Holding our schools accountable

Even the most ardent critics of public education must agree that one test administered on one day doesn’t come close to telling the whole story about how well our kids are doing in school.

Right?

Right?

OK, if you don’t agree that’s perfectly fine. We’re determined to be civil here, so with a handshake and best wishes, we’ll move past the diehard critics and address the 97 percent of Idahoans who would agree that one test on one day does not a complete report card make. Yet that’s pretty much how our kids, our teachers, our schools and our districts are judged.

Sherri Ybarra, state superintendent of public instruction, is on the right track toward changing all that for the 2017-18 school year. She’s gotten a lot of help along the way, and she’d like some more from you.

Ybarra’s mission reflects that of virtually all Idaho interests: To improve educational accountability, ensuring that student progress is being measured accurately and fairly. That way we’ll know who and what is working best, and where shortcomings need to be addressed.

The accountability quest, outlined in today’s newspaper, is the broadest and deepest excursion beyond one test that we’ve seen. Its proposed measurements, including graduation and go-on rates, state assessment test proficiency, growth on assessment tests, percentage of students with GPAs of 3.0 or higher, and much more, smack of intelligent and fair gauges of what matters most.

Idaho is on the right track by putting money where its educational mouth is. In consecutive years, the state has funded 7.4 percent increases to public education — dollars directed at specific areas that will move the needle toward greater accomplishment and accountability. That’s a trend that must continue if our state’s commitment to preparing students for the future is going to be met.

As long as the public’s accessibility to information is unfettered, Superintendent Ybarra’s proposed program is another step in the right direction, at least in our view. But here’s where you come in.

This Tuesday from 6 to 8 p.m., you’re invited to a forum hosted by the State Board of Education. The board will introduce the proposed new statewide accountability framework for measuring educational progress among public school districts, individual public schools and public charter schools throughout Idaho. The event will take place in the Coeur d’Alene School District Midtown meeting room, 1505 N. Fifth St. in Coeur d’Alene.

That’s a great opportunity to demonstrate your accountability as a citizen.