A New Direction for Washington State's Public Schools

"It is the paramount duty of the state to make ample provision for the education of all children residing within its borders." - Washington State Constitution, article 9, section 1

Our state Constitution's authors had it right: Educating our children is the paramount duty of state government. We can create the kind of school system that Washington’s children deserve, and that a 21st Century economy demands. Our public schools will be innovative, fully funded and prepared to deliver on the promise that our kids will be prepared for college, advanced technical training or the workforce.

And while the Constitution does not address college education, the modern economy -- where two of three new jobs will require a college or advanced degree -- makes a high-performing higher education system an absolute requirement if our state is to increase and maintain its economic competitiveness. Yet our state ranks among the bottom ten in America for the percentage of our people who attend a four-year college or university. Less than half of jobs currently being filled by employers which require a college or advanced degree are being filled by graduates who earned their degree in Washington; more than half those jobs are filled by workers hired from out of state. Higher education in Washington will be addressed in a subsequent white paper.

While education is state government’s paramount duty, support for our public schools is not the state's top budget priority. It’s time to change that, with no excuses. As the state budget grows over time, as it surely will, we need to prioritize those new funds toward our kids’ futures through our K-12 system as well as our colleges and universities.

At the same time, we cannot spend more money on existing public school programs that are underperforming without first reforming them. Washington is regarded nationally as an education reform backwater, coming in near the bottom in the President's Race to the Top competition. This failure is utterly unacceptable in a state which generally is considered innovative. We must learn from our failures, fix what is broken, and move forward rapidly to catch up to, and then surpass, our sister states.

Vision for Our Public Schools

By the time today’s kindergarteners graduate high school, our K-12 system must be in the Top 10 nationally for improvement in student achievement.
Cut the drop-out rate from nearly one-third today to less than 10 percent when today’s kindergarteners reach graduation. The Renton and Everett school districts have shown we can accomplish this.
Prepare every graduate to succeed in college, vocational training, or the workforce, and reduce the number of college freshman who require remedial math or English courses to less than 10 percent.
Increase the share of the state budget devoted to education at all levels, including early childhood education for three and four-year olds, all-day kindergarten, after-school tutoring, and a longer school year for children who are below standards of proficiency in reading, math and science.
Eliminate the achievement gap between students of color and white students in reading, math and science by the time today’s kindergarteners graduate from high school.

Guiding Principles for Our Public Schools

The most important ingredients for excellent schools are excellent teachers and principals. Every child deserves an energetic, committed teacher who is an expert at helping the child achieve her or his full academic potential.
Measuring student achievement is critical to evaluating school performance and teacher and principal effectiveness.
We have high expectations for everyone: Educators, administrators, students, and parents. That includes maintaining high academic standards and delivering value for the investments made by taxpayers.
Fully funding education requires more dollars, but money alone won’t produce great public schools. Real improvement will require a bold vision, including innovative teaching practices, incentives, and flexibility that promote quality, and a variety of school models to meet differing student needs and society’s needs.

Promote Competition and Innovation

Invest in expanded career skills opportunities for high school students across the state, keying on the high-demand for machinists, electrical workers, and other workers in the skilled trades.
Fund more STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) programs like Aviation, Delta, and Marysville Arts & Technology High Schools, as well as International Baccalaureate and other AP/Honors programs.
Permit and encourage highly innovative charter schools, drawing on the most successful models from around America such as KIPP, Rocketship and Harlem Success Academy.
Provide incentives to state colleges of education to increase admissions standards and raise the average entering student's qualifications to the top one-third of her or his entering college class. We must also explore additional alternative certification routes to allow community members with in-demand skills to enter the profession.
Develop and launch the nation's top schools superintendent training academy, drawing applicants from education, academia, non-profit sectors, and the military, with particular emphasis on leadership potential and effectiveness.
Revamp training programs for and recruitment of school principals, emphasizing pedagogical expertise, leadership abilities and management skills.
Change state law to allow elected school boards in school districts with ten percent or more failing schools to be replaced with a school board appointed by the Superintendent of Public Instruction or Governor.

Adequately fund our schools

After seven straight terms of Democratic governors, K-12 funding has eroded from 51% of the state budget to 43% today and the state has backed away from its commitment to fund all school districts fully and equally. According to a study in Education Week that adjusted for regional costs, Washington is 46th in the nation in per-pupil expenditures. This is dismally low. We have fallen well behind other states.

Meanwhile, districts are forced to rely on local levies to fund areas that used to be considered part of a basic education. State support does not come close to funding what districts need for transportation, health insurance, textbooks or supplies. We need to invest state budget growth into education, but voters expect to see new reforms attached to those dollars.

Accept recommendations from the state’s Quality Education Council to fully fund education in Washington State.
As the state budget grows, put increased education funding on the top of the list. In the last 20 years, the state general fund budget has doubled. Ask yourself how you want to see the next 100 percent in state general funding allocated, and consider that a disproportionately large share should be directed to our public schools, colleges and universities.
Find cost efficiencies to save taxpayer dollars. For instance, a recent state audit suggests streamlining and standardizing teacher health care plans to save tens of millions of dollars.

Excellent schools start with excellent teachers

Quality instruction is the single most important factor in helping our kids reach their full potential. Every child deserves a highly competent teacher who is passionate about student learning and committed to the idea that every student can succeed.

Excellent teachers

Are respected as the professionals they are
Are mentored and supported at the start of their teaching career
Have the passion, energy, knowledge and training to effectively educate kids
Are rigorously evaluated and are given a clear path to develop as teachers and improve their effectiveness

Emphasize respect for teachers and treat them as professionals

Respect for teachers goes beyond their students – it means schools boards, district administrators, principals and parents respecting teachers as the professionals they are.
The vast majority of teachers want to become more effective so students can achieve more.
Set high standards and require consistent improvement to meet those standards.
Excellent teachers are paid for their effectiveness.
Recruit top students in universities and colleges to become teachers.

Provide new teachers the support they need to develop into excellent teachers

Pair new teachers for the first three years with an experienced mentor who is an effective teacher. Mentors will support new teachers and advise on issues such as classroom management and behavior, curriculum preparation, and handling the unique issues that children bring to the classroom.
Award mentoring teachers with additional pay for taking on this role.
Provide struggling teachers with more mentoring support, added training and frequent consultations with their principal to help them achieve greater proficiency at the craft of teaching.

Use proven criteria to rigorously evaluate teacher effectiveness and career development

Utilize the Charlotte Danielson evaluation model to rate teachers for their Planning Preparation, Classroom Environment, Instruction, and Professional Responsibilities.
Evaluations should include self-review, peer review and supervisor review.
Include improvement in student achievement scores as a significant component of a teacher’s evaluation, and utilize school-wide improvements in evaluating principals and superintendents. Tie effectiveness to compensation, retention, and promotion.
Inspire good teachers to become great teachers, and give them a clear path toward becoming one.

Reduce barriers to removing non-improving teachers

Phase out “last in, first out” seniority rules and allow teacher effectiveness to be considered during staffing reductions.
Prevent low-performing teachers from being shuffled from school to school. Teachers must show clear improvement or be removed from the classroom.

Education Reform: The Civil Rights Issue of the 21st Century

Nothing is more disheartening for parents than feeling their child is stuck in a struggling school, or for educators to feel unsupported as they work to help students. All of us have been told for years by certain educators that some kids cannot succeed in school because of demographic and social factors. We now know that is not true. Every child can learn and be successful in an effective school with high quality teachers and principals.

When it comes to the achievement gap between students of color and white students, at our current rate of improvement, it will require 105 years to close that gap. That is simply unacceptable. We can do better – and we will. Among other steps, we will:

Change the state salary schedule so effectiveness, not just seniority and credentialing, are factors in teacher pay.
Pay excellent teachers and principals more to work at struggling schools.
Train motivated principals as “turnaround experts” and assign them to improve persistently underperforming schools.
Train educators at underperforming schools with effective strategies for teaching struggling students, students of color and students from low-income families.
Emphasize and fund early learning programs so kids come into kindergarten prepared to learn. Start with kids at highest risk of academic failure.
Fund all-day kindergarten across the state.
Partner with non-profits, such as the Boys & Girls Clubs, to utilize school buildings for more hours each day and give kids a positive after-school activity. The social costs of sending kids to empty homes are just too high.
Provide a longer school year for students who are behind. It doesn't make sense to take a struggling student and send them home in June for the summer, only to have them return in September even farther behind.

Give students new pathways, opportunities

Of the open job positions in Washington State today, employers are having the most difficulty filling jobs that require skilled labor or degrees in math and science. We know we need a greater emphasis on science and math; we also need better pathways for students to pursue careers in the skilled trades.

Start more innovative STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) schools like Delta High School in Richland and Aviation High School in Des Moines.
Provide more career and technical programs for students who want to pursue the skilled trades.
Use technology to expand the reach of effective schools and teachers by immersing students in subjects like language study, and delivering otherwise unavailable classes to rural school districts.
Give schools greater flexibility to schedule the school year in a way that meets community needs.