Latest CRCT News

CHEATING ON THE TEST!!!!!! Please tell me it isn't so!!!! Well, let me tell you what I know about this latest news since there are several schools in Muscogee County which have been identified as having problems with last year's test.
First, some background. Georgia is one of the States which is applying for the Race To The Top federal money. Muscogee County is one of the systems in Georgia which hopes to receive some of that money. Part of that application is a plan to base teachers' pay on the growth of their students' academic achievement as measured by standardized tests - like the CRCT. Governor Perdue has recently introduced a bill into the General Assembly to use that same plan as described in the Race to The Top application for the whole State of Georgia. If you are going to tie teachers' pay to test scores, you better be able to validate that the tests are accurate measures of the students' performance. So . . . the Governor had the testing company to complete an evaluation of Georgia's tests. Statistically, it was determined how many erasures from the wrong answer to the right answer occurs in a "typical" classroom in Georgia. Then, those classrooms that had more than that amount of erasures were flagged - not just those with a few more erasures than typical, but those with a lot more erasures than typical. If a school had 0-5% of its classes flagged, that school was deemed to be on the CLEAR list - no problem. We had thirty of those - YEA!!!!! I wish the headline had read "MCSD HAD THIRTY SCHOOLS ON THE CLEARED LIST!" There are a whole lot of teachers in those thirty schools!!!
If a school had 6-10% of its classes flagged, that school was labeled as one of minimal concern. We had eight of those - that indicates there was a problem with three or four classrooms out of the whole school. If a school had 11-24% of its classes flagged, that school is of moderate concern - we had seven of these. If a school had more than 25% of its classes flagged, then that school is on the severe concern list - we had two of those.
Does that mean those teachers cheated? Well it could, but it is not an automatic conclusion. Sometimes students begin answering the Reading questions in the Math portion and when it is discovered, all of those answers are erased and the student begins again. Sometimes a student skips the bubble that goes with question 8 and skips to question 9. When that is discovered, the answer sheet is erased and we get the student back on track. Now, granted, that doesn't happen for twenty-five percent of the class, but that is just an example of why some erasures may have occurred. Some of the "classes" identified contain one student with a disability who was being tested independently. IF that student erased too much, then 100% of that class had too many erasures and that teacher/class was flagged. So, you see there are many variables in this issue.

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! Even those schools on the SEVERE list, did not have ALL of their teachers flagged!!

For every class flagged, I will conduct an investigation. The Governor's Office, I understand, is sending Superintendents a template to use in the investigation. But, if the Governor's office doesn't include the questions I want to ask, I will ask my own. The majority of our teachers work extremely hard and no matter how badly they want good test scores, they would NEVER tamper with the test. Having said that, and believing that with all of my heart, the community deserves to know what happened in those classes flagged. I intend to find out if I possibly can!

Why are we losing three more days?

I hate it! You hate it! The Board of Education hates it! So, why are we having to give up three more days in this school year? Well, let me take you back to the beginning of this school year. The fiscal year began July, 2009. Over 85% of the budget is taken up by salaries and benefits for the more than 6000 employees in the Muscogee County School District. We are not out of the ordinary. That is true of all school districts. Immediately after the budget was passed, we were told that the revenue which was projected to fund the State's budget was not being collected. School districts had to cut their budgets by 3.5% AND the Governor was going to withhold three days of salary funds from schools AND that we would most likely be getting additional cuts after the first of the year (2010). The 3.5% of our budget amounted to over $8 million dollars. Many districts laid off employees. We worked hard and put our heads together and found the $8 million dollars to cut and took the three days of furlough. We did receive the stimulus stabilization money from the federal government and that allowed us to transfer some salaries that were paid with State money to the Federal budgets in order to save jobs. That is how we found much of the $8 million we needed for the first round of cuts.
The revenue for the State continued to be collected at 15%, 16% less than was projected. Each month of collections looked more dismal than the month before. We were anticipating more cuts and more days off. When the General Assembly met in Atlanta for the 2010 session the Governor made his recommendations to them. For this current year, he recommended cutting K-12 education another 1.5% and withholding another three days of salary. I was determined that we wouldn't take three more days and called in our Chief Financial Officer and other cabinet members. We combed through the budget looking for more cuts. We found the 1.5% and that was difficult because by now we have only five months left in this fiscal year, only four more months of schools and half the money budgeted has already been spent - much of it on diesel fuel, electricity, textbooks, professional development, and other fixed costs that school districts have. I told the Cabinet that I wanted to find a way to absorb one of the three days so our employees would have to take only two more days off. One day of salaries in Muscogee County equals a little over one million dollars. We finally came to the conclusion that we couldn't cut another 1.5 percent and absorb another million. We looked at taking it out of our fund balance, but this past year we had to use $11 million dollars of that to balance this year's budget. Next year, we will have less stimulus money, less state money, and less other federal dollars. If we use it now, we will have to lay off employees in order to balance the budget next year. We struggled with the decision.
Someone asked why we were moving ahead when this was just a recommendation of the Governor. Well, we needed to determine which days to take and if we had to take them, we wanted to spread out the deductions over as many months as possible to lessen the impact each month on salaries.
Some have commented that there are districts not taking the additional days. I know of one system. The superintendent of that district stated that the system has $40 million dollars in their fund balance; therefore, he could afford to take the money from the fund balance. Their local property values have exploded in the past several years providing them with a great cushion for these hard times. That system is not typical. I have talked to Superintendents all over the State of Georgia and many are in worse shape than we are in. Many are having to borrow money to stay afloat. Some have gone to four day weeks; some have shortened the school year.
I hope it doesn't come to that for us. Even though we could lengthen the school day and go to four-day weeks, we all know that the morning is prime learning time for students when both they and their teachers are fresh. Teaching is hard work and it is hard to stay enthusiastic and engaging as the day goes along.
We will make it through these tough times and when I am in the schools, I see great teaching and students working hard. We have many challenges but I have never seen a time when educators didn't step up and do whatever it takes to make sure students get what they need. This time will be no different. Teachers are strong and resilient. Your children are in good hands!!

I'M BACK!!

Well, did you think I had abandoned the blog?!? To tell you the truth, I haven't had time during the day to write a posting and when I finally reach my warm, cozy home at night, the last thing I want to do is to get back on the computer. I will try to do better!

For those of you who continue to write with questions about standards-based report cards, please let me refer you to Dr. Peggy Connell's blog. It is her department who began that initiative prior to my coming to Muscogee County School District and she can fill you in on the progress of that project. Her blog is full of information that I would only be repeating here.

This past Saturday, the Board of Education met in a retreat setting for the administration to share with them our progress on all things SPLOST! We met for three hours and discussed with them the tremendous amount of work we have been doing so that we can move forward. It is very important that we plan laboriously and that we think of all of the details involved in getting everything in place. We wanted to make sure that we were heading in the direction that the Board of Education wanted us to go and that we were keeping them informed. They provided consensus on our direction and we are moving ahead!

Let me share a few of the items with you. We discussed the pros and cons of different project delivery methods such as design-bid-build, construction-management-at-risk, and bridging. As we prepare to complete each project, we will make a recommendation to the Board about the delivery method we would like to use. Now that the Board has heard the presentation, they will have the information they need to consider our recommendations.

We also talked about whether or not we needed the assistance of an outside project manager. We have a construction department which has done a great job managing projects, but the department personnel is limited, not in their knowledge, but in their time. We will have over $200 million worth of projects and we want to provide them the support they need to keep those projects moving in a productive way. The board agreed that we would develop an RFP for some specific assistance, but we would not hire a program management firm who would be fully responsible for carrying out the projects. Our construction team will continue to lead the way with outside assistance on specific areas.

We also discussed the relocation of Carver students. We shared with the Board our decision-points on the recommendation that we brought to them to move Carver students to Baker Middle School and moving the Baker students to Marshall where they will operate as a school within a school while Carver is being built. There have been many hours of determining how and where we would accomodate the Carver students while the new Carver is being built. We feel confident that this recommendation is the best one and was made after many internal discussions.

We talked about the individual projects and discussed the phases of the projects. We don't have a specific timeline yet because our bond underwriter and financial partner hasn't been selected yet. That firm will assist us in developing our projected cash flow and then we can insert dates into the phases. That recommendation will be coming to the Board at the December 7 meeting.

I will write about the phases in my next posting and tell you our thinking behind the way we developed that. You can see an overview in last Sunday's Ledger-Enquirer article.

As you can see, we have been busy working on strategy, planning this retreat, and getting everything done that we possibly can prior to collecting the first penny on the 2010 SPLOST. Thinking through to the strategic details takes time and effort and the staff has done a great job. The work we are doing now is critical. We have started "with the end in mind" as Stephen Covey teaches and we are working backwards to make sure everything is in place. In the "end" all of the projects will be completed, on time and within budget! That is our goal!!!! I will keep you posted!

Standards-Based Report Cards

I was asked to post a blog about Standards-Based Report Cards. There is so much to talk about on this subject and I am pondering where to begin. I suppose I will begin with the definition of standards:

Standards: Standards are written descriptions of what a child should know or be able to do in a particular subject in a particular grade. For example, a third grade writing standard states: students will write in a variety of genres, including narrative, informational, persuasive, and response to literature. (Third grade students love the word "genre" and like to say it over and over!) A high school Math I standard is that students will investigate properties of a geometric figure in the coordinate plane.

Teachers develop rubrics, similar to checklists, will all of the elements of the standards and they compare student work with the rubrics to determine if a student has mastered or learned the standard and to what level the student has learned the standard.

After this occurs, the teacher must determine how to communicate to the parents how well the child has learned. That is where standards-based report cards come in. The traditional report card and assessment reflects an average of the student's work over time. A standards-based report card should reflect how far along the continuum of mastery of the standard the student has come. The standards-based report card lists all of the standards for each subject taught. That is why it is lengthy and will take up many pages.

The problem that parents face with understanding the standards-based report card is that they are accustomed to seeing an A, B, or C or a percentage (90, 78, 88) as a grade for their child. Parents understand this grading system because it is familiar to them. With a standards-based report card, parents often ask the question: How well did my child learn the content? Did my child learn 70%, 80%, or 90%? Is my child at the top of his/her class, in the middle of the class, or at the bottom of the class? These questions that parents want answered make it difficult to implement true standards-based assessments.

In Muscogee County, all elementary schools are using standards-based report cards for grades K-3. The program was piloted for several years prior to going system-wide. We will continue to monitor the implementation of these communication tools with parents. Your input and comments are appreciated.

For more information on standards-based classrooms, Muscogee County School District has published a brochure entitled Understanding Standards-Based Report Cards.
This is a short explanation. There have been many books written on this subject that are available for parents and educators. Hope this explanation provides you with the beginning of the answers to your questions.

Eighteen Days Until SPLOST Vote

We are eighteen days away from the SPLOST vote. I dread the morning of September
16th and I anticipate the morning of September 16! On that day we will know if we can move forward with the selection of architects and plans for new schools or if we will have to renew our thoughts on how to take care of over 4000 new students without any additional brick and mortar buildings. Either way, there will be plenty of work to do! My hope and desire is that anyone who has not yet decided how they will vote will make their decision based on the facts.

I hope that this vote will be the line that separates the angst and distrust of the past and the sunrise of the future. I hope that we are truly entering an era when we earn more and more of the community's trust by the way we conduct our business in the school district.

It is amazing that every day we transport, feed, and teach over 32,000 students and many days without a single, frightening incident. Our bus drivers get their children to school safely day after day. Our teachers prepare and deliver their lessons consistently day after day. Our food service staff prepare and serve countless meals in a safe environment day after day. Yes, there are complaints that make their way to my office, but the percentage of complaints compared to the number of people we serve is minimal. Yes, we can improve on all of our processes and the way we deliver instruction. Continuous improvement must be our constant desire.

We have increased our sense of urgency in every building. The principals are focused on student achievement. As I have visited PTA Open Houses throughout the district, I have seen families coming into the schools by the hundreds eager to support our work and their children. We are moving in the right direction. I will be glad when September 16 gets here. The results of the vote on the 15th will define where we go from here. I can hardly wait!

Four-Day Week?

I have had many bloggers ask me if the school district has considered a four-day week. The answer is yes, some board members have expressed interest and some employees have expressed interest. We must think very carefully about the impact of this before we seriously consider it. The State Board of Education passed a rule last year stating that school systems had to have school the equivalent of 180 days. This means that you don't have to go 180 days but you must go the same number of hours. This frees local school districts to be more flexible with their calendars. Peach County and Murray County have lengthened their school day and trimmed some days off of their 180 day calendar. Yes, this saves a lot of money as far as transportation costs and operating costs in the district, but where does it create expenses?! It creates child-care expenses for the families. In the case of Muscogee County, there are 32,000 children and thousands of these are under the age of 12. Most of their mothers and daddys and guardians work. The burden of day-care expenses for these children would be difficult for many of these families. The other issue to think about is how productive would we be in that last hour of school if we extended the school day? Could five and six year olds continue to learn at high levels another hour a day? Would teachers have the energy to be creative and continue to engage students for one more hour? Many of the excellent teachers that I know are exhausted at the end of the current day.

A four-day week is certainly something to consider and if the current economic crisis continues to bring budget cuts, this solution may certainly be one that we study with interest. We need to think of all of the issues that surround it. It will be interesting to see how things work in Peach and Murray.

First Week of School

Tomorrow is the first official day back for teachers although many of them have been coming in for several weeks now to get their rooms ready for the students. Thursday is the big day! First day of school. Get to meet your new group of students. Students are nervous and are wondering how it will be. Guess what?! Teachers are a bit nervous, too! I have shared my story with many teachers through the years and most of them begin laughing and nodding their heads because they have done the same thing! Let me tell you about it!

When I taught first grade I would work all summer on lesson plans and units and think about how I would do things differently in the new school year. I would work hard during pre-planning to make my classroom as inviting as possible. The night before the first day of school, I could not sleep. I would stay awake and go through everything I was going to say the first morning back. I would rehearse how I would greet the children, how I would gently usher their mothers out the door so I could have them all by myself, and what I would say on the important first day of school. I would go over my plans in my head, rehearsing, retooling, and working on it. The morning of the first day I would be so excited, yet worn out from lack of sleep! I would get in the classroom and try to make that first day the day of all days - the tone-setter for the rest of the year!

Several years later as I reflected on my career, and by that time, had children of my own, it dawned on me one day! What was I thinking?! Those first graders were just six years old - I could have said anything! I could have made stuff up on the spot! Would they have known the difference?! It's funny now that I look back on it, but even though I laugh, I know how important planning for that first day is. Yes, they were only six, but it is so important for the teacher to be ready for them! I guarantee you they are ready for the teacher!!!!!

I hope all of the teachers who greet students this Thursday will be ready for their students! What a great opportunity to have a fresh start! I pray for safety and that we begin our school year with a sense of urgency that lasts 180 days!