Eastin Emerges From the Layers of Leadership

It’s one thing for the Legislature to change teaching methods, raise academic standards or impose a statewide test--among about a dozen reforms approved in the last four years in Sacramento.

It’s another thing to implement the policies in 1,000 school districts.

As recent snafus associated with the state’s Stanford 9 skills tests show, even the clearest goals can get lost amid a tangle of logistical problems.

In such times, clear-eyed leadership and a strong sense of direction are needed to ensure that well-meaning policies result in improved student achievement--not always easy given the multiple layers of responsibility for California education.

State Supt. of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin is the logical person to fill the leadership role. But many educators and policymakers in the capital say she has seemed disengaged since winning a second four-year term last fall.

Part of the reason for that is structural. She shares state-level responsibility for public schools with the State Board of Education, the Legislature, state Secretary of Education Gary K. Hart (who was appointed by the governor) and, ultimately, Gov. Gray Davis.

The legislative analyst’s office reported this spring that those overlapping responsibilities foster unproductive turf battles. As part of its duties to write a new master plan for K-12 education, a joint legislative committee will consider more productive and efficient governance alternatives.

Davis’ aggressive stance on education reform marginalized Eastin even more. He came into office vowing to shake things up educationally and immediately called a special session of the Legislature to do just that.

According to many, Eastin wanted to shore up her shaky relationship with Davis. So she stood aside, and neither she nor her department played any significant role in shaping the major education bills that resulted.

Contributing to perceived divisions between Eastin and other education officials, the superintendent fought policies that now form the foundation of education reform in California.

She opposed Proposition 227, which eliminated bilingual education. And, although she vowed to implement the law once it passed, her department has offered little guidance to school districts about how to make sure children learn to read even as they learn to speak English.

Eastin vehemently criticized the academic standards for mathematics that were eventually adopted by the State Board of Education. The standards now guide everything from textbook selection and teacher training to testing.

Former Gov. Pete Wilson wanted a statewide test that would produce scores for individual students. Eastin tried and failed to get that test delayed until standards could be adopted. The state board chose Harcourt Educational Measurement as its contractor for the $34-million program. Eastin wanted another company.

Then, Harcourt screwed up. The company pooled the scores of many students fluent in English with those who were not, tainting the results for both groups. While working to fix that problem, another flub that invalidated the scores for students in 44 districts with year-round schools was discovered.

The corrected test scores are supposed to come out this week. But the delay angered administrators around the state who said it made them all look inept.

Executives for Harcourt, as well as a subcontractor, apologized publicly last week for their mistakes.

Eastin could have pounced on the mistakes to justify her past skepticism about the program. But, commendably, she didn’t.

She delayed release of the scores until she could be assured that they were accurate. This week, she met privately with Harcourt executives and told them she considered the Stanford 9 test to be the linchpin of education reform. She reiterated that sentiment publicly.

In sum, what Eastin did was show leadership. She stepped into the breach and acted like she was in charge.

That’s important, because a new piece of legislation that sailed through an Assembly committee last week clarifies who is responsible for the test, giving Eastin and her department a far greater role than at present.

If California children are going to benefit from the flood of reform legislation passed in the last four years, individual principals and superintendents are going to be the ones who will make it happen.

But Eastin is in a position to provide guidance and inspiration for them as they do so. Otherwise, she’s another hazard in what is already sure to be a long and bumpy road.