At House education reform hearing parents come armed with data.

An observer at today’s House Committee on Education Reform called to tell me that one of the odd things about the affair was it was a speaker representing parents who was among the few people who gave testimony that presented real data.

Julie Woestehoff, Executive Director of Parents United for Responsible Education waited all afternoon to testify. She wanted to sit at the table designated for education reform groups but was told it was too crowded by groups like the deep pocketed Stand for Children.

Woestehoff writes on PURE’s website:

It was a long afternoon out in Aurora, but the Illinois House Education Reform Committee got a good earful from teachers and others about not including them in this rushed legislation to create a new teacher evaluation process. 

I’ll write more on this later, including my first impression of the Stand for Children group (are they kidding?) and other gossip.

My testimony focused on three issues – 1) the attempt by one group and one side of the debate to label itself the Education Reform group, when all of us consider ourselves reformers, 2) the problem with mandating/implementing initiatives that have no research basis, and 3) the state’s bad track record claiming they will use multiple measures and then using only standardized one-shot tests.

Fortunately, the person I sat next to on the Miscellaneous Panel (!) was a testing point person for ISBE and he’s more than willing to let me in on what they’re doing, so that’s a start.

Unfortunately, despite many reasonable arguments against it, the committee seems determined to pass something in the next two weeks, that is, before the next assembly opens. Not sure how that’s “all about children.”

Woestehoff’s full testimony is here.

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