What is our currency?
Due to the large amount of time that is necessary to invest during the budget process, I was unable to post to this Blog until today. On behalf of the Monticello Central School District, I would like to thank our community for the overwhelming support of our budget. Most states do not allow their communities to vote on school budgets. There are times when many educators in NY State would rather not be part of a system that relies on voters to approve the budget every year, but the process does have its virtues. We should never lose sight that our budget approval process is the most transparent in the country. This gives us clarity of purpose and helps us prioritize and economize.
Since this is the season we talk a lot about money, we should take a look at what currency we use to measure our success. In the private sector, businesses use profit to measure success. Many times their entire structure and analytical systems are focused on that alone. Almost daily in the media, we see stark examples of large companies succumbing to their bottom line - profit. In this tough economic downturn, we are learning a harsh lesson that there is no company too large to fail.
Public education is not as vulnerable to market forces as private corporations. We do not measure our success by profit. Until five years ago, we rarely used evidence to drive our allocation of resources or to improve our programs. Now, that has all changed. Through a series of legislative initiatives such as the federal No Child Left Behind policy and the state P-16 Initiative, we are now forced to create a bottom line and stick to it. These have created consequences for not attaining certain goals such as being placed on state lists and having to produce action plans to address our shortfalls. We are closely monitored by both state and federal agencies with a level of accountability that was unheard of in public education a decade ago.
What is public education’s currency? What is Monticello Central School District’s currency? It is student achievement. The focus of student achievement is to prepare our children to compete in the global market place. In today’s world, we are held to an international standard and are constantly being compared with competing nations. The focus on student achievement is driven by our government and the business community who understand that unless we improve the quality of education at all levels and open our most rigorous course work to as many students as possible, we will significantly undermine our standard of living.
We are no longer allowed to make decisions based on hunches. Professional judgment is important, but decisions must be based on hard data and not filtered by a paradigm of what we think education should be. Courage is needed to analyze everything we do based on a variety of data sets and then focus our resources to improve student achievement. Any other approach deviates from the expectations of the federal and state governments and condemns us to rely on outmoded methods that may feel comfortable but do not impact the number of students necessary to succeed if we ever hope to be competitive in the global economy.
In Monticello Schools, we are focused on this bottom line. Our currency is student achievement. We have spent the last four years redesigning our district to create the infrastructure necessary to gather and use data for our continued improvement. The results speak for themselves. Last night, I attended the Junior National Honor Society induction at our middle school. I was elated to see that it was by far the largest group of students ever to be inducted. The changes we have made to our programs and structures are a big part of this success. The community is aware that these significant improvements in student achievement throughout the district are directly related to the restructuring process we are undergoing. It is imperative that we keep this forward momentum and continue to use evidence to make our decisions.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
On May 8, 2009 Education Week published an article by Debra Viadero which gives us insight in to addressing the achievement gap.
"White and African-American students can perform dramatically differently in the classroom, depending on how their teachers structure their learning groups, a new study suggests."
Teaching techniques and staff development are essential in creating success for all of our students. The study goes on to say:
"African-American children tend to relate to others in ways that are more communally oriented than they are competitive or individualistic. Mr. Hurley said that tendency may be due in part to the large, extended families in which many black children grow up and the socialization children experience in their churches and other community institutions."
Students were presented with the same mathematics material but using different techniques.
"The black students scored highest—getting 9.63 out of 15 questions correct—after having taken part in the “communal” group lessons. They turned in their worst group performance following their time in the group that emphasized individual rewards, answering only 6.41 of 15 questions correctly.
The individual-reward group, on the other hand, turned out to be the most optimal setting for white students, as a group, with white students getting 10.19 of those questions correct. In comparison, the white students got only 6.72 right answers—their worst performance—following lessons in the “communal” group."
One of the conclusions drawn by an outside observer drives the point home.
“Clearly, we’re showing by these findings that social context actually matters in ways that we should be thinking about,” said Edd Taylor, an assistant professor of learning sciences at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., who was not involved in the study."
We are not suggesting that we should segregate our students so that they have optimal learning environments. What we are suggesting is that we consider two points. First, we need to recognize that communal learning activities are no longer a novelty. Teacher centered learning will not create the results we need in a diverse school district and will not impact the achievement gap. Second, we need to understand that work in the global economy is done by teams. All children must be able to perform in this environment. We need to vary our teaching techniques and creatively meld the two approaches. They are not mutually exclusive.
"White and African-American students can perform dramatically differently in the classroom, depending on how their teachers structure their learning groups, a new study suggests."
Teaching techniques and staff development are essential in creating success for all of our students. The study goes on to say:
"African-American children tend to relate to others in ways that are more communally oriented than they are competitive or individualistic. Mr. Hurley said that tendency may be due in part to the large, extended families in which many black children grow up and the socialization children experience in their churches and other community institutions."
Students were presented with the same mathematics material but using different techniques.
"The black students scored highest—getting 9.63 out of 15 questions correct—after having taken part in the “communal” group lessons. They turned in their worst group performance following their time in the group that emphasized individual rewards, answering only 6.41 of 15 questions correctly.
The individual-reward group, on the other hand, turned out to be the most optimal setting for white students, as a group, with white students getting 10.19 of those questions correct. In comparison, the white students got only 6.72 right answers—their worst performance—following lessons in the “communal” group."
One of the conclusions drawn by an outside observer drives the point home.
“Clearly, we’re showing by these findings that social context actually matters in ways that we should be thinking about,” said Edd Taylor, an assistant professor of learning sciences at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., who was not involved in the study."
We are not suggesting that we should segregate our students so that they have optimal learning environments. What we are suggesting is that we consider two points. First, we need to recognize that communal learning activities are no longer a novelty. Teacher centered learning will not create the results we need in a diverse school district and will not impact the achievement gap. Second, we need to understand that work in the global economy is done by teams. All children must be able to perform in this environment. We need to vary our teaching techniques and creatively meld the two approaches. They are not mutually exclusive.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Understanding Change in Public Education
My Blog is intended to create a civil and productive conversation concerning the issues facing educational leaders in the 21st Century. We are experiencing a time when change is the rule and not the exception. Deep rooted change has begun to manifest itself in the monolith of public education. Federal and state governments are being driven to legislate change in schools and do not fully understand the unintended consequences of the policy changes being created. One trend that is now becoming overt is the nationalization of public education. We need to understand the factors pushing governments to dictate these changes. What is unique about this Blog is that it will be written by a practitioner. A Superintendent who is dealing with the political, economic and policy changes impacting our school district, state and nation. Monticello Central School District like all other school districts cannot stand alone or solve our problems alone. It is only through open and honest discussion and exchange of ideas that we can deal with the changes we are facing. We must look at what is driving this change process and seek to understand how we will adapt to it. We can no longer educate our children the way we were educated and expect to succeed in a global system where connectivity is the key to success. Closing my classroom door to keep the world out is antithetical to the demands of our time. The monolith will have to move or end up like GM and Chrysler. Let’s begin our discussion.
In a recent NY Times editorial (dated 4/21/09) by Thomas Friedman, he addressed this issue as follows:
“Credit bubbles are like the tide. They can cover up a lot of rot. In our case, the excess consumer demand and jobs created by our credit and housing bubbles have masked not only our weaknesses in manufacturing and other economic fundamentals, but something worse: how far we have fallen behind in K-12 education and how much it is now costing us. That is the conclusion I drew from a new study by the consulting firm McKinsey, titled “The Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap in America’s Schools.”
The McKinsey report that Mr. Friedman refers to had several other relevant quotes:
“Actually, our fourth-graders compare well on global tests with Singapore…our high school kids really lag, which means that the longer American children are in school, the worse they perform compared to their international peers.” There are millions of kids in modern suburban schools “who don’t realize how far behind they are. They are being prepared for $12 an-hour jobs, not $40 to $50 an-hour.”
The analysis in their studies concerning the economic impact is eye-opening:
“If America had closed the international achievement gap between 1983 and 1998 and had raised its performance to the level of such nations as Finland and South Korea, U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2008 would have been between $1.3 trillion and $2.3 trillion higher. If we had closed the racial achievement gap and black and Latino student performance had caught up with that of white students by 1998, GDP in 2008 would have been between $310 billion and $525 billion higher. If the gap between low-income students and the rest had been narrowed, GDP in 2008 would have been $400 billion to $670 billion higher.”
It is essential to note that the countries to which we are being compared have extensive requirements in art and music. Notably, we are one of the few school districts in the state with a Fine Arts Academy.
In the Monticello School District we have spent the last four years creating the infrastructure we need to address this issue. At our elementary and middle level we have moved from structure to instruction. In the last three years we have worked on restructuring the high school and are now ready to focus on instruction. Closing the achievement gap is a local and national imperative.
In a recent NY Times editorial (dated 4/21/09) by Thomas Friedman, he addressed this issue as follows:
“Credit bubbles are like the tide. They can cover up a lot of rot. In our case, the excess consumer demand and jobs created by our credit and housing bubbles have masked not only our weaknesses in manufacturing and other economic fundamentals, but something worse: how far we have fallen behind in K-12 education and how much it is now costing us. That is the conclusion I drew from a new study by the consulting firm McKinsey, titled “The Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap in America’s Schools.”
The McKinsey report that Mr. Friedman refers to had several other relevant quotes:
“Actually, our fourth-graders compare well on global tests with Singapore…our high school kids really lag, which means that the longer American children are in school, the worse they perform compared to their international peers.” There are millions of kids in modern suburban schools “who don’t realize how far behind they are. They are being prepared for $12 an-hour jobs, not $40 to $50 an-hour.”
The analysis in their studies concerning the economic impact is eye-opening:
“If America had closed the international achievement gap between 1983 and 1998 and had raised its performance to the level of such nations as Finland and South Korea, U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2008 would have been between $1.3 trillion and $2.3 trillion higher. If we had closed the racial achievement gap and black and Latino student performance had caught up with that of white students by 1998, GDP in 2008 would have been between $310 billion and $525 billion higher. If the gap between low-income students and the rest had been narrowed, GDP in 2008 would have been $400 billion to $670 billion higher.”
It is essential to note that the countries to which we are being compared have extensive requirements in art and music. Notably, we are one of the few school districts in the state with a Fine Arts Academy.
In the Monticello School District we have spent the last four years creating the infrastructure we need to address this issue. At our elementary and middle level we have moved from structure to instruction. In the last three years we have worked on restructuring the high school and are now ready to focus on instruction. Closing the achievement gap is a local and national imperative.
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