As part of Measured Progress's 25th anniversary observances, education policy experts from several states and the Province of Ontario, Canada, shared their experiences and insights on education issues. 

Each of the five panelists has at one time served as a state or province’s chief education official: Teresa Bergeson is the former education commissioner for the state of Washington; Peter McWalters is education commissioner in Rhode Island; Doug Christensen served in the same capacity in Nebraska; Avis Glaze was chief executive officer of  Ontario’s Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat,  and Gene Wilhoit not only held the office of commissioner in both Arkansas and Kentucky, but is now chief executive officer of the Council of Chief State School Officers in Washington, DC.

While their specific philosophies differ, each of the panelists is passionately committed to providing all students with a superior education. All five are former teachers in addition to the other varied roles they’ve played in the education arena. 

For Terry Bergeson (photo right), the road to the statehouse involved teaching in schools from Massachusetts to Alaska with stops in between. Early advocacy for better support of teachers eventually led her to rally Washington state educators, the business community, and parents behind an education reform bill that established rigorous standards and an assessment system that was “as valid and honest as we could build,” said Bergeson. 

The Washington assessment system was advanced for its time; in addition to testing English and mathematics, the program included performance-based assessments in science, social studies, and the arts. The results were tangible. “[The system] changed teachers’ vision of what was possible for economically challenged kids,” Bergeson said.

Peter McWalters (photo left) characterizes himself as an urban educator, who “came in from the side” to the teaching profession after serving with the Peace Corps in the Philippines. A tireless advocate for improved equity in our schools, he is concerned about “the insidious relationship between the economy and how education is set up.” According to McWalters, the nation’s schools largely still operate to support an industrial economy, with the expectation that 30 percent of students will be high performers and 40 percent will be very low performing. 

This model might have been sufficient when the primary goal of schools was to identify the few students destined for higher education, while preparing the majority to enter the workforce with little or no skills. But according to McWalters, in a “flat world” and global economy, schools must set their expectations higher and make a solid commitment to access and equity for all students. 

Equity is a key component of mission-driven schools, along with aligned practice, and informed outcomes, according to Doug Christensen. He believes that No Child Left Behind’s punitive accountability requirements conflict with those missions. Further, NCLB forced states to be alike and discouraged the innovators, he said. With Christensen (photo below right) at the helm of the state education department, Nebraska was the lone holdout in refusing to submit to NCLB’s mandate for statewide assessments. The state continued to assess students by district, which he characterized as local assessment on a large scale. 

“Assessments that originate in the classroom touch what goes on in the classroom and influence outcomes in the classroom,” Christensen said. He stepped down from his post when the Nebraska legislature passed a bill mandating a statewide assessment, holding steadfast to his belief in using local assessment to improve everyday instruction. “Schools should be mission-driven and that mission should be some definition of excellence and some definition of equity,” he said. 

When Gene Wilhoit (photo below, on right, with Stuart Kahl) was education commissioner in Kentucky, educators “experimented” with standards-based assessment long before they were mandated. Students were assessed using constructed-response items, portfolios, and other evidence of student work to cover a wide range of student knowledge, he explained.  

“… And right in the middle of that experiment in Kentucky, the nation made a decision to take a course of action, No Child Left Behind. Under the guise of the most lofty ideals, excellence and equity, a group of individuals put in place a standardized program for every state in the country,” Wilhoit said. “(It sways) more toward the minimum than the maximum. It really did cap individualization and initiative. The states that were really hurt over the last eight to ten years were the innovators.” 

From his current role as the leader of a national education organization, Wilhoit also spoke of potential school improvement opportunities the government stimulus package might present. He highlighted how important it is that the states allocate the money wisely, rather than “waste it under the guise of creating jobs and preserving programs.” 

According to Avis Glaze (photo left), capacity building at all levels of the system, smaller class sizes at the primary grades and a focus on vulnerable students were among the strategies that helped Ontario boost student learning in recent years. She also explained the differences between assessment in the United States and Ontario, where testing is based on the curriculum and is only mandated for grades three, six, nine, and to demonstrate diploma-level literacy. NCLB requires schools in the U.S. to test at grades three through eight and one high school grade. 

Finding the intersection between “excellence and equity” is a major concern for the province. Glaze explained that in her first year as CEO of the Secretariat, there was a special strategy for low-performing schools that were not meeting province academic standards. By the end of the year those schools improved by an average of 10 percentage points after province officials assisted districts in need of help, rather than punishing them.  

“We believed in capacity building, leadership development, focused interventions, and reenergizing the system in dealing with some of the human aspects of the enterprise as we tried to build consensus and instill motivation, commitment, and all the things that would help a system to thrive,” Glaze said. She emphasized that districts in Ontario are not penalized or “ranked” as they are in the United States. The next push for Ontario is to look at ways to focus on deep implementation, develop networks, and implement character development in all its schools, she said.

The panelists praised Measured Progress’s history and continued commitment to playing a key role in education public policy. They also pointed to the company’s leadership in developing unique assessment approaches, including student performance tasks and portfolios, and helping teachers to improve formative assessment practices in the classroom. 

Bergeson described Measured Progress as “a partner” in setting a vision for comprehensive assessment. 

Wilhoit urged the company not to “get too comfortable” in the years ahead. “There is more innovation ahead of us, more learning ahead of us, and there are assessment systems that will be put in place in the future that are far superior to what we have developed,” he said. 

According to Glaze it’s important for educators to define all of the qualities of an educated person. “I think of Martin Luther King, who said ‘Intelligence alone is not enough. Intelligence plus character is the true goal of education.’”