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a 101 of expectations On schools. You have to look at [he whole chi1.l vn,,
A high school teacher mused that perhaps those districts that naa strong leadership
lealns were more likely to have success in providing the information the state ulas hoping to
Kceiae. "Unless you have someone who has the skills and the desire to take you through the
process, most educators aren't going to do this. It's too easy to keep doing what you've
alo.a\.s done,'' he said. A principal thought perhaps the state was not getting what they had
hoped for because of the unanticipated economic downturn in the state and national
economies. "They did not anticipate how much this would cost and how long it might take.
While the intention is good, this may not have been thought through as it could have been," he
~t31C
1 he guidance/assessment participant was most critical of the value legislators might be
getting from the mandated reporting. She complained. "It's a farce! They are zetting a report
hack. )'ou can rnakc datri look \\.hatever \vav - \rou - \van[ it to look. Those people down there in
IDc\ %loinc\] think rhcv arc getting u.hat they nvant. They don't understand our district. and
the!' don't undcr\tnnd our \tudcnt\. It's juzt a numbers game." She did hoa7ever value the
\~ll~ol irnprn\.crnen~ procc,, 31 the local le\.el and believed it to have given the local
practitioners a focus for thcir ou-n effons.
A senior ndmini~trator was C;~U~~OUS. for \~hile \.aluins the improvement process and
~ckno\vleclSinc 111~ slrcng[h of HF 272 -- "1 think it injected os." -- to facilitate district-\vide
ch:tn~e. it a*:,.: not \\.ilhoul 2 do\vnside. *.As valuable as this has heen, I do think we have cut
inlo SOnIC other things
gelling ;I\ much alrcntion as the!. sh(luld he."
\\*ere doinp :~nd some thin~r that are very inlportnnt m;l!, now not he