Q&A with state Superintendent Tom Torlakson
‘There’s simply no other way to describe it: This is an emergency’
By:
Brian Taylor
Published: March 17, 2011
Tom Torlakson was born in San Francisco and served as a fireman in the U.S. Merchant Marine, where he was awarded the Vietnam Service Medal, according to his official biography. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history, a secondary teaching credential—he’s taught both science and world history—and a master’s in education from the University of California, Berkeley.
“Torlakson’s journey has led him from the classrooms of Contra Costa County’s Mount Diablo Unified School District, (where he remains a teacher-on-leave) to the Antioch City Council, Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors, and the California state Senate and Assembly,” the biography reports. His legislative priorities included education funding, ensuring the academic success of all students, student nutrition and physical education, school safety, textbooks, computers, after-school programs, and school construction and improvement, leading to powerful committee posts overseeing those areas.
Torlakson remains focused on those issues and related concerns as his journey continues—now as California’s superintendent of public instruction, the post he was elected to last November, and which places the former merchant mariner at the helm of the California Department of Education.
He hit the ground running, declaring a state of financial emergency for the state’s schools in his first week in office.
“There’s simply no other way to describe it: This is an emergency,” Torlakson said then. “Every day, teachers, school employees, and principals are performing miracles, but the $18 billion in cuts over the last three years are taking their toll. … Educators are making heart-wrenching decisions so they can meet their fiscal obligations, but these kinds of cuts endanger the quality of student learning today and our future economic competitiveness as a state tomorrow.”
Torlakson urged Californians to get directly involved in helping their local schools and to support making the investments needed to restore the state’s leadership in education, and he was among the first to endorse Gov. Jerry Brown’s call—issued in Brown’s own first week on the job—for a special election to ask voters to extend several temporary tax measures before they expire in June.
Torlakson also agreed during those hectic early days of his administration to be interviewed for this issue of California Schools. The whirlwind of activity precluded a sit-down interview, but he was able to answer CSBA’s written questions.
It’s impossible to talk about public schools today without talking about finances, but I’d like to first focus on the ultimate goal—which isn’t money, after all, but preparing students for college and careers. What new steps do you plan to take to help local educational agencies do that?
We live in a knowledge-based economy. Experts predict that before the decade ends, 63 percent of all jobs will require some post-secondary education. Already, there’s a huge difference between what a college graduate earns in wages and someone who doesn’t complete high school. So clearly our goal has to be for every student to leave school ready for college or a career. We need to be sure children have access to preschool, and that their school experience challenges them to achieve, fires their natural curiosity and prepares them for the next step in their lifelong learning. Achieving that goal will take all of us, working as a team. That’s why I’ve established a Transition Advisory Team of school board members, educators and other professionals across the state to advise me as we set specific goals and short- and long-term plans of action.
Even most of its harshest critics acknowledge that the federal No Child Left Behind Act placed a much-needed focus on raising achievement among all student subgroups. What new initiatives or enhancements to existing approaches will you pursue to close the achievement gap?
No Child Left Behind provided a focus on the test scores of subgroups of children who were not performing as well as other students—but it fell far short of looking at the broader needs of low-performing students or providing the comprehensive resources needed to truly address the problem. California’s students have been making slow but steady progress toward narrowing the achievement gap, and I’m committed to continuing the Department of Education’s work and focus on this issue. We’ve created a number of workbooks, Web tools and resource kits over the past few years and we will continue to build on that progress, in part by identifying best practices that individual districts and schools have adopted, and sharing that information across the state.
Part of the challenge is simply implementing a system to track student progress, graduation rates and other data. The California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System has had its problems, and LEA staffs have experienced frustration trying to upload information to it. How do you plan to address those problems?
It is extremely important for California to have a reliable data system. The California Longitudinal Student Achievement Data System (CALPADS) is already in daily use by local educational agencies, and despite a number of problems, the system is providing important information to schools and districts. The Department of Education is continuing to work with IBM in an attempt to resolve a number of concerns regarding the system. In addition, the governor has proposed an inter-agency working group to examine the state’s long-term data needs, and I’ll be working with him as this effort moves forward.
More generally, how are you faring in the transition from being a legislator to heading up a substantial state bureaucracy?
I have the best job in California, because I get to spend every day working with people who have made public education their life’s work. I am extremely grateful to the people of this state for giving me this tremendous opportunity to be an advocate for students, parents and teachers.
You created a 52-member Transition Advisory Team to help identify key issues affecting California’s students, schools and districts. That team includes four teachers, plus representatives from many labor organizations. However, there are no members from organizations representing the policy and management side of public education. Do you have a plan for including those perspectives as you seek to identify issues and solutions affecting public education, and if so, how?
My Transition Advisory Team is made up of a diverse group of people, including several school board members, representing an incredible cross-section of the education community. I’ve also invited the California School Boards Association to name an additional representative from among its leadership. In addition, the advisory team has formed a number of working groups examining key issues in education, and these groups will seek and receive input from an even wider group of stakeholders. [Editor’s note: After this interview took place, CSBA delegated President Martha Fluor to serve on the Transition Advisory Team.]
Faced with $18 billion in cuts to state education funding over the past three years, greater flexibility was granted for many categorical programs, and your predecessor Jack O’Connell announced that CDE would reduce its field visits and oversight of regulatory compliance. But the legislative waivers will sunset in the next few years. Will you work to maintain any of that flexibility? How are you approaching the department’s oversight role?
I support the governor’s proposal to extend flexibility as a way to help local educational agencies cope with the stress associated with the budget cuts of recent years. In my first week in office, I declared a state of financial emergency in California’s schools to rivet public attention on the impact of ongoing budget cuts and galvanize public support for reinvesting in education in California.
Relationships between charter schools and traditional schools have often been contentious. How would you address this and try to strike a balance between the concerns and issues on both sides?
I hope to find ways to reduce the tension among educators on different sides of the fence. I am heartened that teachers, parents and administrators are continuing to innovate and strive to improve student achievement at both charter and traditional schools. Just as no one approach to teaching works for every child, we don’t need a “one-size-fits-all” approach to schools. All schools, including charter schools, should be held to the same high standards, and judged on the basis of how well they meet the needs of the students they serve.
As a former teacher yourself, what is your analysis of the push to tie teacher and principal evaluations to student performance? Is that a fair approach and, if so, what is required for it to be fairly and effectively implemented?
Every student deserves a great teacher, and every school needs a great principal. Just as no one test is an adequate measure of student performance, no set of student test scores will provide a sound evaluation of the performance of a teacher or a principal. A number of districts are collaborating with teachers and other stakeholders to develop innovative methods of evaluating teachers and administrators, and I’m looking forward to the opportunity to add my perspective as those discussions go forward. The CDE is working to provide help to school districts with resources, feedback and professional development to help teachers excel. CDE also has a new Teacher and Principal Evaluation Systems Web page that includes information about teacher and principal performance evaluation practices, model policies and ongoing reform efforts.
California joined most other states last year in adopting common core academic standards for English language arts and math. How will CDE help local educational agencies implement those standards?
We have already begun assisting local educational agencies by creating a Web page with resources. In the near future, this Web page will include new resources on implementing the Common Core, including five new presentations on Common Core standards that focus specifically on K-5 and 6-12 grade levels. We also have new resources that provide updated guidance on grade-level curriculum. These resources focus on grades K-3 and provide an explanation about how the Common Core standards will affect instruction in the areas of English-language arts and mathematics. Augmenting the collection will be grades 4 and 5. Lastly, additional resources such as recorded presentations and webinars can be found at CDE on I Tunes U.
Over the next few years, we will look to incorporate Common Core into professional development for teachers, administrators and school board members. I have already directed CDE staff to begin reviewing currently adopted instructional materials for their alignment to the Common Core. Assessments based on the Common Core will also need to be implemented. My goal for this round of standards implementation is to conduct these discussions in an open and transparent way so that the needs of students, parents, teachers and principals are addressed.
New standards require new assessments to measure their attainment. California has joined a consortium of other states that will develop common assessments; how do you see that shaping up?
I’m excited about the opportunity to collaborate with our colleagues from other states as the new assessments, which are not scheduled to go into effect until 2014-15, are developed.
Brian Taylor ( btaylor@csba.org ) is the managing editor of California Schools.