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Washington State Legislator Dahlquist wants to Implement Letter Grades for Schools.....what about letter grades for legislators?

Senator Litzow (SB5328) and House Representative Cathy Dahlquist (HB1476) are leading the charge to hold Washington state schools accountable and closing the achievement gap.  Accountability is the "buzz" word that most politicians are using to rally and compete for the spotlight. Unfortunately, the climate in Olympia is the worst I have ever seen it.  I call it "Accountability" with a hammer, threat and punishment.  Lost in the rhetoric is the focus on the child.  I don't hear anything about collaboration, working together to address the challenges that we face in education today nor having constructive conversations to  problem solve to seek solutions.  All I am hearing from non-educators who have no connection to the classroom, is how they are going to fix our educational challenges through punitive legislation that only divides us and drives us further apart. It's the mentality that if you hit us with a bigger bat and cause more pain, you will get better results.  

What kind of grade or accountability would you give our legislators that were found in contempt for not funding public education per our state constitution.....by the supreme court?  Those that are threatening us with letter grades, punitive accountability, were in office while leading us down the worst budget deficit in the history of our state. What grade would we give our legislators for allowing Washington state to become one of the worst states in the nation for funding education?  For transparency, should our legislators have to put their grade out on their office door for all to see?  Our state falls well short of standard in funding public education, should our legislators be forced to drop out due to the mess we are in? Being transparent to our public,  I don't see how we can rate Olympia any higher than "Struggling". that is using their grading scale./p>

I only use this sarcasm to show that all the policies that are being pushed our way in education, can easily be turned around and used in the same model giving letter grades for the performance of our legislators.  I'm sure it is upsetting to them to be graded, but shouldn't we be all playing by the same rules?

Exemplary - A

Very Good - B

Good - C

Fair - D

Struggling - F

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Hi Jim - perhaps you've already seen this, but if not - another article about Finland's schools:

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/12/what-americans-keep-ignoring-about-finlands-school-success/250564/

The article reports on a visit to the U.S. by Pasi Sahlberg, director of the Finland Ministry of Education's Center for International Mobility and author of a new book - Finnish Lessons. Sahlberg says, "There's no word for accountability in Finnish."

And they don't use standardized tests.

Don't be fooled by legislators using the "Accountability" word, it is the new buzz word that sounds good, but it has driven more punitive legislation than what I have ever seen come out of Olympia. I took some of their new policies and applied it to them and their accomplishments....or lack of. Interesting how their educational grading system really can be linked to fit their own performance as public officials. What do you think?
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