School E-mail May 20, 1997

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Subj: Superintendents
Date: 97-05-20 02:07:18 EDT
From: James.C.Klagge@bev.net (James C. Klagge)
To: school issues list@vt.edu

Dear Friends,

You have probably read in the papers that we are having superintendent candidates to town for interviews. We have two finalists at this point. Dr. Phyllis Amick is a superintendent in Indiana. She will be here early next week, and will be meeting with the public to give a brief presentation and answer questions on Monday evening, May 19th at 7:30pm, at the County Courthouse Building, 3rd floor, Courtroom B. Please attend this important opportunity.

The other finalist is Mr. Fred Morton, who is an assistant superintendent near Buffalo. He will probably be in town the following week, but details have not yet been confirmed.

As you know we are planning a work session at our May 20th meeting on academic challenge. In preparing for this I circulated possible discussion questions to the board. My hope is that the board will take this opportunity to reflect on and discuss where we think we are, and some directions we might go in, so far as academic challenge is concerned. I do not anticipate any new presentations to the board on that occasion, nor do I anticipate any decisions being made at that meeting. Here are my ideas for things worth discussing. Obviously they can't all be covered, but they indicate the sort of issues I am interested in. I don't intend this to be an inquisition on test scores, but a wide-ranging look at what it is appropriate to expect from our schools, how to judge how we are doing, and what might be done about it.

We could start with any opening comments board members want to make about where they are or where they are coming from on this issue--no more than a few minutes apiece.

Assessment and Accountability: We have regularly monitored our schools through an annual report on the state of the schools including testing results. Is this enough? It could be broadened in two ways: we could talk about what we want to DO with the information we get. Apparently, before I came on the board, there were goals set for improving LPT first-time pass rate, but we haven't officially used this to accomplish anything. And also we may discuss broadening what kinds of factors we consider in assessing our schools. The government and the media focus on testing because it is most easily quantifiable, but that doesn't need to limit us. We can think about what kinds of things we value and how those things can be assessed and promoted. I don't think our schools can be measured, but I think they have to be assessed in ways that can be used to show our accountability. Do you agree?

Regarding PAST test scores: I think many people feel that we are not acknowledging how MUCH of a problem the test scores represent. Even if we admit they are a problem, we are not acting as though they are enough of a problem that we should take any action. So I would like to discuss this and get the board's sense, or at least hear the different opinions, about how serious are these problems in our judgement. In light of them, how significant of changes might we be willing to consider? Are the problems really with just "rote" subjects, or do they extend to "key" subjects? Are they limited to certain schools, or certain grade levels? Is the problem with uninspired students rather than unchallenging schools? If test scores are a red flag, just how RED is the flag? This needs to be openly discussed, even if there is no consensus on the board.

Regarding FUTURE test scores: How much do we care about testing? Do we want to set improvement goals for test scores? If we do, should we simply leave it to the administration to decide what, if any, changes should be implemented to meet the goals? Should we think about some consequences to be connected with reaching goals? Positive reinforcement incentives? Negative reinforcement? Or do we not want to consider this kind of performance evaluation? If we do not want testing to be the only, or the main, component of evaluating the effectiveness of our educational program, what other factors do we want to consider? Can we spell them out in such a way that they could actually be used to assess how well we are doing? What factors would WE like to be assessed on? Or do we want to resist the idea that what we do can be assessed?

In looking at student performance there are a number of factors that could influence this. What are the factors? Where are we with regard to each one? Which ones are under our control, and what changes could be made in those? The factors I could think of were:

Curriculum-How much will changes in this affect achievement concerns? How big will changes be from the past? Are new SOL's a silver bullet?

Educational philosophy-Class structure: size, grouping, clustering, tracking, inclusion, Middle School philosophy. Which of these are most relevant to accomplishing our goals? Administrative leadership: achievement and (or, versus) self-respect- are these being well-balanced?

Teacher ability-Is there an effective assessment, development, remediation, and termination program? Are we really tracking how well teachers are doing, helping or getting rid of ineffective ones, & giving others help they need? Salary (especially entry-level), and possibility of some form of building-wide merit pay incentives. Are we using the money we have as best we can to enhance the classroom? Is curriculum appropriately delivered in class? Are we adequately monitoring this? What changes might enhance this?

Student ability

Student effort-How can this be enhanced through family involvement, class room experiences, or other means?

What directions we might want to consider going in depend to a large extent on which of these factors seem to us to be important.

I hope this work session is the beginning of more intentional reflection on these issues, not that it will close them off. Perhaps the work session will only help us see what questions we are most interested in asking and answering. If people on this list and others have thoughts on these issues I hope they will feel free to share these. We need productive discussions.

-Jim Klagge.

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