CHEYENNE - The Democratic candidate for superintendent of public instruction dished criticisms about the state Department of Education this week and said big changes are needed to improve Wyoming schools.

Michelle Hoffman, Ethete schools superintendent and former Lander school board member, said schools are dangerously obsessed with testing and too reliant on "mandates" from Cheyenne and Washington, D.C.

In response, current Superintendent Jim McBride said Hoffman's views fail to consider the scope and legal realities of providing education to Wyoming students.

"Her perspective is a small-school perspective, and I have to look at the greater good," said McBride, a Republican. "The issues are so much larger."

Hoffman, 50, and McBride, 56, ran unopposed in Tuesday's primary.

The superintendent of public instruction oversees the public school system and sits alongside other top elected officials on boards and committees that oversee state loans and investments, state lands and state buildings.

'Strings' limit control

Hoffman, who has a master's degree in education technology, vowed to increase local control if she's elected.

"I do believe it's the local community that knows what's best," she said.

McBride also supports local control -- as much as it's allowed by law. He said local school boards are limited by state and federal laws and by strings attached to federal money. He noted that Wyoming received $88 million from the federal government last year for schools.

"If you are going to take the federal money, you have to play by federal rules," said McBride, who was appointed by Gov. Dave Freudenthal after his predecessor, Trent Blankenship, resigned about a year ago.

"I'm not talking about turning away federal money," Hoffman said in response. "I'm talking about returning common sense to Wyoming's testing crisis."

McBride said Hoffman's criticism about heavy testing probably is a reference to an exam-heavy period last year when the state standardized tests were being developed. The federal student testing cycle occurred around the same time.

"There was some excessive test taking last year," said McBride, adding that teachers and students in the future will have flexibility to tailor test times to their schedules.

'Cookie-cutter kids'

Hoffman said she prefers tests that measure student growth over time rather than the current model that emphasizes raw performance based on age and grade level.

She's afraid schools are producing what she calls "cookie-cutter kids" trained to perform well on tests but lacking other skills, especially vocational skills.

"We're such a small state, there is no reason we can't have the top academic institutions, but then also the top vocational programs," Hoffman said. "We're just going down one track right now."

She said the state should augment its Proficiency Assessments for Wyoming Students test, or PAWS, with growth-based testing. Simply scrapping the test is not an option, she added. The test was used last year for the first time, replacing the Wyoming Comprehensive Assessment System test.

"We can't just throw away what we have," she said. "There's been too much spent on it."

McBride said growth-based testing eventually will be an option. He said the current test model provides a statistical benchmark that can be used to develop a growth-based system.

Hoffman also was critical of the state's reliance on outside consultants to develop standardized testing, school funding formulas and education policy.

"Do we not think we can handle our own affairs?" she said.

McBride responded that some tasks are outside the scope of services offered by Wyoming companies. For example, no company in the state or region had the expertise to develop the statewide standardized tests.

"When we can, we absolutely award contracts to our Wyoming businesses," he said.

Hoffman also complained that vocational programs like welding, shop and nursing are suffering around the state, and that care should be taken to address the needs of those in technical or skilled fields.

"Not all of our students are going to go to college, and we have to take care of all our children, not just the ones that are college bound," she said. "We're sweeping vocational education under the table."

A clear choice

McBride, a former Air Force commander and career educator, said Hoffman's complaints do not account for the complexity and demands of the superintendent's office.

"Until you get into this job, you just can't imagine," McBride said.

McBride was the technology director for the state Department of Education when he became a candidate for the superintendent job last year, after Blankenship resigned to take a job in Barrow, Alaska.

He was nominated by the state Republican Central Committee from a wide field of candidates and selected by the governor to complete the remainder Blankenship's term, which expires at the end of 2006.

At the time, McBride said the agency was top heavy and he eventually streamlined the administrative staff.

McBride initially said he wasn't sure if he would seek election, but now the choice is clear, he said.

"It's too early to walk away," he said. "There's too much work to be done."

McBride touted his accomplishments since taking office, including a new funding formula and facilities plan, a law designed to jettison diploma mills from Wyoming and an administrative staff that he said may be the finest in the history of the department.

Prior to his employment with the Department of Education, McBride served as school superintendent in Bennett, Colo. During a 26-year with the Air Force, he was president of community colleges located at U.S. Air Force bases around the world.

McBride holds two master's degrees and a doctorate in education administration. This is his first run for political office.

Hoffman replaced her late husband, Lonny, as Fremont County School District 14 superintendent in fall 2004. Lonny Hoffman was killed in a rock slide while with the couple's children in the Wind River Mountains on August 13, 2004. She served previously as Wyoming Indian Middle School principal.

Reach Star-Tribune capital bureau reporter Jared Miller at (307) 632-1244 or at jared.miller@casperstartribune.net.