Keep Bergeson as schools superintendent

Terry Bergeson deserves re-election as state superintendent of public instruction on the basis of a solid performance keeping Washington schools performing above the national average.

Our system ranks in the top 10 on the SAT and ACT college-entrance tests. Students passing Advanced Placement tests increased this year by 14.4 percent. The persistent gap between minority- and white-student achievement narrowed, most dramatically in reading and writing. On-time graduation rates are up. For example, African-American students saw their rates rise from 53.9 percent in 2004 to 68.9 percent last year.

Looking forward, the task for our schools chief is to build on these gains.

Bergeson's experience and longevity makes her best suited for the job. Her challenger, Randy Dorn, promises to shift us in another direction.

In this campaign, it is inevitable that attention centers on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning test. Dorn would cut the test, replacing it with something as yet unclear. Bergeson views the WASL as a measurement of state standards, an imperfect measure benefitting from ongoing fine-tuning.

Bergeson has presided ably over Washington's 1.1 million-student system. The last year has undoubtedly been the toughest as the math section of the WASL exam proved unworkable. But Bergeson is far from weary. Dorn calls her one of the hardest-working leaders he has encountered.

Dorn is executive director of the 26,000-member union representing teacher aides, bus drivers, custodians and other school employees and a former member of the state Legislature, from 1987-94. As chairman of the House Education Committee, Dorn helped write the landmark education reform bill, including its mandate for new learning standards and a test to measure them.

Dorn doesn't match Bergeson in vision or pedagogical knowledge. He emphasizes vocational education and says not all students need to take Algebra II. That opinion is diametrically opposite the view of Bergeson, the State Board of Education and this page. Regardless of what students do beyond high school, they will need a solid foundation in math.

Bergeson has spent the last dozen years working with hundreds of teachers to implement education reform. Under her direction, teams wrote the new learning standards, chose a test to measure how well students met the standards and developed the test question. The WASL is the product of teachers, not just the superintendent.

It has been a rough ride. The WASL's ineffectiveness in math was discovered only after barely half of 10th-graders passed the math section. Bergeson bears some blame — but also credit for the way she responded afterward. She rebuffed efforts by panicky lawmakers to remove a key piece of education reform — using the test as one of several requirements for a high-school diploma. Then she confronted the state's 296 districts where math curricula, materials and instructional methods are an uneven mix. The result has been a delay of the math WASL, training to improve mathematics teaching and state oversight of curriculum and textbook adoption, an area previously left to local control.

A fair question is whether in the process Bergeson made too many enemies, namely the Washington Education Association, the state's largest teachers union. We think not.

Bergeson is a former teacher, principal and schools superintendent who once led the WEA. The scars she carries from battles with the union are testament to her integrity.

Despite the battles, her experience and grasp of the nuances of education policy lend her respect in Olympia. Good. Relationships are important and Bergeson knows her way around the Capitol.

Lawmakers will start the next legislative session in budget-cutting mode because of an expected $3 billion deficit. Bergeson is best suited to speak for education with a broad vision and deep commitment to ongoing reform.