I'd Like to Welcome Randy Dorn to the I Thought a Think Family

Item, from the News Tribune:

This from News Tribune columnist Peter Callaghan:

One interesting revelation from Thursday's debate between Randy Dorn and Terry Bergeson is that Dorn, the challenger, said he would support a constitutional amendment to eliminate the school superintendent as an elected office.

Dorn said the top schools job should be appointed, perhaps by the governor.

Bergeson, the 12-year-incumbent, said she thinks it should continue to be elected by the voters.

Me, in July:

On a mailing list I’m on someone recently shared a conversation that they had with a state senator. He echoed what I’ve heard other legislators say during my lobbying trips—Terry Bergeson is ineffective and something needs to change over at OSPI—but then went a step further and said he was considering legislation for this next session that would change the SPI position from an elected one to an appointed one.

That’s an interesting idea. I don’t know that it’s a good idea, but it’s one that merits some conversation.

OK, so he probably got the idea from the same guy I did, and he's probably not a raging ITAT fan who waits with bated breath for the next post, and he might not be getting an I Thought a Think tattoo even as we speak. I think it shows you, though, that there could be more legs to this idea than I initially thought.

Read more here, if any.

What if.....? Superintendent of Public Instruction Edition

It's an idea that I've been playing with for a bit now, and a conversation I had at lunch today helped to spur it along even farther: what would the possible governor/SPI matchups mean for the future of education in Washington State?

There's a great post up at the News Tribune right now comparing the differences between Terry Bergeson and Randy Dorn based on a debate that happened today. You can get the education platforms for Rossi and Gregoire off of their respective websites.

(An aside: Rossi's is much more fully developed. C'mon, Chris)

So let's dream about the future, shall we?

Scenario 1: The incumbents both win. What changes? Very little. The work of the Basic Education Finance Task Force is finished and promptly ignored, much like Washington Learns. Some version of the WASL remains in place, because there's no way in hell that Terry can back away from that test now. The biggest name in education in Washington State turns out not to be either Gregoire or Bergeson, but rather Rep. Dave Quall and Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe, because the legislature has already shown an alarming disregard for our Superintendent and I see no reason why that would change. In that environment your committee heads become that much more important. This isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Results: A WASL, but a different WASL. We keep on keepin' on.

Scenario 2: Same Governor, New OSPI. Fun one to consider. Gregoire has come out in support of the WASL in past years, though that support has become noticably more tepid (especially towards math) as the test becomes a bigger and bigger target for the public. Randy Dorn has come out pretty strongly against the WASL and for ditching the entire system:

For over a decade, OSPI has clung to the test it created—the WASL—which is currently a bureaucratic, exorbitant waste of taxpayer dollars providing no useful information to teachers, students or parents. I will overhaul the assessment system to make it cost effective, less wasteful of precious class time, and capable of providing timely results that aid effective instruction and provide a national comparison of our students' performance. The new system will focus first on improving student learning and the money saved will be put back into the classrooms where it belongs.

Remember that piece about saving money, because it's a Dino plank as well.

A Dorn administration would give Gregoire cover. Don't like the system? Give our new OSPI time to fix it. Hate the WASL? Randy's working on that, too. Randy has some other views (notably merit pay) that would put him at odds with teachers, and it could create an odd dichotomy between the Governor, the WEA, and the OSPI.

In short: the pace of change slows as Dorn tries to shape OSPI in his own image. Governor Gregoire gets more cover. Eventually a new testing system has a chance to grow out of the relationship, but not immediately.

Scenario 3: New Governor, Same OSPI. Pick one to be Felix and the other to be Oscar:

Bergeson: “We’ve changed the culture of learning in our state and we’re on a journey that’s not over,” she said. “It’s well worth the time it’s taken to do it.” (1)

Vs.

The first step in improving our education system is to replace the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) with a new test that has clear standards and a proven track record of success. (2)

I have a very, very hard time seeing how the two of them could work together. Bergeson has been pounding the podium for more school funding; Dino refuses to raise taxes. Bergeson would accept changing the periphery of the test; Dino proposes throwing the whole thing out entirely. In a Rossi administration you'd suppose that many of the categorical programs that contribute to the bloat of OSPI could be at risk, and that's not change Terry can believe in.

Rossi points out correctly that ditching the WASL could have the potential to save tens of millions of dollars, money which could be re-invested into the system, but he has his own designs on that money that don't match up with Terry's. Further, if you believe that Dino's transportation plan would siphon money out of the general fund and hurt education spending by making the pie smaller, then Terry's slice also gets smaller by default.

Results: dysfunction junction.

Scenario 4: New OSPI, New Governor. The hardest to predict. Randy and Dino seem to be the most compatible when it comes to the nuts-and-bolts of how to change the testing system. Randy's made some noise about merit pay, which dovetails nicely with Dino.

With a $2.7 billion dollar deficit revenue shortfall staring us in the face, though, ideas are going to be hard to fund. Would this dynamic duo be able to get anything accomplished?

Results: Division of Yalta.

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It's going to be an interesting November.

Read more here, if any.

The Way Forward for Randy Dorn

As I sit here Sunday morning Randy Dorn trails Terry Bergeson by about 6.2% in their contest for OSPI here in Washington State, which is a pretty dramatic narrowing from the 11% lead Bergeson had on Election Night. A couple of thoughts:

1) About 27% of the votes went to the other candidates (Blomstrom, Blair, Duncan, and Hansler). If this is a "change" election, that could be trouble for the incumbent.

2) On the other hand, if you go back to the 2004 primary Bergeson only garnered 36% of the primary vote to Judith Billings' 35%, but she blitzed Billings in the general election by more than 11%.

3) Comparatively, then, a 6%+ lead now is a better starting point than a 1% lead in 2004. Consider, too, than in the 2004 primary she didn't take Thurston and Snohomish counties, but this time she did, a comparison that might not be valid because of the change to the top 2 primary.

4) Dorn's campaign only really took flight in May, and in a scant three months he was able to get within 6 points. That could bode well for him in the general.

Were I advising Randy Dorn, here's what I'd suggest:

1) He got absolutely blitzed in some of the smaller counties: 23% in Pacific, 25% in Skamania, 18% in Wahkiakum, 23% in Cowlitz, etc. I think he needs to prompt the network he has (the PSE, the WEA, Where's the Math?, etc.) to write letters to some of those small-town newspapers pointing out the deficiencies in the Bergeson administration. In Ferry County they might not bother with the Spokane Spokesman-Review, but everybody takes the Republic News-Miner. Talk to those folks about the cost of the WASL and the rising cost of transportation, and you'll get their attention.

2) Sort of building off of the above point, putting out a stronger position statement on the struggles of small schools and what he would do about it would get attention. Send it in a press release to every small-town paper, or write it as a guest editorial, and see what happens.

3) All of that said, no one has ever ridden into state office on the strength of winning the 1,300 voters of Garfield County. He has to pound Pierce, capture King, and snatch Snohomish to win.

4)....which is why the WASL results this year could be the dealbreaker for Bergeson's campaign. If a large portion of the I-5 districts see more schools falling into AYP, and if the parents start being told that their children are attending failing schools, that could get bloody. Then the status quo becomes the enemy, and Terry Bergeson is the status quo.

I'm not convinced that Dorn is the guy, but it's a conversation that we need to have.

Read more here, if any.

But on the other hand.....

Political Buzz at the News-Tribune has the story of how Terry Bergeson got a big endorsement from the Washington State Labor Council. Two thoughts:

1) For anyone who tells you that labor is a monolith, here's your counter-argument. The Public School Employees endorsed Randy Dorn, for obvious reasons, as did the Washington Education Association.

2) It's highly interesting that the WSLC didn't find their way clear to endorsing Terry at their nominating convention in May; it's only now that the stars have lined up. Her name is an obvious omission from their list of endorsed candidates. What's changed since?

Read more here, if any.

A Positive Sign, That Is Not

I had read this Strange Bedfellows blog post earlier, regarding the most recent polling in our statewide elections, but I didn't notice this piece until Where's the Math pointed it out:

The lowest re-election figure for any statewide incumbent is Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson. She is supported by just 12 percent of those polled. A whopping 67 percent are undecided.

The usual adage is that most people are usually OK with the schools most of the time; on that alone I would expect Bergeson's positives to be much, much higher. 12% for someone with her name recognition is shocking.

Read more here, if any.

An Idea: Have the Governor Appoint the Superintendent of Public Instruction?

On a mailing list I’m on someone recently shared a conversation that they had with a state senator. He echoed what I’ve heard other legislators say during my lobbying trips—Terry Bergeson is ineffective and something needs to change over at OSPI—but then went a step further and said he was considering legislation for this next session that would change the SPI position from an elected one to an appointed one.

That’s an interesting idea. I don’t know that it’s a good idea, but it’s one that merits some conversation.

Washington is actually in the minority by having an elected state schools chief. Education Week (here) says that of the 51 people nationwide who are equivalent to our SPI position, only 14 of them are elected, a finding that's further explored by the Council of Chief State School Officers here. An interesting study would be to compare the NAEP scores for states and see if there’s any correlation with how their school chiefs are put into the position, but that’s a topic for another day.

Let’s look at both sides of the idea, starting with the pro:

• If the Governor appointed the Superintendent, then it stands to reason that the Superintendent would be more accountable to the Governor. Ideally, then, SPI would be a sort of cabinet-level position, given the authority they need to do the job as long as it falls within the parameters the Governor sets.
  
  
• Given the above, then, you would hope to see the sort of synergy between the Governor and the SPI that you do when a mayor takes over control of the school system. It could be comparable to what Mike Bloomberg and Joel Klein have established in New York, or Michelle Rhee in Washington D.C.
  
  (Before my DC and NY readers rip me a new one, settle down. I haven’t done the negatives yet)
  
  
• You would also avoid the problem of multiple agendas. Consider if Dino Rossi won the Governor’s mansion this November and lifelong Democrat Terry Bergeson was returned to the Old Capital Building for another run as SPI; can their goals possibly be the same?
  
  
• I think the idea of mandate is important, too. The OSPI election has never been high profile outside of those circles that care most about education; even your average teacher doesn’t get invested in the process the way that they should. Consider President Bush after he won in 2004 and made his speech about political capital; he had a mandate to keep his policies in place, and he used it. Winning the OSPI election doesn’t have that same authority; maybe having to go through a legislative appointment would be a change for the better.
  
  
• If you make it a non-elected position you also take away the incumbent’s advantage. SPI should not be a sinecure, a lifetime appointment. Similarly, an SPI who isn’t running for office might have different interactions with the legislators and the public writ large than one who has to keep their eyes on the next election.

Oh, but there are negatives as well:

• It takes the choice away from the voters, and that’s maybe the most important consideration of all. We like our voting here in the Evergreen State, we like our sunshine and our open books, and making SPI appointed hurts all three of those ideals.
  
  
• What would the vetting process be? What would the Governor’s charge to their search committee be? How much influence would special interest groups (the WEA, the PSE, the EFF, Where’s the Math, Mothers Against WASL, League of Education Voters, AWSP, WSSDA, WASA, WASBO, etc., etc.) have in the selection, even if that influence is exercised through back channels?
  
  
• Along those same lines, then, making the SPI an appointed position could make it an even more political one. Those groups I listed above may not always have luck getting their message out to the public, but they all do a crackerjack job of lobbying and communicating with legislators. The hearings could be a hoot.
  
  
• Change isn’t always good. Say what you will about Terry she does have an institutional memory of what’s gone on in Washington schools that stretches back 30+ years, and that’s a perspective that very few others can claim to have. Would education reform start over again and again and again every time a new face took the office?
  
  
• Consider, too, Mr. Klein and Ms. Rhee from above. Both have their strident critics, and both have made some bad decisions. Sure, they're city superintendents and we're talking state level, but Klein especially shows that a mandate can be a bad thing.

This could well just be legislative bravado—even in the short time that I’ve been making trips to Olympia, I’ve seen plenty of it—but should a bill be introduced it’ll be something well worth watching.

Read more here, if any.

Terry Bergeson is the 8th Longest Served Superintendent of Public Instruction in the Country

So says the June 18th issue of Education Week. She’s 4th among elected SPIs, and one of only 10 who took to the office in the ‘90s.

That’s a good run.

Read more here, if any.

Ryan Goes Undercover at the AWSP/WASA Summer Conference

For the last two days I’ve been attending the joint AWSP/WASA conference right here in Spokane. Longtime readers will know that I was recently thrown out of my administrative program, but I had already registered for the conference and paid the fee, and I still don’t know where my career path will lead, so why not go and learn what I can?

The fools! Little do they know that a union operative has infiltrated their so-called “conference” looking for counterintelligence on what our enemies in administration are up to. What I learn from this conclave will be passed on to my brothers and sisters in the politburo so that we can proceed with our master protocol to turn the schools into liberal indoctrination centers—FOREVER!

The first day, Monday, was excellent. The keynote speaker for the morning breakfast was Dr. Tim Waters of McREL, who used a pretty neat aircraft controller metaphor to talk about what teachers do. He had some other thoughts on inter-class and inter-school variance that I’ll be exploring in a post another day. Good guy to listen to.

I clad myself in the style of one of the oppressors—a collared shirt made from a 60/40 polyester/cotton blend, dress shorts, and black socks with white shoes. As I entered their secret wing of the Spokane Convention Center I noticed some of the men wearing jackets, which made me briefly afraid that I was underdressed and my cover would be blown, but my mind was set back at ease when I noticed men walking around wearing socks with sandals. I mean, really, who does that?

In the interim I stepped into the hallway, where Randy Dorn and Terry Bergeson had tables right next to one another. Both were there mingling with the crowd, which was decidedly pro-Bergeson. It’ll be an interesting race.

I was pleased to see that Comrade Dorn had established a base of operations within the convention hall. We traded the secret unionist greeting (“May Shanker guide your hand from the teachers’ wallets to our WEAPAC fund!”) and then parted ways before we drew attention to ourselves.

For my morning session I attended a talk by John Hellwich of the Center for Strengthening the Teaching Profession on how to best use teacher leaders in the schools. I think the idea of the teacher as leader is one of the most important ones that has come along, and it could go a long ways towards strengthening the professionalism of the profession. You can find more information at their website above.

My handlers in the WEA had prepared me well with code phrases that would help me blend in with the adminis-traitors: “That’s what DuFour said!”, “How was the golf tournament?”, and “Are you going to the wine tasting?” I was also given a briefing on the research of Marzano and Reeves and told when speaking to relate whatever I could to them, because it would sound authentic. Sure enough, it worked.

It was then time for the lunch break, which ran 2 and a half hours from 11:15 to 1:45. A big part of that was the association luncheon where they installed the new officers in AWSP for the year, but for someone who doesn’t have the experience or contacts that they do, it wasn't time well spent. After wolfing down the lunch and chatting with the administrative team from Moses Lake I took the time to walk over to Auntie’s Book Store and do some browsing. Bookstores rock.

The corpulent bourgeoisie found it necessary to take more than two hours for their overly-rich midday gorging. I worked the crowd as best I could, then snuck to a local bookstore where I hid my early report in the bottom copy of a stack of “The Audacity of Hope” for my handler to pick up later. I also purchased the McSweeney Joke Book of Book Jokes. John Hodgman is a funny man!

After that, back to work. The first afternoon session I sat in on was presented by Dr. Larry Nyland of Marysville on the changing nature of math instruction in Washington State. There I chatted with some administrators from Blaine and Battle Ground, and it was interesting to hear their perspectives from their own districts.

Despite what Ian Fleming and John LeCarre would lead you to believe, not everything about clandestine work is glamorous. This was one of those times.

The final session of the day was a presentation on the joint WASA/AWSP/PSE/WEA/WSSDA school funding proposal that was presented to the Basic Ed Finance Taskforce early in June. It’s an aggressive, impressive plan for re-doing school budgets here in Washington State, but with the budget the way it is I think it’s all wasted effort. I ended up leaving this session early so I could come home and attend to my daughter. For more information, check out the BETF website, or one of the association homepages over in the side menu.

This is the session where I finally lost my nerve. I had fit in relatively well for most of the day, but with the leaders of the opposition in the room all together I was sure that they would be able to smell the union label on me no matter how hard I tried to cover it up under a veneer of false bravado and vague knowledge. After distracting the illuminati with a complex, layered question about the interrelation between local school levies and the cost basis imposed by local collective bargaining agreements, I ran for my life. My understanding is that Barbara Mertens and Gary Kipp once killed a union member just to watch him die, and I’ve still got a lot to live for.

I’ll talk more about day 2 in a different post. My overall impression of my first AWSP conference, though, is incredibly positive—they did a spectacular job, and I look forward to going again next year!

I have never been more terrified, but exhilarated. I feel like that guy from Into the Wild, and while I never did make it to the end of the movie things seemed to be going OK. The comrades will be pleased with the intel that I have gathered. Solidarity forever!

Read more here, if any.

Oh, Snap!

Seagull Manager is my new favorite phrase.

Read more here, if any.

Thoughts on the OSPI Race

Well, that happened.

Many were looking for a Gandolf to coming riding over the horizon and save the day, but that person never materialized. The six declared candidates are Terry Bergeson, Randy Dorn of the Public School Employees, and four perennial also-rans. At this point Bergeson has to be considered a lead-pipe cinch to win, buoyed as she is by positive WASL articles and the lack of any serious competition. The biggest name in the field after her is Randy Dorn, but when you haven’t even managed to get a decent campaign website up with two months to go until the primary, you’re not giving your campaign a fair chance.

What does Terry going back to Olympia mean? The WASL keeps the strongest supporter it has, though the legislature has taken some of the starch out. Interest groups like the WEA and Where’s the Math? take a licking, because they have been outspoken in their distaste for the incumbent. Strong standards remain the order of the day, though with frequent refinements.

Anyway you slice it, my summer just got a lot less busy. I wonder if the OSPI candidates will debate at all?

Read more here, if any.

Next Halloween, I’m Going to Dress Up as a Rich Semler Campaign Ad

I’ve got the bumperstickers.
I’ve got the buttons.
I’ve got the 3 x 4 yard sign.
I've got all the makings of a cheap and easy costume.

What I haven’t got is the candidate any more. I wish Rich and Ginny well as they work through her health issues, though; he’s made the right decision, and I'm hoping that he'll keep his toe in the water and be a leader on education issues here in Washington, even if on a smaller scale.

The deadline to declare for statewide office is this coming Friday. The only name that I’ve heard mentioned is Bill Fromhold, who could probably get enough of the vote in the primary to be able to make it through to a general election in November. I don’t know that he’d want to take on a run for OSPI this late in the game, though, particularly given that he's already said he's not interested in the job.

A part of me wonders why we haven’t seen a conservative candidate for OSPI. From the EFF you could posit Lynn Harsh or Cindy Omlin, the executive director of the Northwest Professional Educators. Dan Grimm, the head of the Basic Ed Finance Committee, comes to mind, though I’m not sure he’s a Washington resident any longer. In the House the ranking minority member is Skip Priest, who has already passed on the chance to run, while the assistant ranking minority member is Glenn Anderson out of eastern King County, who has a decent résumé after having been on every education committee there is during his time in the House.

In the Senate the ranking minority member on the Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee is Curtis King out of Yakima, but a more interesting name might be Janea Holmquist, who signed her name to the opposition statement for 4204, has been exposed to the issues by virtue of being on the aforementioned committee, and could be fairly perceived as a rising star in the state Republican party. Her senate term isn't up until 2011, though; Holmquist for OSPI in 2012?

It seems odd that, in a year where the state GOP claims to be as energized as they’ve ever been, they wouldn’t field a sympathetic candidate for the office that eats up the biggest share of the state’s budget.

Read more here, if any.

Statcounter says....

...this is going to be an interesting OSPI race.

Looking at the recent keyword activity here on the blog, three of the top five searches are Terry Bergeson (#1), Rich Semler (#2), and Randy Dorn (#5). This, and we're still three months away from the primary. I'd expect to see a spike in the coming days in Semler searches; the key will be to see if Dorn starts picking up more attention.

It'll be an interesting summer.

Read more here, if any.

WASL Test Administration Quiz Release Items

Actual questions from the WASL proctoring training test. And by actual, I mean mostly made up.

1) During the WASL test many students are confused by question #6. Mrs. Smith stops the class and shows them how to approach answering the question. Is this definitely OK, definitely not OK, or too close to call?

Answer: Definitely not OK. You may not expand on any WASL questions.

2) During the test many students are confused by question #6. Mrs. Smith stops the class and berates them for not recalling the three different lessons that she taught on probability; after a 10 minute screaming jag she retreats to her desk and sobs gently into her morning espresso. Is this definitely OK, definitely not OK, or too close to call?

Answer: Definitely OK. Neither screaming nor crying are banned by the test.

3) As students are taking the reading test a group called Mothers Militantly Against the WASL storms the school, breaks into the secure test storage facility, and holds tomorrow’s science WASL hostage for a $1,000,000 ransom. The principal refuses to pay the money. Is this definitely OK, definitely not OK, or too close to call?

Answer: Definitely not OK. The principal should pay any ransom money out of their building budget, or Title II Part C funds.

4) After losing her election for Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2008 Terry Bergeson returns to the classroom. In April of 2009 KOMO News 4 helicopters take video of her on her knees in the school parking lot, plaintively screaming to the heavens for relief from the ungodly testing monster that she helped spawn. Is this definitely OK, definitely not OK, or too close to call?

Answer: Definitely OK, and a delightful image to boot.

5) A teacher refuses to give the WASL and becomes a folk hero with ballads written about him. Meanwhile, his kids still end up taking the test, only their teacher isn’t in the room to be with them through the process. Is this definitely OK, definitely not OK, or too close to call?

Answer: Definitely not OK. C’mon, Carl.

Read more here, if any.

Why My Local Didn’t Vote No Confidence in Terry Bergeson

There’s a rather odd article in the May 15th Seattle Times about the no confidence votes the WEA has been pursuing against Terry Bergeson. They cite a “confidential memo” that sources in the AP acquired, and that’s just plain laughable—a memo that’s been sent to 400 different locals, has been in 1000 different hands, and has been mentioned online repeatedly hardly qualifies as confidential. This isn’t a secret initiative by any stretch of the imagination.

That is also borne out by the front-of-the-section article in the Saturday Spokesman-Review ($) on the vote of no confidence that was taken at the WEA Representative Assembly late Friday afternoon. It passed by an overwhelming majority, though a later request to make it a unanimous vote was blocked.

I was one of the blockers. My local abstained from taking a position on the Bergeson issue, because there are enough teachers in my group who believe in her that I wouldn’t have been representing them well if I had voted yes.

If you’ve followed the story at all (good background here and here) you’ve probably picked up on the fact that local leaders are polling their members to gauge their opinion of Dr. Bergeson. I did that in my group using an online tool called Survey Monkey that worked really quite well, and about a third of my people responded, which is pretty good for us.

And boy, did I get savaged. Comments ranged from “I want nothing to do with this” to “If you do this, I’m going to quit the union.” Many made a rousing defense of Terry and felt that we should be working with her to solve the problem, which is a theory that I’ll probably explore in a different post later on.

There were also a ton of comments from teachers who are frustrated with the WASL, who have been in the classroom for 25 years and hate to see what it’s doing to learning and to the kids, and who blame Terry for the whole mess. In fact, the majority of the people who voted in the poll said that they felt strongly enough about the issue that they believed the vote of no confidence was a great idea.

So given that, why didn’t I make us a part of the no confidence vote?

• A majority of the people who responded to the poll said to vote no confidence (21 out of 41), with the rest split between “Leave Terry alone!” and “I really don’t care.” 21 people is about 1/6th of my membership; should I have gone with their vote, overriding the other 5/6ths?
  
  
• The membership of my local is more conservative than most. It’s a small town that serves a military installation (Fairchild AFB), and any union measure is immediately down two strikes before it even gets off the ground floor with many of my members.
  
  
• I really didn’t need the publicity. Had I taken us in this direction I’ve no doubt that my town newspaper would have picked up on it, writing a story which would have immediately verified many of the very worst suspicions people hold about teacher unionism. That wouldn’t have been a fair position to put my members in.

For those locals that voted No Confidence in Terry, I congratulate you. Teacher voice matters, and you are to be commended for making yours heard.

I just ask that you don’t assume silence to be acquiescence, either for or against. Union politicking can be a wonderfully complicated endeavor, and this is one of those times.

Read more here, if any.

Terry Bergeson and the WSLC: Big Deal, Little Deal, or No Deal?

An email received today that raised my eyebrows:

Thanks to Seattle Education Association who worked with their colleagues, the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 609, who represent Seattle School District ESP's. Local 609 delivered a rousing speech on the floor of Saturday's endorsement convention of the State Labor Council regarding Terry Bergeson's anti union support of charter schools and convinced the Labor Council, who had endorsed her in previous elections, to deny Terry Bergeson their endorsement this year.

It seems odd to me that an old stance on charter schools, which is a dead-as-a-doornail issue here in Washington State, would have any resonance. I would have expected criticism for underfunding the skills centers, or championing practices that have made it harder for kids to pursue a career in the trades, but charter schools?

A quick check of the Washington State Labor Council's website shows that they didn't endorse anybody for the OSPI race, which is a mild surprise to me when you consider that PSE Executive Director Randy Dorn has declared for the office; I maybe would have expected some inter-union synergy.

The crowd I hang with is decidedly in the "ditch the bitch" camp, so it's not a surprise that I hear a lot of anti-Bergeson buzz; it's just odd to me to see so little positive momentum, either. She's a 12 year incumbent, after all.

Read more here, if any.

A New Hat in the Ring

Randy Dorn, the executive director of the state Public School Employees Union (PSE), has announced his candidacy for Superintendent of Public Instruction. The water gets muddied again; it had been looking like a two-horse race between Terry Bergeson and Richard Semler (sorry, David Blomstrom), since Skip Priest and Jim Kastama had both passed on running. There's a couple different ways to look at this:

• It's a positive for Richard Semler. The concern with the primary as it was shaping up was that Terry Bergeson could get 50%+ in the August election and thus negate the need for a general election in November. If Dorn can siphon more support from Bergeson and keep her below that 50% threshhold, it benefits Semler. On the other hand...
  
  
• It could be a strong negative for Semler and great for Terry Bergeson. The WEA just endorsed Semler, which now creates a WEA v. PSE dynamic as they each push their guy. Dorn has more statewide experience than Semler does, via his work with the PSE, but Semler's going to have the full force of WEA-PAC acting on his behalf. Ideally they'd both beat on Terry Bergeson, but I think her incumbancy gives her some powerful advantages--it could be that Semler and Dorn split the anti-Bergeson vote, which is great for her.
  
  
• The PSE benefits no matter what. The concerns of the classified staff are often the hardest to hear. The WEA has tried with their living wage campaign, but if Randy Dorn can speak to the needs of his membership during the course of the campaign, that's a plus.

It should be a fun summer to watch.

Read more here, if any.

My Dinner With Rich Semler

Dr. Richard Semler, candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction, came to our local Uniserv meeting last Wednesday night to make his pitch. There was a really good turnout, and I was very impressed by the man. The take-home quote:

“We need someone who knows about schools.”

That’s the piece that’s been bugging me the most about Terry Bergeson, I think—while her force of personality is undeniable, and she is a hell of a public speaker, I’m not sure that she understands the effects that her policies are having in the average classroom. Take the WASL (please!). It’s a constantly changing measure, the results don’t get back to the kids until months after the test, and the cost involved is disastrous. She’s married to that assessment, though, and has shepherded it up through the years, which leads me to believe that she doesn’t have the ability to back away from the system, or even to know how to repair it.

Dr. Semler was very direct about the flaws in the testing system, and though he didn’t use it by name the alternative that he proposes is very similar to the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) test that the NWEA puts out. I like the MAP, especially for reading and math, and when there’s a legitimate testing option that is cheaper and more usable than the one we have now, it certainly seems like something that should be considered.

I was gratified to hear what steps he’s taking to keep his campaign moving in the right direction. It sounds like he’s hired both a fundraiser and a full-time campaign manager, which is a positive sign. I was also very impressed by his wife, who came on the visit with him and also brought a ton of energy to the room. They both seem like neat people.

I do think his problem will be name recognition. I’d love to see him write some opinion pieces for the main dailies around the state; buying simple advertisements that direct people to the website to learn more would also seem like a good way to go. The WEA hasn’t made their official endorsement yet, but I’d hope that they’d do that soon and then offer him a platform to speak from at Rep Assembly. Having the WEA and Where’s the Math isn’t enough, though—-he needs to find a way into the consciousness of The Average Voter who doesn’t think about schools and will be tempted to vote for Dr. Bergeson just because they know the name. I think too that the August primary makes this issue that much more critical.

In short, I think Richard Semler would make a hell of an SPI. I like the knowledge base he showed, I liked his specific suggestions for improving the system, and I think he can bring a perspective to the job that would benefit education as a whole.

Vote Semler.

Read more here, if any.

OSPI Race: Eek.

Recent numbers from the PDC website; C4 forms from Richard Semler dated April 8th and Terry Bergeson, dated March 10th.

	Income	Expenses	Cash on Hand
Richard Semler	$39.603.21	$37,429.69	$2,173.52
Terry Bergeson	$61,753.29	$13,183.04	$48,573.25

I'm actually on my way to go see Dr. Semler speak tonight, and I'll be writing a check. With the primary being at such an odd time--August 19th certainly doesn't seem like the time for politics--Bergeson could conceivably get above 50% of the vote right out of the shoot and win the election when no one is looking.

I've talked before here on the blog about how money matters. We can blog from now 'til election day about the many, many mistakes of Terry Bergeson and that it's time for a change, but until the public writ large gets that lesson nothing will happen.

Read more here, if any.

Terry Bergeson Will Be the Next Superintendent of Public Instruction

She has the inevitability that Hillary wanted and lost.

Sound Politics has been taking a look at the hate/hate relationship between Where's the Math? and Superintendent Bergeson over the new math standards that the State Board of Education have been working on. Olympia Time has been doing the best job of talking about Dr. Bergeson running again, and even though it's a quiet campaign right now this has a chance to be a great conversation about where we are as a state when it comes to improving education in our schools.

That's all it's going to be, though, is a conversation. Because Terry Bergeson will be the next Superintendent of Public Instruction again. And the reasons are simple: power and money.

For the money piece, go over to the Public Disclosure Commission's website and take a look at the papers filed so far by Dr. B and her competition, former Richland Superintendent Richard Semler. To date, Semler has claimed $3,450 in contributions:

• $1400 from Juanita Doyon, who lost to Bergeson in the last OSPI election.
• $1400 from Raul De La Rosa, a retired OSPI employee
  
• $500 from a William Pennell, like Mr. Semler from the Tri-Cities.
  
• $100 from Marta Gray, a Where's the Math member.
  
• $50 from some guy.

Contrast that to Dr. Bergeson, who has a machine in place that would be the envy of anyone seeking public office. Her most recent filings with the PDC on December 3rd and 11th lists nearly $17,000 in donations, including:

• $500 from Colin Moseley, director of a trust that was the 7th largest land owner in the United States at one time. Also a major player in the Washington Business Roundtable.
  
• $500 from Gaye Pigott, who lists herself as a homemaker. It's easy to be a homemaker when your husband is on the board of directors for Paccar, the company that makes Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks.
  
• $1,500 from Charles Collins, the former head of the Higher Education Coordinating Board.
  
• $250 from Chris Majer of the Human Potential Project, a consulting group based in Spokane.
  
• $750 from Dennis Karras, Senior VP at the Washington State Employees Credit Union.
  
• $1,400 from Constance Cohn, an epidemiologist who has also given to Maria Cantwell and Rick Larsen.
  
• $1,000 from Murray Pacific Management, a private equity firm.
  
• $500 from Vulcan Incorporated, a Paul Allen company.
  
• $500 from Vito Chiechi, a lobbyist.
  
• $1,500 from Wanda Cowles, who much like Ms. Pigott above is a "homemaker" only in the sense that she's married to money, in this case the family that owns the Spokane Spokesman-Review.
  
• $1,400 from the Beresford Company, which makes their money selling ID badges to schools.

....and on, and on, and on.

The business community loves Terry Bergeson, because the business community gains personally from the higher standards of education that the WASL represents. The WASL is a very bottom line assessment, something that business leaders understand, and I don't know that there's anything that teachers or parents could say that would turn their heads to our way of thinking.

The power piece of the Bergeson campaign becomes apparent when you cross reference her list of donors with the salary database that the Evergreen Freedom Foundation posts every year. Terry's biggest donations might come from the private sector, but her largest numbers of donors are those who work under her. Consider:

• $100 from Michaela Miller, a teacher in North Thurston.
  
• $150 from Glenda Shannon, who works for OSPI.
  
• $250 from Karen Garr, who works in outreach for the National Board. Yes, the same National Board that Dr. Bergeson has been apastolic about for the past few years.
  
• $200 from Elaine Woo, an administrator in the Seattle Public Schools.
  
• $150 from Carol Whitehead, superintendent in Everett.
  
• $750 from John Aultman, the assistant SPI in Olympia.
  
• $400 from Millie Watkins, superintendent in Orondo.
  
• $200 from Kathleen Kimball, administrator in Highline.
  
• $125 from Jennifer Bethman, principal in Bethel.

There are an awful lot of people around the state who have a personal stake in seeing Bergeson returned to office. They have history, cache, an in; however you want to put it. If a new wind blows their boat goes off course, and that's when personal self interest kicks in and gets them to reach for their wallet.

Everything I've heard and seen speaks to the idea that Richard Semler is a good man. I've heard him talk about the how the testing system in Washington has gotten far away from any educational purpose, and he's right. Living here in Eastern Washington, where we voted Tom Foley out of office when he was Speaker of the House, I should probably be more optimistic.

As things stand, though, Bergeson is racing with a Porsche while Semler hops behind on a pogo stick. And that's why she's going to be, once again, the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Read more here, if any.

And Lo, the WASL Scores Were Released

I drove back from Olympia yesterday, which was extremely fortuitous timing because it gave me a chance to pick up quite a few of the daily newspaper between Seattle and Spokane. The headlines are telling:

Most Seniors Pass WASL; Concern Over Lower Levels from the Seattle Times
Math is WASL's Big Stumbling Block from The Olympian
Good WASL, If You Don't Count Math sez the Seattle PI
WASL Math Trips Up Students, offers the Tacoma News Tribune

Clearly the headline, then, is the math scores, but we could have seen that coming because of all that went on during the legislative session. Dr. Bergeson talked about it quite a bit during her press conference, and one suspects that all that is going on with math is also the raison d'etre for all the work that the State Board of Education has put in to revisiting the math requirements (pdf).

(as an aside, Terry, dear--make sure your presentation on the screen matches what you're trying to say to the reporters. That was kind of embarrassing that you would have so many glitches in what is arguably your most important speech every year)

Also of interest to many would be the list of failing schools and districts, with thanks to Jim over at Washington Teachers for getting on the story early. I'm glad to not be on either list, and I give all the best to those who are.

Here we go again!

Read more here, if any.