Comment

Paul T. Hill and Robin J. Lake have provided a provocative case study of key aspects of standards-based reform in Washington State. Overall it offers a sobering view of the challenges that must be faced in state after state if this decade-long strategy for increasing student achievement is to succeed. I want to focus my comments briefly on several related issues they highlight that are of significance nationally, not just in Washington.

Good News and Bad News in Washington State

Hill and Lake found a set of schools in Washington that has been showing consistent improvement in the years since the state's content standards were developed, and they have documented the factors that contributed to the schools' success. The common characteristics and strategies of the improving schools include a clear focus on a few key learning goals that stretched the capacity of the school; a coherent and coordinated effort on the part of the entire school instead of isolated responses of individual teachers; the strategic use of resources aligned with learning goals; a collegial approach to professional development that is integral to the school improvement strategy; an effort to monitor student progress and identify students at risk of falling through the cracks; and attention to building continuous improvement into the daily fabric and culture of the school. There is nothing magical about the factors in this list. With the right conditions and support, they are replicable in just about every school in America. And while important, they are not new research findings. They are consistent with what educators and policymakers began to learn more than twenty years ago from the research on effective schools and effective classroom teaching.

While the success of the improving schools Hill and Lake studied should be celebrated, excitement should be kept under control. A subset of schools in every state and community has always incorporated these findings into day-to-day practice, either because they are continuously implementing research-based practices or because they have figured out sound management and instructional practices through their own experimentation and learning. But it is almost always just a subset--rarely, if ever, an entire local or state system of schools. And so it is frustrating that common knowledge and common sense have not yet become common practice, on a large scale. In most states, the accountability system is supposed to help provide the incentives and pressure (and, if well designed, the support and flexibility) that schools need to focus on results and implement proven practices.

But in Washington State, accountability legislation has been stalled in the legislative process. As Hill and Lake describe, this legislation is being thwarted by a coalition of conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats, and there is no end to the stalemate in sight. Despite an early and promising start, a key component of the standards-based reform agenda enacted in 1993 is dead in its tracks. Those who oppose a stronger role for the state and those who oppose stronger accountability have apparently teamed up in favor of the status quo. Similar left-right coalitions have formed before, and no doubt they will again, especially as accountability provisions begin to take hold in other states.

Nothing is inevitable or irreversible about the movement to raise standards. It can be thwarted, blocked, and undone. Frequently its opponents are more powerfully motivated than its proponents, because they can see the specific losses they will suffer, while the gains are often more diffuse and distant, even for staunch proponents. Further, students will benefit the most from clear standards and strong accountability, but they count the least in the political arena. One clear lesson from the Washington State experience is that the centrist coalitions necessary to enact standards-based legislation at the state and federal level must be carefully nurtured and expanded if the movement itself is to have sufficient time to take root and work.

Limits of Federal Requirements on State Accountability Policies

While frustration with the status quo...