Friends:

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I did not expect to be writing this to you today.

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This week, two apparently inoffensive bills: HB 2009 and SB 141 were amended to strip out all the language in the existing bills and substitute amendments with language provided by the Governor.?

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This is a bad way to develop legislation.? Amendments don’t appear in the normal ways to scan bills or review committee agendas—they don’t exist until just before they are posted. You can be sure that the Governor did consult with lobbyists from some well-funded interest groups before these amendments were posted, but they represent end runs around the rest of us.

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Supposedly, both bills are intended to improve “accountability” by school districts.? The Governor thinks this will improve the appalling achievement results posted by both the state and the NAEP earlier this year.? It will not. And it perpetuates the neglect of our TAG students.

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The bills say that the state must report “metrics” for students in “disaggregated groups.”? The list of “disaggregated groups” is taken straight from the Student Success Act (SSA) which provided funding for student groups experiencing “academic disparities”.? Despite repeated recommendations from the task force that originated it, the SSA did not include gifted and/or high-achieving students in the list, but it did say that the State Board could designate other groups?? When we asked that TAG students be included, staff then at the Department instead prodded the State School Board to declare that:?

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“Lack of access to programs for academically gifted and high-achieving students does not constitute facing academic disparities”

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This misguided declaration ensured that none of the huge chunk of new funding in the SSA would go to any group serving gifted OR high achieving students as such.?

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Unfortunately, not only has this objectionable language survived, the list of “groups” from the SSA is copied in other state reports and studies, with the effect that TAG students are routinely left out.? OATAG and TAG families are also systematically passed over when the Department commissions “public engagement” with “stakeholder groups” concerning various initiatives and proposed new rules. They are ignored in state reports including the report of the Quality Education Commission.

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This same list is now reproduced in the list of groups that the Governor thinks should be represented by “disaggregated” reports on student achievement.

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The bill also just tweaks the “metrics” that will be used for district accountability by adding “eighth grade math proficiency.”? This set of measurements will not provide meaningful information about student learning.? For the most part, it ratifies the undermining of state accountability systems that followed the Every Student Succeeds Act.

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We need student gains, disaggregated first by ability, to know whether high-achieving students from marginalized backgrounds are making appropriate progress. This focus on a single measure of “proficiency” conceals the progress of very low-achieving students. Moreover, research has shown that the highest-achieving students make the lowest learning gains. Because they are already far above grade level, even when they spend years learning nothing new, they are still “proficient.” Previous “growth” reports were incomprehensible and incorporated the expectation that high achieving students would make lower learning gains.

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Student progress reports should be produced with public involvement, should produce actionable information, and should be in a form that the public can easily understand.?

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SB 933, which has passed the Senate Education Committee and is waiting for a hearing in the Senate Chamber, is a much better alternative.? The Department of Education has attached an excessive “fiscal impact” (cost) to the bill, which means it would next be sent to the Joint Ways and Means Committee.

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SB 141-1 and HB 2009-1 also require appointment of an unknown “entity” to review the Division 22 standards.? In the past, similar bills have enabled covert efforts to abolish the 3 rules that enact our TAG mandate —identification, communication, and services.

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Please CALL or EMAIL our legislators and ask them to reconsider the amendments to SB 141 and HB 2009 and support SB 933 instead.? It’s fine to leave a voice message.? If you are shy, you can even call after hours!? IF you are a constituent, identify yourself as such and provide your address, school district, or town/city.?? You do not need to be a constituent to communicate with our legislators.? Other people/groups contact them all the time.? But it will give your comments extra weight.?

You can learn more about speaking up in Salem on the “Advocacy” page of the OATAG website.

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Find out

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The links below will take you to contact information for committees.

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Many minds and many students will be lost without your help!

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Margaret

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