Guest Column:You and I are Part of the School Reform Solution

This commentary reflects my personal view on critical issues facing public education.

Few would argue that more public school reforms are needed to achieve greater excellence in teaching and learning. We owe it to our students, community, and nation to focus continued attention on education issues and challenges and to find solutions that improve student achievement..

California's education reform measures of the past ten years appear to be paying off. School districts and their teachers are required to teach to standards, and they are held accountable to achieve certain performance targets. Every year, students are tested to measure their degree of skill and proficiency on basic standards, and schools have performance targets established for them and their students by the state and federal government.

No one can dispute the evidence that students are taking more rigorous courses, and their performance on standardized test results show improved achievement and higher proficiency rates. And while results are encouraging, public schools and the laws that govern them are a work in progress that demand continued critical attention from the legislature, school boards, teachers and their unions, and parents. The overwhelming majority of teachers and administrators are skilled, caring and professional. Unfortunately, schools have their share of inexperienced teachers and administrators who have potential but who need training, supervision, and support.

When a school's test scores do not meet the established target, there is usually a reason and a remedy. And to find out why a school is not performing on target, everyone should come to the table and analyze the causes and find the solutions that will help the school administrators and teachers to be more effective in teaching students and in meeting the established standards.

Those in charge of public education including state and federal agencies, school boards, teachers and their unions, and parents are well advised to collaborate professionally to develop policies and performance standards, and competency standards for teachers and administrators. These performance standards should be sensible and measurable. They should reflect teaching and leadership quality, skill, evaluation and performance standards.