Board of Education member visits Quincy

Steve Dal Porto discusses several issues

QUINCY - A member of the Washington State Board of Education and former Quincy assistant superintendent discussed education-related topics in Quincy Tuesday.

Steve Dal Porto spoke to the Quincy School District Board of Directors about how the state board is organized, math requirements, high school graduation requirements, the state's review of science and intervening when school districts have trouble succeeding.

Dal Porto said the state Board of Education used to be composed of nine voting board members who were elected by local school boards. One board member was elected for each congressional district, he said.

Now, the board has 16 members, 14 of whom can vote. Seven are appointed by Gov. Chris Gregoire and five are selected by local school districts. Dal Porto said he is one of two elected board members representing Eastern Washington.

An additional voting board member represents a private school and the final voting member is the state superintendent of public instruction.

"Now, a minority of the members, five out of 14 voting, are elected by the local boards, and that has impact," Dal Porto said.

On the topic of math requirements Dal Porto mentioned the Legislature has specified they want to increase math requirements from two credits to three. The state board of education is tasked with specifying what the three credits are going to be.

The state board voted to make a Washington Administrative Code for consideration in March and approval in May, he said. The code does not specify what all three credits are going to be, but it does specify a credit in Algebra 2.

"That has some pretty heavy implications for our high school kids, some people would say for our graduation rates," Dal Porto said. "Algebra 2 was designed as a math course to prepare kids for going to college, and obviously, not all kids are going to college."

Alternatively, students may be able to complete an approved career and technical education course, he said. The course has to be comparable in content to Algebra 2.

Dal Porto referred to high school graduation requirements as "the elephant in the room."

The self-imposed deadline of the Board of Education for recommending changes to graduation requirements is the end of July, he said.

The changes could have as much or more impact on local school districts than the math requirements alone, he said.

"These are merely ideas," Dal Porto noted. "This is not written in stone. These are ideas that come from the public, ideas that come from various groups, but we're listening."

One idea brought up is to increase the required number of credits in English from three to four. The change would be easy, since most schools already require four credits of English, he said.

Other ideas include increasing credit requirements from 2.5 to three in social studies and from two to three in science.

"And one that can really twist things around is foreign language for everybody in order to graduate from high school," Dal Porto said.

He said there are other possibilities for graduation requirement changes, and it is unpredictable how things will turn out. Public hearings start in March and go through May, he said. Local boards need to speak up to the board, which is something they have not had to do in the past, Dal Porto said.

"This is an activist state board," Dal Porto said. "It has its teeth in the hindquarters of school reform, and it's not going to let go."

During his presentation, Dal Porto discussed the state's review of science standards. He said grade level expectations and essential academic learning requirements are being reviewed in spring, with a recommendation anticipated for the state superintendent's office in late summer or early fall.

"The process we're following is exactly the same process we followed with the math standards, and that is an outside consultant, national science people, looking at the state standards published by (the superintendent's office)," Dal Porto said. "My guess is there will be recommendations for changes to the science standards, which eventually will domino out to lead to changes in the science WASL."

The final topic Dal Porto addressed was "systems performance accountability." The Legislature requested the state board to look at the issue of accountability, Porto said.

"In terms of accountability, the state board is looking at a program that will involve not just the Title 1 schools in the state of Washington, but every school in the state of Washington, K through 12," he said.

He anticipated junior high schools and middle schools would be the initial focus.

If the state board makes the change, schools in Washington would be classified into tiers. Tier 1 schools would be considered highly successful. Tier 4 schools would be considered schools with chronic problems.

"The chronically underperforming schools would be targeted for some sort of intervention, and that's the scary news that came out in that," Dal Porto said. "The 'but' is, the state board has no authority to intervene in local school districts or local schools, unless the Legislature so authorizes, and therein lies a huge political battle."