In 1982, John Naisbitt published, Megatrends, a book about trends that were transforming our lives. In the book he identified five states as “bellweather” states—states that were setting trends for the rest of the nation. The “bellwether” states he identified in 1982 were California, Florida, Washington, Colorado, and Connecticut.
Anthony Cody, on his blog Living in Dialog talked about education comments made by Governor Jerry Brown. Cody picked up what Governor Brown was saying, and shows how Brown’s ideas might take California in a different direction, bucking the trend to standardized education, and test the heck out of American students.
Brown believes that decision-making for schools should be centered in those closest to students—-school boards, principals, and teachers, not the people who staff the federal and state departments of education.
He also is calling for a reduction in the number of tests that are given each year, so that results can be used in a formative way as apposed to the high-stakes environment of our test-crazed culture.
Brown has suggested that evaluation should include more qualitative measures, such as including school visits to classrooms to see what teachers are actually doing. But the most important thing that he said was “My hunch is that principals and teachers know the most…”
Anthony Cody has documented Brown’s views on education, and you can read them here, here, and here.
A bellwether is any entity in a given arena that serves to create or influence trends or to presage future happenings (Wikipedia). Is California’s governor a bellwether governor?
It’s hard to say, but given his views as expressed above, and the activist momentum that is gaining ground in California, there is hope that over the next year or so, we will see some action on these front. Would there be a movement to suspend high-stakes testing? Would the locus of control move from the department of education to the science department?
What do you think? Do you believe that California’s governor has ideas that might be a good sign for educational reform? What other bellwether governor’s are out there?
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