With the Obama administration challenging states in a Race to the Top, now isn’t the time to be lowering the bar in education.
That, however, is how we interpret state Superintendent Randy Dorn’s proposal, unveiled Thursday, to further delay high-school graduation requirements in math and science — standards that were first pushed back just two years ago. If the Legislature goes along, it will be lifting needed urgency from the effort to raise standards and adequately prepare our students, and our state, to be globally competitive. The rest of the world won’t stand by while Washington argues over how to get its act together. It won’t hesitate to leave our students in the dust of opportunity.
The state’s largest teachers’ union supports Dorn’s plan. Other key education groups, however, are strongly opposed. They include the League of Education Voters, the Washington Roundtable, the business-backed Partnership for Learning and the Excellent Schools Now Coalition.
Dorn may also have met strong opposition within his own office. Seattle PostGlobe writer Joe Copeland, who first reported on Dorn’s plans last week, wrote that Dorn’s science director of teaching and learning, Mary McClellan, is resigning over “philosophical” differences.
Under current law, passing state exams in math and science will be a graduation requirement for the class of 2013. Dorn proposes delaying the math requirement by two years and the science requirement by four, all the way to 2017. He says that because standards in both subjects are changing, schools and students need more time to prepare.
Even if there is truth to that, it’s too early to raise the white flag. High expectations are useful motivators, as was shown when the state’s graduation requirements in reading and writing kicked in four years ago. The year those tests first counted, test scores saw their biggest jump.
It’s true that math and science scores have been low and flat, but removing a powerful incentive to do better will only help keep them there.
We understand that the teachers’ union is frustrated over a lack of adequate funding, including recent cuts forced by the recession. Earnest leaders are working on the funding puzzle, but it isn’t going to be solved this year or next. That cannot become an excuse for letting our kids fall behind.
On the contrary, students deserve a renewed commitment on the part of all adults involved. The rest of the world will move ahead, with or without them.
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