Kirst: reread Jerry Brown’s plan
Ed adviser says use that as basis for criticism
Michael Kirst, who co-authored Gov.-elect Jerry Brown’s education plan, had this reaction on reading the two dozen commentators’ worth of advice that ran on this page over two days last week (here and here): Go back and reread Brown’s plan.
“At least in the short run, rather than bring up whole new issues he has not committed to, it would be most useful to those working with him (Brown) if the comments addressed the plan specifically – what people like and don’t like,” Kirst told me over the weekend. (To keep the conversation going, I encourage readers and commentators to do just that and send in your reactions. Again, here’s the plan .)
Kirst, a professor emeritus of education and business administration at Stanford, was Brown’s principal adviser on education and sole campaign spokesman on that issue. He had a hand in writing the 12-point education plan, although, he said, Brown rewrote sections and approved every word of it. And, he said, Brown is serious about implementing it.
Brown’s plan includes some of the key issues that experts and advocates raised in their advice: a return to local control and the simplification of the state Ed Code, the need for new assessments beyond the current California Standardized Tests, and a focus on teacher and principal training and development. It commits to implementing a weighted student funding formula, based on student needs, as a replacement for dozens of categorical programs, though not in the context of overall governance and financing reform. And the plan does not directly address the massive funding cuts that K-12 schools and higher ed institutions may continue to experience.
The plan was written before Gov. Schwarzenegger deleted money from the budget for CALPADS, the statewide student data system that’s a year behind schedule; the plan doesn’t focus on student data. It also does not include a section on preschool, which Kirst said that Brown would address.
Kirst served on the State School Board for seven years, including four as president when Brown was governor. He told me that he is interested in serving once again for Brown, although he’s not certain in what capacity.
Apparently, it won’t be as Brown’s secretary of education; the governor doesn’t plan to appoint one. Kirst referred me to a section of Brown’s campaign web site that said: “Currently, education policy making at the state level is divided among the State Board of Education, the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Governor’s Secretary of Education. As Governor, I eliminated some of this overlap by not appointing a secretary of education and looking to the State Board for educational policy advice. Given education’s fundamental importance, I intend to play a major role in education policy. But I would work with and use the existing staff of the State Superintendent or state board, as opposed to having my own separate educational staff.”
The current president of the State Board, Ted Mitchell, is a Democrat whom Schwarzenegger appointed. A one-year extension of his term ends in January.
The most promising statement in the whole plan was buried in the section in curriculum.
“We also need to experiment with on-line and other instructional approaches that will use the available school time in more efficient ways.”
There is at least a chance that this gaol might actually work out to be something new and productive. So many of the other suggestions seems to rely on more funding. For example, “Work with teacher training institutions and state agencies to recruit more teachers from the top third of our high school graduates.” How’s that going to work if those students have more rewarding prospects elsewhere? Especially if the state is successful in attracting more students to STEM careers
The suggested parental benefits achieved by reforming the testing program seem exaggerated. It would be better to put money into parent-school data systems to help teachers communicate with parents about homework. Any parent who is involved in his child’s education will use homework as a daily indicator of how his child is learning. Give parents more visibility to homework assignments and homework evaluation.
I really like the idea on having a broader curriculum. But I no longer see the state as being able to control its own destiny in this matter. WIth common core and federal funding requirements the state just doesn’t have much wiggle room.
I’m all for simplifying the funding formulas and the education code. But it would be good to have transparency as well. The state needs to do something about requiring schools to create better SARCs and DARCs. There’s too much information that can be left off of these reports to make them meaningful.
Focusing on “the achievement gap” is necessary. But if Jerry Brown wants to see the public school system thrive he needs to reach beyond the community that effort serves. For example, GATE funding in our district was essentially eliminated, some funds were still available to teachers for training in differentiated instruction but otherwise there was no money. In my district about 300 parents showed up to the first district wide GATE meeting. After learning the funding was eliminated about half the parents walked out. It sure seems like the GATE community would be an excellent community to engage for experimenting with expanding the online learning options.
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I think that basing school funding on daily attendance is ridiculous. If a student is sick, why should the school lose funding? It’s not like they don’t have to pay the teachers as much? And I remember reading that some schools lost a significant amount of funding when so many kids were out during the recent swine flu epidemic. The fair thing to do would be to base the funding on how many kids are enrolled for the year.
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That’s correct; it’s definitely a ridiculous system, and harmful to our schools.
For a more admittedly frivolous example, San Francisco Unified lost $120,000 in ADA money because so many kids took off Wednesday to go to the Giants victory parade (disclosure: including mine, with my blessing). I actually think it would be a lovely gesture for the Giants to make up that loss with a donation.
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California has a lot of people who move around so some type of funding based on daily attendence seems necessary. Given that there are two variables, days attended and daily funding, either one can be used to allow for flexibility. I think the current system assumes that the flexibility is in the daily funding. If every district started to claim perfect attendence (e.g. by not keeping attendance at all), the daily rate would have to drop. I haven’t seen any numbers on how attendence varies between school districts. Its possible that weathier distircts have healthier kids so attendance is higher and hence those districts get more ADA. However, there’s a line somewhere because if the district gets “too” wealthy they don’t receive funding based on attendance. I’m all for simplicity, but we should read that as “as simple as possible, but no simpler”.
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Plans for Education – A topic requiring far more thought, time and space than this. Let’s start with teachers and schools. More LOCAL CONTROL by teachers, not statisticians or bureaucrats…not test manufacturers or publishing companies. They exist for profit – Teachers exist to teach and expand student skill, knowledge, and culture. How about providing beautiful physical structures for kids and teachers? We are tired and depressed by shabby conditions, ugly yards, inadequate play environments. We need a plan that includes libraries, filled with books and FULL TIME CERTIFICATED LIBRARIANS – not half time , every other week aides. Small class size, no split classes, more TEACHER control over what we teach-
Teachers are organs of a Democracy. We need a plan that includes music, art and performance for all grades. Will the governor and his representatives please read Democracy and Education by John Dewey? AND, The Death And Life of American Education – How testing and choice are destroying education, buy Diane Ravitch?
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I appreciate you taking to time to contribute That’s very hpefull.
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