Vancouver teachers latest to denounce Bergeson, WASL

Add the Vancouver Public Schools teachers union to the growing list of educators who have denounced the leadership of Terry Bergeson, state schools superintendent.

At its monthly meeting on Monday, the Vancouver Education Association leadership council issued a strongly worded no-confidence vote, based on a survey of more than 300 Vancouver teachers.

The vote was accompanied by a blistering rebuke of the controversial Washington Assessment of Student Learning. Bergeson has championed the state’s standardized exam since its inception in 1993.

“Terry Bergeson has not been a friend to students or teachers in the state of Washington. It seems that the only school funding she supports is directly tied to the WASL,” said Ann Giles, VEA president, in a prepared statement.

“The WASL is not being used for the purpose it was designed, it costs too much to administer, it takes too much time away from instruction, and it has caused harm to children for too long.

“This test has negatively impacted students for 12-15 years, an entire school career. Terry Bergeson and the WASL need to go,” Giles said. Bergeson is running this year for a fourth term as the state’s top education official.

Last month, the Washington Education Association endorsed an opponent, former Richland School District Superintendent Rich Semler. Semler is an outspoken critic of the WASL.

Since then, there’s been a mounting effort to undermine Bergeson’s re-election hopes.

At least 28 more WEA affiliates have issued votes of no-confidence or have demanded major changes. The Evergreen Public Schools union declared a no-confidence vote last week.

Battle Ground teachers are likely to soon join in, said BGEA President Ellen Joslin. A survey of Battle Ground teachers shows 77 percent favoring a no-confidence vote, Joslin said today.

UPDATE: More groups join in.

More local unions vote no-confidence in Bergeson

Thursday, May 08, 2008
By HOWARD BUCK, Columbian Staff Writer

School employee labor units across Clark and Skamania counties have joined Evergreen and Vancouver district teachers in registering a no-confidence vote against state schools chief Terry Bergeson.

The motion approved Wednesday evening by leaders of the Riverside UniServ Council of the Washington Education Association states that “Washington students and schools deserve a new Superintendent of Public Instruction.”

The Riverside group is made up of 14 bargaining units. The units include teachers and/or nonteaching staff in the Battle Ground, Evergreen, Ridgefield, Hockinson, Camas, Washougal, Stevenson-Carson and other Skamania County districts.

The Evergreen district teachers’ union, which makes up about 40 percent of the Riverside ranks, had previously recorded a no-confidence vote.

Vancouver teachers approved their own resolution on Monday.

Riverside’s resolution is at least the 30th such declaration in recent weeks. A WEA-wide resolution is expected when about 1,200 WEA representatives meet in Spokane next week.

The WEA already has endorsed an opponent of Bergeson, who is seeking a fourth term in this year’s election. The union’s choice is former Richland School District Superintendent Rich Semler, outspoken critic of the Washington Assessment of State Learning, or WASL, that Bergeson has championed.

Ellen Joslin, Riverside president and Battle Ground teachers union leader, said the moves underscore educators’ growing discontent with Bergeson and the exam.

“Our frustration is that Terry Bergeson seems even to have lost confidence of the (legislators) in Olympia,” Joslin said. “She’s been dishonest about the cost of the WASL, and she’s been dishonest to the Legislature,” she said.

Increasing, state legislators have asserted control over WASL and high-school diploma rules.

Bergeson has said she is fighting burdensome federal penalties under the No Child Left Behind Act that are tied to Washington school’s WASL results.

But Joslin said Bergeson and the WASL are irreparably linked.

“It was up to each state to decide what the (student performance) measure would be” to meet NCLB standards, Joslin said. “She chose the WASL, the government didn’t have any say in that.”

http://www.columbian.com/news/localNews/2008/05/05082008_More-local-unions-vote-no-confidence-in-Bergeson.cfm

I hear you! I have grandkids that are home schooled and grandkids that are in public schools in WA.

I’m no friend of the WEA but then I’m no friend of Bergeson either and haven’t been for years.

The WASL is a disaster, IMO. And there are some good teachers in the districts in Clark county that say the same thing.

It would be a blessing if they both were gone and the teachers had an organization to represent them independent of the NEA but that’s up to the majority of them.

It seems to me that there are a couple of problems:

The WASL holds students and hence teachers accountable. Therefore if the students are scoring low, which they are, the teachers are made to look bad. Parents (myself included) are asking why we have students that cannot pass the WASL. This makes teachers look bad.

At the same time the WASL and the idea of teaching to the WASL, which is happening big time, is a hindrance to teachers doing their job. So good teachers do not like it because they are being told what to teach and they know it is counterproductive for the students. Furthermore it is taking a huge chunk of the education $$ because it is a political hot potato.

Standardized testing is the enemy of the teachers union, for that reason it should stay. It is a lousy test however. But the WEA so controls the WA State Demo party that Queen Christine has a BIG problem.

When they start calling for a new standardized test what they really want is another 5 years to get it done where they will not be accountable.

FWIIW.

schu

I may be naive but I still don't get why kids are scoring poorly on the WASL. I have 4 kids in public schools. My first has extreme math anxiety and has always scored 4’s (although one was a low 4). My second is dyslexic off the charts, but has always scored high 4’s in reading and writing. The younger two haven't started WASL yet, but their impression is that it's an easy school week with less homework and extra time to read and sleep (with extra snacks at school).

I don't see why the WASL has become such an issue. Before we moved here to WA my kids did the Iowa test every year ... I didn't hear many complaints (except it was more of an IQ test than a learning test). I still don't get why teachers and unions and parents get so passionate about this WASL ... don't tell me that classroom time is so precious that kids can't afford to miss any of it for WASL. Good teachers still get the job done.

There are a bunch of reasons kids do not do well on the test.

That is not the issue IMHO. The issue is that kids are now required to pass the WASL to graduate from HS, a large percentage are not passing and parents want to know why. So now the entrenched government bureaucracy and the WEA have to answer for this.

They should have just used the Iowa test, but they decided to create their own. Now they need to show progress and they are not. In some ways it is good as the incompetence and corruption of the education establishment is exposed.

This is why they do not like the test, because they are failing. The worst thing we can do is let them off the hook, you created it, now make it work.

schu

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