Summit must challenge status quo

By The Gazette Editorial Board

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Gov. Terry Branstad's long-awaited education summit starts Monday. It has been billed by its planners as a big moment in the drive to transform Iowa's public schools.

And it is an impressive gathering of education experts and national leaders. The governor deserves a lot of credit for shining such a bright spotlight on Iowans' effort to improve the way we educate our children.

But really, this is just the first big moment among many that will be needed in the months and years ahead to make school reform a reality. It's going to take resolve and leadership to turn hope and talk into action.

And action is what we need, because Iowa's schools must change in a fundamental way.

A state report issued this past week shows that Iowa's once nation-leading public school system has lost its footing. A state that once led the nation in fourth-grade reading is now 14th. The National Assessment of Education Progress shows that Iowa's eighth-graders had slipped to 16th in math, while less than a third of those students take high-level math courses. That's the fourth-lowest percentage in the nation.

Iowa Department of Education Director Jason Glass says the bad news is not necessarily because Iowa's schools are getting worse. Glass says the real problem is that many other states are doing far better. Other states have instituted innovations and reforms while Iowa stood still. “We need not just an overhaul, we need a complete transformation,' said former Cedar Rapids superintendent Lew Finch, executive director of the Urban Education Network.

So what are we going to do about it?

Well, for the next two days, we're going to listen closely to leaders from across the country and from various education positions describe their experiences and solutions that work. Both sides of the political aisle will be represented, including President Obama's education chief, Arne Duncan, and Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

We understand that Branstad, Glass and other Iowa leaders already have proposals in mind. An agenda is taking shape. Branstad has said he's determined to tie teacher pay to student performance and to change pension benefits.

But during the summit, they must resist the urge to listen only for ideas that confirm their preconceived notions of what reform should look like. Instead, we hope summit participants will challenge and reshape those ideas. We want the summit to have a real impact on shaping Iowa's policy course, not just confirming a course already quietly set in concrete.

True transformation will require flexible, consensus-building leadership from Branstad and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. This is no time for sound-bite governing. Behind a snappy label like pay-for-performance, for instance, is a web of complex decisions tied to workforce needs, economics, demographics and budget constraints - decisions that can't be well made within constraints of the same old partisan feuds. Education transformation will need a political transformation to truly succeed. And that need for transformation extends to the education establishment, school boards, teachers' unions and others who must resist the temptation to take comfort in the status quo.

It may be called a summit, but the road goes uphill from here.

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