KSBA eNews Service, Frankfort, Jan. 27, 2015
Kentucky ed chief asks U.S. Senate panel to give states flexibility to improve teacher, principal quality
Staff report
Washington, D.C. – Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday continued his plea for fewer federal directives and more flexibility for states as Congress resumes work to rewrite the nation’s main elementary and secondary education law, last updated in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.
Holliday was part of a five-member panel testifying before the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in a hearing entitled “Fixing No Child Left Behind: Supporting Teachers and School Leaders.” The panel is chaired by Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander, who has made ending the delay in reauthorizing the federal school law a priority.
Citing his 43 years in education as a teacher, principal, superintendent, commissioner and past president of the Council of Chief State School Officers, Holliday suggested several areas for the committee to consider to enhance support for teachers and principals.
“To adequately address teacher and leader development in our public schools, we must look at a systemic approach. We cannot try fixing one part of the system without addressing the entire system. This means we must address teacher and leader preparation programs, recruitment of teachers and leaders into the profession, professional development, evaluation, retention and working conditions,” Holliday said.
On the ongoing controversy about NCLB requirements related to teacher and principal evaluations, the commissioner said states already are taking the lead “and may not need federal guidelines to be too strict.” But if the new federal law is to include such guidelines, “It must have multiple measures of teacher and leader performance not relying solely on just tests. These need to make meaningful differentiation in the performance of teachers and leaders and we need to provide actionable information to inform professional development,” he testified.
Significant portions of the nearly two-hour hearing centered on the issues of testing related to NCLB mandates, the Obama administration’s NCLB waiver process and teacher preparation.
Holliday said he and his fellow state education chiefs support an accountability system that includes some annual testing. But he rejected the arguments by some NCLB purists who want a nationally standardized definition of what equates “success” or “failure” by schools and teachers.
“They are definitely stuck in the 1980s. If you look at the work in the last five to 10 years, you see dramatic change in the responsibility and accountability of the chiefs,” he said.
And Holliday said Kentucky’s approach to measuring teacher and principal effectiveness is an example of what states can do to improve quality education – if given the opportunity to do so.
“(There’s) always the issue of guiding principles becoming micromanagement. We worked for three years on a system and we’ve had buy-ins from everybody. We sent the waiver in and (due to) one cell in one little page, (USED officials said), ‘Oh, we’re not going to approve your waiver again if you don’t fix that.’ That’s micromanagement. That’s what the chiefs are very much against. It usually happens when you move from general principle to actually monitoring and overseeing the waivers,” he said.
The commissioner had chastised USED officials in public comments and via his Internet blog in late 2014 over the federal agency's handling of NCLB waiver requests from Kentucky and other states.
Furthermore, Holliday said Kentucky’s Unbridled Spirit accountability system and Professional Growth and Effectiveness System are proof that states are able to craft systems that improve teaching and learning.
“Kentucky, like many other states, has been working to improve its low-performing schools and to close achievement gaps. We’ve found a model that seems to work well in these schools. The model is an intensive diagnostic review of the instructional program in the school to identify areas for improvement. We then provide on-site math, literacy and principal coaches to provide just-in-time support for instruction. We’ve seen schools move from the bottom 5 percent in Kentucky to the top 10 percent in this model,” he said.
“In order to create a system of support for teachers and leaders, we as state leaders in education, do not need review or approval from the U.S. Department of Education. In Kentucky, we have built a successful system because it was done by Kentuckians. It was our teachers, our leaders and our communities that decided what works best for us,” the commissioner said.
Finally, Holliday voiced a warning that the new NCLB version’s changes “must be done with teachers and not to teachers.
“Our teacher and leader effectiveness system took years to develop and we’re continuing to improve the system. As a former teacher, I am very concerned that teachers across this country feel they are under attack by the current education reform efforts around teacher evaluations,” he said.
Others testifying during the hearing were a first-grade teacher from Washington, a principal from Maryland, a superintendent from Texas and an education researcher from the University of Washington.
[File photo above]