WEA Takes Aim (Yet Again) at Bergeson

The Associated Press reports today that the Washington Education Association has trotted out a new tactic in its ongoing attempt to send Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson to early retirement. Here's how the AP describes it.

A few weeks ago, the Washington Education Association (WEA) sent a confidential memo to each of its local leaders with instructions about how they can play their part in defeating Bergeson, their former president.

In a copy obtained by The Associated Press, local union leaders are told to convene a meeting and get their membership to pass a resolution evaluating Bergeson's job performance.

The AP reporter, Donna Gorden Blankinship, contrasts this with the union's efforts four years ago to defeat Bergeson by recruiting former superintendent Judith Billings to run against her. Blankinship calls this a more subtle strategy. And, I suppose by WEA standards, this looks subtle.

The union has endorsed Rich Semler. Also in the race is former state legislator Randy Dorn, head of the Public School Employees union.

The WEA doesn't like the WASL or Bergeson's promotion of it, as they underscore in their subtle appeal for a vote of no confidence in her performance.

They (union members) say Bergeson focuses too much on the WASL test and that they don't trust her numbers regarding graduation and drop out rates. She can't or won't say how much the WASL costs to administer, and she has been an ineffective advocate for school funding, they argue.

These, of course, are the same folks whose rigid commitment to lock-step compensation cost public schools in the state $13.2 million in grant money for math and science education.

The WASL will also be a factor in the governor's race. Here's the AP frame.

Gov. Chris Gregoire continues to support the reading and writing parts of WASL as a graduation requirement, but has agreed to delay the science requirement and eventually replace the math WASL with end-of-course exams.

Her opponent for re-election, Republican Dino Rossi, "agrees that the WASL is a flawed test, but he supports the need for a standardized test that establishes clear standards and demands accountability," said campaign spokeswoman Jill Strait.

Disagreement on the composition of the test makes sense. There were clearly some problems in math and science testing. But it's hard to avoid concluding that the teachers' union would prefer to scrap accountability measures altogether or, perhaps more accurately, to so water them down with alternatives that the plethora of standards amounts to no standards at all.

MORE Kim Bradford, at The News Tribune's editorial page blog, asks for and receives an explanation from the WEA. It's not very persuasive. Read it here.

Comments

[Ryan]

But it's hard to avoid concluding that the teachers' union would prefer to scrap accountability measures altogether

It is hard to conclude that if you're biased against the teachers union; if you've actually talked with any teachers about the WASL, that's actually a very hard conclusion to reach.

Tsk tsk, Richard. You're better than this.