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With classes set to resume in 13 days, San Bernardino school district officials are scrambling to implement drastic improvements at 11 troubled campuses while wrestling with complex questions about how student test scores will be used to evaluate teachers.
“At this point it’s a work in progress,” says Superintendent Art Delgado.
At its July 6 meeting, school board officials agreed to press ahead with the implementation of the socalled transformation model at five schools and turnaround model at six instead of the restart model which calls for district-run charter schools.
Arroyo Valley, Pacific and San Gorgonio high schools are slated for transformation, which replaces the principal and rewards teachers and staff for boosting student performance.
The turnaround model, which calls for replacing the principal and half of the teaching staff, will go into place at Shandin and Serrano middle schools and Wilson, Barton, Marshall and Hunt elementary schools.
Principals have been replaced at nine of 11 schools however according to Delgado the district is negotiating with the San Bernardino Teachers Association over the issue of using student performance data to evaluate teachers.
No state is yet judging teachers based on student achievement — although a handful are trying — so there is no proven path to follow and there are many skeptics among teachers unions.
One of the most vexing issues is how the districts will evaluate teachers whose students don't take state tests such as those in music, physical education or first grade. Most teachers in the state don't teach a subject that is tested, but California is committed to having student achievement count for 50 percent of an evaluation.
In addition, districts must determine how much progress students would be expected to make in a school year for a teacher to be graded effective or ineffective.
"This is something that states and school districts around the country have been grappling with, some more successfully," said Steven Glazerman, a senior fellow at Mathematica, which does education research.
Spurred on by the hope of getting federal funds, a number of states, including California, have recently adopted legislation and regulations to change the evaluations as a way of ridding their systems of the poorest teachers.
Backing off a plan to make six of the 11 failing schools charters, Delgado says use of the transformation and turnaround models puts the district in a better position to get a federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) to pay for costly reforms. “We’ve still got a lot of work to do, but school will start on time no matter what,” said Rebecca Harper, president of the San Bernardino Teachers Association.
“Transformation and turnaround creates an entirely new paradigm and new way of thinking about education reform," said Harper.
The district has applied for SIG funding which will be used to pay for extending the school year and hiring additional people to provide after-school programs and one-on-one tutoring programs.
With the start of class for many school children less than two weeks away some parents like Victoria Mace, Charisse and Damien Bennett and Chris Stevenson expressed concern that too many reforms are being implemented simultaneously, confusing parents, students and educators.
“I think it’s a tempest in a teapot,” said Stevenson. “The board should be talking directly with the parents and involving people in the affected communities more. Instead here it is the 11th hour and they’re still fussing over transformation versus restart.”
“There needs to be more information sent to the parents of children in these failing schools,” said Mace. Mace asked the board about the socalled ‘parent trigger’ law, which allows parents to demand reforms or transfer their children out of targeted schools.
Officials will have to scramble to meet a Sept. 15 deadline for notifying parents they can transfer their children to other campuses.
Parents will have until Sept. 30 to request transfers within the district or into outside districts - such as neighboring Rialto and Fontana - and enroll by Nov. 1.
This could mean some schools will then have to transfer teachers and revamp classrooms in order to meet shifting needs, officials said. District officials said they will be able to approve transfer requests only for campuses that have seats available.
Transportation will not be provided, which some parent advocates believe could put students from lessaffluent families at a disadvantage.
Still other parents like retired educator and consultant Jordan Bailey at the July 6 meeting remained optimistic about the reforms.
“The bottom line is that, by implementing the right reforms and creating quality school environments, all children—can succeed academically. Serious political challenges must be overcome,” said Bailey.
“It’s going to be up to parents and taxpayers across the country to demand that politicians in state capitals and on Capitol Hill stop standing with the special interest groups and stand-up for children’s interests. Millions of children’s futures are at stake. Now parents have a host of new tools, and long past are the days where parents had to accept systemic failures for generations."
Article courtesy of The Black Voice News. For more stories, visit Black Voice News online.
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