Thanks largely to the efforts of President Obama, more Americans are paying attention to education reform.  In Wisconsin, many people were forced out of their comfort zone (we are pleased about ranking either #1 or #2 in ACT scores) when the Obama administration snubbed our request for federal "Race to the Top" money. 

Just as the public is coming to understand the vulnerability of the Wisconsin economy, they are beginning to see the vulnerability of our K-12 school system.  Dropouts are up, test scores are down, and we have never spent more on education.  Increasingly, people are beginning to demand more performance from their education dollar. 

In education, like so many aspects of our lives, we look for success stories.  Today’s rock star of education reform is the diminutive head of the Washington D.C. schools, Michelle Rhee.  She is shaking up the world of education based on her passion around one simple concept; performance.  Enabled by changes in federal and city laws, Rhee has put in place a teacher evaluation system, 50% of which is based on teachers’ impact on student learning.  Using this tool, Rhee laid off dozens of teachers.  If they were not performing, they were gone. 

Performance replaced seniority, and, for the first time in a decade, Washington D.C. student test scores improved significantly.  Just as anthropologists were drawn to the Rift Valley, School districts from across the country are flocking to Washington D.C. to examine this curious new teacher evaluation tool up close.

Yet in Wisconsin, our appetite for reform remains restrained.  We have none of the urgency that Wisconsin professor Allan Odden called for in the pages of Education Week.  Instead, our Legislature passed Act 215.  Aimed at reforming MPS celebrated by our Governor, Act 215 is incredibly weak tea, especially when compared to what is happening in the classrooms of Washington D.C. schools.
On the surface, there is much to like in the Act.  It requires MPS to begin to use student achievement in the annual evaluation of teachers and principals.  Further, MPS is to develop a program to identify teachers and principals who “continue to demonstrate serious deficiencies.”  So far so good. 

However, a closer read reveals that Wisconsin’s heart really is not into reform.  While the new law seems to make the state superintendent the new sheriff in town, it put no bullets in his gun.  Act 215 prohibits him from doing anything without consulting with the MPS School Board, the MPS superintendent and representatives of each collective bargaining unit.  Just for emphasis, the Act also limits any changes in administrative or personnel structures to those that are, “consistent with applicable collective bargaining agreements.”

Unfortunately, this is hardly surprising.  Wisconsin schools have built up a thick padding of insulation designed to keep the chill wind of reform at bay.  Stitched into this bulky garment are state laws (e.g.  teacher evaluations must be kept secret), local district rules, contract provisions (including dozens of MOUs that tie the hands of MPS administrators) and decades of Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission (WERC) decisions  that define the conditions of employment in schools.  Until we take these impediments on directly, little will change in MPS.  It is too late in this legislative session to make any real changes.  The status quo will rule the roost for another year. 

However, maybe our next Governor and our next Legislature will finally adopt the urgency that Allen Odden and others advocate.

-May 13, 2010