Speed in School Reforms Is Key

Four school improvement bills hammered out in record time by the California Legislature will soon be signed into law by Gov. Gray Davis. Then the task of implementation falls to Supt. of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin and the state Department of Education. They too should work at warp speed and push the toughest possible interpretation of the education reform laws.

The reading bill, expected to be signed Monday, will make available $75 million for summer reading academies for primary students who read below grade level. School districts should act as soon as the applications are ready so the intensive reading programs will be in place for an estimated 250,000 children when school lets out.

The school accountability law will allow low-performing schools to apply by September for funds earmarked for improvement. That short time will require the Education Department to quickly hire evaluators to work with those schools and to develop the new state academic performance index by which schools will be ranked.

The teacher peer assistance and review law rewards school districts that act early. Those that start their programs before July 2000 will get up to $2,800 for each mentor teacher assigned to work with unsatisfactory teachers. School districts that miss that deadline will get only $1,000 per consulting teacher. That incentive should prompt local school officials and unions to sit down soon and start negotiating on how the mentor program will work in each district.

The fourth measure, requiring a high school exit examination beginning in 2004, will require development of a rigorous test that can withstand the expected legal challenges. Eastin and the state Board of Education need to assemble the required advisory panel to get the process started.

School reform will soon be on the books, and with fast action by Eastin and the Education Department it will come quickly to every school district, every campus and every classroom.