Here & Now

Darienne Driver on Concerns with School Accountability Bill

Frederica Freyberg:

Now to the state capitol. Governor Scott Walker's State of the State address was relatively brief Tuesday night, but covered topics ranging from the merger of state agencies to new forms of accountability for public schools.

Scott Walker:

Tonight I call on members of the state legislature to pass legislation ensuring objective information is available for each and every school receiving public funds in the state. Provide the information and allow parents to make the choice.

Frederica Freyberg:

And school accountability measures come right out of the chutes this session, with both the state senate and assembly giving their versions number one billing. The assembly bill stands on tough sanctions like turning failing public schools into independent charter schools and assigning schools letter grades A through F, and to assign those grades it allows private voucher schools to take different tests than public schools. The senate version is not as punitive as the lower house bill, but would require two state boards to measure school quality and outcomes, one for private voucher schools, the other for public. Last week we spoke with the author of AB1, Republican state representative, Jeremy Thiesfeldt. He held a well-attended public hearing this week at the capitol. That’s where Milwaukee school superintendent Dr. Darienne Driver voiced her concerns. Dr. Driver joins us now from Milwaukee. Thanks a lot for being here.

Darienne Driver:

Thank you for having me here today.

Frederica Freyberg:

Well, now you related at the hearing that this is where you live. Your resume is deep with improving academic outcomes in districts, including Milwaukee and Philadelphia. So let me ask, why is academic success such a tough nut to crack in Milwaukee?

Darienne Driver:

Milwaukee is a very complicated educational system. I think with having three sectors, when you have voucher schools, or choice schools as they’re referenced or independent charters within the traditional school system, that alone creates a competitive environment that makes it very hard to have one single solution to solving the problems of public schools. When you look at the factors that are also affecting our community, we are the fourth poorest city in the country, along with high crime, high incarceration rates for African-American males and also a lot of people that are out of work. And so when you take all of those factors into consideration and then you start to try to create change in our schools, these are changes that can’t be done in isolation. And what my experience has taught me is that we’ve put a lot of interventions and supports in our schools, been trying our best to do what we can with our students, but when there’s so many other factors that are involved, it really does take a community effort. It takes a more global approach to improving the outcomes, not only of education, but of the city as well.

Frederica Freyberg:

So what is your overall reaction to the accountability measures now being debated at the capitol?

Darienne Driver:

There are a number of concerns with this bill for us. A big piece is the negative impact that this would have in terms of sanctions. We do have a number of efforts that are in place with our commitment schools, our lowest-performing schools where we’re seeing some growth. We do have some strategies that are in place with the GE Foundation and our focus on the Common Core. So to have a situation where schools only have three years, and then they close and reopen as charters creates some sense of hysteria, but also it doesn’t yield the results you’re looking for. And there's research that does support that. Another big piece for us are the assessments. We want to have a system where we’re able not only able to compare the different sectors it terms of how the students are performing by looking at the same test, but recognizing we do serve a mobile population, and we want to be able to have some type of reference data looking at students from the schools they came from and the schools that they’re in now, and having a single test across sectors that will allow us to meet the needs of all of our students.

Frederica Freyberg:

Because I heard you say at the public hearing that your incoming 9th graders, as many as 40% of them are new to your district. And so what does that do in terms of trying to have those students reach this academic success?

Darienne Driver:

In many ways, we spend a large amount of our time with remediation, but also indoctrinating them, if you will, to the standards that we have to follow, everything from our educator effectiveness system, from implementation of the Common Core state standards. And so we lose a lot of time trying to bring our students to where they need to be. But the beauty of this is that we are seeing improvement. Once the students come to us, we are able to get them to a place where they are succeeding and performing at much higher levels than where they were when they came to us. But again, this begs the question of having one single assessment across sectors. So regardless of where the students attended school, we’re able to meet their needs when they come to us.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now, Milwaukee Public Schools are clearly in the cross-hairs of these new accountability measures. What is your sense as to whether or not that’s on purpose? I mean, do you feel as though MPS is being targeted?

Darienne Driver:

To be honest with you, I feel that urban districts are being targeted. It really isn’t just MPS’s battle, even though many times that’s how it’s painted. If you were to look at the schools that would be eligible under the current bill as it's written, this also includes Racine, Kenosha, Waukesha, Green Bay and Madison. And so this is an issue that really affects our state. And I think it’s important that people recognize it’s so much bigger that Milwaukee, that it matters. It affects everyone who’s either leaving a district, that are sending their children to a public school district. What happens here often predicts what will happen in other districts for years to come.

Frederica Freyberg:

You know, the senate bill as opposed to the assembly bill does seem to be kinder and gentler without those harsh sanctions. But are people generally, citizens, taxpayers, parents, getting impatient with all of these years of improvement plans and turn-around programs and, you know, all the long and costly work that it takes to improve academic success? I mean, how do we get there and when?

Darienne Driver:

I think the impatience is something that’s felt all over, and also the frustration. For 20 years we’ve had a voucher system that hasn't the yielded results that were once promised. And from the traditional public school standpoint, we are in a situation were we know we have to act quickly because our students can’t afford to wait. But we do have a number of interventions that are in place to try to help bring our students on grade level. Partnerships are essential to this. This isn’t work we can do in isolation. Just this morning the college board was here. We’re partnering with the council of the great city schools, our university partners, MATC, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus are really essential is helping us making sure that all of our students are college and career ready. This has to be a team effort. When you start to impose sanctions and creating this us versus them environment, no one wins. And most importantly, our students don't win. And so for us, while there is this frustration, there’s also action being taken. We’re actually having a summit in several weeks with our board president. He mentioned this the other day, with Howard Fuller and with John — from Northwestern Mutual to bring together the leaders from all the sectors to start figuring out how are we going to compose an educational agenda for the city of Milwaukee to take us into the future and start working together and stop working against each other.

Frederica Freyberg:

We need to leave it there. Dr. Driver, thank you very much.

Darienne Driver:

Thank you for your time.