Educators Battle Wilson Over Statewide Test

Many students grumble about taking tests. But in Sacramento these days it is teachers, administrators, school board members and even the PTA who are breaking their pencils over tests--ones intended to measure how well students can read, write and calculate.

This is budget time in the Capitol and normally such groups are wrangling with the governor and the Legislature to get more money for schools.

But this year the budget is flush with $2 billion or more in new education money so the groups have instead turned their attention to a heated battle with Gov. Pete Wilson over his proposal for a statewide test of basic academic skills. And that has led some in the administration to wonder about the educators’ motivation--as well as their understanding of good public relations.

“I think anyone doing a good job is not threatened by accountability and, in fact, they welcome it,” said state Secretary of Child Development and Education Marian Bergeson, making a point that is echoed even by some Democratic legislators, normally allies of educators.

Lobbyists for the education groups acknowledge that they are vulnerable to such criticism for fighting the tests designed to measure the performance of students--and thus of their schools and teachers, as well. But they decided to go public with their opposition anyway.

“This isn’t about anyone being opposed to tests,” said Kevin Gordon, a lobbyist for the California School Boards Assn. “It’s about holding schools accountable in the right way.”

The testing proposal stems from Wilson’s long-stated desire to know whether the state is getting its money’s worth for its spending on education, which reached $32 billion next year. California has never had a statewide test that produced scores for individual students as well as schools and districts. Past efforts to create one foundered because of technical or political problems.

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As an alternative, Wilson--with the support of the education groups now opposing him--in 1995 signed legislation that created a testing system with two parts: a local exam of basic skills (reading, writing and math) producing scores for each student and school, and a separate customized test that would measure how well each school is teaching a wide range of subjects--including science and social studies--that would be spelled out as part of the process of developing statewide academic standards. These standards were to be very specific, mandating that eighth-graders should be able to solve algebraic equations, for instance.

But because the standards won’t be established until January at the earliest, the customized test is unlikely to be finished for several years. And the local testing is not functioning as planned either.

The problem stems in part from the fact that the state left it up to school districts to choose their own basic skills exams. As a result, districts around the state are using 48 different tests and only 55% of the students are taking them. That makes it impossible to compare the performance of, say, schools in La Canada to those in Palo Alto.

Given that, and given the state’s rosy financial picture, the Wilson administration announced in May that it wanted to spend $83 million on a mandated “off-the-shelf” testing program that would provide the desired information by requiring every student in grades 2 to 11 to take the same test as their peers across California.

Since then, the education groups have formed a united front against the idea, citing a long list of beefs, including the fact that Wilson’s proposal would use money that they want for other purposes.

The education groups also say changing to a new basic skills test would be unfair to school districts that just adopted other ones last year. “Only 18 months ago we set out on this course and we need to stay the course,” said Cecelia Mansfield, a San Fernando Valley resident who is the education advocate for the California PTA. “To turn away from that now would just create so much confusion in the minds of parents.”

The groups also complain that any new test would put teachers in a bind. They would be torn between molding their instruction to help students do well on the exam or gearing lessons to the upcoming subject standards.

But defenders of the tests say some teachers and school officials simply do not want an objective measure of how well they are doing.

Sean Walsh, Wilson’s spokesman, accused educators of engaging in “deliberate obfuscation” to block the standardized testing.

The campaign against the tests has left Democrats in an awkward position. Soon after Wilson’s plan was introduced, Democrats in the Senate and House rejected it. But Wilson has said he will not sign a state budget unless he gets his way on the issue--and Democrats see little to gain in holding up the entire budget just because of it. Plus, many Democrats see the need for a test--of some sort.

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Assemblywoman Kerry Mazzoni (D-San Rafael), who heads the Assembly education committee, wants a statewide test. But she also said she doesn’t want to waste the money school districts have already spent on their current testing programs. She is trying to come up with an alternative that might accomplish both goals.

“We don’t want the data we’ve already collected to have to be thrown out,” she said.

In recent weeks, compromise plans have begun circulating. One would have the state select three to five commercial testing programs, which are already in wide use around the state. That would preserve some local control, and--with a smaller number of tests--make it possible to make statistical comparisons from district to district.

“There may be ways for us to get together,” one education lobbyist said.