Whos of Who-cester

Joint meeting

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:05:00 +0000

And it's a big one!

The School Committee and the City Council will hold a joint meeting at 5:30 on Tuesday afternoon.

The official agenda is short; just "To discuss issues related to the FY10 and FY11 projected budgets"

Worth attending if you're keeping an eye on budgetary matters. I'll be liveblogging.

Fixing Union Hill's roof

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:56:00 +0000

A bit of poking around on the attachments to the City Council agenda for Tuesday reveals $400,000 being transferred for building rehab, specifically to fix Union Hill's roof.
(You'll find it on the Manager's agenda)

On Title 1, readers comments, and strings

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:04:00 +0000

I've gotten a few comments recently on Worcester and Title 1 funds on various posts, and so I had to go back and figure out what I'd left out. The short version is that Worcester as a district qualifies for Title 1; nearly all (save, now, four) of its elementary schools qualify, as do the middle and high schools. The elementary schools that are eligible take the funding; the middle and high schools do not, filling in with funding from other sources. The funding isn't taken at the middle and high school levels because NCLB ties those funds to other regulations (aka, if we took the money, there would be new and additional things we would have to do and be).
Yes, you've heard that about funding being tied to strings before. And if we've stuck to policy before...?
Thanks to my readers for catching this and giving me reason to go poking around on it! Please keep it up!

RTTT news around the country

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:41:00 +0000

There's been some varied reactions coming in around the country on Race to the Top over the past few days. I've already posted on President Obama's pre-election push in Wisconsin earlier this week; we're now hearing from, for example, Louisiana, where school boards are saying they're going to forgo the funding. The first link there gives an "anti-stimulus funding" spin to it that the EdWeek report does not. EdWeek frames this in terms of two issues: local control (the American tradition) and long-term funding.

I was also pleased to see this report from New York on a former Obama advisor's concern about the administration's education policies:

Edley said that transforming schools requires not just an infusion of competition into the system, but also regulation. He said that while some charter schools are excellent, “most of them are schlock,” and added that school choice does not provide a way to export best practice to the majority of schools.

It's that "majority of schools" that I fear are being left out of RTTT and much of the administration's policies in general. This focus on closing schools, firing teachers, and opening charters ignores the fact that most children in America attend regular public schools. It is those schools with which we need to most concern ourselves.

FY10 budget

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:12:00 +0000

Accept and filed
No discussion.

Marketing WPS

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:05:00 +0000

Continue efforts to work with T&G, maybe a monthly "As I See It"
TV channels
radio
Yearly state of education report

ah...using our website (I just tried to figure out the details on Burncoat High School's production of Fame next week, and it's not on there.)

working with colleges and universities, maybe a video?
at middle schools, treat as private schools: invite parents to open houses as early as 5th grade (now this would be a great idea, as lots of parents want to get in there earlier)

Update in January, please

504 plans

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:00:00 +0000

Referring to Standing Committee on Curriculum...or not (Monfredo)
It looks like the Chief Academic Officer is just going to take this one

930 students have active 504 plans, according to Dr. Mulqueen
Does this seem low to anyone else?
under the general education, outside of special education
O'Connell wants to know if we have any guidelines or plans on how we move kids along
504 plans are monitored similarly to IEP's, process is similar
plans are monitored within a school, localized accomodations, not as specialized as an IEP
(Mr. O'Connell is continuing to hammer away on structure, parental notification)

Mr. Monfredo says that answers his question

AVID program

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:55:00 +0000

Ten pages on this one, too, including citation of Hanover Insurance for their help in funding

"prime example of how we can narrow the achievement gap" according to Mr. Monfredo

Mr. O'Connell is asking about expenses and prioritization in continuing AVID

School to business partnerships

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:52:00 +0000

Ten page backup on this one tonight

The Quadrant managers are working with the schools that don't have business partnerships at this time (response to a question by Mr. O'Connell)

Superintendent's report: English Language Learners

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:26:00 +0000

ELL presentation

Dr. Mulqueen (CAO) and Dr. Paez (ELL director)
First type we have is direct instruction (in ESL labs), TBE programs, and the two biligual programs
ESL Tutoring (push-in or pull-out programs)
Regular classroom: regular classroom teachers, highly trained
currently we have 6100 students in ELL programs and slide 4 shows the moving along of students in their learning of English

population is changing: increased population by 2000 students while adding 5 teachers (from 2007-2010)

in ESL labs, teacher are dually licensed teachers, licensed tutors
New ESL language curriculum, new technologies

in the two-way programs at Norrback and Roosevelt, half of the students (and half of instruction) is English and half Spanish

TBE transitional biligual education (at Chandler Magnet) which is what we are allowed under the consent degree, which is around 360 students, and moves students along in their fluency in English

Question from Mr. Monfredo regarding special ed students...Dr. Mulqueen speaks of different services provided to the same student...but is there an overlap? He says there isn't a direct connection...but have access to services.

Mr. O'Connell gets up and basically from memory recites the history of English language instruction in Worcester (including dates and legal cases) and asks where we are in the variety of legal directions we are required to go in. The mayor intervenes and says that we'll understand if they can't answer that. Superintendent Boone says that we're developing a continuum of services looking at best practices. Dr. Paez adds that parents have a choice of what program suit their child, and adds that the consent decree only applies to Spanish speakers.

Committee members weigh in

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:16:00 +0000

...including Ms. Hargrove who says that she has to take a bit of credit for Ms. Harrity as Ms. Hargrove was the Catholic youth leader for Ms. Harrity's group...
Otherwise, lots of thanks and praise, with specific mentions of MCAS scores, sports, and the nice building
February 9, 2010 begins the 100th anniversary of the vocational school; party to come!

Taking Worcester Tech first

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:48:00 +0000

Taking the item on the Worcester Technical High School out of order...
(it sounds like Dr. Boone has whatever is going around)
We're getting a report on the general advisory meeting that happened two weeks ago from Sheila Harrity, principal; Peter Crafts, director of vocational education; and Ted Coughlin, Chair of the Worcester Technical High School board.

1400 students: 51% female, 62% low income...about half white
Now getting a chart on MCAS passing rates in English and math, including a slide on the improvement of the students who enter the high school failing and get to passing. 78% passing in ELA, 70% passing in math
Whole school field trips for motivational speakers before the MCAS.

Added AP bio, English (2), will add AP Statistics
62% go on to higher ed

5200 hours provided in Green Hill Park every year as volunteers (under the settlement agreement that allowed for the building of the Tech school in the park)
Added 3-D Gaming to the Drafting program
Renewable Energy added to Electrical program
Volunteering at Heifer Project and Matthew 25
lots of showcasing of the technology used at the school in various programs: "crucial to keep us on the cutting edge of the programs"
Plan to add BioMedical Science (grant funded) for next year; Pharmacy Tech for 2012; Medical Assistant for 2012

After 15 years, the school was "planned, constructed, equipped" and now is serving students, according to Mr. Coughlin.
Worcester Technical Fund allows for continuous updating of technology, which Mr. Coughlin calls the "lifeblood" of the program.
Five year forecast of $2.7 million that they need, have raised 20% of it already

Getting started

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:17:00 +0000

We now have some, make that all, of the committee members coming in now. And between Tech school and teachers and parents, we've got a fairly full house tonight.

Liveblog of School Committee

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:16:00 +0000

...once they come out of executive session, where they are now.

Obama on RTTT

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:25:00 +0000

President Obama was in Wisconsin yesterday to talk about Race to the Top funding. I'll let the New American take it from here:

The Obama administration has said that refusing to link teacher performance ratings to student test scores would lessen a state’s chance of receiving federal funds. In Wisconsin, Obama wrapped the bribe he is offering in high-sounding language about the importance of education.

“There is nothing that will determine the quality of our future as a nation or the lives our children more than the kind of education we provide them,” Obama declared. “If you’re willing to hold yourselves more accountable, if you develop a strong plan to improve the quality of education in your state, we’ll offer you a grant to help make that plan a reality.”

What the president really meant was, “If you will make your states more accountable to the federal government in the area of education, ol’ Uncle Sam will make it worth your while.” Tying teacher ratings and pay to student test scores will provide a strong incentive for teachers to prepare students to do well on standardized tests.

But standardized tests are not always as effective at measuring student knowledge as an essay test or other form of evaluation. Also, teachers of disabled, troubled, or remedial students cannot be fairly judged by the performance of their charges on standard tests. Not only that, if the federal government has any say about what is in the tests, teachers will be forced to focus on imparting what Washington wants students to know.

The article goes on to point out that this is giving a large measure of control of education, traditionally--in fact, Constitutionally--within the parameters of the state, to the federal government.

School Committee tomorrow night

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:00:00 +0000

Yes, there was an election yesterday, but the calendar goes on as usual.
The agenda for tomorrow night is up.
A few items of interest:

the administration is coming back with two reports, one on community partnerships and another on AVID students. There was some discussion, both in School Committee and in CPPAC, about the AVID students: were they in fact doing better than there peers? Did we have data to back that up? The report is in the backup. AVID does seem to be getting those kids through school and more of them are going to college (as compared to the whole of their graduating class; is that their peers, in fact?)
several members of the School Committee are asking for a report on the number of 504 plan students in the district. A 504 plan (the number refers to the section of the ADA that deals with it) allows for modifications for a child who has a physical or mental impairment; it can include anything from physical accommodations to speech therapy. I'm guessing that this is a direct result of a question asked at the Special Education Parents Advisory Council forum a few weeks ago: members were directly asked how many kids on 504 plans we have, and the short answer that was no one knew. As 504's are handled through the principal, there is no central database of that information.
Both the marketing of WPS and the family involvement plan are back on the agenda.
And, yes, there will be an update on the budget. If I'm reading that first page right, the good news is that we have smart people on this who assumed that things would be even worse than we are, so we weren't planning on the money we lost, anyway.

There will be a liveblog!

2010 Change-up

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:39:00 +0000

With two new School Committee members (Dianna Biancheria and, yes, me!) and a new mayor serving as chair, it will be interesting to see what differences we see in January.

(and, yes, Who-cester will continue...look for a liveblog of School Committee on Thursday, in fact!)

And THANK YOU to all who voted for me. I am very, very grateful.

Municipal elections Tuesday

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:32:00 +0000

A reminder that the Worcester City Council does not met this week, as Tuesday is the municipal election! Please do VOTE!

The latest round of state cuts

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:26:00 +0000

The Governor announced his plan to eliminate the $600 million budget gap (for FY10, this year) earlier this week. What does it do to Worcester education?

Special education reimbursements are down (statewide by nearly $7 million); specifically, these are reimbursements for residential placements
Charter school tuition reimbursements are down (statewide by $5.1 million)

The regional districts took a real hit on transportation reimbursement: to encourage towns to regionalize, the state has picked up some of the cost of transporting (for example) all of the Paxton high schoolers to Holden every day. Not anymore.

I don't have the numbers for Worcester, but I assume that Brian Allen will be updating the School Committee about this at their Thursday meeting. (As yet, the agenda isn't posted)

Bob Melican, RIP

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:36:00 +0000

I see that the comments section over at the Telegram and Gazette have been busy today with fine words for Bob Melican, the former Northborough-Southborough Regional school superintendent who died this week. I'm glad that he's been getting those tributes.

Bob was my superintendent. He was one of two that I taught for, and he gave me a high standard by which to judge what a superintendent should be.

The day before school started every year, the teachers of the district would all pile into Algonquin's auditorium for some speaker, whom we all would inevitably resent for taking up time when we could be prepping for classes. That speaker would get done and Bob would get up to give us his new school year speech. And by the time he got done, you were glad you were there, and you were sure that this was going to be a great year.
He was on your side.
And he never forgot what it was to be a teacher: to be the one in the classroom with twenty-five pairs of eyes on you, depending on what you did and said. He knew how difficult and how draining it is, and he valued you for it. He was part of the team of people that were getting your students an education.
And he made you want to be there.
I can think of no higher praise for a superintendent than one who makes his teachers want to be there.

Thank you, Bob. I will miss you.

Race to the Top Hearings in Boston

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:56:00 +0000

As part of a series of hearings on Race to the Top funding, the Department of Education is holding hearings in Boston on November 12 and 13. This is regarding the second batch of RTTT funding, the assessment portion which would, according the notice, "provide for approximately $350 million in grants...for the development of common, high-quality assessments aligned with an applicant consortium's common set of K-12 standards that are internationally benchmarked and that build toward college and career readiness by the time of high school completion."

At least half the money awarded to winning states needs to go to what the DoE is calling "local educational agencies" (what would be districts if it did not specifically include charter schools), based on their relative shares of funding under Title 1.

You can find the issues they'll be addressing here in the Federal Register. It looks like the MCAS would need a major overhaul to qualify. (more on that later)

If you're interested in attending or speaking, you can find out what you need to do here.
You can also send in written testimony by December 5 to:

Office of Elementary and Secondary Education
Attention: Race to the Top Assessment Program -Public Input Meetings
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW, room 3E108
Washington, D.C. 20202

or racetothetop.assessmentinput@ed.gov Subject line :"Race to the Top Assessment Program"

Look who's coming to dinner

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:35:00 +0000

Both Boston and Springfield are part of a national pilot program in which teachers come (after being invited!) to their students' homes for dinner:

The goal is to build stronger relationships between teachers and families in a quest to bolster parent volunteerism in school and involvement in their child’s education at home, as well as break down any misconceptions that parents and teachers might have about one another.
Boston, which is working in partnership with Harvard University, began its program two years ago and has expanded it to five elementary schools. It followed Springfield’s effort, which launched about five years ago as a partnership among that city’s teach ers union, a middle school, and the Pioneer Valley Project, a faith-based community-organizing group that works closely with parents. The program is now active at seven schools, including a high school.
The outreach - to several hundred families this year - is part of a strategy in these two cities to reverse a trend of parental disengagement. In both districts, parents rarely turn out for parent-teacher organization meetings, teacher conferences, and other activities at many schools.
In some cases, they are too busy working multiple jobs, don’t have transportation to get to the school, or feel intimidated talking to teachers because of their own lack of education or a bad experience in school. In Boston, many parents who grew up during the tumultuous period of forced busing keep away from the schools because they harbor resentment or even mistrust of the system.
The visits are also designed to enlighten teachers, many of whom live outside the cities and may have false impressions about the neighborhoods in which their students live and what their home life might be like.

The NEA is the source of the original grant. While the districts haven't formally followed up, they have seen both increased parental involvement and improved grades.

And if you don't believe me...

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:02:00 +0000

Here's Marion Brady's 10 False Assumptions on Race to the Top from the Washington Post.

"Human history," said H.G. Wells, "is a race between education and catastrophe."
If amateurs continue to control American education policy, put your money on catastrophe. It’s a sure thing.

On saying 'no' to Race to the Top

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:49:00 +0000

One of the questions posed at last night's School Committee forum was "Yes or no: do you support Massachusetts applying for Race to the Top funding?"
(and, yes, Jordan Levy held us all to one word!)

Here's why I said no (and why you shouldn't sign any petition urging the passage of H.4163, 4164, or 4166):

In order for any child to get into a charter school in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, his parents have to put his name into a lottery. That takes time, effort, and knowledge. It takes, in short, the kind of parental involvement that is rightful lauded as being the single most important factor in a child's educational success.

What happens when you have an entire school of involved parents?
Kids succeed.
Or do they? Results on charters are mixed (you can look at the chart on MCAS scores for Worcester, if you like), much more so than one would like to see in such a self-selecting population. As covered in the T&G earlier this month, Worcester charters, while having a good economic cross-section of students, don't have the same distribution of special education and other students need special services.

H. 4163, if passed, would allow for a lifting of the cap on charters in Worcester. Why should you care?

It'll cost us millions of dollars.
At a time when the Worcester Public Schools are already facing a $26 million shortfall for next year, opening any new charter school would cost approximately $3 million. Only a small portion of that would come from the state, as no provision is made under any of these bills to change the way that charters are funded. There also is no provision in these bills to change the allocation of students to have it reflect the community in which the charter school is set up.

But, wait! you say. Wasn't this all about that Race to the Top money? Four billion dollars from the federal government?

At the end of the day, yes, 'though the governor was proposing readiness schools in the spring. That $4 billion is very tempting in tough budgetary times. Why should we say no?

It reverses a hard-fought, exhaustively argued LOCAL decision made by the state legislature. Yes, they can decide otherwise, but the charter cap was put in place because of very real state concerns, none of which are changed by RTTT.
It's a two year grant. In 2012, if these bills pass, we've got multiple new charter schools, and we're right back to the same place on funding.
We might not get the money. Yes, perhaps the governor is close to the president. Maybe Secretary Duncan does want to give Massachusetts money. Or maybe the federal government really isn't happy with how Massachusetts has spent the federal money it's already gotten and doesn't want to give us more. It's a several million dollar gamble.

This also doesn't solve the real, ongoing problem once the focus of some educational advocacy groups, for real education funding reform. We're taking our eye off the ball, here, guys. Scrambling after two year money that costs us more in the long run is no way to run the Massachusetts educational system.
We know better than this.
At least, I hope we do.

Notes from the CPPAC forum

noreply@blogger.com (cascadingwaters) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:06:00 +0000

No commentary from me, as that wouldn't be fair, but I thought a few notes to add to the T&G's coverage by Jackie Reis would be helpful:

All candidates were asked the same two questions: what would be your top three budget priorities (keeping in mind the tough budget times) and what are your models for involving parents? It's difficult to summarize the answers to the second question, but here are what each gave as their answers for three priorities (and please, if I've poorly summarized, correct me!):

Dianna Biancheria:
1. money that goes "directly to the classroom"
2. professional support services
3. safety programs

Bob Bogigian:
1. classroom teachers, tutors, coaches, support personnel
2. staff development
3. school maintenance
(4. parent involvement...I think he made this part of 3 somehow)

Rob Diaz (who started by giving some numbers on national education spending):
1. job preservation
2. special ed, OT, PT services
3. upkeep of physical plant

Jack Foley (who spoke of the past several years of cuts):
1. keeping class sizes down especially in K-2
2. AP classes
3. arts and music

John Monfredo:
1. preschool to grade 4 programs
2. AP classes & fine arts
3. school safety, including school nurses

Mary Mullaney:
1. Classroom teachers and sports personnel
2. & 3. arts, AP, and extra-curriculars

Tracy O'Connell Novick:
1. what keeps kids learning
2. what keeps kids safe
3. what we're legally liable for

Brian O'Connell:
1. classroom instruction (which he specified as "delivery of instruction")
2. staff development
3. buildings