This week the Department of Education has made a very simple recommendation, to move the testing dates for LEAP, iLEAP and GEE back a couple of weeks. BESE heard and accepted this recommendation and now testing for the 2008-2009 school year will begin April 1, 2009 and end April 9. For a number of years school leaders, teachers and parents have wondered, “Why is the test so early?” When I became Superintendent, I asked that very same question. I listened to the reasons and after hearing everything I wondered still, “Why is the test so early?” It just made too much sense to move the test, so that’s what we’ve done.

I certainly understand the concerns, that the test becomes the focus of instruction and I understand that this doesn’t solve every problem associated with accountability, and we aren’t trying to with this plan. We are simply intending to give teachers more time to teach the skills that are covered on the tests and to give students a greater opportunity for success.

Louisiana’s accountability system is rated among the best in the nation year in and year out, but that doesn’t mean that these policies are static and unchanging. We are always looking for methods to better assess our children and find ways to get them “over the goal line.” You can expect the Department of Education to continue to work with educators, parents, BESE, the legislature and the best minds in the world to improve our system. Moving the test back is just the first step in that.

All children can learn. At the heart of our vision at the Louisiana Department of Education, to build a world class education system for Louisiana’s children is that belief. I’m certain that I wouldn’t have accepted this position if I didn’t believe that every child, rich or poor, black or white, urban or rural, had the ability to earn a quality education.

I believe that I have assembled a team of like minded individuals who, no matter what division they work in (finance, accountability, etc.) are finding ways to support higher student achievement. It’s a very different approach to a system that typically teaches us to stay in our silos and simply do the work that comes across our desks. But I don’t think that produces the effort that will get us to where we want to be.

I made a commitment to get out and visit schools on a regular basis so I can talk to principals, teachers and most importantly the students. A short time ago I had the privilege to visit Ory Elementary School in LaPlace. It’s a school that has a very mixed racial makeup, a good number of students who receive free and reduced lunch. And it also achieves outstanding school performance scores year in and year out.

They’ve done it by following a pretty simple formula. First, they have an outstanding principal who has been there a number of years and who has her own vision for what the school should be. They have teachers who have committed themselves to that vision and in every classroom I visited I saw professionals working their craft. And then you see energetic, enthusiastic, attentive students. I observed their “professional quality” television studio and their morning broadcast, and enjoyed what had to be one of the nicest interviews I’ve done in a long while. I also talked to classes from Kindergarten to 8th grade and heard directly from children. One math class in particular told me that their daily class work made the LEAP look basic in comparison.

I left Ory feeling even more deeply that the obstacles to quality education exist in us as adults far more than in any child. We can pass the blame or the failure to whomever or whatever but in the end when these children fail, it falls on all of us.