Kennewick School Board Meeting August 25, 2010
The most discussed issue of this meeting was planning for workshops. Workshops have been conducted at each of the district schools as an opportunity for building administration and staff to formally report standardized test scores to the board. In June four proposals were under consideration by the board. August 11 a fifth proposal was offered by Dawn Adams who later consulted with Dave Bond. Adams’ idea is to have district staff report instead to members of the community. This must happen soon so district administration will immediately select “influential” community “leaders” and train them to understand the data. These community members will meet with building administrators from the 14 elementaries and 7 or more secondary schools during September.
Bond presented the initial four proposals then quickly moved to proposal five. The purpose of this new style of workshop is to make parents more aware of the data. Community members will hear the data then report to the school board. This group would act like an academic advisory committee first hearing and studying the data then making recommendations to the board.
Some members of the board believe these workshops have effectively raised student test scores. Engaging the community in the process is expected to lead to more improvements.
Discussion was about managing the selection and training of community members and scheduling presentations. This needs to happen in short order. Then the citizen groups must meet with the board to make recommendations. Concern was raised that this new process demands attention from district and building administrators during the opening of schools for the new academic year when other needs are a high priority.
The motion passed with votes from Dawn Adams, Heather Kintzley and Lynn Fielding. Opposed were Kathy White and Wendy London.
My questions are:
The data exists and is available to the public from the state and other sources. Is it good use of district and building administrators’ time to present what is already known at a series of board meetings? Will this knowledge be more useful filtered through a few community members before going to the board?
Can this new style workshop be effectively implemented the first month of this school year?
If the intention is to engage the community are there other means to achieve this goal more meaningfully with a broader representation of parents and other citizens?
The board’s job is to make district policy. Is this smart use of board time when significant federal education policy issues and state education funding issues need to studied and addressed?
District administration is charged with managing district business. Aren’t they already busy with essential tasks operating the schools?
How about attention to researched-based best practices in education?
Is this focus on one set of data helpful when multiple measures of student performance more reliably inform teachers of what students need?
Is it likely these workshops have had any effect on student test scores?
Is there a trust issue among the board, administration and teachers about the work of improving student achievement?
Other business:
Akshai Baskaran, Kennewick High School senior, was sworn in as the first student representative to the school board. Among his duties will be to present mid-year and end of school year reports regarding the ASB’s at the three high schools.
Washington State is appealing a judge’s ruling in favor of school districts which sued for adequate funding of public schools. School districts are asked to support a resolution favoring the original ruling. Kennewick will review the costs of supporting the resolution which could be as much as $1.95 per student. Action will be taken at a future board meeting.
The board adopted a meeting calendar for the 2010/2011 school year. September 8 and 22, October 13 and 27, November 17, December 15, January 12 and 26, February 9 and 23, March 9 and 23, April 20, May 11 and 25, June 15, July 20, August 17.
Cottonwood Elementary is opening with 526 students which makes it second largest of the elementaries behind Ridgeview with 550 students.
Dave Bond presented a schedule for department and curriculum reports to the school board. Some reports will be presented at board meetings while others will be submitted as written reports throughout the school year.
To me the big concern is this continued obsession with test scores and how to improve them in light of all the recent information pointing out the lack of success of this strategy in the long-term development of the children. We have detailed the concern and listed research elsewhere on this site, but Dianne Ravitch, former Deputy Secretary of Education in the Bush I administration, has looked at the research and admitted she was wrong to promote NCLB and its testing protocols. Why? Because, she says, it has not worked and has narrowed the curriculum and increased the dropout rates across the country. Read a Q and A with Washington Post reporter Valerie Strauss at < http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/diane-ravitch/ravitch-to-obama-change-course.html>