Payson Schools Superintendent: “A lot of research shows that we’re going counter to what has worked.”

by David Safier

Pete Aleshire of the Payson Roundup put together a thoughtful article looking at the direction Arizona schools are being taken by Jan Brewer, Craig Barrett and the AZ lege. He wraps his ideas around an interview with Payson Unified School District Superintendent Casey O’Brien.

The superintendent disparages the overemphasis on high stakes tests as well as the rise in class sizes and elimination of programs due to budget constraints.

“I think we’re moving in the wrong direction,” said O’Brien, whose district last year closed an elementary school and raised average class sizes. Some grade levels went from an average of 22 students per classroom to more like 32 students per classroom, he said.

“I have some big concerns. A lot of research shows that we’re going counter to what has worked.”

[snip]

O’Brien said, “I’m concerned that we’re cutting back on things that we know work — like all-day kindergarten and instead doing things we aren’t sure will work.”

Aleshire spotlights the important correlation between poverty and student achievement, a subject which gets far too little attention in the blame-the-school, blame-the-teacher culture created by the conservative "education reform" movement.

Numerous national studies suggest that family poverty and education levels have a much greater impact on student test scores than does the curriculum, teacher training or even core variables like class sizes. The state’s child poverty rate has risen sharply as a result of the recession, especially in Payson where a daunting 70 percent of the children in the district now qualify for free and reduced lunches based on family income.

If you read the content-rich article, you'll find more thoughtful analysis of education in Arizona. Aleshire has clearly spent time learning about the subject, which allows him to go beyond simply repeating what his sources have to say.

An editorial in the same edition of the paper reinforces the ideas in Aleshire's article. Basically it tells legislators they can't cut budgets and expect to improve student achievement by focusing on "standardized test scores, school grades and increasingly harsh punishments for schools if the weakest students don’t get better on those standardized tests."