Pub. 6 2016-2017 Issue 1

27 We provide the most personalized business services and financial analysis to charter schools who value autonomy. Monty Hardy 801.394.4140 433 N 1500 W Ogden, UT 84404 www.redapplefinance.com Pantone 195 Pantone 186 Black Pantone 389 Pantone 377 First, I want to say that I believe in Utah’s educators. We get the biggest bang for each dollar spent on education when compared to any other state. I also believe that the policy makers on the State Board of Education, in the Legislature, and in the Governor’s Office are sincere in their efforts to do what is best for students in Utah. I am also generally impressed with the representatives of the various associations, including the Utah Association of Public Charter Schools, that make an effort to inform and educate policy makers. Quite honestly, I have not seen a time when there has been better cooperation and collaboration between all of the parties involved in education. This is a very positive scenario because Public Education is big and complex and it requires the best thinking of all of us to make good decisions going forward. The topics of conversationduring in the InterimEducation Committee meetings are instructive as we consider possible policy changes in the near future. For example, there has been a lot of discussion about competency or mastery-based education. For so long the “constant” in education has been the seat time. We have required students to be in seats 990 hours and 180 days per year. The variable has been the education or mastery of standards and concepts. Senator Howard Stephenson has reminded us on many occasions that our current system of grading identifies the level of “non-mastery” that a student has achieved. In other words, if a student receives a B grade, it indicates that he or she did not master 10 percent of the standards or concepts in that class. Moving to a systemwithmore personalized instruction where students can move at their own pace seems to make sense to just about everyone involved in the discussions, but there will be some hurdles that we will have to negotiate. Our entire school financing system is built around seat time or “daily membership.” District and charter schools get paid for each student that is in his or her seat on a given day. Moving away from this financing mechanism will require rethinking a series of formulas that distribute funds to schools, and this is no small task. Delivering instruction to students that are moving at a different pace is another major challenge. There are a series of other issues that will have to be resolved to move to a true mastery-based education model, but energy seems to be building to move us in that direction. We have also had lengthy discussions this interim about Assessment and Accountability. The State Board of Education has recommended that we no longer use the SAGE computer adaptive test as a summative assessment for 10th, 11th and 12th graders. They are suggesting the ACT Aspire or a similar test be used instead. This change will require adjusting our system of “school grading” which in turn will lead to changes in our “school turnaround” program. It seems pretty clear to me that there will be some changes in this arena because the credibility of the SAGE data is now in question as a result of students “opting out” of the SAGE test. Some of the other topics of conversation during the interim meetings include: 1) equalization of property tax revenue across school districts; 2) teacher preparation, 3) recruitment and retention; 4) education and workforce alignment; and 5) student mental health. We have been able to dive pretty deeply in to many of these issues during Interim Meetings, workgroup sessions and the Joint Education Conference that was held at Utah Valley University in September. I would like to express appreciation to all of the people who devoted so much of their summer to this effort. Changes in our Public Education system should be expected, but the changes should be strategic, deliberate and based on good data. I believe that the Legislature and all of our education partners will make better and better decisions as we continue to communicate and collaborate. Over time I hope the classroom teachers, and ultimately the students, will benefit from our efforts.