\doc\web\98\02\tberg.txt Terry Bergeson Links and articles. WA Superintendent and Education Reform Fuhrer, our own Marc Tucker. Nobody knows that's she's the wicked witch in Oz world of education reform. Note that she signed up a professional PR company to promote her new test, at taxpayer expense. KVI's Carlson is the only one who didn't endorse Bergeson, and he didn't like Taber either. http://www.wa.gov/vote/cand/3008ber.htm \clip\98\03\berg\berg.htm Campaign page with photo Teresa "Terry" BERGESON Terry Bergeson believes we need schools: -- where young people graduate with skills and hope for the future; -- where educators have the support to teach those skills and are accountable for results; -- where classrooms are safe and orderly, and where children work hard, tell the truth, and respect others; and -- where parents and the community support students and help them connect their schooling to life and work. That's what will make public schools work. That's what Terry Bergeson will help us achieve as Superintendent of Publicc Instruction.. Terry has committed her life to children. For 30 years -- as a teacher, counselor, and administrator -- she has motivated studentss and united parents, educators, and communities to improve schools. Recently, Terry mobilized thousands of people statewide too build the foundation for education reform: the establishment of academic standards in basic subject areas and the development off new tests to measure student results.. Terry will make education reform a reality. She will require accountability based on how well students are learning, removee regulatory roadblocks, and provide support to educators in helping children learn. As Superintendent of Public Instruction, Terryy will bring the focus of education back to its rightful place -- our children.. The statement provided is an exact reproduction of what was submitted by the candidate. The Office of the Secretary of State has no editorial authority. http://www.nwnews.com/nnissues/v16n48/ed4.html Opinion Bergeson the best choice for SPI Terry Bergeson is without question the most qualified candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction. Over the past several years, I have frequently had the opportunity to watch Terry at work, and she is an exceptional leader. I've seen Terry motivate large rooms full of parents and teachers to work together on improving public education. She's also an excellent communicator. With her down-to-earth style, she explains complicated matters in a very understandable way. Terry really listens to people, and works tirelessly to stay in contact with parents and educators all over the state. I've known her to drive several hours during the evening rush hour to speak at a public meeting, sit in on small group discussions, and stay late to put away chairs with the PTA volunteers. Most importantly, Terry has a track record as Executive Director of the Commission on Student Learning. She has moved public education toward high academic standards, and she has been on time and under budget. Terry Bergeson is the best choice, a choice we can feel good about making. Rich Baldwin, Bothell NOPE, BERGESON IS THE DISASTER. ANYTHING WOULD BE BETTER THAN THIS POISIN! The University of Washington Student Newspaper http://www.thedaily.washington.edu/archives/1996_Autumn/November41996/super110496.html Monday, November 4, 1996 Opinion Bergeson for Superintendent of Public Instruction The Daily's Voting Guide Daily Staff In the race for superintendent of public instruction, the choice is obvious: anyone but Ron Taber. The Olympia millionaire is a perfect example of what's wrong with American politics. Dr. Taber talks about returning discipline to the schools, going so far as to suggest caning student drug dealers until they reveal their suppliers. But for all Taber's talk about discipline, he sets a very bad example for the youth of Washington to follow. Taber got rich in real estate, and he earned a notorious reputation for abusing his tenants. Taber also doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut. As the SPI, he should be promoting understanding among Washington's youth. Instead, Taber referred to Spanish as "the language of doormen, dishwashers and fruit pickers." Washington's population is becoming increasingly diverse and the SPI should be setting standards of respect, not ridicule. Fortunately, we have just such a candidate in Taber's opponent, Terry Bergeson. Having spent the past 30 years working in public schools, Bergeson knows the value of giving children a good education regardless their background. Since 1993, Bergeson served as executive director of the Commission on Student Learning, the agency charged with implementing Washington's education reform law. She also served the public both as a school teacher and an administrator. Ron Taber, by contrast, has based his entire campaign on replacing public education with private vouchers. Yet he's running for superintendent of public instruction, the chief advocate for Washington's PUBLIC schools. Taber offers few, if any, concrete ideas for improving public education. He simply mixes stupid gimmicks like caning in schools with vague calls for a return to "traditional" values. Students must take an interest in this race. Quality public schools mean quality students for the UW. Vote Bergeson. The alternative would be an unmitigated disaster. Copyright © 1996 The Daily of the University of Washington http://www.sgn.org/sgn/sgn.9.13.96/latham.htm Letters to the editor: Bergeson is best Dear friends in the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender community: This is just a reminder that when it comes to primary election day (Sept. 17) there is a very important vote that we all must make, and that pertains to the position of State Superintendent of Public Instruction. We do not want Ron Taber or Chris Vance for this position. We want Terry Bergeson!!! Ron Taber alone has spent more of his own personal money than anyone in this state to propose anti-Gay legislation. His signs are up all over the state because he's spending his money again. I sat next to Chris Vance at the King County Council for a year and a half, and believe me, you don't want to hear what he has to say about Gay people. Chris Vance is a talking head for the propaganda and extremist ideals of the Republican party. Vote for Terry Bergeson for Superintendent of Public Instruction. She's the only choice. She's got an excellent record and she will do what's best for the future of our children. Liz Latham Back to SGN Home Page http://www.newhorizons.org/announce_assessconf.html Maintained by webmaster@cortland.com Assessing Learning II Revitalizing Instruction Through Assessment September 26 - 28, 1996 Shoreline Center, North Seattle Featuring: Terry Bergeson: The Student Learning Commission at Work Glenn Hiemstra: Education Moves Into the Future Shirley McCune: Ensuring High Levels of Learning for All Students Ron Sims: Technology: Education for All Children Chris Unger: Teaching for Understanding: Making the Implicit Explicit Bring a team from your school or district Come and explore ways to revitalize instruction through assessment This three day conference has been created to help teachers, administrators, and parents learn how quality assessment strategies are vital to good instruction. By beginning with the end in mind, we can change what happens in classrooms and with student learning as the students learn to: Describe * Simulate * Act * Teach Model * Show * Perform * Design Draw * Diagram * Sing * Construct Build * Tell, etc. Keynote speakers and breakout sessions will model a variety of assessment methodologies that will help you to truly revitalize instruction! I shall define understanding simply as the capacity to apply knowledge, facts, concepts, and skills in new situations where they are appropriate. Unless students can apply what they have learned in school to new situations, there is no evidence that they have understood. Howard Gardner Endorsed by: Seattle Pacific University * New Horizons for Learning * Washington Education Association * Commission on Student Learning * Washington Association of School Administrators * Association of Washington School Principals * Center for Improvement of Student Learning/Superintendent of Public Instruction * Washington Goals 2000 * Puyallup School District * Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges: Washington State Accreditation Committee * U.S. Department of Education http://www.columbian.com/candidates/superintendentschool.html Superintendent of Public Instruction Philosophical Opposites Vie for School Chief By DAVID AMMONS / AP SEATTLE -- Terry Bergeson, former president of the state teachers' union and foremost advocate of Washington's education reform law, racked up more votes than her three closest competitors combined in Tuesday's primary election for superintendent of public instruction. But with millionaire developer Ron Taber -- her philosophical opposite -- as her foe in the November general election, she says she won't rest until the last votes are counted seven weeks from now. Taber, who plans to spend about $1 million of his own money on his campaign and for his school-voucher initiative on the fall ballot, is critical of the "monopolistic" public school system and the changes Bergeson is spearheading. Both finalists said they welcome the stark contrast that their nominations offers voters. With 99 percent of the vote counted today, Bergeson had 38 percent, more than double Taber's second-place 17 percent. King County Councilman Chris Vance, a conservative Republican who supports the reform law's "outcome-based" education changes, and labor-backed college professor Dan Leahy trailed at 11 percent and 7 percent, respectively. Seven other candidates had smaller showings. The spirited primary developed after two-term incumbent Billings announced in January that she has AIDS and will retire from public office. The race attracted a diverse field and generated a debate over the state's 1993 education reform law and the future of public education. http://www.wips.org/jc082896.htm August 28, 1996 Forget the Candidates - Abolish the S.P.I. by John Carlson Have you ever been in the middle of doing something when suddenly you ask yourself: Why am I doing this? This is a complete waste of time. That is how I feel about the race for Superintendent of Public Instruction, supposedly the state's most important education official. There are 11 people running for this office, three with a serious chance of winning. After interviewing each of them and sifting through a blizzard of press releases and policy proposals, I am now convinced that the best thing we can do for our kids is to scrap this office and remove an unnecessary layer of state bureaucracy and regulation. "When you need an audit you go to the Auditor's office", notes Secretary of State Ralph Munro, a wise observer of state government. "When you have a problem with an election you go to the Elections Office. Does anyone go to the S.P.I. when there's a problem in education?" Not really, unless they're an interest group with an extended palm. Munro's point is pinpoint accurate. When there's a problem at school, you visit the principal. When there's a problem in the district, you call the school board. When there's a problem in the state, everyone looks to the Governor. When is the last time you heard someone say they were going to call the S.P.I.? When the last five Governors -- Dan Evans, Dixy Lee Ray, John Spellman, Booth Gardner and Mike Lowry -- wanted to reform education they usually did in spite of, not because of, the Superintendent of Public Instruction. And no wonder. The S.P.I. has become little more than an echo chamber for inside-Olympia interests that are far removed from the day to day realities in most school classrooms. The teachers unions (as distinct from teachers themselves), service employees, school directors, etc, have made the office a defacto lobbyist that reacts to every problem or apparent problem in our schools today with incessant, and occasionally arrogant, demands for more money. Sometimes the S.P.I. engages in used-car-lot exaggerations when making a sales pitch. In 1990 current S.P.I. Judith Billings said she needed more money because 36% of the state's school children were "at risk" of academic failure. It turns out that Ms. Billings' definition of "at risk" included any kid who was a minority, or any child who was poor, or handicapped, or was being raised in a single-parent family. In other words, the Asian son of a Boeing engineer living in Mercer Island was, in Billings book, "at risk". Incredibly, when confronted with evidence of this duplicity, Billings refused to lower her estimates. The three leading candidates to succeed Billings (who is ill and retiring) are Terry Bergeson, Ron Taber and Chris Vance. Bergeson is a former head of the teachers union. Vance is an ambitious rising star currently sitting on the King County Council. Taber is the most reform-minded of the group, but he is to politics what professional wrestling is to athletics. Any of the three would be an improvement over the last couple of Superintendents. But each of them would be using their time to help kids much better by dismantling and delayering the office of SPI than by implementing their various agendas. As one longtime Olympia veteran told me, "We've got education policymakers in the Governor's office, more education analysts in the Office of Financial Management, still more in the office of S.P.I., and even more in ESD's (Educational Service Districts)." That's before we get to the district bureaucracies. By the time any money reaches the kids, we've got six or seven layers of government. The key to better schools is not to focus on what the state can "do for the schools." It's to get the state as far out of the way of teachers, principals and local school boards as possible. The only person we need in the SPI office is someone who pledges to dismantle meddlesome, mandates and regulations, and work at abolishing his own office. Most funding should simply be blockgranted to school districts, the way welfare will be to states. If the constitutional process for ridding the state of the S.P.I. is too cumbersome, then the legislature should zero out the S.P.I.'s funding and transfer existing authority over to the Governor's office. It is not just the federal government that has grown too big in this country. It's government everywhere. | Home | What is WIPS | What's Happening? | Publications | CounterPoint | | John Carlson | WINGs | Who's Who | The Public Address | Mailing List | Join the Institute! | \doc\web\98\02\tberg.txt http://cda.net/stories/1997/Aug/14/S268127.asp Spokane Spokesman Review Thursday August 14, 1997 Bergeson leads PR blitz on state's education reform She says certificate of mastery will boost meaning of diploma Grayden Jones/The Spokesman-Review Washington's superintendent of public instruction is about to take you to school. The subject: education reform. Kicking off a statewide campaign that will use videotapes, gubernatorial speeches, parent meetings and direct mail, Terry Bergeson urged Spokane educators Wednesday to tell everyone from neighbors to chief executive officers about the merits of reforming the education system. ``The glass-half-empty people are going to be after us this fall, so gather all the chits you can,'' Bergeson told 125 principals, superintendents and teachers gathered at Spokane Community College. ``This fall is our speed bump in the road, and we've got to get over it.'' Bergeson, who was elected schools chief last year, laid out a public relations strategy to tell taxpayers about the results of a revolutionary assessment test that 68,000 fourth-graders took earlier this year. The results will be released Sept. 4 during a ``State of Education'' address by Gov. Gary Locke. Bergeson said she expects the results will show serious deficiencies among students, which education reform will help correct by raising graduation standards. For instance, students under the reform program may achieve a ``certificate of mastery'' that employers, universities and parents will recognize as a level of achievement that gives strength to the high school diploma. But some parents are fearful that reforms are aimed at creating a system to stamp out obedient workers for industry. Kathy Olfs, a Spokane parent who brought her sons Brandon, 11, and Scott, 8, to hear Bergeson, wondered if a certificate of mastery is a euphemism for a work permit. ``So you can guarantee me that my two little boys will not need a certificate of mastery to get a job?'' she asked. ``There is no design in the state for the certificate to be a work permit,'' Bergeson replied. Winning public approval for education reform, however, is very much by design. Bergeson said her office has hired Campaign Connections, a Seattle public relations firm that often works for Democratic candidates, to help publicize the results of the fourth-grade assessments. A videotape and CD-ROM, titled ``Mentor,'' are being produced for administrators and others to use at public meetings. The superintendent's office also plans to paper the state with education reform literature delivered to every parent and community leader. ``Once people get the idea in their head of what this is about, we're going to be on the most exciting journey ever,'' Bergeson said. Copyright What are your thoughts on Bergeson leads PR blitz on state's education reform ? If you have a comment or reply to this story that you'd like to share, fill in the form and click submit. Note: Story replies must be signed with a valid email address. No profanity or libelous statements will be printed. Your comment: Your Email Address: Return to top http://www.columbian.com/candidates/columbianendorsements.html Columbian Endorsements The Columbian's editorial board, through endorsements in this column, already has made its choices on several races and issues. The tally so far: President: Bill Clinton State superintendent of public instruction: Terry Bergeson http://www.seattletimes.com/politics/bios/end_supepub.html Seattle Times This piece originally appeared in The Seattle Times Oct. 14, 1996 Seattle Times endorsement: Terry Bergeson for Superintendent of Public Instruction Editorial Page staff The Seattle Times With baby boomers in their child-rearing years, education is Topic A this election season. In the unusually spicy race for state superintendent of public instruction, Terry Bergeson is, unequivocally, most qualified to be the state's top educator. Bergeson boasts an unwavering, 31-year commitment to public education. As former director of the commission implementing education reform, she has worked tirelessly to raise academic achievement in public schools. She has the knowledge and vision to effectively use the bully pulpit of SPI to assure education reform is not derailed by irresponsible fear-mongering. She is the right person at the right time to assure education reform's higher standards and tests do what they're supposed to: prepare kids for an increasingly sophisticated world. While Bergeson worked day and night to raise academic achievement, her opponent, Ron Taber, was the sniper on the sidelines. Taber is a wealthy, loose-lipped character who is dumping as much as $600,000 of his own money to buy the job. What is truly scary is what he would do with the post if voters fail to pay serious attention to this race. Taber is like the children on the old Art Linkletter show: He says the darndest things. But there's nothing cute about some of the zingers that tumble out of his mouth. He told one newspaper reporter, ``I've said that in an ideal society, the state will not be involved in education. Parents will educate their children.'' In his signature inelegant manner, he told The Times editorial board: ``I believe in the right to be ignorant.'' The guy is a power plant of heat who radiates almost no light. Taber says he wants to offer families more school options. Initiative 173, the centerpiece of his campaign for SPI, would allow public money to be used at private schools. This ill-conceived plan would drain money from public schools and hurt kids left behind. Taber is bank-rolling this endeavor, too, in a clear effort to dismantle the state's public-education system. In sharp contrast, Bergeson has worked to improve public schools from within -- as a teacher, assistant superintendent, reform-minded teachers' union leader and the guru of education reform. Some of the state's most respected education thinkers -- including former Gov. Dan Evans and Boeing Chairman Frank Shrontz -- support Bergeson because they know she understands education as well as anyone and will work hard to make it better. In the weeks ahead, Taber will bash Bergeson's union connections. At some point, vitriolic union-bashing ought to backfire. Teachers unions are made up of teachers. And most parents who have looked their child's teacher in the eye know most of these people work hard. Teachers in cash-starved districts frequently dip into their own pockets for extra supplies. Despite a few bad apples, most teachers dedicate their lives to education because they genuinely care about kids. The choice for SPI isn't even close this year. Taber is trouble. Bergeson sincerely wants to improve public schools.