Collateral Damage In Fight To Raise Test Scores

California's schools are shortchanging kids when it comes to physical education. Well, not just physical education, but we'll come back to that.

Last week, a Northern California attorney, Donald Driscoll, announced settlement of a 2013 lawsuit against 37 school districts up and down the state. Under the proposed agreement, teachers and administrators must prove they're offering at least 200 minutes of physical education every 10 school days, as required by state law. A handful of Orange County districts, including Irvine Unified, the Magnolia Elementary School District in Anaheim, and the Ocean View district in Huntington Beach, were among those sued.

If a San Francisco judge approves, district officials would need to spend the next three years monitoring elementary school teachers and making regular reports to the court that they're complying with the law.

As mandates go, requiring a couple of hours of P.E. every week isn't the most offensive in the world. Exercise is good for the mind and body. In that respect, physical education is as essential as the three-R's.

Is this particular lawsuit settlement a just outcome? We'll have a better idea once all the terms of the settlement are disclosed later this month, but it's worth mentioning that district officials and teachers union representatives questioned the motives of Cal200, a nonprofit advocate for physical education in schools, and its founder, Marc Babin, who also happened to be the lawsuit's sole plaintiff.

I'm inclined for the moment to take Driscoll at his word when he told reporters last week that the Cal200 lawsuit “has greatly increased the awareness of the statute and the importance of complying.”

Compliance and accountability are the watchwords of the day.

Consider: federal and state education laws are really all about the machinery of accountability and compliance – ensuring an appropriate amount of time is spent on teaching P.E., math, sex, language arts, dental hygiene and California history – with proper attention given to contributions from women, Latinos, African Americans, Native Americans, gays and lesbians, etc. There aren't enough hours in the day.

Now look at the local districts named in the lawsuit. Many of them are struggling to meet state and federal academic performance goals. What does that tell us? Those districts – and so many others around the state – are under tremendous pressure to deliver higher scores, year after year. No news there.

Orange County's schools are exceptional cases. Their districtwide Academic Performance Index rankings are well above 800, which is California's target for proficiency.

But even in the best of schools, when the performance stakes are high and academic challenges are so pervasive, what are the best possible options? Rallying staff and students to come together and raise their collective game? Or taking the path of least resistance and focusing almost exclusively on the tests?

Conservatives and reformers are in a tough spot with accountability and compliance. Fact is, the focus on accountability in classrooms over the past decade and a half has done a great deal of good. Knowing where and how some schools are failing and focusing on improving low-income and minority students' academic performance was and remains sound policy.

What's more, the data that have emerged from the accountability push have proven highly valuable for reformers. Without solid, longitudinal data identifying persistently failing schools, reforms such as California's district of choice and parent trigger laws wouldn't be possible.

But accountability has also led district administrators, principals and teachers to make a brute-force calculation: If schools are to be judged on the basis of reading and math scores, then every minute spent away from those subjects is a precious minute lost.

My observation isn't exactly novel. Multiple studies have found marked declines in P.E., civics, arts and music instruction since the advent of No Child Left Behind a dozen years ago. It's unlikely the vaunted new Common Core standards will change any of that.

At some point, we need to find a way to hold schools accountable for academic performance without eviscerating academics. We're nowhere near that point. Perhaps Mssrs. Babin and Driscoll could make that their next case.

This piece originally appeared in Orange County Register

This piece originally appeared in Orange County Register