School districts across the state could regain control of about $40 million in federal funding if the state House and governor agree to a bill passed Wednesday by the Senate.
When the Legislature balked at a requirement last year that school districts use student test scores in teacher evaluations, the state lost its waiver for part of the federal No Child Left Behind education law. More than 1,900 of the state’s 2,200 school districts lost control over that money. The money stayed within the districts but was removed from each district’s oversight and used for private tutoring and other services.
Some Democrats and the state’s teachers union, the Washington Education Association, opposed last year’s bill, as well as this year’s, over concerns that such a requirement doesn’t recognize the differences among school districts and other factors in student performance, puts too much emphasis on a testing regime that monopolizes class time, and doesn’t give teachers fair consideration in their performance.
Senate Bill 5748 differs from last year’s legislation in that it would put off the requirement to use test scores in teacher evaluations for a year and would allow school districts to negotiate with local teachers unions on how much weight the scores would be given in evaluations. Neither compromise would prevent or delay restoration of the NCLB waiver.
Those compromises, for example, found support with Sen. Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens, who voted against last year’s bill, and should also find more support among House Democrats this year.
At the same time, the U.S. Senate is taking a bipartisan look at reforms to No Child Left Behind, itself, led by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, and Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee. Both said Monday they’ve made progress on an update, but no specifics or a timeline on possible reforms have been announced.
That’s why Stand for Children, an education advocacy group, and others have pushed for the state to regain the waiver; there’s no clear indication of when federal reforms might pass Congress, and the districts need the federal money the waiver provides now. The group has circulated a petition in support of the legislation and has gathered 22,000 signatures.
The state should pass the legislation to restore the waiver and the federal funding it provides. But much more should follow, including the federal revamp of No Child Left Behind.
State officials still need to bring some clarity to the state’s schedule of tests for students in third through eighth grades, in high school and for graduation requirements. And they also should consider teachers’ concerns about the amount of time the tests are taking from classroom instruction time.
Test results can provide a window to help evaluate teachers, administrators and schools, but testing’s main purpose should remain as a way to track the progress of students and help teachers and parents see where more study is necessary.
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