Joel Klein Talks School System Dysfunction at #EIE14

Joel Klein, the former Chancellor for NYC public schools spoke during the luncheon this afternoon at the Foundation for Excellence in Education's School Reform Summit 2014.

Mr. Klein spoke about his worry that the public school systems in America are by and large broken and dysfunctional.  From the lack of opportunity for minority students in urban districts, to schools that lack rigor, leading to graduates that are leaving school unprepared for college and/or careers, there are numerous problems he feels must be addressed.  He stressed the idea that parental engagement can be leveraged when parents are given choice in the education of their students.  He railed against the failed system of "due proces for adjudicating employee discipline issues.  Klein stressed the need to reform these practices that can take years to complete under the current system.

#EIE14

I feel incredibly fortunate to be headed to The Foundation for Excellence in Education's National Summit on School Reform 2014 in Washington DC. So far as I understand it, only a handful of Florida's approximately 350 School Board members will be attending this event, so I'm excited to be one of the very few board members invited to attend.  I am a passionate advocate for school choice, I've discussed it over and over and over on this blog--so I definitely look forward to participating in most of the seminars and meeting many of the panelists and moderators.

This event is the Mecca for School Reformers and all of the heavy hitters from the School Reform movement around the country will be there.

 Among the notable attendees and presenters, are the following:

 Jeb Bush
Joel Klein
Condoleezza Rice
Patricia Levesque
Gary Chartrand
Bill Galvano
Robert Enlow
Juan Williams (Fox News)
Campbell Brown (former CNN reporter)


 National Summit on Education Reform 2014 Washington Marriott Wardman Park – Washington, DC Thursday, November 20, 2014-Friday, November 21, 2014

 8:45–9:30AM Opening Keynote: Governor Jeb Bush, Chairman of the Foundation for Excellence in Education

 9:45–11:00AM Strategy Sessions: Strategy Session I – Measurement 2.0: Elevating Students by Testing What You Teach States are adopting more rigorous academic standards.  Moderator: Michael McShane, Research Fellow in Education Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute 
Panelists: Scott Jensen, Senior Advisor, American Federation for Children
Adam Peshek, State Policy Director, Foundation for Excellence in Education
Doug Tuthill, President, Step Up For Students



The full itinerary and list of moderators and panelists can  be found  on the Foundation for Excellence in Education website, here.

Voters Have Reconstituted the Same School Board

I was proud to swear-in for another term on the School Board last night, and I was proud to have my family with me for the event.  Thank you district 1 for sending me back unopposed!

At this meeting, the installation meeting, all three board members that were up for re-election were returned to their seats by the voters and sworn in. In this age of a very fickle electorate, this speaks volumes for the work of every employee in the Escambia County School District.  

An additional point that deserves mention is the fact that of the last 5 board member district elections, 4 of those elections resulted in the incumbent being returned to office unopposed.  Again--that speaks volumes about the hard work the district employees have put in, which has resulted in the electorate returning us unopposed; if the public thought we were not doing our jobs they would turn us out, it's as simple as that.   To have the same board and Superintendent in place for six years running, with at least two more years guaranteed after this installation, it is somewhat of an historic event on the board.  

Superintendent Thomas mentioned during the meeting that to the best of his knowledge, this would be the longest period of time in the recent history of the board that such stability had occurred with a consistent board and superintendent combination remaining in place for an extended period.  

With the consistency that comes from the same team being in place for many years running, many aspects of our work become easier.  Not that we all agree all the time----we don't.  However, we all know each other by now, and we've reached a certain level of maturity as a group that facilitates and allows for the completion of what can, at times, be difficult and divisive work.  But we all recognize we have challenges to overcome and much work to do over the next few years-so we work through all the turbulence.  I know we'll continue to do so, and I look forward to the challenges ahead.

Watch each installation and speech here 

Does Free Speech Even Exist Anymore?

This story out of Texas caught my attention today, and got me thinking about free speech.  It seems that there is no free speech in America anymore, particularly on sensitive topics.  Even in online chats and arguments on twitter-the "boxing ring" of the internet.  Nope, everything said, no matter the context, will be used against you.  Creepy in an Orwellian way....

 Vinita Hegwood, a High School English Teacher from Duncanville, was suspended with pay and will be terminated from her position as a teacher because of some off-color comments she made on Twitter.

From The Root:

"A Duncanville, TX English teacher has been suspended over a tweet that has been described as racially charged. Friday evening, Vinita Hegwood posted the following tweet to her account:

'Who the [expletive] made you dumb duck ass crackers think I give a squat [expletive] about your opinions about my opinions RE: Ferguson? Kill yourselves.'

The district took swift action and exercised the fullest disciplinary action allowed under district policy. Ms. Hegwood was placed on suspension without pay pending discharge. Under state law, a school district’s Board of Trustees “fires” staff members, and the district will pursue that action with the board soon" 

I understand that what this teacher said was insensitive, racially offensive, and certainly unacceptable.  But so far as I understand the story-she made these posts on her private Twitter account on her own off-duty time, under her twitter handle, a pseudonym.

While I in no way want to sound like I support what she said, I support everyone's right to free speech.  I strongly support that! I also feel that an immediate termination over someone expressing their right to free speech-- with an obviously heavy dose of sarcasm and hyperbole in her tweet--- will have an icy, polar effect on honest discourse.  Fire her?  Really?  What about counseling, a suspension, and sensitivity training?

I don't agree with what she said, I dislike it.  However, what was the context of the exchange?  What was the pretext for her aggressive, hate-filled tweet.  We don't know.  So It is one and done?

The only thing I can think from this, what seems to be an overly robust punishment for an off-duty, non-illegal act, is that this district wanted this teacher out or that she already had numerous disciplinary issues.

Barring that, I simply do not see how this action will stand in the courts.  If it is upheld, will this be living proof that free speech no longer exists in America?

Statewide School Board Member Election Results: Many Incumbents Ousted Statewide

The FSBA provided the following summary about the school board elections statewide held last Tuesday.  The number of incumbents that were voted out (31) spiked this year as compared to the last election;  however, incumbents still did exceptionally well overall with 71 that sought their seats being re-elected in either the primary or general elections.

Locally, all three board members that sought re-election were returned to their seats by the voters.


Statewide, here is the way the election for board members played out, by the numbers:

210 school board seats were up for election
 444 candidates qualified for election to those 210 seats
 41 school board members did not seek re-election or vacated their school board seat
 60 school board members were re-elected without opposition at qualifying
 6 new school board members were elected without opposition at qualifying
 60 school board members were re-elected in the Primary Election
 40 new school board members were elected in the Primary Election
 22 incumbent school board members were defeated in the Primary Election
 11 school board members were re-elected in the General Election
 32 new school board members were elected in the General Election
 1 school board election remains to be decided pending a recount
 9 incumbent school board members were defeated in the General Election


A very well done, county by county analysis of all the races in every county can be found here

The Matrix

Discipline is an issue in our schools that I believe is a significant problem.  I've discussed it here and here and I have stated on this blog  that I fully intend to make this issue an intense area of  focus during the rest of my time on the board;  I believe that lax discipline directly contributes to a dysfunctional, potentially unsafe learning environment.

And a learning environment that is not conducive to learning leads parents to chose private schools or move to the suburbs to find better schools.

With this as the backdrop, the district staff have put together a "Discipline Matrix" for how students are to be treated and what disciplinary consequences  such students will face if they misbehave.

The primary grades discipline matrix, describing punishments/consequences for elementary schoolers, is linked on the district's website and can be found here.

The secondary level matrix, for middle and high school students, is here.

I think this matrix idea is a great first step, and some of what I see in this matrix, I really like.  Particularly, I like that we start to escalate the consequences for students that start racking up an obscene number of referrals.  In the past we have had students get  20, 30, 39, 50 or as many as 61 discipline referrals, and we still allow such students, like Mr. 61, to come back.

I think this practice of allowing a few disruptive students to continuously degrade the learning atmosphere with their antics and to then be invited right back--  is destroying our classroom environments and slowly killing our schools.  It is demoralizing for staff, stressful on students that are trying to learn, and cumbersome for school site administrators to address.

I'm hoping that this new matrix is followed, no interference from district admin, no PC filters, and/or litmus tests for who gets the punishments and who gets warnings.   But I do have concerns.  At the bottom of "The Matrix" is a generic disclaimer phrase allowing principals in their "sole discretion" to deviate from the matrix.  While it is understandable to give the principal some flexibility, that could possibly allow for uneven treatment of students from one school to another school, if principals over-rely on the discretionary exception.

So I am going to ask about this.

And I have a lot of other questions I'll be asking about this matrix at the board's next discussion workshop.  I'm hopeful it will be a positive step in making our classroom learning atmospheres better than they have been in the past.

Philadelphia Public Schools and the Slow Motion Train-Wreck

Could this tragic collapse be the harbinger of what is to come for huge, urban, under-performing public school districts nationwide?

The fate of the nation's eighth largest school system hangs in the balance.  Over the last thirty-three years, multiple entities have struggled to control an out-of-control school system that was swallowing massive amounts of tax revenue and growing at the teacher, support and administrative ranks on one hand, yet losing enrollments and  under-performing at producing literate graduates on the other.

As this article chronicles, in 1981 after a series of devastating strikes by the teacher's union, a panel comprised of state and local appointees took control of Philadelphia's public schools.

Fast forward to 2014.  Graduation rates are down, Schools are violent, classroom discipline is out of control, enrollments at traditional schools are flat or declining, while charter school enrollments have quadrupled (A moratorium on the establishment of new charter schools has been established, to boot).  residents with the means to do so have enrolled their own children in private schools or they have moved to the suburbs.

Meanwhile, the average teacher salary in this district stands at $71K, with benefits it averages $110K. (These figures represent income levels that are double the median income in Philadelphia) Not too shabby!  Generous as it is, however, it is unsustainable.  Layoffs are underway again, and as a stop-gap measure to shore up funding, new taxes have been levied on cigarettes and an added sales tax has been levied.  The district still faces an $8 Million shortfall.

So an historic, controversial decision had to be made.  The contract with the union was terminated.  Teachers will now have to contribute a small amount toward their own health care plans (they previously contributed $0) and pay raises are being held in abeyance. These commonsense measures that the rest of us have known as reality for the last two decades, applied to these employees, are now termed to be "Union Busting"   What a joke.   And what a mess.