Update 2: So I have seen a message from President Liza Rankin on why she, Director Evan Briggs, and Director Michelle Sarju backed out of this meeting. In a nutshell: - She says there was no organization to the meeting which is just not true. They had a moderator lined up and naturally the board members could have set parameters for what to discuss, length of meeting, etc. All that was fleshed out. - She also claimed that if the meeting was PTA sponsored, they needed to have liability insurance to use the school space. Hello? PTAs use school space all the time and know they have to have this insurance. - She seems to be worried about the Open Public Meetings law. Look, if she has a meeting in a school building on a non-personnel topic, it should be an open meeting. It appears that Rankin is trying, over and over, to narrow the window of access that parents have to Board members. She even says in her message - "...with decisions made in public." Hmmm - She also says that th
Comments
-during a School Board race, all 6 of the candidates endorsed her Plan for Excellence and all supported her as superintendent
-she inherited a financial problem similiar to the one Raj Manhas did
-she has had special training as a super through a group called the Broad Foundation
-she added signing bonuses for teachers who teach math and special ed
-she advocates a robust vocational ed
-I appreciated her remark that it is not about her or the SB members but "the collective determination of this community to work together for a common goal".
-Charleston appears to have a discipline problem - their code of conduct book is 36(!)pages long with a glossary of terms that parents and students have to sign
-tried to place a principal in two schools in violation of code
Mr. Thorton
-helped create a teacher institute with U of Penn.
-tried to get a superintendent job in Dayton, Ohio in 2000 but was not selected
-has a system - School Stat - that is very in-depth in getting data on a regular basis to principals on how schools are doing
Both these candidates have impressive backgrounds and both are African-American. I look forward to meeting both and hearing from them later this week.
I did speak with a reporter this afternoon. He seemed to think my concerns - wanting a quarterback who is a team player, wanting someone who can make a reasoned decision and then stick with it and wanting someone that teachers and parents can look to for leadership - was more style over substance. I told him that I (and other parents) cannot vet these people. I am counting on the Board members (leaders) to do their job and vet them for me on issues of qualifications and progress shown. I need to know that a person can lead and work collectively with others and communicate that work effectively to the public.
"Vallas conceded that Chief Academic Officer Greg Thornton and administrator Rosalind Chivis both accepted a trip to South Africa in June 2004, that was paid partially for by educational software manufacturer Plato Learning, Inc.
Six months later Thornton and Chivis participated in a no-bid award of a $1 million contract from the school district to Plato...[School District CEO Paul] Vallas said that..."At the very least [Thornton and Chivis] should have recused themselves. With the trip and the contract being awarded there was a violation of the ethics policy, a serious violation."
http://www.wcsc.com/news/state/6634687.html
On the otherhand-
I really liked what Gregory Thornton had to say in the Chronicle for Higher Education
re K-16
( part of it for those who aren't subscribers)
Gregory Thornton responds:
Right now, the specialty programs like White-Williams Scholars, Gear Up, a variety of TRIO programs, Philadelphia Futures, College Access, Student Success Centers, etc., are the most helpful to us. While we work on aligning our standards with those of colleges, such programs provide needed support for disadvantaged students to make sure that they are sufficiently prepared.
Without question, K-16 programs improve access for low-income and minority students. We find that many of our young people, who might not otherwise have considered higher education, respond favorably to visits to college campuses and exposure to students and faculty members. We have institutionalized those kinds of services in our Student Success Centers, which house planning resources for students to help them move successfully toward postsecondary participation. Furthermore, regular meetings of high-school faculty members with representatives from the city's major higher-education institutions help us to align core curricular offerings and assessments across the secondary-postsecondary divide. A college-prep working group has also recently been initiated in the region, with leadership from various universities and college-prep institutions, to speak with one voice on the priorities and strategies to ensure high levels of college entrance and completion.
Thus I suggest undertaking two types of strategies for other districts. First: putting in place a series of high-quality motivational experiences for young people, getting them excited about the possibility of participating in higher education, and giving them opportunities to have firsthand experiences on campuses with students and faculty members. Second: developing a K-16 consortium that promotes readiness for college and careers. Several kinds of activities come to mind:
*
Identify the higher-education institutions where high schools send significant numbers of students, and develop a mechanism for reporting back from those institutions to individual high schools on how well their students performed during their first and second semesters of postsecondary work. That could lead to customized recommendations for preparation of future students.
*
In crafting major examinations (e.g., midterm and end-of-course exams), particularly for seniors, involve higher-education faculty members who teach first-year courses to ensure that the assessments are sufficiently rigorous to move students toward college.
*
Ask higher-education institutions that admit large numbers of a district's students to share their placement exams in English and math (at a minimum), and strongly encourage high-school juniors to take them as a means to determine whether they would place into credit-bearing courses. If not, then the senior year can be used to take additional courses. That would also involve professional development, provided by colleges, for teachers on the course work needed for students to be ready.
*
Promote dual-enrollment programs, which, by their very nature, require collaboration among faculty members across secondary and postsecondary education.
Pennsylvania's Commission on College and Career Success, an 18-member panel of state, higher-education, K-12, and business leaders, will make a series of recommendations, by December 2006, on increasing the readiness of Pennsylvania's young people for active and productive citizenship. That includes looking at a core curriculum for all high-school students.
Given Pennsylvania's strong tradition of local control, it seems unlikely that our state will mandate a curriculum, regardless of its merits. In Philadelphia, we've developed our own curriculum, which we believe does, in fact, prepare our students for success. Having gone through the process, however, I can tell you that it is extremely time-consuming and expensive. Therefore, if the commission could develop a proposed college- and career-ready curriculum for districts to consider, even if adoption were voluntary, that would be of considerable value.
I believe that most educators understand the importance of developing common expectations among K-12 and postsecondary institutions on core academic skills. So why doesn't it happen more often? One reason, certainly, is the amount of time that it takes to do it well. Teachers teach, administrators manage, and students study and, we hope, learn. It takes a major commitment of all parties to find the time to sit down and thoughtfully consider how to align curricula and assessments. Another obstacle is leadership: Alignment must be viewed as "mission critical." In addition, we often talk about the academic component of college success but forget about the cultural transition. Preparing African-American and Latino students for predominantly white, middle-class campuses is often not something that is adequately addressed.
I'm pleased that a number of voices are now being raised in this cause. The Education Trust, Achieve Inc., and the National Governors Association are among the growing number of national organizations that are championing college and career readiness. So, despite the obstacles, I'm optimistic that we will continue to make progress.