Good afternoon Readers,
One of the bright spots in K-12 education is the work the State Board of Education, http://www.sbe.wa.gov/default.htm, is doing to make a high school diploma meaningful. They are taking a comprehensive look at graduation requirements so that tomorrow's students will have a solid education coming out of high school so that they can get into and succeed in college or go into an apprenticeship program to learn a valuable trade.
Today a student can graduate high school with the required credits but it is not enough to get into a Washington state university. Most school districts have added their own local requirements that would require enough credits to match college entrance requirements but it makes no sense for the state requirement not to match up with college entrance requirements.
SBE's "Core 24" proposal is geared toward ensuring that all students will get enough credits to qualify for entrance into Washington state colleges and universities. You can get more specific information about "Core 24" and the "meaningful high school diploma" here: http://www.sbe.wa.gov/mhsd.htm.
On the math front, a third year of math is most likely to be adopted at the SBE's July meeting. That third year of math is also likely to be Algebra II. WTIA, as a member of the College and Work Ready Agenda, http://www.collegeworkready.org/, is advocating for a graduation requirement of 4 years of math, but requiring a third year is certainly a step in the right direction. Considering the opposition to just going to a third year of math from such groups as the WEA and others, SBE is showing real leadership in taking on the entrenched education interests who believe that more money with no accountability is the only solution to improving education.
Speaking of accountability, the SBE is also considering options to measure progress that will help schools improve. This will be a difficult task. See what they are considering here: http://www.sbe.wa.gov/spa.htm.
Of course, there are costs to improve education and WTIA is not against the state spending more to do so. However, there have to be priorities. Our governor and legislature have shown little ability to restrain spending and with economic growth slowing, they will have to make some tough decisions next year. Undoubtedly an increase in taxes will be looked at but a better idea is for the state to repeal the paid family leave insurance program before it sucks more resources away from education. The legislature and governor must reduce overall state health care spending as well, as that is becoming out of control.
The Basic Education Finance Task Force has been meeting for the last 9 months discussing how to fund K-12 effectively. The next meeting is Monday and Tuesday, June 9 and 10 (next week). WTIA will be there to monitor the proceedings. A wide range of proposals will be put forth by a number of different groups. You can check out the BEF Task Force activities here: http://www.leg.wa.gov/Joint/Committees/BEF/
This is really important stuff for our state. WTIA is involved because you have told us K-12 and higher education are important, especially around improving math and science. Washington state has made improvements in graduation rates, WASL pass rates and other areas but there is still a long way to go before we can call our education system one of the best in the nation, which it should be.
Please do not hesitate to contact me at Lmcmurran@washingtontechnology.org if I can answer any questions or if you would like get involved in these issues.