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msuewillis
Citizen
Username: Msuewillis
Post Number: 106
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - 2:02 pm: | 
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This thread has answers to six questions asked by the Schools Committee of the South Orange/Maplewood Community Coalition on Race at its Tuesday, April 4 Candidates' Forum night. |
msuewillis
Citizen
Username: Msuewillis
Post Number: 107
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - 2:04 pm: |
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Mark Gleason Responds:
1. What concrete actions would you initiate to close the minority achievement gap in our school district?
To address the achievement gap, we first need to focus on the fundamentals: great teachers and a strong curriculum.
TEACHERS The first and most important thing we can do is improve teacher retention. Overall, our district’s turnover of teaching faculty has been on the rise. In a period of less than 10 years, our average teacher tenure has dropped from 12 years to 8 years. At Columbia High School, a number of experienced, highly regarded teachers have been lured away to nearby districts just in the past two to three years. At South Mountain Elementary, 30% of a teaching staff of 37 left at the end of the 2004-05 school year alone.
Numerous studies have concluded that teacher turnover has a high correlation to student achievement. High performing schools are low turnover schools, according to research by the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future. Our district has all the earmarks of high turnover schools: a low level of collaboration and cohesion between administration and staff, for example, and poor working conditions in the school buildings.
Faculty turnover has a huge financial cost, too, which means it sucks up resources that could otherwise be used on additional staff or curricular investments. Recent studies conservatively put the measurable financial cost at $15,000 per teacher who leaves or transfers from a school. In our district, if we have just 10% turnover per year, that works out to a cost of some $1.2 million.
CURRICULUM Our district needs a new language-arts curriculum at the elementary level. I’m not enough of an expert to say which one, or what precisely is wrong with our current curriculum. But I can clearly see that what we have is not getting the job done: We don’t have a single elementary school that had more than 10% of its students at the "advanced" level in language arts on state tests last year. Not only is that not great, it’s not even good.
Recently, the district has piloted a program (three classrooms per elementary building) based on a revised language-arts curriculum. At last night’s Board of Education meeting, we were told that early response has been positive. I support the aggressive exploration of expanding this or another new language-arts curriculum to all elementary classrooms.
That will only be a first step. Then we need to do what this district so often has failed to do: create and nourish a strong support and measurement foundation for ensuring the success of the new curriculum. That means thorough training of teachers, along with ample opportunity for them to collaborate and share learnings and best practices. And it means accountability. The Board of Ed must hold the administration accountable for a curriculum that works, and it in turn must hold principals accountable for delivering that curriculum to students consistently, across all classrooms, and for understanding what’s working best from classroom to classroom and implementing and supporting the spread of best practices.
2.Given the positive assessment of the sixth grade reorganization, please explain your position on deleveling in the seventh grade.
District test scores and the lack of classroom integration tell us that we’re not providing the education all of our students deserve. We’re clearly not getting the results out of leveling that we want, but it’s less clear that leveling is the cause of this failure. I do not support expanded deleveling at the high school or middle schools, because I do not think it is the initiative that will put our district on a higher plane of academic achievement. Not now.
Until we fix the management—the effectiveness—of our schools in delivering the curriculum we have, and until we raise our expectations for all of our students, we’re not going to achieve outstanding results with leveling or deleveling. Neither will be executed well in buildings where the staff and leadership aren’t pulling together as one.
I have a child in middle school, and so I had a chance to observe the introduction of deleveled instruction in sixth grade from close up. As with many other initiatives in this district, I understood and agreed with many of the objectives of deleveling but was disappointed by the quality of implementation. I don’t doubt that deleveling has created benefits for some students, but from what I saw it did not push students hard enough to aim higher. In some classes, meeting a standard of average was all that was asked. This is not appropriate for students at any level. It’s also a sure path to a system in which few students advance up the ladder of levels (not surprisingly, this appears to be the kind of system we have). The path to a great school district lies in setting high standards and in challenging students of all abilities to reach higher levels of attainment.
Leveling is working for some students now. At the same time, it’s clearly creating problems for many others. One area where we should be able to improve quickly is in developing and articulating a clear, objective set of criteria for determining a student’s level—and the steps required for students to move up. Then we need to hold teachers at all levels accountable for delivering excellence: for delivering their students to the next highest level. We can’t allow lower levels to translate into lowered expectations for personal and academic growth.
Our shortcomings are rooted in an organization that is not pulling together. Our teachers and administration are often not working cohesively. Too much time and energy is being burned up on matters outside the classroom. Poor student discipline and dirty, poorly kept buildings are creating obstacles to great education, rather than reinforcing it. We need to address these problems first. Then we will be in a better position to assess the systemic shortcomings of leveling.
3. Please share positive suggestions about ways to have an impact on racial tension at Columbia High School.
First, we must have district leadership that unites, rather than divides. In so many situations, I have seen our district and building administrators react to community scrutiny by pitting constituencies against one another. Often, we have seen them use race as an excuse for not fulfilling community desires. This approach has a direct correlation to racial tension at CHS. Leadership that unites may sound simple (of course it’s not), but it’s so very important. Racial tension is less the product of specific actions than of organizational attitudes. And attitudes are the product of people—starting with the people who set the district’s agenda.
Second, we need to create positive initiatives that will in turn become opportunities for student unity. One of the best parts of witnessing the recent student demonstrations has been seeing the diverse student body come together to identify their common concerns and speak in one voice. Socially and academically, we need to become proactive about developing other activities and outlets that will reinforce students’ common interests and bring them together.
4. How would you change institutional behavior to support and encourage students of color to excel?
One area where we could be doing a lot more is in outreach to parents: with information and advice that encourages their participation in students’ reading, writing and other educational work. There is substantial research showing that parental involvement correlates strongly to academic achievement. Our schools do make an effort in this area, directly through the school and through the PTA/HSA organizations. But we can do more. Let’s create a task force, including school officials and community representatives, to study some of the interesting programs being implemented elsewhere in America on this front.
Higher standards of achievement in all levels will help, too. I’ve discussed this in some of the earlier answers, so I won’t go on about it. More tactically, I wonder if we might create incentives for students to perform, beyond the honor roll and other awards of distinction. When I was a middle-school student, I was able to earn tickets to major league baseball games for A grades and perfect attendance, for example.
This question addresses a topic on which I’m by no means an expert. That’s the role of district administrators. I believe our immediate focus should be on developing a great leadership team; cleaning and fixing up our buildings so they become positive environments for learning, rather than obstacles to it; strengthening our language-arts curriculum and the training and measurement foundations that support it; and doing a better job of involving the amazing human resources we have in our two towns through better community relations. These, more than anything else, will have a positive impact on student performance.
5. What actions would you suggest to help maintain integration in our community by devising ways for our schools to retain white students—who are underrepresented, especially in our secondary schools—and affluent students of color, whose families often send them out of district (the so-called “bright flight”)?
I can’t argue with the perception that bright flight is real, but I’ve also heard Board of Ed members say that the percentage of resident students attending private schools has remained constant for decades. I would be very interested in seeing any actual data that suggest bright flight is on the rise in our district.
Either way, my answer to this question echoes my answers to the others. To retain students who might otherwise attend private school, we need a greater emphasis on high standards and academic challenge. We need higher standards for academic performance, but also for student discipline and behavior. These are amongst the most visible differences between our schools and private institutions. Take cell phones as an example. Although our school policies don’t allow phone use during class, I’ve been told by students that it’s quite common for students to be using cell phones during instruction time at CHS, without repercussion. We have a 20% suspension rate at CHS: That’s hardly a statistic likely to reassure the private-school-minded parent.
To compete with private schools for motivated students, we would need to offer what the private schools are offering: well-maintained facilities managed by clear rules and marked by adherence to codes of conduct, in which great teachers are free to focus on the heart of the matter, education.
5. Do you support having our faculty be racially representative of our schools? If yes, what measures would you support to bring this about?
I would be pleased to have a faculty that is racially consistent with the student population. But what matters most is having great teachers, period. Black, white, Asian, Hispanic, it doesn’t matter. A great teacher of any color is our best resource for conquering the achievement gap. As a board member, I would push hard for a major strengthening of the hiring procedures in our district. We need to set the bar higher for faculty hiring, and we should start by developing a clearer, more focused and measurable set of hiring criteria. Judging by teacher hiring that I had a chance to observe from a fairly close distance last summer, we have almost no objective criteria on which faculty hiring decisions are made. And we should be providing training in interviewing and recruiting to those who do most of our hiring, mainly principals.
At the same time, we can seek to enlarge the applicants’ pool by strategically advertising and reaching out in channels where we might identify more racially diverse candidates. I support taking proactive measures to attract more minority candidates into the applicants’ pool. But how we select from that pool should be strictly guided by a set of race-neutral, performance-oriented hiring criteria that have been developed to sync up with the district’s long-term strategic plan.
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msuewillis
Citizen
Username: Msuewillis
Post Number: 108
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - 2:06 pm: |
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David Frazer responds:
1. What concrete actions would you initiate to close the Minority Academic Achievement Gap in our school district?
We have to recognize that there is no “one-size-fits-all” answer to the achievement gap. Different students are under achieving for different reasons. We have students who are underskilled, undermotivated or underperforming for a variety of reasons. The first order of business is identifying the particular needs of individual students and tailoring our responses to those needs.
This is why I believe that an important job for the new board will be implementation of the measurement model developed by this year’s board. See http://www.somsd.k12.nj.us/measurement/measurementhome.htm. This model will perform three critical functions.
First, it will monitor individual student progress over time via multiple measures (e.g., standardized test scores, end-of-year assessments, grades). For those students who are not achieving adequate progress, we will be able to ensure that they are receiving all available interventions.
Second, the detailed data on student achievement will enable us to assess the effectiveness of our intervention efforts (e.g., Project Ahead, social work services). If they are not working, we will know it and be able to retool or replace them.
Third, this achievement data will allow us to identify common areas of weakness among students. We will then use this data to critically review our curriculum and instruction and make necessary improvements. Working with a member of the math department, the administration has already put this model into place for the high school where the supplemental math curriculum has already been retooled to correspond to weaknesses identified by detailed student achievement data. We must standardize this process and apply it to other subjects and grades across the district.
2. Given the positive assessment of the Sixth Grade Reorganization, please explain your position on deleveling the Seventh grade.
The preliminary report on the Sixth Grade Reorganization, which is now in its second year, is promising. While it is too soon to have academic data, both middle schools have reported a dramatic decline in discipline issues among this group of students. Personally, I believe this reflects the inherent benefits of a more respectful educational environment where all students are held to the same high standards. Anecdotal information from parents and teachers generally indicates that the reorganization is working well.
I believe, however, it is too soon to consider moving the reorganization to the seventh grade. Before considering that expansion, I would want to see two things. First, the data would have to confirm that, academically, the reorganization has been beneficial or, at the very least, educationally neutral. Second, any expansion must have the support of the teachers. The teachers were initially behind the proposal to reorganize the sixth grade. They wanted it; they said it would work; and they are making it work. The most successful reforms are those that grow from the bottom up, and I think that is especially true of educational reforms.
3. Please share positive suggestions about ways to have an impact on racial tension at Columbia High School.
I attended the walkout at Columbia High School and I was most impressed by two things. First, despite the racial nature of many of the issues the student body is notably not divided along racial lines. Second, although the students raised a number of issues, the one they focused on first and most was exactly the right one: the achievement gap. Their demands centered on improving educational excellence and equity for future CHS students. Clearly, we are doing something right in this community.
As a preliminary matter, I take issue with the apparent assumption of the question, at least in part. Certainly, there are tensions between the students and the administration and segments of the faculty and the administration that can be broadly considered racial. However, I reject the notion that there are significant racial tensions within the student body.
To reduce tension at CHS, the pressing issue is to improve relationships between the administration and the student body and staff. Beyond the particular personalities involved, this will require actively listening to and engaging student and faculty in important decisions, from planning the Black History Month assembly to addressing the achievement gap. We must follow through on the objective of the strategic plan by embracing a truly collaborative decision-making process. See http://www.somsd.k12.nj.us/strategic%20planning/SPI_FINALStrategicPlanrev2.pdf (Goal II, Objective B, Essential Effort 2).
4. How would you change institutional behavior to support and encourage students of color to excel?
Other candidates have called for institution of a “rigorous, standards-based curriculum” (though, significantly, without pointing to any specific examples). Others have spoken of the need for new administrative leadership. Certainly, curricular change is important – that’s why I have supported the addition of the phonics-based Fundations reading program to our elementary language arts curriculum. See http://www.frazerboe.com/LanguageArtsFAQ.php. Certainly, administrative leadership is important – and I have made clear my criteria for a new superintendent. See http://www.frazerboe.com/super.php.
But, at the end of the day, curriculum and leadership are not enough. If the teacher is unable to ignite the spark of learning in every student, it matters not what curriculum is in place or who the superintendent is. This is the key insight of the “Tripod Model” developed by Harvard’s Ronald Ferguson. See http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/tripodproject/Basic%20Format%20for%20Tripod%20Project .pdf. Effective strategies to close the achievement gap must encompass curriculum, instructional methods and relationships. This is why, in addition to professional development focused on improved curriculum and teaching techniques, we must also work with our staff – administrative as well as teaching – to develop strategies for building relationships with students of color that effectively communicate to them that they are expected to excel and can, in fact, excel.
5. What actions would you suggest to help retain white students and academically gifted students of color (sometimes called "bright flight") in our schools, thus helping maintain integration in our community?
The district must always be alert to any pattern of families removing their children from our schools. However, I do not believe that we are currently experiencing a problem of “bright flight,” whether by white students or students of color. By law, the district we must pay the transportation costs of private school students. Therefore, the district we have has reasonably solid data on the number of private school students in our two towns. The percentage of such students has remained fairly constant for 15-20 years, at about 10-12% of school-age children. This is in line with other similar suburban communities.
Traditionally, it has been the wealthier families in the two towns who send their children to private school; for obvious reasons: they can afford it. What has changed in recent years is the racial make up of our wealthier families. It is gratifying for our community that Proudly, many of these families are now families of color. Not surprisingly, like many of their white counterparts, a certain percentage of these families elect to send their children to private school.
The counterpoint to this question is that every year a number of families who have sent their children to private school through 8th grade enroll their children in Columbia for high school, showing that the road to private school is not one way.
6. Do you support having our faculty be racially representative of our community? If yes, what measures would you support to bring this about?
A racially diverse faculty is essential to the continued success of our schools. We should endeavor to hire and retain the best faculty possible, including teachers of color. One way to ensure that is to broaden our recruiting to include as many venues as possible, including minority teacher fairs and the historically black colleges and universities. We must, however, be realistic. Recent data indicates that minorities make up about 9% of the teaching pool. See http://www.alliance.brown.edu/pubs/minority_teacher/minteachrcrt.pdf
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msuewillis
Citizen
Username: Msuewillis
Post Number: 109
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - 2:08 pm: |
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Jennifer Payne-Parrish responds
1. What concrete actions would you initiate to close the Minority Academic Achievement Gap in our school district?
We start by changing the name; people of color are certainly not the minority population across this nation. I have stated before that we often end the conversation regarding the achievement gap with race. We must begin to identify the factors that influence achievement in order to effectively address the achievement gap such as the following initial steps that I recommend:
Ensure the full day K program includes a curriculum with demonstrated results especially in math and LA/reading. Project ahead currently has a large percentage (60%) of students who are identified between grades 1 and 3. This means students are deficient at the early elementary level. We can begin to narrow the gap by ensuring that all students who enter the district at the kindergarten level are exposed to a proven academic based program that will prepare them for 1st grade
Partner with agencies such as the Ed Trust in order to identify effective methods used in other districts around the country to close the achievement gap. Some factors that have been proven to influence achievement include: 1.) high expectations for all students, 2.) removal of all barriers to achievement including access to high level courses, 3.) focus on intervention instead of remediation. With a 40% remediation rate in 11th grade math, we should begin the process of identifying methods of intervention earlier instead of remediating students at such a late stage.
Make the process and criteria for leveling more transparent to both students and parents. As a district we should be much clearer on how students are identified for specific levels. This information should be provided to both parents and students. In addition, the criteria for moving up levels should also be documented.
2. Given the positive assessment of the Sixth Grade Reorganization, please explain your position on deleveling the Seventh grade.
The data so far look promising. And while the reorganization has only been in practice for one year, the performance on standardized tests seems to indicate that students perform better academically when all are exposed to the same material and with the same rigor. One interesting statement made in the report on deleveling discusses the fact that students in the deleveled class seem to respond to the higher expectations of the teachers. What are our expectations of levels? Do we have lower expectations of students in lower level courses? If anything this reorganization/deleveling demonstrates that when students are given the opportunity they excel. However, in order to determine what should happen at the 7th grade, we need more information. I would look at the following: 1.) of the students that went on to level 4 classes in 7th grade, how did this group do academically? 2.) Is there a narrowed achievement gap in the deleved 6th grade based on standardized test (Terra Nova)? Answers to these questions will help us establish a set of expectations and measurable outcome for deleveling in the middle schools.
3. Please share positive suggestions about ways to have an impact on racial tension at Columbia High School.
The focus must be on academic achievement for all students and not the policing students. School administration, including the principal, is responsible for setting the tone. The school environment should promote the celebration of race and culture and not simply tolerance. First, we must begin by identifying school administrators who understand and embrace the vision of the district, who have demonstrated the ability to work effectively in integrated communities and have a proven track record of producing schools of excellence. Second, there must be one set of expectations for all. That means all students are held to a high standard and are expected to excel. Rules or policies that are carried out differently can lead to biases which can lead to racial profiling and therefore, tension. Third, provide a consistent forum for students to express concerns and potential solutions and listen to them.
4. How would you change institutional behavior to support and encourage students of color to excel?
Because we believe that all students can excel, we must ensure that we identify teachers and principals who are aligned with the vision and mission of the district. We must also ensure that policies as well as unwritten rules that act as a barrier to achievement are removed from the education system in this district.
5. What actions would you suggest to help retain white students and academically gifted students of color (sometimes called "bright flight") in our schools, thus helping maintain integration in our community?
I believe these are two separate issues. One is the retention of academically gifted students regardless of color and the other issue is the maintaining an integrated student body. Everyone wants to be a part of a thriving school with academic results; this is not an issue of race. We can focus on academic excellence without compromising diversity. I have never believed that the two (academic excellence and diversity/integration) are mutually exclusive. I guess I can thank Thurgood Marshall for that.
6. Do you support having our faculty be racially representative of our community? If yes, what measures would you support to bring this about?
Yes, I do support the diversity of faculty in this district. If we say we value diversity as a community, it should be evident in all areas of life within this community. We should hire the best teachers in this district and recruit from traditional teaching colleges both locally and nationally, including historically black colleges and universities. You should also know that this effort can be realized without a great strain on the budget but with the use of technology and a strong desire to attract a diverse pool of candidates to instruct our children.
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msuewillis
Citizen
Username: Msuewillis
Post Number: 110
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - 2:10 pm: |
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Marlon Brownlee responds:
1. What concrete actions would you initiate to close the Minority Academic Achievement Gap in our school district?
To solve any problem, we need to identify the causes. Regarding the achievement gap, there are at least four major areas that are potential contributing causes to the achievement gap in our district:
- There are some students who enroll in kindergarten without the benefit of pre-school and they're behind from the very start
- There are some students who arrive in our school system sometime after first grade – many in middle school – who are under-prepared academically, who have the added instability of a family move to cope with, making new friends, etc.
- There may be some teachers – not all – who have lower expectations for children because of the color of their skin, and who treat them differently as a result
- There may be students – not all - who have lower expectations for themselves because of societal factors that tell them that it's not cool to be smart, or because it's "safer" not to try at all, than to try and then fail
Given these multiple possible causes, sometimes working in conjunction with each other, what actions we do for each child would depend on the cause(s) we are trying to address.
- For those students who enroll in kindergarten with skill deficits, we need to keep a close watch on whether our existing intervention programs (for example, Project Ahead) are enabling students to make adequate progress back to grade level. If students are not making adequate progress, then we need to find a way to provide more intensive academic intervention than the 60 or 90 minutes a week that our current programs provide.
- For those students to arrive in our school system after first grade and are under-prepared academically, we need to make our best efforts to identify and help them. I note that the current Board of Education approved the addition of two reading coaches for the elementary grades, and that is a good start in this direction. At CHS, there are supplemental courses for at-risk students and these programs seem to be reasonably effective. As much as possible, we need to fund the initiatives that we need and are working effectively and cut elsewhere.
- As for expectations (of teachers and students), that's a tougher problem. Parents need to be advocates - not just for their own children, but for children as a whole. Parent advocates should push kids as well, identifying those students who are capable of doing more and encouraging them to strive for excellence.
- I would also encourage teachers to challenge each another regarding the way they treat kids, ensuring that high expectations are set for each and every child. And finally, I also believe that we need to have school administrators who model the way in which we expect to see staff engaging with students.
In sum, we need to try to understand the different causes and manifestations of the achievement gap issue, and then honestly assess what we're doing well and what we’re doing not so well. In some cases, we may need to develop new programs and in other cases, we may be able to strengthen some of what we're already doing rather than replacing it.
2. Given the positive assessment of the Sixth Grade Reorganization, please explain your position on de-leveling the Seventh grade.
The objective of any change in the schools should be to improve the learning environment for the children. Children have different abilities and are at different stages of development in different areas at any given point in time. I think that most people would agree that differentiated instruction is good, because we want to meet each child at their level and bring them up to the highest level they are able to attain.
It has been reported that the one year of data that we have suggests that there has been no adverse effect academically on the students and that the school atmosphere appears to have been improved and there has been a reduction in disciplinary issues. But at the same time, we also see that there are a lot of the kids in level 3 that may in fact be capable of doing level 4 work. Also, we also know that due to scheduling challenges, some kids end up scheduled for level 3 because level 4 classes are full given the specific teamed staffing that we do. Anecdotally, a number of parents have remarked to me that their children are not being adequately challenged as well.
I believe that at this point, it is too early to assess the results of the sixth grade reorganization, and I believe that it would be premature at best to suggest that the seventh grade should be de-leveled. Also, the original premise for de-leveling language arts, social studies and science in the sixth grade was that the process by which fifth grade students were assigned to their sixth grade levels was flawed. The fifth grade teachers, it was said, were not in an optimal position to determine what level their students should be in the middle school, because the middle school environment was so different from the elementary school. As a result, a decision was made to combine levels 3 and 4 in much of the sixth grade (math was not de-leveled). Presumably, this situation would not exist in the middle school since sixth and seventh grade are in the same school.
3. Please share positive suggestions about ways to have an impact on racial tension at Columbia High School.
When I talk to students from the high school they'll tell you that the student body is actually quite united. I’ve also been in numerous places where students have been speaking out about the issues that concern them and it is striking how racially mixed the crowds are. The primary tension is between students and the administration and Board regarding the principal of the school.
To the extent that the student body may still show some divisions along racial lines, I believe that the answer to this is that students who spend time with one another in common activities are more likely to know one another and be comfortable with one another. Sports and extracurricular activities at CHS are increasingly racially integrated, and those kids that participate in these extracurricular activities know one another, hang out with one another, and are friends with one another. So we need to ensure that we have a rich offering of extracurricular activities of various types to enable this kind of interaction. In classes, however, there is more separation, and that obviously affects who kids hang out with also. So I believe that as we strive to address our academic issues, positive social interaction will follow
4. How would you change institutional behavior to support and encourage students of color to excel?
As I’ve said on multiple occasions, like many others my wife and I were attracted to this community fifteen years ago because of our school district’s reputation of academic excellence for all students. I think we have to acknowledge that any school that is not supporting and encouraging each and every student to excel is not completely fulfilling its mission.
The question asks how I would change “institutional behavior” – well, it is my belief that institutions don’t act, people do. Without undercutting the administration, I believe that the Board needs to put a human face on the “institution” by interacting with students and making them feel a part of things. We need to do outreach to get more parents involved in the schools, and to strive to make everything personal – making sure that parents feel that the Board of Education and the “institution” is accessible in terms of available information and in terms of parents feeling able to navigate the system.
I also support any initiative to increase the representation of faculty of color as well – I think that when children see people who look like them acting responsibly in positions of authority, that is encouraging.
5. What actions would you suggest to help maintain integration in our community by devising ways for our schools to retain white students—who are underrepresented, especially in our secondary schools—and affluent students of color, whose families often send them out of district (the so-called “bright flight”)?
I believe that ultimately, when families choose to leave our schools, it is because they feel that the mission of our schools has somehow been compromised, and that their children are not getting the best education that they can as a result.
I think we need to celebrate our successes more. I believe there used to be a “student ambassadors” program, where students went out into the community to talk about the positive happenings at CHS – that sounds like a good idea worthy of reinstatement. I’d also suggest that we need to do special events (including our student groups) and invite parents of students who have already gone to private schools or who are thinking of going. Let them see our art, our music, our sports, our academics. Let them talk to a group of current CHS students. Then take the show on the road to parents whose children may be considering coming back for their high school years.
But, the bottom line, most importantly, is that we have to be able to demonstrate, with credible evidence, that we are in fact making progress, and that students of color do quite well at CHS. Without that, all of our efforts will ultimately be in vain.
6. Do you support having our faculty be racially representative of our community? If yes, what measures would you support to bring this about?
Yes, I do support having our faculty be racially representative of our community. I have heard that this is very hard, because only 7-10% of the national teacher force is non-white. However, if we value this objective, then we need to take whatever measures we can to attract faculty of all races. To make progress on this, I believe we have to go beyond newspaper ads and cast the net wider, and target areas where the density of underrepresented faculty is greater (e.g. historically black colleges and universities).
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msuewillis
Citizen
Username: Msuewillis
Post Number: 111
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - 2:11 pm: |
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Wayne Eastman Responds
1. Concrete steps to close the gap? We need to start with the rigorous analysis of our performance—an honest, “warts and all” yearly local report card would be a good start—and follow up with a focused, standards-based approach to improving achievement and narrowing the gap along the lines championed by the Education Trust, Eric Smith and other leading black and white educators around the country. Our district now needs to move from a predominantly social focus to the achievement gap to a predominantly academic one. One of the major researchers in the area, Claude Steele, has noted that a heightened focus on race tends to go along with weaker test performance by blacks. By contrast, a hard-nosed focus on academic skills and performance has greater potential to improve achievement and narrow the gap.
2. Seventh-grade deleveling? I believe we need a larger-scale conversation and larger-scale policy decisions about leveling than the question presupposes, especially considering that much of the concern about levels relates more to Columbia High School than to the middle schools. Here are positions I would bring to the table in that discussion:
a) Especially for older students and complex material, levels have value for many students;
b) Criteria for levels should be objective and transparent, which they are not now;
c) Contracts for success or a like vehicle should be employed, as in Shaker Heights, so that students who wish to can take advanced classes, understanding that the pace will be rapid and difficult;
d) A rigorous deleveled option for parents and students who want it, with a control to ensure that the average skills of students in the program are at least comparable to those of students as a whole, may well be worth instituting. Such an option might employ the International Baccalaureate Middle Years or Diploma program or a model of classical, disciplined education akin to that employed at Catholic schools.
I prefer dealing first with points b)-d) for the seventh grade and the other grades rather than starting with a debate over seventh grade deleveling. In the absence of that broader discussion, I would not favor proceeding with seventh grade deleveling by itself.
3. Reduce racial tension at Columbia High School? I have some reservations over the premise of the question. In listening to students and parents at the recent walkout, I was struck by the well-integrated quality of the crowd and the lack of difference by race in the concerns expressed. As the parent of a ninth-grader at Columbia, I believe that the school is not a cauldron of racial antagonism but a place where most of the time people get along reasonably well. At the same time, I believe there are indeed some racial tensions at the school. We can alleviate them in the following ways: a) by focusing strongly on academic performance and rigor in the classroom; b) by ensuring that both our black leadership and white leadership are diverse in their values, which counters any impression that all black people or all white people think alike; c) by encouraging multiple integrated groups or coalitions of students at the school.
4. Support students of color excelling? Once again, I believe that a rigorous, standards-based approach is crucial. Social science research suggests that it is quite possible that a teacher will make comments for improvement on a white student’s work while not doing so for a black student’s comparable work. That situation can arguably be improved by telling teachers about such research. I believe that the situation is much more likely to improve, though, if teachers are teaching with a focused, skills-based curriculum rather than a loose, unstructured one. If that is the case, higher expectations can inhere in the curriculum rather than being a matter of discretion. In addition, teachers are more likely to be able to accept being told about a need to raise expectations without responding defensively, because they will have the tools and the systemic support to push for high performance.
5. Avoid white flight/bright flight? It is crucial that Columbia High School in particular retain and strengthen its reputation as a center of academic excellence. For all the difficulties, there is much to be proud of here. My son is taking a math class as a ninth grader that is almost a year more advanced than what was offered for the best ninth grade students in Chatham High School, where I went in the early 1970s. Again, we need to commit to a standards-based approach that assures parents that the district is not dominated by an anti-achievement ethos that questions the value of tests and exceptional academic performance.
6. Racially representative faculty? I do not favor hiring teachers according to a racial quota. I do favor affirmative efforts to increase the proportion of black teachers and also administrators, including at the very top ranks, in our schools. In looking for black educators for our district, especially at the top, I believe it is important that we seek out leaders with a strong commitment to standards-based education. I will make that a priority in regard to the superintendent search.
Why We’re Poised for Progress in the Schools
Shortly after I moved to South Orange from Newark in 1992 with my wife Darcy and my two young children, I became involved in Friends and Neighbors. At the time, there was a sharp pattern of racial change in some of our neighborhoods, and for-sale signs were plentiful. I was concerned about the prospects for long-term integration in the real estate market and in the schools, which in the mid 1990s were experiencing a drop in white enrollment relative to black enrollment of around 4% per year, a pattern that would lead to resegregation if continued.
My opinion back then, which I expressed in a piece in the News-Record, was that the hope for successful integration in South Orange and Maplewood lay in attracting white liberals as well as blacks to the towns. I remember the News-Record piece got an indignant response from an owner of a local business, who stated that he was a conservative, that he was committed to the towns, and that we needed moderates and conservatives, too. I invited him and his wife over to my house for a talk. Now, ten years later, I have become deeply convinced that he was right. That’s partly because after September 11th and fatherhood and other changes in my life I’m personally not as liberal as I used to be. It’s also a practical judgment—schools work better when there’s cooperation and competition between different values, not when one set of political values rules the roost. Finally, it’s a judgment based on the fact that things have changed in our towns for the better since the 1990s.
We don’t need to assume anymore that the only hope for integration in our schools lies with a minority of white parents committed to whole language and other educational approaches that work for some children but that aren’t successful overall, much as we should respect these parents as one important and worthy part of our community. Although we definitely need to be vigilant in supporting demand for our schools from whites and in countering white flight/bright flight, we no longer face the same disturbing trends toward school resegregation of years past. We can take pride in rising property values and in the facts that there is vibrant demand for real estate from whites as well as blacks and that the racial balance in our schools has stabilized in this decade.
We can and should move away from a defensive attitude that might have been understandable in the 1990s to a willingness to evaluate ourselves openly and honestly. We’re strong enough to do it now. We’re in position to move forward now with a rigorous, standards-based approach that has promise to lift performance for all and to narrow the gap. In doing so, we can and should respect the values of choice and innovation. South Orange-Maplewood became a nationally recognized model for idealism, imagination, and hardheaded initiatives on behalf of residential integration, and I’m proud to have played a part in that. Now we can do the same for our schools. I’m working toward that in my campaign, and I look forward to continuing that work in the years to come.
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msuewillis
Citizen
Username: Msuewillis
Post Number: 112
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - 2:12 pm: |
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Gregg Betheil responds:
1. What concrete actions would you initiate to close the Minority Academic
Achievement Gap in our school district?
In engaging with Ron Ferguson of Harvard in the Tri-pod Project some years back
(Curriculum, Pedagogy and relationships), the district took some important
steps, but not nearly enough. I agree with Ferguson when he suggested during
the May 16 CCR forum on the achievement gap, that “there is also a gap between
current achievement levels and the levels that students could potentially reach
if conditions in homes, communities and classrooms were more aligned to support
high achievement.” We must direct our efforts to aligning those supports.
But Ferguson goes further in getting to the heart of the issue and understanding
why our efforts to close the gap must reach to all corners of the community,
when he states:
Racial achievement gaps have become a main focus of research and public
discourse because lots of folks (including me) suspect that the gap between
performance and potential is greatest for black and Hispanic students. However,
I think it's important to recognize that we'll make more progress as
communities, if we minimize the connotation that we will trade-off achievement
for some racial groups in exchange for progress for others. In the old growth
versus redistribution metaphor, we can increase the size of the pie. At the same
time, we should not assume necessarily that the growth will be distributed in
the same way as the original pie was. Shares may change (for example, blacks and
Hispanics may improve compared to whites and Asians), even if all students
(including whites and Asians) do better. Folks who don't like the idea that the
gaps need to narrow need to get used to it. The future health of our society may
depend on it.
For those that are calling for curricular reform they are right, but it is not
enough. Just as focusing on relationships in isolation or teaching methods is
not enough. Tri-pod requires a comprehensive implementation of all three
components. Such efforts will require us to consider different models of
professional development for our teachers and different supports to build parent
capacity to help at home.
2. Given the positive assessment of the Sixth Grade Reorganization, please
explain your position on deleveling the Seventh grade.
The 6th Grade Reorganization had the stated purpose of delaying level placement
decisions until after students were already in middle school. Additionally, even
in the 6th grade, under the new organization—WE STILL HAVE LEVELS. Level 2 and
a combined level 3 and 4 still exist in Social Studies, Language Arts and
Science. The Math levels have not been modified at all. While early data
indicates that discipline referrals are down dramatically and achievement for
our high achievers was not negatively impacted, it won’t be until this class
takes the GEPA next year that we’ll have some hard evidence of the success of
the program.
But I think we need to be clear about what we’re talking about here. For some,
this issue is about providing equitable access to high expectations. For
others, there is fear that in addressing equity, that their children may lose
something. This isn’t a zero sum game. In a community that values diversity,
classes made up of mostly white students or mostly black students (as our
leveled classes often reflect), must, at the very least, raise questions for us
to reflect upon.
Leveling grows from the notion of differentiation, but in an institutional
sense. For some background (though I don’t necessarily agree with all the
conclusions, check out http://www.educationnext.org/20061/14.html ). In our
community, that levels have become synonymous with race is problematic. We are
only at the beginning of a much deeper conversation about what we believe and
value, and how those values play out in our educational institutions.
Again, I think Ron Ferguson points us in the right direction when he spoke with
the CCR: “The bottom line is that the most important thing is high quality
instruction, no matter how students are grouped for instruction.”
3. Please share positive suggestions about ways to have an impact on racial
tension at Columbia High School.
We have to be careful about how we describe “racial tension” at CHS. My
observations of students over the past few months indicate to me that students
are in fact more united than ever, and calling for us to close the achievement
gap. Clearly there are adult issues at the building that we need to address
aggressively. The Board acted to direct the administration to conduct an
appropriate Black History Month assembly on April 4th. Beyond this, I believe
the recently approved Supervisor of Academic Achievement and Equity can play a
role in mitigating some of these issues.
4. How would you change institutional behavior to support and encourage students
of color to excel?
As a Board member, our tool for impacting institutional behavior is through
policy. The district’s leveling system is embedded in policy, as are our
discipline codes and other institutional practices. The Board has already begun
to review the leveling policies for their impact on academic equity and
achievement. This was called for in the district’s strategic plan.
Beyond policy, our institutions are just collections of people. Improving
relationships in the district, another important goal of the strategic plan, is
a necessary pre-condition to creating an environment supportive of high
expectations for all students. Creating such an environment will not happen
overnight. The strategic plan also called for a position to focus on academic
equity and achievement. I believed that in order to be effective in changing
practices, that the position needed to be supervisory. I was a supporter of
placing the position on the separate proposal, and am happy that it was
approved.
Lastly, the Board must play a stronger role in communicating our expectations in
this area. We will have the opportunity to define and focus our expectations as
we search for a new superintendent, as leadership is and will continue to be a
crucial element changing institutions.
5. What actions would you suggest to help retain white students and academically
gifted students of color (sometimes called "bright flight") in our schools, thus
helping maintain integration in our community?
More affluent families in our towns have always had the option to send their
children to private school. That we have seen the rise of affluence among
African-American families only diversifies that group. Private school
attendance has remained stable over many years, roughly 10-12% of students. On
the whole though, I don’t see evidence to support the claim of bright flight
from our schools, white or black. Some attend for religious reasons, or for a
smaller, more personalized environment, among other reasons.
6. Do you support having our faculty be racially representative of our
community? If yes, what measures would you support to bring this about?
Of course. As I said at the debate, I think Deborah Meier had it right when she
said that students need to see in adult role models “the people they can
become.” We have had some success in this area, but a sustained effort requires
creativity in the recruitment process, as well as in our new teacher intake and
mentoring programs. We may want to begin to engage the National Board of
Teaching Standards, which has begun a number of diversity outreach efforts.
Lastly, we have many teachers who were once students in our district. Seeing the
opportunity to grow talent here and encourage those interested in teaching to
find their way back to the district, is perhaps the most straightforward way to
reflect our own diversity.
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