schools in Oregon that could be affected by state budget problems.Eighty-three percent of Oregon third-graders met state reading benchmarks in 2009-10. Should the other 17 percent of kids — about 7,000 statewide — be required to repeat the third grade to master reading skills?
Fourteen percent of Oregon students in the class of 2010 passed an Advanced Placement exam with a score likely to earn them college credit. Should those students’ teachers receive a cash bonus?
Rep. Matt Wingard says yes. Nearly 10 years ago, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush led similar reforms in Florida. The changes are credited with raising reading scores. Wingard says Oregon should follow suit.
“Public education is not sharp because our system doesn’t feel pressure to make changes,” says Wingard, co-chair of the House Education Committee. “It’s clear that the answers are out there. … If Florida can do it, why can’t we?”
Legislation for Florida’s 2.7 million students banned social promotion for third-graders, gave bonuses to teachers whose kids passed AP exams, and gave schools letter grades. If a school receives an F two years in a row, it must hand over a portion of its state money and allow its students to attend any other public school in the state.
Wingard, R-Wilsonville, has proposed six bills that mimic the Florida plan. The Oregon House Education Committee is expected to spend a week discussing the bills later this month.
The bills would fundamentally change Oregon’s education system, giving more leeway to teacher licensure, providing scholarships to kids with disabilities and forcing a wholesale redesign of report cards. Education advocates are skeptical, but aren’t rejecting the bills entirely. And some who don’t agree with the content praise the attention on education reform.
“These ideas spark a conversation about what we expect from our schools, how we judge whether those expectations are being met and what we do with what we find,” says Dana Hepper of Stand for Children. “I think these bills are asking the right questions. I don’t know if they have the right answers.”
One of the most controversial ideas is social promotion. Nationally, as schools have pushed for tougher standards and school accountability, some districts and states are moving toward test-based promotion policies like the one in Florida.
Several studies suggest that forcing kids to repeat the same grade doesn’t lead to big increases in achievement and can create self-esteem problems and lead more students to drop out of school.
But a 2009 study on the New York City Department of Education’s social promotion policy — which includes test-based promotion for third-, fifth-, seventh- and eighth-graders — found that helping kids who were at risk of repeating a grade had a positive impact on student achievement.
New York City and Florida identify at-risk students early in the year and provide more instructional time and tutoring. If students don’t pass spring assessments, they can use summer school to catch up and move ahead with their peers.
On the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the nation’s report card, Florida fourth-graders were eight points below the national average in reading in 1998 but six points ahead of the national average in 2009.
Oregon’s fourth-graders scored at the national average in 1998 and about two points below the national average in 2009.
Alan Richard, communications director for the Southern Regional Education Board, a nonpartisan group that works with 16 states including Florida to improve education, said additional training for teachers and increased support for students have had the greatest impact on Florida’s rising reading scores.
Alabama has seen even larger gains, Richard said, after launching an early reading program that includes teacher training, more instructional time and partnerships with teacher preparation programs.
Oregon’s bills would create similar provisions for supporting students and teachers, but Becca Uherbelau, spokeswoman for the Oregon Education Association, said her organization wouldn’t support bills with more emphasis on testing.
Equally troubling, Uherbelau said, is the idea of using state dollars for scholarships to students in low performing schools.
Florida’s controversial voucher programs provide scholarships to students with disabilities and students from low-income backgrounds. The scholarships for students attending low performing schools are not widely used. The Florida Supreme Court declared the provision allowing students to use the scholarships at private schools unconstitutional.
Oregon’s House Bill 2289 would allow students to use state-funded scholarships at both private and public schools. And House Bill 2290 would create scholarships for special education students.
“It’s always the time to talk about what we can and should do better in our schools,” Uherbelau said. “But we do not support diverting precious resources away from our public schools. There hasn’t been any link between vouchers and gains in student achievement. If we’re looking at providing opportunities for all kids to learn and succeed, this isn’t it.”
Getting support for these bills is likely to be a tough task in Oregon. Republican Jeb Bush passed many of the Florida reforms with the support of a Republican-dominated Legislature and over the strident objections of teacher unions. And if training and summer school are key components of the policies’ success, that also could spell problems for Oregon, where money-strapped districts have abandoned summer school and are skimping on teacher training.
Wingard, who is a consultant for the public online charter school Oregon Connections Academy, isn’t the only legislator or education group hoping to get big education reforms started in the 2011 Legislature. Lawmakers also will consider other bills that take on testing, education governance, education service districts, charter school access, special education funding and teacher performance.
Wingard insists that while he likes the Florida bills as a way to bring reform to the state, he’s most interested in seeing change in Oregon schools.
“My values are choice, accountability and innovation,” he said. “Look around the country and tell me what you do like. This is a starting point in getting Oregon to join in reform. Right now, we’re doing nothing.”
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