‘Pathways’ education bill will better track learning
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Thomas Jefferson said this about free public education, “(My goal is to) provide an education adapted to the years, to the capacity, and the condition of everyone and directed to their freedom and happiness.”
But right now, 18 percent of Montana high school students aren’t reaching that goal. Montana can be proud that our eighth-graders consistently place in the top seven states academically, but why are we losing so many before graduation? And why did Montana just receive failing grades for “identifying quality teachers” and “exiting ineffective teachers”?
Not all students excel in traditional public schools, and Montana is one of only eight states without school choice or charter schools. Several House bills for alternates to traditional education were introduced last session, but were killed in committee before I had a chance to vote on them. Our Constitution establishes free public education, but there is ever more pressure to advance school choice. It has positively made us more aware of weaknesses in public schools and motivated us to improve.
We passed Republican Ryan Zinke’s Senate bill called “Pathways to Excellence,” a Montana solution to existing repetitive and isolated data-gathering required of teachers by the state Office of Public Instruction. Remember spelling tests? Arithmetic worksheets? How could you improve unless you received your corrected papers back? Today, teachers are thwarted because they don’t get meaningful measurements from all the data OPI collects. With “Pathways,” they’ll get feedback to improve their effectiveness and boost students’ individual progress. It provides a way to see good teachers and identify underachievers. It uses “longitudinal” measurements that follow student’s gain in learning, rather than simply tracking the student’s absolute position. Denise Juneau, our current state Superintendent of Public Instruction, supports the concept.
We watched a demonstration of Pathways, which is working well in Colorado. Here’s how it works: parents, teachers, trustees and students can track our schools compared to others; we can track our own child, or our child’s teacher. It’s password protected for appropriate confidentiality. It shifts from “compliance-focused” to easy-to-see, useful information.
I believe Montana students can continue to be top achievers beyond eighth grade. If we cut Montana’s dropout rate in half, it could yield $32 million in economic benefits to our state. Dropouts are three times more likely to be jailed than graduates. Graduates earn more money, bringing more freedom and happiness to their families and can fulfill Thomas Jefferson’s goal.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and questions. Contact me at 883-4677 or carminemowbray@gmail.com
