Testimony Before the Joint Committee to Develop a Master Plan for Education Kindergarten – University on the Student Learning Working Group Report

March 7, 2002

Good morning, M. Chair and Members of the Committee.

My name is Karen Robison.

I have had the pleasure of serving on the Student Learning Working Group. I also serve as Curriculum and Instruction Chair for CTA. Today, I am pleased to be representing CTA’s 319,000 members. I’d like to thank the chairs for their hard work in bringing together a diverse work group with many divergent views.

It’s important that I set out several principles that underscore our reaction to the document and our concerns about the best ways to enhance student learning.

First and foremost, it’s vital that California provide sufficient funding for public education. In particular, as our state recovers economically, we need to invest heavily in our schools of greatest need to provide them with the tools to pursue excellence. To learn, students need sufficient, up-to-date materials. Their classrooms must be clean and well-lighted and equipped with the modern technology taken for granted in the business world. These elements are basic to helping students realize their potential in the academic setting and in the post-graduation world of work.

That having been said, I’d like to commend the report writers. They were challenged to assemble a final document that would accurately reflect the recommendations from the various segments. Overall, I am pleased with the report. 

My remarks will focus on those recommendations that remain a matter of concern for CTA:

Recommendation 1.1 – Foreign Languages calls for students to become proficient in two languages by the end of high school. First, implementing this recommendation will require additional funding. It is important to ensure that this admirable and ambitious recommendation does not come at the cost of depriving any students of the opportunity to master basic content standards. 

Recommendation 1.7- Community Colleges calls for retaining high quality career and technical programs at the community colleges. We support maintaining and fully funding these current programs at the community colleges. It is important to differentiate the report’s recommendation from the plan contained in the governor’s budget. That budget proposal would transfer all Adult Education and Regional Occupational Center programs to community colleges. We have serious concerns regarding the governor’s proposal.

Recommendation 5 and 8.3 – Opportunity to Learn Index calls for developing an index reporting on a student’s access to educational opportunities. CTA strongly supports providing equal access to a quality public education for every student. We fear this recommendation, though, will create another ranking system like the Academic Performance Index. The API has promoted facile one-dimensional and inaccurate comparisons of schools.

Such comparisons can stigmatize schools and demoralize students, parents, and teachers. Instead of fostering improvement, stigmatizing schools can impede their efforts to achieve excellence.

Recommendation 7.3 – Assessment Quality Assurance Panel calls for the creation of a panel to evaluate both state and local assessment systems. We believe Proposition 98 funding would be better allocated for instructional purposes than for this kind of a panel. CTA supports the creation of a special panel in our own sponsored bill, but its focus would be on assuring that assessment and testing align with our world-class standards for student achievement. CTA believes that 50% of the members of any such panel should be practicing classroom teachers selected by their respective employee organizations. We believe higher education members should also be named by their respective employee organizations.

Recommendations 7 and 8 – Assessment and Accountability note that the current assessment system needs improving. We agree wholeheartedly. The recommendations urge that we move toward a more authentic assessment of student skills. Part of this assessment would be a test that measures what students have learned relative to the state standards. We believe such testing is more valuable than current exams that compare students to a national "norm," rather than measure achievement. We share the desire to develop a test that emphasizes the depth and power of knowledge rather than surface knowledge. We underscore the importance of the recommendation that no single measure be used to make high stakes decisions about students.

CTA’s similar concerns about the state student assessment system have prompted us to sponsor AB 2347 (Goldberg). Among its major provisions, this bill aims to make the current testing system more rational. The legislation would lead to tests that measure our students’ progress toward achieving California’s world-class standards.

CTA and our more than 300,000 dedicated teachers look forward to working closely with you in the months and years ahead to help our students meet California’s world-class educational standards and to take their rightful place in the nation and the world.

Thank you.

I’ll be happy to answer any questions you might have.

MPstudORA0305.doc 3/6/2002 11:54 AM