Over the past ten years, Corbett School District has achieved the dramatic improvement that has eluded the State of Oregon. The State of Oregon, for its part, has kept quiet as Corbett has been recognized by various national agencies and media. Far from embracing Corbett's achievement as its own, the Oregon Department of Education has kept Corbett at arms length. Why? I'm not certain that they want it known that improving student achievement has nothing to do with State Standards, DDDM, PLC's, RTI, AVID, CIP, CDIP, NCLB, Scientific, Scientifically-Based, Evidence-Based, or VooDoo Based Evidence, or any of the highly profitable rituals that are the mainstay of the current educational practice. They don't want to celebrate the achievements of a district that openly expresses concern that TSPC is on the wrong track, that their definitions of Highly Qualified Teachers and quality professional development are wrong-headed. They don't like that we don't embrace the recommendations of the Chalkboard Project, the PTA, OSBA, the FBI... or that we believe the OEA to be a significant barrier to school improvement. And they certainly don't want it known that a district with Corbett's record of achievement has embraced a Charter School.
During a recent private meeting with the President of The College Board, he wondered aloud regarding Oregon's lack of acknowledgment of Corbett School District's astounding performance in the Advanced Placement program. I fumbled for an answer. What I landed on was this: in order for Corbett to produce improvements that were unlike those posted by any other Oregon district during the same decade, we had to approach education in ways that were fundamentally different from the Oregon orthodoxy that produced almost nothing. And when I say different, I mean 'in opposition' to. And when I say 'in opposition to', I mean that we believe that Oregon's approach to school improvement has been, on every level, disastrous. And it has been disastrously expensive. It is no secret that our practices, in direct opposition to every prescription from the State and Federal department, have produced unparalleled results. So it makes some sense that they ignore us.
The occasion of the above meeting was the College Board's Western Regional Forum in San Diego. We were invited to speak and to meet the President of the Board. The College Board published a special announcement in recognition of those schools in the Western Region that were recognized by Newsweek Magazine as being among the top 100 high schools in the nation. It was an elite list, and Corbett was on it. Right there in black and white. Well, almost. The College Board, those same folks who wondered why Oregon ignored us, listed us as Corbett, Washington.
Corbett, Washington. That would explain a lot. And it would let Oregon off the hook.
