FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 20, 2022
Montana Students Deserve Educational Excellence
An OpEd by State Superintendent Elsie Arntzen
I believe local control is the best way to ensure government serves the people and communities. Now more than ever it is a priority that the delivery and accountability of education be placed back in the hands of the people. That is the pure definition of local control.
Trust must be rebuilt after two years of mandates being pushed through schools and attacks on parental rights. Montana must forge a path to rebuild this trust by engaging our local school boards as they direct the best ways to meet the needs of our students and families. Efforts to provide more local control and reduce top-down mandates in education is under attack by Helena special interests impeding the rebuilding of any trust in education.
We celebrate that the Board of Public Education agreed with the numerous teacher licensing flexibilities that will help recruit and maintain quality teachers. Our Montana schools and teachers need the ability to innovate and adapt to the changing needs of each student through the learning process. Reducing the strings tied to state accreditation allows for our local schools to think outside the box instead of just checking the box.
School accreditation standards, which are housed in Chapter 55 of the Administrative Rules of Montana, include rules on curriculum, class sizes, teacher and staff qualifications, Indian Education for All, and student learning assessment to ensure all students receive a quality education. These rules are guidelines for successful student learning, and the goal is educational excellence.
Since 1947, standards of school accreditation began in law and are currently housed in the Board of Public Education (BPE). As State Superintendent I am charged, by law, to bring recommended changes to school accreditation before the Board.
Our agency staff researched extensively on the needs of our schools by diving into the depth of historical accreditation data in partnership with Education Northwest. I formed a School Quality Taskforce in January 2022, bringing together educators, community leaders, and parents that represent all of Montana. This task force has met in person and virtually 13 times.
Chapter 55 contains 23 sub-chapters, 5 of which were repealed 40 years ago. Of the 18 remaining sub-chapters, the taskforce looked at individual rules within three of these. The three sub-chapters are:
- General Provisions
- School Leadership
- Academic Requirements
The current accreditation standards are outdated by over three decades and are not reflective of a strong focus on educational excellence as an outcome. Now is the time for innovation. Removing burdensome regulations will bolster local control, community and parent engagement, and offer the best outcomes for our children.
I believe all teachers, includes music teachers, art and visual arts teachers, world language teachers, and career technical education teachers including librarians and school counselors are incredibly important to the scholastic growth and overall health of Montana students. I want to be clear about the real mental health issues Montana students and families are facing. Flexibility to achieve educational excellence is a necessity, not a luxury.
My recommendations give each school district the ability to determine opportunities while holding them accountable. These new flexibilities do not remove school funding, staff or learning opportunities for our students, but rather enhance through targeted local control. Local school boards must be courageous in forging innovation in meeting the mental health and educational needs of our students.
My recommended rule changes simply allow schools to determine their own solutions without the burden of one-size-fits-all accreditation requirements looming overhead. The existing strict regulations have not served our students or teachers. It’s time Montana put the decision making back in the hands of the people, including our parents and not a top-down mandate that does not work in education.
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Questions? Contact:
Brian.O'Leary, Communications Director
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