Batt: Test Students, Hold Line, Revive Flunk Governor Asks Educators To Resist ‘Howls Of Social Protest’ And Raise All Students’ Performance

Citing the failure of half the public school graduates to meet educational expectations, Gov. Phil Batt on Friday called for setting clear performance standards, testing to determine student achievement and denying advancement to those who fail.

“There will be howls of social protest that we are unjustly penalizing low achievers if we stop the practice of automatic promotion,” Batt told the annual convention of the Idaho Education Association.

But, the governor said, “Is it more important to give a non-learner a diploma or to raise the performance of all school children, including those who need extra help?”

Batt’s remarks were cordially accepted, although there were pockets of clear disagreement among teacher delegates from the organization that the governor admitted having a rocky relationship with in the past.

But he said the atmosphere has improved in the past year, and he twice emphasized that teachers are doing the best job possible under the circumstances, that the problems lie elsewhere.

Batt told Boise civic leaders earlier in the week that the plan he outlined on Friday would be one of his priorities during the 1997 legislative session.

Association President Monica Beaudoin told Batt, “We will look forward to working with you at every opportunity we can.”

Using Idaho’s 15-year-old Direct Writing Assessment as an example, the governor said the same kind of concise, unambiguous standards must also be set by Idahoans - not federal bureaucrats - for reading, mathematics and science. Then students must be tested to determine whether they are meeting those standards.

“We know what we’re doing,” Batt said. “We need to do more of it.”

He mentioned the criticism State Schools Superintendent Anne Fox has come under for insisting that student testing be expanded, and said, “I think she’s absolutely on the right track.”

“If testing takes a day or two out of the year, and it cannot be absorbed elsewhere, we can lengthen the school year a couple of days,” Batt said.

But the standards and testing will do little good, he suggested, if failure to reach the standards carries no consequences.

Remedial work should be given to students who fall short on assessment tests, but if they still cannot make it even with extra help, Batt said they should be given alternative education or some concluding document of lesser standing than an actual diploma.

“The failing student must not receive the same award as the one who has satisfactorily completed high school by reaching those standards,” the governor said. “And the schools whose students consistently fail ought not be allowed to continue operating in the same old way.”

That, Batt said, is the only way to make a diploma “more than a keepsake of high school days. It should be a ticket to opportunity.”