Bellevue schools chief calls on experts to assess reforms

Three of his high schools just made Newsweek magazine's list of the top 20 in America. Riley himself was featured in the cover story this week. As superintendent of Bellevue schools, he has spent the past several years working toward this: About 70 percent of last year's seniors graduated with at least one Advanced Placement course on their transcript.

But Riley has already moved on, finalizing plans to bring national experts to Bellevue this fall to critique the district's curriculum. If the funding comes through, Bellevue will become a laboratory next autumn for staffers from the College Board, the Standards for Success project and the Trends in International Math and Science Study (TIMSS). The idea behind it all, said Riley, is to better prepare students for college.

"We could go into neutral," said Riley, speaking from his office last week. "But I think what should make us uncomfortable are the 20 percent of kids in our district who are not taking those advanced classes."

It's all part of a reform effort Riley started seven years ago, with a focus on AP courses and a coordinated curriculum from kindergarten through senior year. Riley's commitment to high standards for all students has sparked controversy for years in the Bellevue School District. Some in the school community say that strict approach has set too many children up for failure.

But even as AP courses have generated concern among the parents and teachers of struggling children, national experts have increasingly used the AP curriculum as a sign of a school's success. Newsweek came up with its list of top high schools by adding up the number of Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate tests taken by all students at a school in 2002, then dividing by the number of graduating seniors.

"Riley is a pioneer in saying that AP courses are not for the gifted, but for the prepared," said Peter J. Negroni, senior vice president, K-12 education for the College Board. "And it's the responsibility of the schools to prepare kids."

A former teacher in Chicago and associate superintendent in Baltimore, Riley has spent the past several years in Bellevue kicking the K-12 curriculum into alignment, coordinating classes and forcing teachers to work toward one main goal: high standards for all students, no matter what their limitations. Next year's reform effort will show, Riley said, whether the district has put the right standards in place for student success in college and beyond.

Staffers from TIMSS will explore the district's math and science curriculum next school year, testing students, interviewing teachers and stacking those results up against best practice elsewhere. The College Board will phase in pre-AP classes at the middle-school level. And experts from the Standards for Success project will take a long, hard look at how well Bellevue prepares its students for college.

Riley's reform effort in Bellevue is a reflection of what is happening on the national stage, some experts say. Research shows anywhere from 25 to 40 percent of college freshmen taking remedial classes. The problem is pronounced even in Bellevue. Of the students who attend Bellevue Community College, for example, about a quarter are enrolled in a remedial math class, Riley said.

With so many students struggling in college, educators are questioning not only how material is being taught, but also why the material is being taught, and whether K-12 curriculum should be revamped.

"We're questioning our values," said David T. Conley, executive director of the Standards for Success project, designed to connect high-school learning to college expectations.

Over three years, Conley and his colleagues interviewed more than 400 college educators, compiling a long list of what students need to know for college. Conley said college officials wanted students who had better writing ability, stronger problem-solving skills, the power to analyze and a dedication to revising work.

"Go into a high school and see how often a student rewrites a paper three times," said Conley, who spent decades as an educator. "It happens, but not often — and that's what they expect in college."

At the heart of Riley's reform effort is one strong belief: No child should be exempt from high standards. But it's a tough sell for parents of struggling students.

"I think it's a belief system that runs deep in people," said Riley. "They just think some kids aren't capable."

But Conley pointed to the obstacles students have overcome, even in the face of low expectations. Twenty years ago, society assumed students with disabilities could not learn alongside "regular" kids, he said. The generation before that, girls were excluded from physics class because society did not think they could compete with boys. And back in the '60s, there was that hard-held conviction that black students could not learn at the level of white students.

At every turn, Conley said, society has been proved wrong.

Cara Solomon: 206-464-2024 or csolomon@seattletimes.com