Terry Bergeson
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Teresa "Terry" Bergeson is an American politician currently acting as the Superintendent of Public Instruction of Washington state. The office is non-partisan, but Bergeson is a Democrat.
Bergeson has worked as a teacher and guidance counselor in Massachusetts, Alaska, and Washington. She was elected President of the Washington Education Association in 1985, appointed Superintendent of the Central Kitsap School District in 1989. She holds a bachelor's degree in English, a master's degree in Counseling and Guidance, and a doctorate in Education.
She was elected Superintendent in 1996 against a businessman who opposed outcome-based education. She won re-election in 2000 against an Asian American candidate who was an activist against the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) The activist had found high school level math items on the 4th grade WASL test, and was an education professor. She won again in a difficult race against former Superintendent Judith Billings and another anti-WASL activist Juanita Doyon who created the No-WASL buttons in 2004. She has served as the effective leader of Washington State's education reform movement, pledging that all students will receive a diploma that proves they are ready for the 21st century.
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[edit] Legacy
Since being appointed Executive Director of the Washington Commission on Student Learning in 1993, Bergeson's most lasting legacy in the field of education may be the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL). The WASL is one piece of the 1993 eduation reform legislation, based on a design by Marc Tucker's NCEE which put into law the basic principles of Outcome-based education. OBE is now known as standards based education reform after it was widely rejected as unworkable in its original form, and still opposed by education progressives such as Alfie Kohn and Gary Orfield as one of the most destructive influences in public education today.
These reforms have changed the direction of education in Washington State by encouraging schools to align to the curriculum framework called the Essential Academic Learning Requirements which incorporated learning standards based on controversial reforms such as standards-based mathematics and whole language. The narrowing of the curriculum in this manner may have contributed to improved test scores, yet reports indicate that the number of college freshman needing remediation in one or more subject area has increased (http://www.sesrc.wsu.edu/remedial/). Groups such as Mothers Against WASL and Citizens United for Responsible Education have opposed the WASL as a test which is expensive, with serious defects and unacceptably serious consequences for the majority of students who are unfairly and arbitrarily labeled failures by this test.
[edit] Bergeson's promise: All will succeed
Washington voters evidently backed Bergson's pledge that all Washington students will receive a diploma that insures success in the 21st century. This is a belief common to all standards based education reform programs. However WASL results in 2006 were a massive failure. Of the first class that will be required to pass all WASL sections, only half demonstrated meeting the standards, and three-quarters of minority and low incomes students were also on track to be denied diplomas because of Bergeson's effort to help struggling students by tying the diploma to the controversial WASL test. Unlike IQ tests which are illegal in some states for use in making education decisions, or the SAT test, which has no minimum passing score, the [High school graduation examination| high stakes] WASL test effectively places the high school diploma out of reach of below average students by requiring above average test scores, which are generally achieved by students from the most educated ethnic groups with above average incomes and parental education.
[edit] Half are failing
Although "all will succeed" is a common belief motto of all districts and states committed to standards, this belief stands contradicted by data that all diverse groups have had different test scores on every test ever given, whether norm-referenced IQ and SAT tests, or the standards based WASL, which also shows a bell curve distribution. In 2006, Bergeson told the press she believes that low scoring groups were "just as capable as other students", but only needed "additional help" even though there is no research that shows any program has ever been effective in completely eliminating the achievement gap, or that WASL results reflect anything other than differences in academic capability. Bergeson stands by her promise of the optimistic outcome when all students of all heritages and incomes will meet all standards. Bergeson has never stated how she will be held accountable if the WASL and standards fail to meet expectations, as they are currently failing.
[edit] New Three R's
Bergeson has identified in state documents that the skills requirements for the twenty-first century are Robert Carkhuff's 3 R's--Relating, Representing and Reasoning.[1] These replace the traditional 3 Rs of reading, writing and arithmetic which are no longer believed to be the most important outcomes of education reform.
[edit] New Age
Ms. Bergeson is an avowed Theosophist who has worked diligently to introduce Robert Carkhuff's Conceptual Framework into the realm of education in Washington State. Assisting her in her tireless efforts is fellow theosophist, Shirley McCune. Ms. McCune is OSPI's Federal Liaison, and co-author of the book, The Light Shall set you Free, (which was written with the help of several "spirit guides", such as Kuthumi).
A Passage from The New Science of Possibilities, authored by Robert Carkhuff and Bernard Berenson, and purchased by the State of Washington by Terry Bergeson's office:
God is The Great Montessori Teacher: He co-processes only with those of us who use His most precious giftthe intellect with which He has endowed us.
We came to know God only when we came to generate human and phenomenal possibilities, for God is in the phenomena He presents to us.
It is only when we begin to employ the plural pronoun we that we know that we are approaching collaboration with God: first relating interpersonally with our fellow collaborators; then processing interdependently with our phenomenal universes; perhaps only then co-processing with God.
The State of Washington purchased nearly $75,000 worth of Robert Carkhuff publications for distribution througout five States.
Dr. Shirley McCune authorized payment for the purchases from Robert Carkhuffs publishing company, Human Resource Development (HRD Press). Dr. Shirley McCune and Robert Carkhuff coauthored the Possibilities Schools. When asked to stop promoting New Age religion in public schools, she responded by telling a member of the public she considered her religion as being Metaphysical. [2]
[edit] Parody
This was a parody produced during the 2000 OSPI campaign:[3]
Terry Bergeson's Island
Imagine an episode of Gilligan's Island where Terry Bergeson washes ashore. She determines that the reason they can't get off the island is that the castaways, especially Gilligan haven't learned world class skills for the 21st Century. So she organizes the Gilligan's Island Assessment of Skills, and puts together a committee to create a test of what "every castaway must know and be able to do". Every member must pass a test set to the highest island standards. The science and math test must be as good as the Professor, while seamanship must be as good as the captain, to pass you must be as polite and bake pies as well as Mary Ann, as proficient in economics and finance as Mr Howell, and as politically correct and cultured as Mrs Howell, and as talented in the arts as Ginger. As you can imagine, poor Gilligan starts boning up on calculus, physics, singing, acting, navigation, and stock markets, but for some reason, he still can't figure out the test that Bergeson has concocted. The professor comes up short in singing, the Captain can't figure out stocks, Ginger isn't any good at history, etc.
When the big test day comes, Gilligan predictably gets the worst score. But then he asks what the right answers are, and Bergeson admits she doesn't know either. Everybody realizes that instead of saving them, they've turned the island into an academic sweatshop with Terry as the unofficial dictator of what everyone must know and be able to do. They drive her off the island on the same raft she floated in on.
[edit] See also
- The Light Shall Set You Free, aook by assistant Shirley McCune, federal liason of OSPI.
- WASL
- Standards based education reform also called Outcome-based education.
- Certificate of Initial Mastery Standards based diploma specified in 1993 education reform bill. It has now been renamed as nearly all other states have abandoned the CIM as unworkable.
- Mathematically Correct Mathematics organization that has determined standards such as Washington States are harmful.
- Fairtest Organization that has determined tests like WASL are invalid and inappropriate for a graduation requirement
[edit] Notes
- ^ [1]"The WASL is wasteful and invalid. It does not test our children on the 3 R's as we knew them--reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic."
- ^ The Unveiling of the Bergeson Adminstration
- ^ [2] Terry Bergeson's Island
[edit] External links
- [3]The Unveiling of the Bergeson Administrations Vision
