In this opinion piece by Massachusetts Education Secretary Paul Reville he explains that the manifesto titled “Every Child A Winner!” inspired the 1993 Ed Reform: “We meant that all students — each and every one — should be able to succeed at high levels. By adopting the Common Core, we’ve set a clearer, higher target for educational success.“ His opinion seems to revolve around achieving said success by repeating such non specific ideals as:
We should accelerate the implementation of our new “Innovation Schools” model, which has already resulted in the creation of two cutting-edge schools just six months after the passage of the governor’s legislation. We need to continue implementing our six regional “Readiness Centers,” which bring educators, school districts, colleges, and other partners together to address core educational priorities. In short, it’s time to move beyond setting standards to implementing educational strategies which will help our students achieve our high expectations.
Just reading that gives me a headache. We can implement and innovate on the cutting edge all we want but without textbooks, teachers, supplies and facilities all the innovation on the planet can’t implement learning.
Looking at the results of almost 20 years of reform I can’t say any child has come out of this a clear winner. Now the Massachusetts Department of Education is backpedaling and attempting to spin its adoption of Common Core Standards as raising the Ed Reform bar to the next level. According to the Mass DOE press release last month: Launched in June 2009, the Common Core State Standards Initiative is designed to develop and implement a single set of national standards in ELA and math to define what every student should know and be able to do in order to be fully ready for post-secondary education or a successful career. Massachusetts played a leading role in the development and review of the standards over the past 13 months. Curriculum experts and educators from across the Commonwealth reviewed and submitted comments on drafts that were incorporated throughout the development process to ensure that the expectations set in the final versions met or exceeded the state’s strong standards for students.
Here we are taking our broken system (much like the health care debacle) and inflicting it on the rest of the country. Then we adopt this new version of what we already do and call it innovation and reform.
The real motivation behind adopting these standards is monetary. Just six days after announcing the adoption of Common Core Standards the Governor also announced Massachusetts earned a finalist position in the second round competition for Race to the Top funding.
What will Massachusetts do with this money? The last time I read their RTTT application their primary focus seemed to be data warehousing. The link t0 the most current application at the bottom of Governor Patrick’s press release is broken. Of course receipt of this money is set to be revealed in time for the new school year in September – just in time for the government to use it to supplant existing funding as they did with the previous stimulus monies.
Data warehousing would be a great tool if we were giving our students every opportunity and yet they still weren’t successful. Until we no longer have classrooms without textbooks, sports teams without equipment, schools sharing nurses and class sizes in the mid 30′s it doesn’t take someone with a PHD in education to tell you why students aren’t achieving. So while our Ed Secretary wants us to believe every child is a winner… I believe the real winners are sitting on Beacon Hill hoping for more money to waste in the name of education and innovation.
I went to last night’s budget meeting and will be attending tonight’s. Expect me to be consolidating those two events into one post later this week. Until then please ponder with righteous indignation the long arms of the lone star state!
I’ve yet to see a textbook come home with my daughter, but she’s only in Grade Three at Golden Hill Elementary so I’m not too surprised by this. When the books do come home I will be reading them myself for a variety of reasons. One of the most important reasons is that I am not from Texas, nor am I Christian – and I don’t want the strong-arming of conservative Texas Christians governing my children’s public secular education. If I wanted my children to receive this kind of education I would send them to a private Christian school.
Because of this I am following the controversy surrounding the way that textbook companies pander to their single largest bulk purchasers: California and Texas. Perhaps the New England states should band together in a book buying co-op to give our voices more volume in this matter? Maybe its time to give up on printed textbooks altogether and get these kids kindles! If you’re unsure of the controversy of which I speak – try reading these articles:
California bill seeks to ensure the “Texas changes” don’t make it into their curriculum.
Texas schools seek to rewrite history.
Texas conservatives win curriculum change.
Although there is hope that the economy might limit their influence this year I don’t want to rely on poor cash-flow every year as an indicator of the content of my children’s curriculum.
This article by Martha Blake saddens me and reminds me how much progress we need to still make as people to climb up that evolutionary ladder. What follows is from the link:
Battles over textbooks are nothing new, especially in Texas, where bitter skirmishes regularly erupt over everything from sex education to phonics and new math. But never before has the board’s right wing wielded so much power over the writing of the state’s standards. And when it comes to textbooks, what happens in Texas rarely stays in Texas. The reasons for this are economic: Texas is the nation’s second-largest textbook market and one of the few biggies where the state picks what books schools can buy rather than leaving it up to the whims of local districts, which means publishers that get their books approved can count on millions of dollars in sales. As a result, the Lone Star State has outsized influence over the reading material used in classrooms nationwide, since publishers craft their standard textbooks based on the specs of the biggest buyers. As one senior industry executive told me, “Publishers will do whatever it takes to get on the Texas list.”
US history – Texas Style.
Some more examples, from the “List of Shame,” of changes the Texas board of Education wants made.
If sending my children to public school presents this type of education – perhaps it truly would be better to home school them. I wonder if there is a private school out there that is not affiliated with a church that also writes its own texts?
We almost made it through an entire meeting without someone insinuating that the Superintendent did not have a long term plan for the Haverhill Public Schools. Almost.
In the middle of discussing the possible audit of our SPED department Mr Bevilacqua stated he looked forward to hearing the results whether good or bad and was excited by the prospect of having a long term plan for our SPED department because that is something “our school department doesn’t have.”
What I find amusing, in the sadly ironic manner, is that our School Department does have a long term plan and the members of the School Committee know this. I went in February to the District Parent Council meeting and part of the Superintendent’s update to the District Parent Council was a synopsis of the report he presented to the School Committee of his long term plans for the district.
What were these plans? One plan defined a rotation of updating textbooks so that no subject had materials which were older than 5 years. Unfortunately with the budget as tight as it currently is the procurement of new materials has placed this plan woefully off the priority list.
The other plan was for the district as a whole and outlined how professional development and strong leadership would provide success for programs to have all of our students “college ready” by the time they left Haverhill High School regardless of whether they choose to go to college or not. Dr Buchanan discussed the need for high standards, aligned instruction across the district, fair assessments of all the students, and adherence to the curriculum frameworks provided by the state. Dr Buchanan also discussed the need for up to date instructional materials for the students using the above rotation plan for textbooks and applying it to all other supplemental instructional materials. Finally he discussed several of the safety net programs for students the district had been implementing only to have them cut drastically because of budgeting concessions. These safety net programs work to reach kids where their strengths are and include tutoring, intervention and differentiated instruction.
I am endlessly frustrated every time I hear a member of the School Committee comment that the Haverhill Public School system has no plan. These people know what they are saying is patently untrue but they also know that unless the Superintendent is standing right there when they say this that no one will refute them. When someone states there is no plan it makes our district sound like the students go to school in anarchy and our teachers are merely babysitters.
There is indeed a plan.
I’ve said time and again that when Zero Tolerance is used Zero Thought is applied. NCLB is the Education version of Zero Tolerance. Neither of these policies make sense on their own merits and when combined as they are within our schools the results are disastrous.
For example: I understand and support the HHS policy banning cell phone usage in school. There is far too much distraction and opportunity for cheating to allow phones to be used. I also hope that should an incident arise where a child walks out of the school bathroom sobbing hysterically with a cellphone in hand because she’s just received news that someone in her family is in some kind of peril – that day the phone usage by that student would be forgotten in the wave of support she would receive in dealing with her crisis.
What I can’t understand or support is any policy which negates the ability of those in charge of enforcement to make a judgment call regarding the situation before them nor can I abide by those who hide behind the policy when making poor decisions. Was it truly necessary to have a 12 year old girl taken from school in handcuffs because she wrote on a desk? What happened to the days of detention and having the offender wash all the desks?
Of course those who make the policy on a national level do so as a knee jerk reaction to widely publicized incidents instead of actual data! “The truth is that there is no comprehensive, mandatory federal school crime reporting and tracking of actual school crime incidents for K-12 schools. Federal school crime and violence data consists primarily of a hodgepodge collection of over a half-dozen academic surveys and research studies. This data is often mistakenly perceived by policymakers, the media, and others as a reflection of the number of actual crime and violence incidents, and as credible trend indicators of school crime and violence occurring in our schools.” So why should we expect our local policy makers to act differently? This is mirrored by the recent actions of the local School Committee in making immediate changes in their transportation policy in response to one incident which made the local TV news despite the repeated success of their previous policy on a daily basis.
Then I read this article about the relationship between the Zero Tolerance legislation and the NCLB legislation and the combined effects on our students. You’re going to want some time before you open that link as the pdf is 56 pages. The pdf report made, much more eloquently than I ever would, many of the points I’ve tried to discuss since I’ve been learning about our education system. Here is one such point: “Rather than viewing schools as places where young people should be nurtured, supported and developed to their full potential, zero tolerance treats students as adversaries or threats to be suppressed or even discarded in the quest for good schools. High-stakes testing regards our youth as products to be tested, measured and made more uniform. Each of these policies has too often been inappropriately substituted for meaningful education reform.”
As a society, we have allowed our fear to overwhelm us. Our schools are slowly turning into miniature prison like environments complete with security cameras and metal detectors and we are expecting our children to respond positively to this! Then we add more rigorous and more frequent standardized testing with ever higher penalties for failure for both the student and the school and we expect our children to respond positively to this as well!
Again from the pdf report: “The impact of high-stakes testing on the classroom has been well-documented. Test-driven reforms have had a significant narrowing effect on school curricula, leading to untested subjects like science, social studies, art and physical education being excluded or de-emphasized. Because so much is riding on the outcome of standardized tests, meaningful instruction that supports the development of higher order skills like critical thinking is suffocated and often replaced by “drill and kill” techniques, rote memorization exercises and teaching to the test.” We’ve seen this locally with the budget discussions where the “encore” programs (Gym, Art and Music) are reduced and Social Studies textbooks are pushed to the bottom of the priority list every year because “Social Studies is not yet on the test.”
When you thrust groups of students into an environment which gets more confining and allows less interaction and expression and then bore them with curriculum which has taken the discovery enthusiasm out of learning you are setting students up for failure. Look at private sector employment – think of the “water cooler” moments where adults are allowed to get up and stretch and socialize. Consider how much of one’s day involves taking a minute for a personal email or checking out a favorite blog or shopping site or facebook. Now look at a student’s day and think about how cooped up and stir crazy our children must feel with less opportunity for those “water cooler” moments like recess or art or gym in addition to the immense pressure of grades and testing. Imagine if at the end of every week your boss administered a two hour exam to determine if you were going to get the paycheck you worked all week for!
And how has all of this impacted graduation rates? Have we achieved increased proficiency? Are we really doing right by our students? No. Graduation rates are falling and more people are choosing to obtain a GED instead of a High School Diploma. Again from the pdf report with additional links: “recently-released data show that the nation’s graduation rate in 2006 – 69% - was the lowest it has been since before NCLB was passed. Of particular concern is that the rates for Black and Latino students – 51% and 55%, respectively – dropped significantly from 2005 to 2006. Additionally, in 2008, the number of persons taking the GED test was at its highest level since before NCLB.” Can we please stop legislating our children’s education into the abyss and enact some education reform that is perhaps actual reform and includes actual education?
In this New York Times article an Arizona town has managed to take bus time and turn it into class time. I applaud them for managing to make investments in technology despite the down-turned economy.
From the comments in the article they’ve managed to use a relatively small investment to turn the rowdy bus trips into quiet, safer, study times. Even the kids who weren’t submitting homework were busy and quiet pursuing their own interests. The router costs about $200 and the service contract is $60/month according to the article. $920 for the first calendar year is a small price for connectivity. Imagine the opportunity for students who are trying to balance participation in sports with academics if they could bring along a laptop and do homework or research or studying during bus rides. Its far more tenable to type up a report on a bumpy bus trip than it is to write one in a notebook with a pen.
Of course the Arizona town has made technology a priority for their schools: “The district has taken technological initiatives before. In 2005, it inaugurated Empire High as a digital school, with the district issuing students laptops instead of textbooks, and more than 100 built-in wireless access points offering a powerful Internet signal in every classroom and even on the football field.”
The issuance of laptops instead of textbooks sounds pricey but after listening to the estimates on what textbooks currently cost; the laptops are a much better investment over time. The average textbook for high school students for example is $60 and each student needs at least 5 textbooks. That $300 could buy a perfectly serviceable laptop computer instead.
Perhaps we need a “Technology Project” instead of a “Textbook Project” to replace the textbooks with laptops and determine an initiative to give kids who provide their own laptops instead of taking the school provided one some kind of benefit or incentive? Lets look for creative ways to provide more technology to our schools and truly prepare our students for the opportunities and challenges their future brings.
I’m very glad I opted to go to Family Fun Night at Kreuger’s Restaurant to support the Crowell Elementary School instead of sitting in the audience at the School Committee Meeting feeling my blood pressure soar. I’ve been watching the meeting in my spare moments since I faithfully recorded it on the DVR to watch over the weekend.
Listening to the dozen or so subcommittees assigned at the meeting there should be lots of great information coming before the committee over the next few meetings. I’m not going to hold my breath. I checked the board outside the city clerk’s office looking for sub committee meetings and saw none.
Then the committee started arguing about textbooks. We’ve gotten a few large donations for books and to those who donated I say THANK YOU! But I think the committee forgets how expensive textbooks really are! Each book is $60 – $100. The administration has a plan to purchase books for the students. Unfortunately, to purchase enough books and materials in one subject each year to keep current on a 5 year rotation requires $1.25 million dollars each year. So while $70k is a lot of money – its a fraction of the need and should not be overblown in the public’s eye for political posturing.
At one point in the meeting Mr Toohey announced that he and Mr Bevilacqua would be visiting schools to speak with the principals and to see the schools needs firsthand to have a better idea of what’s happening in each school before budget preparation. Um yay! But why haven’t they been doing this all along? Seriously – how does one sit on a committee and oversee a school district and not actually go to the schools and have a working relationship with the principals of said schools? And is this a one time visit or will the members of the committee actually be cultivating these relationships going forward? The members of the committee like to bash Dr Buchanan for not getting them enough information to make educated decisions but these people cannot expect to be spoon fed every piece of information they need with no action required on their part. Communication happens in two directions and the members of the committee must take it upon themselves to seek the information they require instead of merely complaining they don’t have it.
Towards the 9:30pm mark certain members of the committee began commenting on the lateness of the hour. I dare say they drag these meetings out unnecessarily themselves. I suggest having a rotation for members to say thank you to the presenters so that we don’t have six people weighing in with their 5 minute dissertation on how wonderful and life affirming their presentation was. This would save half an hour for every presentation given and help the stenographer greatly!
We’re into February now and so far I don’t see the School Committee having improved in any measurable way. I’m going to assume they need a settling in period for the new people and hope the meeting on the 11th brings good things.
I went to the School Committee Meeting cautiously optimistic. The meeting started wonderfully; Tilton School Principal, Mary Beth Maranto, announced a grant from Cabot Corporation for $10,000 in science materials for the school. The Employees of Cabot also held a crayon drive and donated boxes of crayons, markers and pencils to the children. Thank you people of Cabot Corporation – I had to Google the company when I returned home as I always equate the brand name of Cabot with cheese!
The donation was met with applause and the usual pandering by the members of the committee to the organization. I realize everyone is appreciative of these gifts to our children but perhaps the School Committee President can speak on behalf of all of the members of the committee and say thank you instead of each individual member speaking for 5 minutes and making the meetings unnecessarily long.
Moving forward with the agenda, School Committee President Scott Wood stepped down as president and the committee elected Shaun Toohey to replace him. Mr. Toohey’s first act as president was to preside over the election of his Vice President, Joeseph Bevilacqua. I must admit to cringing every time Mr. Magliocchetti referred to Mr. Bevilacqua as “Joey.”
Right about here the meeting turned less into a School Committee Meeting and more into the Paul Magliocchetti Show. The paper has lauded him as an instrument of reason and change within the School Committee but I do not believe this to be true. Let us look at the six items he placed on the agenda for this meeting:
1) Budget Breakdown. Mr. Magliocchetti requested a “brief” breakdown of funding from the City, State, Federal and Private sources by percentage. Nothing about the funding of schools is brief which he could have learned at the Parent Academy Presentation: How Schools are Funded. He could also have met with Dr Buchanan and Kara Kosmes to receive an in depth education on this matter. Having it as an agenda item served only to make him look busier.
2) Improvement of District Student Achievement. Again this is not something that can be briefly summarized. Perhaps in his research he could have attended some of the meetings where this issue has been beaten to death? The Superintendant had a meeting with his Principals to discuss this issue at Mr. Magliocchetti’s request – perhaps he could have attended that meeting instead of asking all of the Principals to come out yet again to rehash the discussion.
3) Status Report on Athletic Program at HHS by Garin Veris. I could have given Ms Danehy’s report about the goals Mr. Veris has for our Athletics Department. Indeed I mentioned many of the items in my Meet the Administrator: Garin Veris post just days ago! Perhaps in his zeal to become as up to date as possible on issues facing the School Committee, Mr. Magliocchetti could have attended the sub committee meeting himself? These meetings are posted and open to the public!
4) Superintendant’s Plan for Coordination of District-wide Middle and High School Athletic Program. I don’t see why number 4 is separated out from number three. I have to assume that Dr Buchanan is working with Garin Veris on a regular basis to ensure that both men are on the same page going forward with the plan to involve the HHS athletes and coaches at our Middle Schools to spur interest in our many athletic offerings.
5) Superintendant’s Plan for Viable District Band Program. Yes, we need a marching band. Many people equate our lack of a marching band with a lack of a music program in general. We have a Jazz Band. Unfortunately the children in Haverhill don’t want to play the clarinet or the flute – they want to play the drums and the guitar. They also prefer Jazz over standard marching band fare. We need someone to get these kids excited and interested in playing for the marching band. I understand this is an important issue and an embarrassing one. I too want to see it rectified. Who will the charismatic leader who resurrects the band be?
6) Report from the Superintendant on District Class Sizes. Why again is this a separate line item? Could we not have batched this up with number 2 earlier than mid meeting? I know the class size data is readily available from the administration and has been provided at many prior meetings. For someone looking to “hit the ground running” maybe he should have run over to City Hall and picked up a copy. The class size debate held much of the 2009-2010 budgeting discussion as we listened to the impact of cuts on class sizes and many trade offs were made with programs on one side of the seesaw and class size on the other. I am concerned with some comments about if we did lower class size we would not have physical classroom space for the extra classes. Many of our schools are full!
Now that we have the tutorial portion of the meeting out of the way I would like to address a couple of other issues. The School Department is looking to have the SPED portion of the budget audited by an independent company. According to the company: If we do not save you money you do not have to pay! I look forward to the results of this but fear we won’t save as much as is expected due to the increasing number of unfunded mandates and decreasing reimbursement funding.
The Textbook Project is a wonderful resource for our students. I am thankful to the gentleman who donated $20,000 in memory of his late wife. I am thankful to everyone who donates even $1 to this worthy cause. I doubt any of them want their money to pay interest fees. Mr. Bevilacqua likes to expound about how his idea to bond textbooks was fiscally responsible for the taxpayers here in Haverhill. I need to question how incurring unnecessary finance charges is fiscally responsible for the taxpayers. I also need to question how for textbooks Mr. Bevilacqua feels bonds are appropriate and yet later in the budget portion of the meeting he demands stricter budgeting and “living within our means.” Can we please support Dr Buchanan’s plan to use this money for the $135k in math textbooks the department needs to purchase next year? Can we also appreciate that the donations recently received have placed the value of the Textbook Project account significantly higher than it usually is and that no one is hiding funding in the Textbook Project Account? May we also please note that $75,000 is approximately $10 per child currently in the HPS and that $10 will not buy a book for anyone? I was saddened to hear that the $20,000 donation would only purchase approximately 300 books!
The next item up for discussion is that items do get sent to Sub Committee to die. And the School Committee did indeed drop the ball on having sent the Janitorial issue to subcommittee and then having nothing happen. Considering one of the members of the sub committee never learned he was on the committee I am not surprised. Of course if the minutes of the meeting had been properly reviewed by the member in question perhaps he could have seen he was elected to a sub committee and followed up properly. Much like students missing a day of school have to make up missed work – members missing a meeting must also catch up! This resulted in a long talk about policy which I will not rehash here. You can thank me later.
Dr Buchanan announced Haverhill’s submission to be considered for the Race to the Top initiative and everyone thanked the Union for its support of this program. Apparently other cities are unable to participate because their Teacher’s Union would not sign the paperwork. This is an opportunity for a large influx of money and resources to come to our district for our students. We are currently a level 3 district and I am ashamed that Mr. Toohey needed to ask this question of Dr Buchanan at the meeting. I mentioned this lack in knowledge to Mr. Toohey as we were leaving and he cited a lack of communication. Communication is a two way street and I have a difficult time believing that as a parent I have greater access to information about our school district than a member of our School Committee.
In closing, I would like to thank Mayor Fiorentini for reminding us that while we do focus a lot on the cuts and on the programs we wish we could have – we need to spend more time on the great programs and achievements we do have. To that end I encourage everyone to attend the upcoming Parent Academy: Enrichment Activities for Students and see for yourselves some of the great programs available in our schools today.
Have a great weekend!
Only one of the non incumbent candidates attended the meeting Thursday. I know Ms Hetel feels I need to respect other’s opinions on this subject but in actuality I do not. My opinion on this issue is just as valid as the other candidate’s opinions and I am allowed to shout my opinion from the rooftops – or write about it here – should I so desire.
Mr Magliochetti, the lone candidate in attendance, breezed in late and left early. He also picked Shaun Toohey as his panel member du jour. He pulled Mr Toohey into the hallway “to ask him a question.” Thankfully he did not hold up a vote this week (although he did last week) keeping committee members in the hallway! I am left to wonder if he had a question or if he had a suggestion for Mr Toohey. Shortly after their meeting in the hallway Mr Toohey gave his MCAS feedback and then winked at Mr Magliochetti.
Speaking of MCAS, I am enthusiastic about the “Growth Model” method of evaluating school district performance and hope to find this enacted soon. Our current method of taking 3rd graders who have never taken the test before and comparing them to next year’s 3rd graders who have also never taken the test before and expecting huge gains each year is asinine! The growth model would follow what are called “cohort groups.” They essentially take the 3rd graders who test in any individual year and follow them throughout their academic career and measure how their achievements rise during those years culminating, theoretically, with every student in the group scoring proficient or above on the MCAS test.
I would like to mention how competitive the MCAS is. While we are frustrated by slow to rise scores for our students I would like to look outside our state for just a moment. Students in Massachusetts scored top in the nation in Reading and fourth in the nation – tied with New Hampshire – in Math. More information regarding how well Massachusetts students are doing compared to other states can be found on the NAEP website.
Accountability is a large portion of the new assessment criteria. I like the idea of holding educators responsible for making scores rise but I wonder how feasible this truly is. There will always be children you just cannot get to test well for a number of reasons. I look at the classrooms my daughter has attended and there are 20+ children all at different cognitive levels, coming from differing backgrounds with different value placed on education by their parents and different learning styles. I wonder how they manage to teach as much as they do! On the flip side I have also seen classrooms where it is painfully obvious the teacher has lost control of the class completely and should no longer be in front of students. Thankfully the latter is extremely rare.
On an up note 110 students received the Abigail Adams Scholarship – up six from last year – which is a tuition waiver to certain colleges in the state. Congratulations!
Sadly, tuition is but a small part of the cost of college. Colleges have skirted the regulations on tuition increases by charging ever skyrocketing fees. Books are another very costly item for students which they are required to purchase each semester. While I don’t know what can be done about fees I hope more professors opt for free textbook programs like Flat World or Wikibooks.
Stay tuned for Thursday’s meeting recap part two… tomorrow!
