Frustrated educators try to balance new ideas with tradition
BARBARA NORDBY Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Friday, July 21, 2006 12:00 am
LARAMIE - Gov. Freudenthal gave a combination lecture and pep talk Thursday to a group of educators who have been criticized around Wyoming for going their own direction on a Hathaway Scholarship curriculum.
"I wouldn't get discouraged about the struggle to make this work," he told the task force, regrouped in Laramie after a statewide tour of their proposal.
But several group members were discouraged and seemed resigned to doing things the Legislature's way even though they don't think it's best for students. They said that by Friday they should have a plan that meets what lawmakers asked for.
Legislators asked for a "success curriculum" - a list of classes students must take to qualify for the scholarship and prepare themselves for higher education. Instead, the committee used the charge as an opportunity to effect high school reform.
In response to college professors who said students have trouble applying what they've learned in high school, and under the direction of a consultant from a national school reform group, the task force recommended all classes count if they meet demands laid out in many school reform efforts: application, relevance and a working literacy across subject matter.
In that way, they said, college would be possible for more students, not just those who traditionally perform well in high-level college prep classes. Also, students would be better prepared for the demands of a changing economy.
Freudenthal said the group doesn't have that option with this project.
"I don't see how you can arrive at any other interpretation of the bill," he said.
And if they don't follow the bill, they have little chance of getting their plan signed into law.
"It may not be what you want to do, but that's a different discussion. We are bound by the authority within that legislation," Freudenthal said.
Lawmakers, he said, meant the scholarship as an incentive for students to take more challenging classes, succeed in college and drive the state's economy forward. If they had wanted to just let more people into college, they could have reduced tuition across the board, he said.
"It is clearly intended to encourage students to perform to the best of their abilities," Freudenthal said.
Group members seemed frustrated, saying lawmakers actually hadn't made their intent clear during Joint Education Committee meetings.
"So you want us to give it our second best effort?" state board of education member Bill Anthony asked the governor. "Because we already gave it our first best."
Public hearings at community colleges around the state brought out many critics who said the proposal is weak and wouldn't challenge students. Group members said they felt they hadn't adequately communicated their intent to Wyomingites.
It's by studying subjects more deeply, not just by taking more classes, that students really learn more, said group member Ken Fitschen, dean of academic affairs at Western Wyoming Community College.
UW math professor John Spitler said it seems the Legislature has no idea what the Wyoming Department of Education has been doing lately, specifically with academic standards. This spring's graduation class was the first to go through school under a broad set of learning standards that defined what they had to know and be able to do to graduate.
Annette Bohling, deputy state superintendent and the leader of the standards effort, said lawmakers don't yet know that this class won't perform significantly better in college - regardless of a success curriculum.
Adding real-world application to the standards would be the next step to a 21st-century education, she said.
"The group really did want to use the research that students need to apply what they've learned," Bohling said. "We wanted so much to be able to build that in so children are successful, not just learning theory."
Still, she told the governor the group would jump back in and roll up its sleeves.
Ultimately, the task force said they'd try to offer a list of classes but without prescribing one path.
Bohling said the recommendation might include both required classes and electives, as long as the electives met state standards. And the department will continue working with districts on high school reform outside of the Hathaway Scholarship.
"No one's ever going to agree on the final product," she said. "We just can't lose sight that this is a wonderful opportunity for our Wyoming students."