What is National Board Certification, Anyhow?

Education expert Liv Finne doesn't really seem to know what National Board Certification is:

The Seattle Times article also reveals that, in order to qualify for these funds, the state will be attempting to describe its National Board Certification for teachers as a performance pay system. This program does not involve evaluating the individual performance of teachers for their effectiveness in the classroom. Rather, National Board Certification gives bonuses to teachers willing to take another set of classes and/or willing to work in inner-city classrooms.

"Gives bonuses to teachers willing to take another set of classes" is a real slap at the work that National Board Certified teachers have to do to get the certificate. It's not the Masters degree, Liv, it's something far beyond that. I talk pretty regularly with the teachers in my district who have gotten their certification and who are working towards it, and it's not an easy thing.

I'll be interested to see where the state's gambit on this goes, though. Remember that the HB2261, the big education reform bill from the last session, created a new definition of a master teacher that requires attaining National Certification to get to the top of the pay scale, an action that predates all of the clamor around Race to the Top, so the state could be slightly ahead of the curve.

Remember, too, that in his remarks to the NEA Representative Assembly earlier this year Secretary of Education Arne Duncan spoke highly of both the National Board program:

We also increased the number of National Board Certified teachers in Chicago to about 1,200—from about a dozen when I started. We partnered with the union and with the Chicago Public Education Fund, which is a group of business leaders. Together we grew NBC teachers faster than anywhere else in the nation.

....but he also indicated that collaboration matters:

The president and I have both said repeatedly that we are not going to impose reform but rather work with teachers, principals, and unions to find what works.

Here in Washington State you've got a system where the teachers and the WEA are working very strongly together on promoting and expanding National Certification in Washington State. If Secretary Duncan believes in the program, and if he wants to encourage that collaboration, why not have what we do count towards Race to the Top?

Read more here, if any.

The Poison Pill That Could Kill HB2261

....can be found here, via the Political Buzz blog from the News Tribune.

Senators McAuliffe and Oemig are holding a statewide listening tour to get teacher input on the bill. Good for them, I guess--better now than never, which is where we were at. The trick is that the cratering state budget won't be ready to accomodate all the new spending on all the new programs 2261 mandates any time soon, so if this nascent idea to speed up the pace at which 2261 was implemented were to take hold, much of it would have to end up on the cutting room floor out of economic necessity.

Consider that the Governor has already vetoed two sections of the bill dealing with access to preschool and gifted ed programs, which was a definite slap to the "2261 will make everything better!" crowd. If this were to become a trend, it's very easy to see a path to what the WEA feared all along--the good that made people like the bill will evaporate away a section at a time, and what we'll all have left is onerous new certification requirements and more bureaucracy.

Hooray.

Read more here, if any.

Are You Freakin' Kidding Me?!?!, League of "Education" Voters Edition

I wish I was making this up, from a legislative review recently posted to the L"E"V website:

We’re all in this together

The budget cuts will have dramatic impacts on our state’s education system. The cuts to early learning and K-12 will mean less students graduate ready for college, job training opportunities and the workforce. In higher education, the combination of cuts and tuition increases will reduce quality, access and affordability for students vying to prepare themselves for our knowledge-based economy.

It’s up to all of us education advocates to stay vigilant. Continue to talk and work with your state lawmakers. And please volunteer in your local schools and help pass local levies.

Sure, let's remain vigilant--let's vigilantly watch the state spend more than $3,000,000 implementing HB2261, which will drastically alter certification and add more bureaucracy to the state in a time when classroom teachers--you know, us schlubs who actually work with the kids--are losing their jobs. I've made the Nero comparison before; shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic also fits. The patient is dying and Dr. L"E"V is calling in a make-up artist to make her look prettier.

The education coalition ain't just broken, it's at war with itself.

Read more here, if any.

The League of Education Voters Isn't Being Honest Again

Over at their blog they're talking about the education reform bills, and they have this to say about HB2261 (emphasis theirs):

Also this week, Gov. Chris Gregoire said she would not sign an “education bill that puts in a new definition of education without the funds to pay for it.”

In fact, HB 2261 would not impose new burdens on our schools now. It would phase in reforms over time beginning in 2011. The bill would fund the changes by dedicating a portion of the state’s growth in revenue to basic education.

Let's point out first that the second piece of the quote doesn't at all negate what the Governor said; allotting unspecified revenue towards a bill like HB2261 that's going to cost *billions* of dollars is not the same as funding the bill.

The fact remains, though, that the schools this year are looking at being axed by $1,000,000,000 +, and passing a bill that will immediately cause more education money to flow-through to OSPI (new data system!), the Professional Educators Standards Board (redoing certification, again!), and the State Board of Education (new accountability system!) is, in fact, adding cost to the system IMMEDIATELY and guarantees that more money will be tied up in Olympia-level fiddling while the rest of the education system burns.

Right now education money needs to be in the schools, not feathering the bureaucratic nest.

Read more here, if any.