You have almost certainly heard a lot about local control and the lack thereof regarding education recently. Here are my thoughts on two topics kicking around the news world in the last couple of weeks.
SAGE Tests and Common Core
The recent passage of the federal ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) provides some relief with regard to curriculum standards and testing that were incorporated in the No Child Left Behind Act.
The governor and the State Board of Education have agreed to take advantage of that flexibility by considering the elimination of SAGE testing for high school children, and taking a serious look at changes to Utah’s version of Common Core (called Utah’s Core Standards). While this is a step in the right direction, I’m not optimistic that it will address the underlying problems.
First of all, SAGE testing is flawed in both its concept and its methodology. While there is something to be said for an end-of-year test to see if children have met basic learning objectives, those in charge have a misplaced trust in the effectiveness of their tool to measure all sorts of things, like teacher performance and school quality.
I will continue to support efforts to reduce or eliminate required end-of-year tests for any purpose other than basic assessments. Care should be taken to limit the amount of time and resources spent preparing for and implementing end of year tests.
More Federal Overreach
I suppose there are very few who haven’t heard by now of the guidance issued by the federal government regarding students with gender dysphoria, whose perception of gender is different than their biological gender.
I strongly object to the notion that the best way to help these students is a settled matter. Solutions should not be imposed on local schools by federal bureaucrats. First of all, federal law should have nothing to say about how states govern or operate their educational system. And beyond that, the guidelines themselves go far beyond accepted definitions and understanding of the requirements of federal law.
I readily admit that many schools have not found a perfect approach to help children with gender dysphoria succeed in public schools. However, that is our problem to address and work through. It is clearly our opportunity and responsibility as a state education system.
