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Sunday, August 09, 2009

Gov. Vows to Continue Education Overhaul Despite Setbacks

By Martin Salazar
Copyright © 2009 Albuquerque Journal
Journal Staff Writer
          Gov. Bill Richardson says he's not giving up in his quest to reform public education in New Mexico.
        Following on the heels of a devastating report on high school graduation rates and achievement gap for minority students, he began announcing a sweeping reform agenda last week — calling it the start of an "education renaissance."
        As the old saying goes, it isn't his first rodeo.
        Just 21 days after being sworn into office for his first term as governor, Richardson stood before lawmakers promising results for school reform if they would just give him the tools.
        "I hope to be known as the education governor, and I want to be held accountable," Richardson said during his first State of the State address in 2003, tapping into his immense political capital to gain approval for a breathtaking series of reforms that reached all the way to the state constitution.
        The reforms included everything from abolishing the state Board of Education and creating an education Cabinet secretary to tapping the permanent fund for additional education dollars.
        All of them were aimed at overhauling the state's education system, which was producing dismal results as measured by student test scores and graduation rates.
        With just 17 months left in Richardson's second term in office, results of his initial reforms are starting to trickle in.
        There are some bright spots: Last year's third-graders, the first students to benefit from full-day kindergarten, made significant gains on standardized tests compared with the previous group of third graders. Richardson and state education leaders point to the gains as an indicator that full-day kindergarten is paying off.
        There have been sustained improvements in the state's education system, but, overall student achievement in New Mexico continues to receive scores that would be considered failing in any classroom in New Mexico.
        "I've got to give (Richardson) an A plus for trying some innovation and different things, but, as far as seeing hard-core results from that innovation, it hasn't happened yet," said Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, who serves as vice chairman of the Legislative Finance Committee.
        A few recent reports illustrate the situation:
        • The state Public Education Department announced last week that students have made continual gains in math, reading and science proficiency over the last five years, yet overall proficiency rates in the three subjects still hover between 41 percent and 55 percent.
        • The state last week released for the first time a four-year high school graduation rate. It revealed the graduation rate for New Mexico's class of 2008 was 54 percent, compared with the national average of 70 percent.
        • From 1996 to 2006, the state's graduation rate went up just seven-tenths of a percent, according to Education Week. The publication labeled the state's graduation rate fourth worst in the nation; 10 years ago, New Mexico was sixth from the bottom.
        • A recent study by the Legislative Finance Committee found New Mexico isn't getting its money's worth from its three-tiered teacher licensing system, which bumped up teacher pay. Though the state has invested $278.4 million by dipping into its permanent fund for the reform, the LFC study found little connection between the state's highest-qualified teachers and student performance on annual tests.
        Results of education reforms both in New Mexico and nationally suggest there's no magic bullet when it comes to fixing education. Nevertheless, Richardson isn't giving up. Among the initiatives in his final push is a plan to get 10,000 dropouts back in school by May 2011. And education will take center stage during next year's legislative session.
        "My last legislative session is not just going to be a budget session," he told the Journal in a recent interview. "It's going to be full of initiatives that I think are needed before I complete my term, and education is going to be the key. Sure, you get frustrated. Sure, you want things to happen. But I'm not somebody that puts their head in a pillow and starts whining. I'm not a whiner."
        Some good news
        The news hasn't been all bad for the governor:
        • The Fordham Foundation in 2006 ranked New Mexico second in the nation for education reform.
        • The National Education Association last month honored Richardson with its "America's Greatest Education Governor" award. Richardson attributes the award to measures he pushed that resulted in better pay for New Mexico teachers, moving their wages from 48th in the nation in 1997-98 to 39th in 2007-08. The average public school teacher salary in New Mexico that year was $45,112.
        The substantial pay hike for New Mexico's teachers has allowed the state to recruit and retain educators, both from here and out of state. Ellen Bernstein, president of the Albuquerque Teachers Federation, said the state is no longer hemorrhaging teachers as it had been before the three-tiered system was adopted.
        • Then, there are last year's third-graders, the first group to benefit from full-day kindergarten. The latest test scores show that 53 percent of those students were proficient in math, a nine-point gain over the previous year's class. In reading, 62 percent were proficient, a four-point gain.
        During Richardson's tenure, the increase in public school funding has outpaced enrollment growth. He said he has increased recurring general fund spending for education by about 20 percent from 2003 to 2009, pumping $489 million more a year into pubic schools.
        With the clock ticking on his term, Richardson is looking ahead.
        "I think my legacy as governor is going to show that we've made significant improvements in education, but we still have a ways to go," he said. "And measuring progress is a dynamic process that's going to take time, and we've got to show some patience. (There have been) some setbacks, but we can't turn back."
        State GOP chairman Harvey Yates Jr. expressed skepticism about Richardson's education accomplishments, noting that, on average, 73 students drop out of New Mexico schools each day.
        And it's not just Republicans questioning Richardson's education record.
        "It's kind of ironic that he gets this (NEA) award for education when I think most people looking at the data would say that New Mexico is failing," said Jose Z. Garcia, a Democrat and an associate professor of government at New Mexico State University who wrote a column last month about the lack of progress in academic performance during Richardson's tenure.
        To bolster the case that New Mexico schools still rank at the bottom of the barrel of academic achievement, he points to three reports: the American Legislative Exchange Council's Report Card on American Education, the Department of Education's National Assessment of Education Progress and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Education Report Card.
        The 2007 chamber report gave New Mexico an F in both academic achievement and return on investment. The American Legislative Exchange Council's 2008 report ranks New Mexico fourth from the bottom on educational results. And the Department of Education report shows that New Mexico continues to lag behind the national average on test scores.
        Peter Winograd, former director of the state's office of education accountability and now Richardson's education adviser, points out that, under Richardson, the state has moved ahead.
        Proficiency increased significantly in fourth-grade math and reading and in eighth-grade math as measured by NAEP scores.
        "We've made major progress," Winograd said. "It's not as much as we need to do. It's not as fast as it needs to be, but the statement that New Mexico hasn't made progress is just not accurate based on these data."
        Modest gains were also made in fourth-grade science. Proficiency, however, decreased in eighth-grade reading, science and writing.
        "I think this signals that we're starting to have an impact," Winograd said, referring to the gains.
        Too soon to tell
        Drawing conclusions on the success of Richardson's education reforms could be premature.
        Because of a reporting lag, the Education Week graduation data reflect just four years of Richardson's years as governor. Also, one of Richardson's bigger reforms, the redesigning of high school graduation requirements, begins this year.
        Education Secretary Garcia estimated it would take another five years to fully see the results.
        "I should be judged on my eight years, actually it's a 10-year (strategy)," Richardson said. "The next governor is going to get the benefits of our reforms, but I should be judged after what I do after this next legislative session."
        Still, the state graduation rate, which is 16 percentage points below the national average, paints a grim picture.
        While Bernstein takes issue with the LFC's report on the teacher pay reform — she calls it "politically motivated" and an "unresearched piece of information" — she acknowledges that the state's poor graduation rate is a major problem. And she doubts that the high school redesign championed by Richardson is going to make a major difference.
        "We should start to think more creatively about what it is that we're doing that disenfranchises the students from their schooling. We're doing something wrong," Bernstein said. "The institutions we've created aren't serving the purpose. They can't meet the expectation. ... But we're going to have to do it a little more thoughtfully than just tweaking here and there ..."
        Perhaps even more disturbing is the achievement gap — the breakdown of graduation rates and other performance measures by race and ethnicity. Roughly 54.6 percent of the state's students are Hispanic.
        For the class of 2008, the state's Hispanic graduation rate was 50.2 percent, nearly 14 percentage points below that of their Anglo classmates. Only 45.4 percent of the state's American Indian and 52 percent of black students graduated.
        To be fair, Richardson didn't succeed in getting all of his education reforms enacted. Among them: his desire for statewide Pre-K, getting a laptop to each of the state's seventh-graders and getting the best teachers into the worst schools.
        The governor noted that powerful stakeholders, including school boards, superintendents and teacher unions, converge on the Legislature and lawmakers have not always backed him.
        "What I faced in the Legislature were Democrats that basically want to spend more money and are less accountability oriented, and Republicans who are totally accountability and performance-oriented with no resources," he said.
        With the weight of the state's education system on her shoulders, Garcia believes that incremental gains aren't enough given the state's low proficiency rates. But she acknowledged that state reforms can only do so much.
        "Regardless of the reforms that we put in place, parental responsibility is an important component," she said. "We need to stress that. We need a cultural shift in this country, and, in New Mexico, in terms of parent and community involvement and taking responsibility for their children's education."
        New Mexico education reforms
        2003 — Changes to the New Mexico constitution allow the state to take more money from the Land Grant Permanent Fund to pay for reforms and to replace the state Board of Education with an education department directly under Gov. Bill Richardson's control. Other reforms include a three-tiered licensure system for teachers and creation of the Office of Education Accountability in the Department of Finance and Administration.
        2004 — Lawmakers increase appropriations to public schools to $2 billion and set aside $120 million in "Education Lockbox" to pay for reforms. The Public Education Department is created. Other initiatives include increased emphasis on truancy and dropout prevention.
        2005 — Lawmakers increase public school spending to $2.1 billion, fund the next phase of the three-tiered licensure system, pass the Pre-Kindergarten Act, expand the assessment program to include an 11th grade test.
        2006 — Lawmakers increase school funding to $2.3 billion and fund the next phase of the three-tiered licensure system. The Kindergarten Plus Pilot program is extended.
        2007 — High School Redesign is enacted, increasing the legal dropout age to 18 and increasing graduation requirements. Legislation is passed to create a standard student identification number for public schools and higher education. A statewide teacher accountability reporting system is established. The Cyber Academy Act is passed to provide online courses. Principal salaries are increased and evaluations are tied to student achievement. Pre-K is funded with $14 million.
        2008 — Funding for public schools is increased to $2.6 billion.
        2009 — Economic downturn results in lawmakers appropriating $2.4 billion for public schools. Another $164.7 million in federal stimulus funds is used to supplement state funding, meaning that education spending is reduced by less than 1 percent. Lawmakers do not approve a new funding formula that would pump more than $300 million in additional money into public education by increasing taxes.
        — Source: LFC report: "Public Education Department The Three-Tiered Licensure System and The Achievement Gap June 4, 2009"
       

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