Jacques of all Trades

After Baltimore City teachers vote down contract, Alonso kills ‘em with kindness (or at least mutual respect)

Another example of how Andres Alonso in Baltimore is using mutual respect, even in the face of adversity, to improve relations with teachers and reform public education in the city schools (via Baltimore’s ABC2News).

The city school’s CEO, Dr. Andres Alonso, released a statement, which read: ‘This contract makes a historic shift in how teachers are compensated, in the district’s ability to attract and retain excellent teachers, and in the ability of schools to shape key aspects of school operations. These are essential elements of how we as a district will move forward. Many teachers wanted more information about all the dimensions of the contract and more time to digest what it would mean. I respect the seriousness with which teachers approached the vote and the importance of the questions they have raised. The high turnout for the vote reflects the importance of the contract and the value that teachers place on their work. We are committed to working with teachers until all who voted against the contract understand its benefits or we agree on other conditions that are just as necessary for our schools to move forward as our kids deserve.’

It’s difficult to imagine this kind of gracious statement coming out of the Michelle Rhee administration in DCPS—though her resignation remarks were quite impressive on Wednesday. We’ll see if the tone in DC changes under interim chancellor Kaya Henderson.  If last night’s Vince Gray town hall in Ward 2 was an indication, then mutual respect may be the new name of the game.  

(Previous thoughts on Rhee vs Alonso, in terms of style, can be found here)

Thoughts on Michelle Rhee and Vince Gray’s next move

 iwasjustsayin replied to your link:D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee to announce resignation Wednesday (WaPo)

What is Vince Grays vision?

That is the big question, and here are my quick thoughts (in as many complete sentences as I can pull together at 10 p.m.).  

In the campaign, Gray made his arguments about style, rather than about changing specific policy decisions made by Rhee or Fenty.  Here’s the quick blurb from the Post:

Gray has repeatedly said that he supports an ambitious program of school reform but does not think that changes depend on a single person. In aninterview with The Washington Post last week, he said that if Rhee leaves, he will seek to name a replacement who shares many of her values and not a veteran who has spent several decades in top school jobs. He ruled out Rhee’s predecessor, Clifford Janey, whose name had circulated as a possible replacement.

While I think Gray will take his time and consider young talent, I still wouldn’t be too surprised to see another reasonably big name in ed reform circles come in, such as Rudy Crew, former superintendent/chancellor in New York City and Miami, among others.  On the other hand, the expectation is that Kaya Henderson, Rhee’s deputy, will be named Interim Chancellor, and she could be an intriguing candidate, with stronger D.C. roots than Rhee. 

While some policy changes will be rolled back, I think some of Fenty and Rhee’s most positive and lasting legacies are the repairs made to all of the schools in the District, and the significant shortening of a maintenance backlog that had previously included broken windows that hadn’t been replaced in more than a decade in some schools.  These infrastructure pieces are generally seen as a total positive (though some critics pointed out that not all schools had their repairs done as quickly as others, or pointing out differences in how the district is handling the renovations of Wilson and Ballou High Schools).  A well-maintained school can make a statement to students about how much the community cares, and these facility upgrades, along with generally improved data systems, allow for more people to focus on the quality of education.  I think Gray will benefit from the fact that many of these changes have happened, and that the central administration of DCPS, while still far from a high-functioning organization, seems considerably more responsive than it previously was.  

As to the IMPACT system and other accountability measures put in place by Rhee, we’ll see how Mr. Gray approaches them.  The $75 million in federal Race to the Top funding will lock in a few systems, at least in the short term, and changes in federal education policy will continue to nudge DC in the accountability-based direction of many of Rhee’s reforms.  

While we don’t know yet how Mr. Gray’s vision for education reform will play out on the ground level, we do know that he has an understanding of building alliances and support that the outgoing administration certainly lacked, and so while he may not move as quickly as Fenty and Rhee did in the “no excuses” direction, he is also not likely to alienate the supporters of those steps by moving 180 degrees in the opposite direction, and he will also likely make some moves to keep some of the talent that was brought in with a strong inclination to help revamp D.C.’s failing schools.  Those retention efforts will be critical not only from a human capital standpoint (keeping talent), but also for basic continuity of operations of this complex and important system.

On the other hand, the huge budget gap facing D.C. government for the next fiscal year means he will have to make some tough choices about what to cut, and it is not likely that he will be able to make a lot of headway in the immediate term on his campaign promise to focus on “the entire educational spectrum” from Pre-K to community college and beyond.  

Any thoughts?

If you thought the broom was bad…

Here’s the latest Michelle Rhee cover art, this one for Education Next’s profile, “D.C.’s Braveheart.”

After a brief spell in which the Rhee-DCPS administration was starting to show a warmer, more PR-savvy side, this is not going to help.

Putting aside the historical inaccuracies (William Wallace, at least in the Mel Gibson version, would have laughed at the idea of wearing so much armor), it’s another data-point favoring the “reformer fights bad schools” story, which continues to be a detriment to Rhee’s efforts. 

This storyline—while helpful in some true believer corners—will not generate the broader goodwill necessary for lasting positive change in DCPS.  That goodwill is particularly crucial in light of developments like the recent teacher-performance-data-system release, paired with the budget-forced layoffs of more than 200 teachers without explanation. 

The helpful story, which continues to elude DCPS, at least in terms of the media narrative is “Rhee administration—and DCPS teachers and staff—helps students achieve new heights, previously unheard-of.”  That’s a storyline in which everyone can celebrate success.

Instead of shared improvement and shared success, Rhee’s reforms continue to be cast (whether by DCPS’s own doing, or just because it is a useful media framing) as ”us-vs-them,” alienating a significant number of actors both within and outside the schools that could be potential partners. This turns school reform into partisan politics, where many people who care a lot about children may find themselves rooting against the success of DCPS, because Rhee’s policies have cast them as “losers” in school reform “wins.” 

Ugh.

(for more of my thoughts on ed reform and storytelling, click here).

Rhee, DCPS roll out merit-pay, without the pay

As noted in today’s Washington Post article, “New D.C. Teacher Ratings Stress Better Test Scores”

D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee has launched a rigorous evaluation system that will make some District teachers among the first in the nation to have their job security tied to standardized test scores.

The effort to hold teachers accountable for student progress, which began last week, is a cornerstone of Rhee’s agenda and a goal for education reformers nationwide. They contend that the best way to improve schools is to continuously monitor and improve teacher performance. The “value added” — what instructors contribute to student growth on tests — is a more meaningful indicator of progress than the absolute numerical targets in the federal No Child Left Behind law, advocates say.

If launched effectively, “value added” measures can be an excellent measure for determining teacher’s effectiveness.  This comes with two major caveats,

• The tests must effectively, accurately, and precisely measure the skills or content standards as laid out in the grade level and/or subject area curriculum.
• The year-to-year tests must by well-aligned. 
• The baseline for value-add should have some ability to allow context, whether it’s as crude as using a three-year average percentile (so that the student’s success with the immediate previous teacher is not the only knowledge point), or something more complex that takes into account demographic, cognitive, non-cognitive, or other factors that impact student learning. 

Assuming that these points are addressed in some way(a big assumption), value-added measures can be part of a highly-effective performance management system, along with supervisor/peer/expert observations or evaluations. The 50/50 split between DC-CAS test scores and classroom observations in creating the evaluation program is a good step in this direction.

The big shame, though, is that (whether you blame the delay on Rhee’s team, the union, or both) this system is now set up for essentially all carrot, no stick—due to the lack of the companion “merit pay” piece that was originally a major feature of the plane. 

(Click for my other education and ed reform thoughts)

Michelle Rhee & DCPS: 200+ pages, 1 big missed storytelling opportunity

DC Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee unveiled a new set of expectations for DCPS teachers last week, codified in a 200+ document and announced to teachers last week, a.k.a. a week before students arrive. Some examples from the Washington Post story:

A highly skilled teacher should never have more than five instances of “inappropriate or off-task behavior” by students within a half-hour of class time. At least three times in that span, an instructor should respond to students’ correct answers by “probing for higher-level understanding” of the idea being discussed. And no more than three minutes of teaching time should be lost to poor organization or planning.

These attributes are included in a strikingly detailed set of guidelines and strategies presented to District teachers last week. The 200-plus-page document, the “DCPS Teaching and Learning Framework,” is part of a wave of change about to hit students, instructors and parents when classes begin Monday.

Reaction has been underwhelming, to say the least.   

From DCist:

In fact, only Vulcans need apply to teach in Rhee’s school district. Some of the qualities she insists on in good school teachers don’t really even apply to the instructors. Have you ever met schoolchildren? They are savages. Teachers should consider themselves lucky if they’re assigned students who limit their savagery to “off-task behavior.”

Rhee’s 200-some-odd-page “DCPS Teaching and Learning Framework” sounds like the sort of thing that gets delivered on Mount Sinai: a document that doesn’t merely clarify the aspects of the job that need clarifying but instead signals a shift in the company’s direction.

From the aptly named blog, “The Frustrated Teacher”:

The thing about these kinds of prescriptions is that they are not really in the control of the teacher. Sure, sometimes the teacher can control all aspects of a child’s behavior (I don’t really believe that) but sometimes, a kid is just going to freak out, be off task, and there’s not one thing the teacher can do about it. And Rhee will ding that teacher!

The scope of change that Rhee is attempting to make at DCPS is admirable and daunting, and it is true that some of Rhee’s detractors will find fault with any new changes she and her department attempt to institute. 

However, as I’ve mentioned on this blog before, the Fenty/Rhee DCPS administration is fighting two battles:

1. Raising student expectations, achievement, attendance, and reputation; and
2. Second, in selling their reforms to the stakeholders who will pass judgment

Per the second battle, this document represents another misstep for Rhee and DCPS leadership in telling their story.  Producing a new set of expectations is great, and clearly needed, as are many of the steps being undertaken to improve the quality of teaching in the district.  (And as $500 million of Gates Foundation money has made clear, teacher quality is the new most important thing for schools to chase). 

But two major mistakes could have been easily fixed, and one effective addition made, to turn this latest attempt from a punchline into a promising development.   

Length - Surely, this summer’s health care debate have shown that the optics of an official document numbering in the three digits are not very good, to say the least.  There is most assuredly a lot of important material contained in this document, but the simple assertion of a “framework” numbering more than 200 pages makes one wonder, “how long is the fleshed-out version?” 

Timing - The beginning of the school year is a great time to set a new tone, but students hit the schools today, and the framework went to teachers last week.  It is highly improbable that a teacher prepping for the new school year would have the opportunity to read, nevermind digest and apply, the tenets/suggestions contained within. 

Context - This is the most important issue at play here.  It is possible that the framework itself is filled with great examples of DC teachers who exemplify the quality teaching traits—this would be a great place to highlight them.  The framework could also employ the voices of DCPS students talking about excellent teachers and how their skills impacted student achievement.  All of that information may be in the framework, but given the reports thus far, there is no evidence of that context, that personal story. 

And without that critical story being told, the public is given what appears to be another onerous set of rules, from an administration that is, yes, ambitious to create change, but also often described as out of touch with the realities of the classroom. 

We have seen Ms. Rhee adapt before, and her administration’s approach to the press and the public has notably softened since the low points of last summer and fall.  I have confidence that they will learn some lessons from this incident as well.  But for the moment this latest rollout remains, if not a huge mistake, a big missed opportunity.   (And with the only other DCPS story being Mayor Fenty placing his children in an out-of-neighborhood school, it’s not the most promising PR start to what should be a promising year).