Legislature(2011 - 2012)BELTZ 105 (TSBldg)
03/21/2012 08:00 AM Senate EDUCATION
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Presentation: Mayor's Education Summit by Mayor Dan Sullivan | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
SENATE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
March 21, 2012
8:02 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Kevin Meyer, Co-Chair
Senator Joe Thomas, Co-Chair
Senator Bettye Davis, Vice Chair
Senator Hollis French
Senator Gary Stevens
MEMBERS ABSENT
All members present
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
PRESENTATION: MAYOR'S EDUCATION SUMMIT by MAYOR DAN SULLIVAN
- HEARD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to record
WITNESS REGISTER
DAN SULLIVAN, Mayor
Municipality of Anchorage
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Delivered a presentation on the Mayor's
Education Summit.
ACTION NARRATIVE
8:02:37 AM
CO-CHAIR KEVIN MEYER called the Senate Education Standing
Committee meeting to order at 8:02 a.m. Present at the call to
order were Senators French, Co-Chair Thomas, Davis, Stevens and
Co-Chair Meyer.
^Presentation: Mayor's Education Summit by Mayor Dan Sullivan
Presentation: Mayor's Education Summit
8:03:04 AM
CO-CHAIR MEYER introduced Mayor Dan Sullivan who would present
the Mayor's Education Summit. He expressed interest in
continuing to participate in the process.
8:04:18 AM
DAN SULLIVAN, Mayor, Municipality of Anchorage, explained that
the goal of the summit was to look at ways to improve student
performance in the Anchorage school district. He relayed that he
became interested in the issue the first year he served on the
assembly and saw how much money the municipality spent on
education. Within a decade the budget doubled to $800 million,
but enrollment and performance stayed about the same. The
question that more and more people started asking was how to get
better results for that amount of money. He acknowledged that
education was not generally the mayor's main purview, but in the
last several years the mayors in many states have had it
elevated to the top of their list of priorities. He emphasized
that there were certainly pockets of excellence in the Anchorage
School District as well as throughout the state and country.
Everyone was looking for ways to spread that excellence
consistently through all schools. One purpose of the summit was
to bring in experts to find out how to achieve a higher
standard.
MAYOR SULLIVAN listed the cross section of 100 stakeholders that
were invited to the summit including civic and community
leaders, educators, policy makers, business, and labor. The two-
day summit was convened and seven nationally recognized
authorities shared their expertise. The participants drew what
they could from the presentations and set goals to achieve
higher educational performance. Four conclusions were to: 1)
increase student performance; 2) ensure every classroom has the
best teacher and every school the best principal; 3) offer more
choices for students and parents; and 4) find a way to spur the
community to support the changes.
8:09:08 AM
MAYOR SULLIVAN played a 10-minute video that discussed the lead-
up to the summit and the goal of finding a path to establish
Anchorage as a great international city characterized by a
superior education system.
8:19:24 AM
MAYOR SULLIVAN said the first result of the summit was the
Anchorage School District decision to switch to the common core
standards, which sets the bar much higher for student
performance. That is step one, because the higher the bar the
higher the students will achieve. He said the word "choice" was
mentioned during the video, and it was not about vouchers.
Throughout the summit the participants asked for more choice in
vocational education. College isn't the right path for every
student, but every student needs the skills necessary to go to
college.
He said that LIFO is one of the structural elements being
eliminated in the effort to attain excellence in the classroom.
That concept is that the last teacher hired is the first out
when there is a budget constraint. That is a barrier to keeping
young, bright, successful teachers.
One of the experts who spoke in the video talked about what
happened in Finland about 30 years ago. That country recognized
its people as the most valuable resource and made a decision to
become the best-educated people on earth. This was accomplished
by taking several measures. First, no less than a master teacher
is allowed in any classroom in Finland, and they are paid
accordingly. Another step eliminated about half the teaching
colleges, which made the degree more rigorous. Education is
delivered hands-on; students learn geometry by building and
chemistry by cooking. He noted that Korea takes an entirely
different approach and is almost as successful. This illustrates
that there is no one answer to improving standards, but the key
is to have master teachers in the classroom and effective
leaders.
MAYOR SULLIVAN said that Finland waited 10 years to evaluate
this new approach in the international testing arena. When they
did participate, Finland scored 10 points higher than the next
closest country. For the past 20 years Finland has continued to
be number one in the world in education. The U.S. was number one
30 years ago and is now 23rd in the industrialized world in
education. He said that was unacceptable and he was trying to
see if the Anchorage School District couldn't become the shining
example of how to do it right.
8:26:50 AM
MAYOR SULLIVAN said Phase 2 of the summit was a series of six
community discussions at various locations across Anchorage. The
public was asked to comment on the result of Phase 1 and to
present new ideas. He noted that the results of the survey that
participants completed were in the packets. Phase 3 of the
summit will be in June. The 100 participants will reconvene and
develop an achievable action plan. This may require changes in
law and will require collaboration with teachers and unions to
ensure that everyone has the same goal of excellence. He said he
was committed to this improvement and he believed that all the
stakeholders were as well.
CO-CHAIR MEYER commented that there was a lot of interest in the
subject, in Anchorage in particular. He observed that Finland
emphasized vocational-technical education, and this committee
emphasized that this year as well.
8:30:24 AM
SENATOR STEVENS cautioned that opinions vary with regard to who
was the best teacher. Students have different mentors and the
best is not always going to be one teacher out of one school.
MAYOR SULLIVAN said he agreed. The goal was to have every
teacher in every classroom be a great teacher.
8:31:50 AM
CO-CHAIR THOMAS reviewed the work the committee did this year to
improve teacher standards through the university system. He
highlighted that the committee looked at education as a
continuum. He thanked Mayor Sullivan for elevating the issue,
and said he would watch with interest how the initiative moved
forward.
MAYOR SULLIVAN said University of Alaska officials participated
in the summit and the president expressed concern about the
number of incoming students that need remediation. Mayor
Sullivan expressed a desire for university officials to look at
how to emulate the attributes of successful teaching colleges.
CO-CHAIR THOMAS asked if he anticipated using test scores to
evaluate success. He noted that the committee was concerned that
the standards for the high school exit were reduced and that
testing didn't start early enough to identify issues.
8:36:41 AM
MAYOR SULLIVAN said the statistics were interesting. The U.S.
ranks well through third grade and then declined to 23rd in the
world.
CO-CHAIR MEYER confirmed that university officials were
frustrated that so many students needed remedial instruction. He
noted that this committee and President Gamble supported what
was initially the Governor's merit scholarship. He noted that
Commissioner Hanley chose not to adopt the common core standards
that Anchorage and many states adopted because he wanted to
develop a standard that was more reflective of the rural
culture. With regard to school choice, he said the issues like
transportation could probably be worked out.
MAYOR SULLIVAN commented that ABC schools were the norm 30 years
ago and the results show they were still successful. He
questioned why that was now an exception school.
8:40:23 AM
SENATOR DAVIS asked Mayor Sullivan to provide the names of the
experts that participated in the summit. She said she
appreciated that he wanted to improve education standards, but
her perspective was that as mayor his plate was already full.
She also pointed out that the school district had yet to vote on
adopting the common core standards.
MAYOR SULLIVAN said he spoke to the board members and understood
that they were going to adopt it.
SENATOR DAVIS expressed support for the common core standards.
Referring to the video, she stated that charter schools in
Alaska were not restricted. Anyone could establish a charter
school as long as it was done through the school district and
the Board of Education.
MAYOR SULLIVAN said he would contact Dr. Patrick Wolf and ask
him to provide the research he used to determine that Alaska had
among the most restrictive charter school laws. Referring to an
earlier comment about the mayor's role, he opined that the mayor
in any city can play a role in setting the bar higher in
educational performance by bringing forward good statistics and
information so people can make good decisions.
8:45:14 AM
SENATOR FRENCH thanked Mayor Sullivan for holding the six public
meetings on education, and asked what he heard about early
childhood development or early childhood education.
MAYOR SULLIVAN said considerable time was devoted to discussing
that issue. Finland does not have early schooling but the
evidence shows that systems can be successful both with and
without early schooling. Every jurisdiction has to establish
what works best, but every kindergarten teacher will agree that
a child who comes to school with basic skills will find it
easier to achieve higher results than a child that comes in with
no preparation.
SENATOR FRENCH highlighted that Finland's state-supported system
provided quality, free daycare for working parents and after
graduation there was no college tuition.
MAYOR SULLIVAN said Finland made a deliberate commitment to be
the best-educated people in the world. He said he didn't know if
Anchorage could adopt that model and achieve similar results,
but it may be worth trying.
SENATOR FRENCH commented on an article by Tom Friedman about
Taiwan's commitment to education.
MAYOR SULLIVAN agreed that human resources were the greatest and
most sustaining.
8:50:08 AM
SENATOR STEVENS said he appreciated the four points about
improving education, but did not understand how "choice" fit in
with the others.
MAYOR SULLIVAN referenced the video and the comment by the head
of the Pacific Northern Academy who asked why there weren't more
schools like Chugach Optional School if 800 kids were waiting to
get into that school. He was pointing out that the demand
exceeded the supply for those existing successful programs.
There were a lot of choices including vocational, optional, or
ABC schools, but there was also a long waiting list to get into
those programs. The point was that there were clearly successful
programs and there were not enough of them.
CO-CHAIR THOMAS commented on the success of the Finland
experiment and his expectation that Fairbanks schools would keep
up with Anchorage schools.
MAYOR SULLIVAN reiterated that there was no one model, but that
there were elements in the top five or six from which to draw.
CO-CHAIR MEYER thanked Mayor Sullivan and said he looked forward
to the June meeting.
8:56:21 AM
Seeing no further business to come before the committee, Co-
Chair Meyer adjourned the Senate Education Standing Committee
meeting at 8:56 a.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| Mayors Ed Summit Summary.pdf |
SEDC 3/21/2012 8:00:00 AM |
Mayor's Education Summit Summary |
| The Children Must Play.pdf |
SEDC 3/21/2012 8:00:00 AM |
The Children Must Play Article |
| Mayors Ed Summit Articles.pdf |
SEDC 3/21/2012 8:00:00 AM |
Mayor's Education Summit -- Informational Articles |