Education Week - January 28, 2015 - 18

goVERnMEnT & polITIcS
As Job Description Grows, So Does Churn for State Chiefs
Average tenure drops
by half in past six years
By Andrew Ujifusa
A recent spate of departures by prominent
state schools chiefs-including John B. King
in New York and Kevin S. Huffman in Tennessee-is
focusing attention on a turnover rate
that now rivals the chronically high churn
among urban superintendents.
Changes at the helm of state education agencies
reflect a variety of factors, analysts say: a
cycle of elections in which voters or governors
in several states select new chiefs; opportunities
for consulting and other jobs; and, perhaps,
new and intensifying pressures on state chiefs.
The list of recently appointed chief school
officers, meanwhile, suggests an uptick in the
value state leaders are placing on candidates
with work experience in, or other strong ties
to, their states, rather than those with connections
to national organizations or high-profile
out-of-state work.
In short, the landscape for state chiefs seems
to have shifted in some fashion, said Paul F.
Manna, an associate professor of government
at the College of William and Mary, in
Williamsburg, Va., who has tracked turnover
among chief state school officers.
"There is more turbulence in this position
nowadays than there has been in the past," Mr.
Manna said.
Less clear, however, is what that turnover
means for critical K-12 policies in states as they
rethink strategies on issues ranging from student
assessment to teacher education.
Tracking the Tenure
According to research conducted by the
Council of Chief State School Officers and Mr.
Manna, the average tenure for state chiefs is
about the same as the average time on the job
for urban superintendents: 3.2 years. That figure
comes from the Council of the Great City
Schools, a Washington-based organization representing
67 large urban districts.
A preliminary analysis by Mr. Manna shows
that, after climbing steadily throughout much of
the decade that began in 2000, the average state
chief's tenure then dipped significantly, from
roughly six years in 2008 to three years in 2012.
From March 2012 through the week of Jan. 19,
31 states had changed state education chiefs at
least once. And a few states-including Florida,
Nevada, and Wyoming-changed commissioners
or superintendents more than once during
that period. The longest-tenured chief is Superintendent
Michael P. Flanagan of Michigan,
who has been at his post since May 2005 but
plans to retire this coming summer.
Mr. Manna's research suggests that some
of the turnover in recent years is correlated
with the large slate of state elections-including
36 gubernatorial elections in 2010
and again in 2014-that occurs in the midterm
electoral cycle.
The most dramatic spike in turnover for any
one year during the past 15 years occurred in
2011, when 24 new state chiefs took over following
big gop gains in the 2010 state elections.
Among the seven elections for state chief that
year, six saw new chiefs elected, and five of the
new chiefs were Republicans.
New Mexico Secretary of Education-designate
Hanna Skandera said that good leaders
aren't worried about "day-counting or yearcounting,
or their tenure."
Still, the more recent turnover has had an
impact on the group that she chairs, Chiefs for
Change, an affiliate of the Foundation for Excellence
in Education that until recently was
led by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Membership
in the group, which backs test-based
teacher evaluations, school choice, and online
education, among other policies, dropped from
nine current chiefs in early 2012 to four active
chiefs at the start of this year.
Among the prominent chiefs who have moved
on are Tony Bennett, who resigned his Florida
post in 2013, and Christopher Cerf, who left
New Jersey last year.
"The politics of education, I believe, have intensified
and increased to the point where, in some
cases, we're seeing politics trump what's in the
best interest of kids," said Ms. Skandera, who
was picked to lead the state education department
by Gov. Susana Martinez, a Republican,
but has yet to be confirmed by the state Senate.
Challenging Issues
Superintendent Randy Dorn of Washington
state, who was first elected in 2008, singled out
Congress' failure to reauthorize the No Child
Left Behind Act-and the subsequent power
over states that the U.S. Department of Education
has exercised through nclb waivers-as
a major reason chiefs' jobs have gotten more
complicated. Mr. Dorn's state lost its waiver
last year.
Echoing Ms. Skandera, Mr. Dorn, whose office
is nonpartisan, said that as education "has become
much more of a focal point for the nation,"
chiefs have in some cases been worn down.
"I know that some of my colleagues have just
PAGE 22 >
No Firm Direction on Testing Set at Senate Panel's ESEA Hearing
Lauren Camera
The Senate education committee
convened last week to take up the
divisive education policy debate over
whether to scrap federally mandated
annual tests in the reauthorization of
the No Child Left Behind law.
While the diverse panel of witnesses
overwhelmingly recommended
that the current law's
annual-testing regimen be maintained,
the principal architects of
any future bill, including Chairman
Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., didn't finalize
how they intend to handle the
issue legislatively.
"I think whether we keep the federal
tests depends upon what kind
of accountability system we have,"
Sen. Alexander said in an interview
after the hearing. "The accountability
system may be more of a problem
than the tests, and the state
and local tests may be more of a
problem than the federal tests. So
they all have to be considered at
once and I don't have a solution yet."
A Simmering Debate
The Jan. 21 hearing was the first
in a series of hearings that will take
on the biggest policy issues involved
in overhauling nclb, the latest iteration
of the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act.
The conversation about whether
students are over-tested and whether
those tests are redundant or of value
has been simmering for months.
The current law mandates 17
annual tests: One reading and one
math test each year in grades 3
through 8, and one for each subject
in high school. Also, science is assessed
once in elementary, middle,
and high school.
However, Mr. Alexander's discussion
draft, which he unveiled Jan.
13, includes two testing options-
one that would keep in place the existing
annual system, and another
that would allow states to use any
type of testing schedule they please,
including annual tests, portfolio
18 | EDUCATION WEEK | January 28, 2015 | www.edweek.org
exams, grade-span tests, a competency-based
system, and more.
Over the last few weeks, lawmakers
have been scrambling to cement
their position on the subject. So far
whether or not to keep annual tests
isn't a party-line issue, especially
among Democrats.
During the hearing, Sen. Patty
Murray, D-Wash., the ranking
member on the education committee,
and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, DMass.,
were adamant that annual
tests be required for accountability
purposes if the federal government
is giving states billions of dollars in
education aid.
"Assessments help parents and
communities hold schools accountable,"
Ms. Murray said during the
hearing. "If a school is failing students
year after year, parents and communities
deserve to have that information
and be assured the school will
get the resources it needs to improve."
While Ms. Murray agreed that an
update to the law should encourage
states and districts to reduce redundant
and low-quality tests, she said
it would be irresponsible to spend
billions in federal taxpayer dollars
without knowing if the law is effective.
Ms. Warren also drove home
that theme in her remarks.
Meanwhile, Sen. Tammy Baldwin,
D-Wis., took a more tempered approach,
touting a bill she introduced
Jan. 20 with Rep. Suzanne BonPAGE
23 >
Wade Henderson,
center, addresses
the Senate education
committee during
a Jan. 21 hearing.
Mr. Henderson, the
president of the
Leadership Conference
on Civil and Human
Rights, supports the
No Child Left Behind
law's annual-testing
mandate.
T.J. Kirkpatrick for Education Week
http://www.edweek.org
Education Week - January 28, 2015

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