School reform in Louisiana is built on the premise that education is the foundation of the American dream. Our schools are the key to Louisiana’s future economy and quality of life and opportunity for our students.
The Every Student Succeeds Act has given us the opportunity to have discussions about all aspects of school improvement—beginning with a fresh look at accountability. Over the past year, our educators and policymakers have been giving great thought to basic questions. What is our definition of a great school? What do we want our schools to be to our students, parents and communities? What do we motivate and incent with our accountability formula to reach that vision?
Louisiana’s ESSA plan provides for an increased commitment to high expectations. The plan redefines what it means to be a high achieving school. For years, the benchmark expectation for academic skills in Louisiana was called “basic”, but no college seeks or accepts “basic” performance. Colleges recruit and accept students who have shown they are proficient in their high school studies. In the future, that will be Louisiana’s expectation.
The Louisiana plan includes the addition of a student growth component to our accountability model. This will motivate and incent the creation of more great schools in Louisiana. What parents want from our schools is a focus on their individual child—to improve academic achievement and prepare them to capitalize on opportunity in their future.
We all want schools and teachers to assess the strengths and weaknesses of our children—to build on those strengths and help overcome the weaknesses. We want assessments to not just be about reward and punishment and accountability, but as a way to help guide individualized instruction. We want data-driven instruction that results in an individualized learning plan for our children.
Up to now, there has been little focus on individual student growth by our accountability system. The proposed change in the Louisiana plan will incent greater focus on individual student growth for all students. This will encourage and incent more use of data-driven instruction like that seen in the Louisiana TAP school instruction model. This change in the accountability model will incent schools to consistently pay attention to how to develop strategies to increase growth in low achievement students at the same time there is significant incentive to work harder to push high achievers to meet their potential.
At the same time, Louisiana’s plan maintains our state’s commitment to closing the achievement gap. More resources will be reserved for intervention in our most struggling schools. These schools will be able to draw from a list of national experts to assist them in school turnarounds.
In a turnaround setting, schools often must accelerate academic achievement from far below grade level to grade level within one school year. Helping children make substantial gains is not easy work. It requires constant attention to every child in the classroom, working late, and constantly pushing students to do their best—despite what is going on at that student’s home. The student growth model will also help us recognize and reward this work.
Louisiana has capitalized on the opportunity of ESSA to define what the people of Louisiana want our schools to be for our students, parents, and communities. The process for developing Louisiana’s plan has been exhaustive.
Over the last year, state Superintendent John White conducted a statewide series of public forums for all stakeholders. There have been 125 meetings on ESSA alone not counting meetings held with the state board of education members, legislators, and the governor’s office. Presentations have been made to more than 200 organizations and comments received from more than 1,000 individuals. The appointed Louisiana Accountability Commission debated technical elements of the plan and a second draft was issued in February.
There are some people that now argue we need to continue to wait to finalize the Louisiana plan required by ESSA. I am no expert in politics or government but have learned a little about decision-making in my nearly 40 years as a physician.
First, there is a time to stop testing and make a decision on diagnosis and treatment. There is certainly a time when waiting is not in the best interest. Oftentimes in the pursuit of more clarity, the course of action becomes more cloudy and results often suffer.
After all the meetings and input, it is time to move forward. In this case, waiting to submit the plan will result in schools beginning the year without knowing how they are to be evaluated. It is not fair to our schools.
Second, someone has to be the final arbitrator on the decision. In medicine, there is a primary physician and sometimes several consultants. The primary physician is the one with the greatest overall knowledge of the patient and is ultimately responsible for final decisions.
In this analogy, BESE and the Louisiana DOE are responsible as the primary physician—having done the work listening to constituents and formulating the final plan.
We don’t have to wait for Superman to have school improvement in Louisiana. Louisiana’s plan is committed to supporting great teaching and high expectations of students. It is accompanied by an accountability system that motivates and incents the foundation blocks of a great school. It is a plan that provides a worthwhile framework to address some of the long established concerns of our students, parents, schools, and communities. There is a lot of work to do. We need to get started.
Dr. Phillip Rozeman is a physician; co-founder of the Alliance for Education, SBBA and Education’s Next Horizon; and recent past chairman of the Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce.
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