STATE SPI PROMISES 
TO KEEP HIGH STANDARDS

Washington's Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) praises Pres. George Bush's efforts to eliminate the achievement gap over the next 12 years and to provide all students with the skills needed for the 21st Century.  

But SPI Terry Bergeson worries Washington will be punished by the new federal law because the state has already set such high standards.

Speaking at the LEAP Education Conference, Dr. Bergeson said, "The worse problem I have with the federal law is that we're going to be compared with states with much lower standards.

She vows not to dilute Washington standards. "The standards have to be high. … We have to maintain that, no matter what the pressure from the federal government."

To achieve the state's high standards, schools will need parental and community support, Dr. Bergeson says.

Dr. Bergeson also praises Migrant Education Director Richard Gomez for the 12-step program he proposed to improve migrant and bilingual education in the state.

One key was the selection of an English language assessment test to be used by all school districts for students with limited English proficiency. A 16-member committee from around the state has just selected what Gomez feels is "by far the superior product."

The test will allow the state to better determine at what point students who are learning English as a second language are ready to take the state's general education WASL assessment test. The new language proficiency test can also be recorded in the Migrant Student Records System to help teachers support migrant students as they move from district to district with their families.

Chris Thompson, executive director of the state's A+ Commission, also spoke to the LEAP (Latino/a Educational Achievement Project) conference, and supported Dr. Gomez in his efforts to move Washington schools away from the ESL "pull-out" programs used by most schools and move to dual-language immersion programs and other more effective English training programs.

Students who go through dual-language immersion programs not only outperform regular ESL students, they "significantly outperform English-speaking students," says Mr. Thompson.

Conference participants, however, pointed out the lack of bilingual educators to teach in dual-language programs.

Ricardo Sanchez, LEAP director, encouraged state officials to make college affordable to Latino high school graduates in Washington state for their own sake and to help fill the need for bilingual educators. He suggested the state pay the tuition of Latino students willing to go into education.

Mr. Sanchez also encouraged Latino parents to get more involved in their communities and in politics. He pointed out that in Mabton School District, for example, 90 percent of the students are now Latino, but the school board and administrators are mostly white. The school officials don't fully understand the needs of their students, and effective programs such as dual-language immersion have not been adopted.

Educators were impressed by the number of students who attended the LEAP conference, and who took the opportunity to express their views to legislators and other state officials.