Locke Plan Forces Colleges To Make Grade With Students Governor Wants To Create Way Of Holding Schools Accountable

Public universities and colleges in Washington may be graded in the future on how well students are learning.

Pitching an idea that rings of K-12 education reform, Gov. Gary Locke wants to establish bench marks for measuring student achievement and to hold state schools accountable for educating the next generation of citizens.

Some university officials are skeptical such a plan would work, saying 10-year accreditation, term papers and final exams provide the schools and their students with adequate accountability.

“Isn’t the ultimate accountability measure a diploma?” asked Larry Ganders, lobbyist for Washington State University in Olympia. “We’re putting our reputation on the line every year with every student.”

Locke’s idea was buried in his proposed budget for fiscal year 2000-01, which begins in July. But as the Legislature began a series of higher education budget hearings this week, details about the plan began to come out.

The plan calls for creation of a Commission on Student Achievement, a group of 20 to 30 university presidents, faculty and business people who would begin meeting this year. Locke is seeking $500,000 in tax dollars to fund the effort, which likely would employ outside consultants.

Wolfgang Opitz, senior budget analyst for the governor’s Office of Financial Management, said Locke has no prescribed method for testing student achievement and keeping the schools accountable. Standardized tests, student surveys and senior class writing examinations are among many possibilities the commission may consider.

“One size doesn’t fit all,” Opitz said. “But we need a clear and understandable way to assess the achievements of students coming through our universities.”

In 1993, the Legislature passed the Education Reform Act, setting in motion testing for fourth-, seventh- and 10th-graders to gauge the success of public schools and to create a bench mark for students to achieve a state certificate of mastery.

Legislators followed up in 1997 with creation of a set of accountability measures for the state’s four-year universities and colleges. Regulators withheld $10.6 million that the schools had to earn back by meeting specific goals for student retention, five-year graduation rates, faculty productivity and other targets. The targets were based on the schools’ historic performance.

School officials, who initially embraced the accountability measures, backed away from the concept last year when they lost $1.4 million for failing to meet all their goals.

“The current system punishes us,” said Niel Zimmerman, vice president for academic affairs at Eastern Washington University. “Washington may wish to set high standards, but it needs to be guided by what can realistically be achieved.”

Eastern received the highest accountability scores in the state, losing only $42,800. WSU had one of the worst scores, losing $607,200.

The schools have joined the state Higher Education Coordinating Board to support changes in the measures that would no longer penalize them for failure, nor conflict with public policy to provide access to a quality higher education.

They support creation of a $10 million fund that would be paid out to institutions that meet their targets. Locke, however, believes no money should be paid to meet the targets, because, as an agency of the state, the schools are supposed to meet any demand that the public makes.

Jane Sherman, WSU associate vice provost for academic affairs, said changes are needed to prevent accountability measures from resulting in “unintended consequences.”

For example, Sherman said, measures that call for greater student credit hours per teacher could result in larger classes and lower-quality education. In addition, a push to speed up the rate of student graduation could tempt the universities to deny admission to low-income and part-time students, and to pass students who might not normally make the grade.

Carried to an extreme, it’s possible to excel on the measures but fail to educate students well, said WSU Faculty Senate Chairman Robert Greenberg.

“At some point,” he said, “you start saying `we are cutting our own throats here to do the right thing.”’

WHAT’S NEXT On Monday, the state Senate Education Committee in Olympia will hear testimony about university accountability from Jane Sherman, WSU associate vice provost for academic affairs, and others.