While Sunday’s Packers/Cowboys rendition of “Ice Bowl II” may not have lived up to the mystique, nor the temperature dip of the original contest, for the record-setting Lambeau Field crowd and those who were sitting on the edges of their seats in the homes bordering the path around the Falls, the contest was pretty intense.
Rather than a last-minute leap by a quarterback, this game basically came down to a challenge to a referee’s call on a play that took place about the same distance from the goal line. More about accountability a little later.
The ultimate results of Ice Bowl I and Ice Bowl II were the same, a checkmark in the win column for the team sporting the green and gold. Each story has its own individual drama that has been and will be played out again and again in the media and the minds of those who pay attention to those things.
“Get Lambeau Loud” was a theme for the game, with many buttons and signs portraying that phrase. It didn’t take long Sunday morning for the early tailgaters to snatch up the signs placed in the median of Lombardi Avenue. The theme was taken to heart, and the din in the stadium and the parking lot during the last few minutes of the game, and as the crowd exited, was remarkable. The many Cowboy fans, a number of whom arrived in a procession of private jets, got a good dose of Lambeau love.
For those fans who headed north after the game, the icing on the cake might have been the three gas stations that had posted a $1.96 per gallon price for regular fuel. That was not a retro 1967 Ice Bowl price, but it did warm the heart.
There were no instant replays at the first Ice Bowl. The technology and rules were a lot less sophisticated at that time. Things have changed significantly over that span of time. The call of the referee was final. There was no additional accountability. With the challenge to the completed pass call in the final minutes of Sunday’s game, not only was video technology involved, but also the official conducting the review consulted with league officials in New York. In 1967, making that call would have taken much more time. He wanted to be accountable and to make the right call.
School accountability has also seen a great deal of change in that same period of time. There was a time that school districts were pretty much independent operations. Yes, there were curricula to be taught, but no one kept a close watch on what was done or how well students were learning in different school districts.
In the early 1980s, this started to change in Wisconsin. Realtors in the Milwaukee area began to rate the quality of school districts using a number of different factors to rate schools. The idea caught on with state officials, and we’ve never looked back.
State standards were established. State tests were developed for public school students. School report cards were designed and implemented. The levels of accountability were ramped up year after year.
The latest escalation in accountability has come as more and more state funds are being diverted to private schools through vouchers, tax credits and other means. Assembly Bill 1 related to school accountability was recently introduced. The fact that it was the first bill of the session suggests that it is a high priority with the leadership in the Wisconsin Assembly.
Many educators have raised issues with the proposed legislation. It tends to focus on punishments for low-performing schools, rather than providing interventions and support for positive change. It allows schools to use a variety of tests and measures rather than being consistent across those schools receiving public tax dollars. Perhaps if each NFL team could write its own rules, the concept of home-field advantage would be pushed up a notch or two.
The bill proposes a new Academic Review Board outside the Department of Public Instruction. The Wisconsin Constitution authorizes the Department of Public Instruction to have authority over school districts, rather than an independent nonelected board.
Finally, the bill proposes abandoning the performance categories established by the state’s accountability design team for the current school report card system and replaces them with a much more politically charged A to F letter grade system.
Sunday’s contest between the Seahawks and the Packers will draw a great deal of national interest. The fight over Wisconsin school accountability will also have many educators sitting at the edge of their seats.
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