District Administration - January 2012 - (Page 32)

Kansas City Plots Next Steps categories based on their likelihood of being achieved within the two-and-ahalf-year time frame. For example, achieving an average graduation rate of 95 percent over five years would be challenging given that in 2014, that average will include the past two school years when it’s hovered near 50 percent. “We know exactly where we stand,” Green says. “That’s a targeted area that’s a stretch for us.” The district barely missed yearly targets for college placement, achievement on the Missouri Assessment Program state test, and communication arts achievement for grades 9-11. But other standards, such as mathematics performance for grades 3-5 and 9-11, seem doable, Green says. “We’re placing our energy and focus on the ones within reach for us,” he says, adding that the concept of low-hanging fruit “is exactly the terminology we use.” Optimism Varies All options are on the table.” Improving the district’s results on the 14 standards within two-and-a-half years will require community-based intervention in addition to those in the classroom, West says. “If we don’t have both, we’re really all just sitting around putting up window dressing,” he says. “You can change governance however many times you want, but on a two-and-a-half-year “If we don’t have both, we’re really all just sitting around putting up window dressing.” —Airick Leonard West, president, Kansas City school board The mayor’s office is less optimistic about the district’s ability to meet those standards. “The conversation in Kansas City, and the general agreement is that people don’t want to wait two years,” says Danny Rotert, a spokesman for the mayor. “Ultimately, it will be hard to show enough progress to not have state intervention.” Rotert says that the mayor also wants to avoid the less-than-successful outcome in the St. Louis Public Schools, which was taken over eight years ago by a five-member state advisory board. “We haven’t seen much improvement in academic scores,” Rotert says. Despite his pessimism about its chances to meet standards, Rotert gave kudos to Green’s transformation plan, stating it was a “real positive step.” But Vandeven is optimistic about the state and local boards as well as community voices rallying behind a comprehensive transformation plan. “This needs to be addressed immediately,” she says. “We don’t have two years to sit around and wait. Everybody needs to work together. 32 January 2012 and municipal partners to focus on achievement until the loss of accreditation loomed, West says. “Hats off to the state education commission for creating such a state of impending doom that people chose to stand up for kids in this community,” he says. “We can’t do this alone.” Gwen Grant, president of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, is not hopeful about the district’s regaining accreditation. “Neither the superintendent nor the board has articulated a strategy that would provide me or any other spectators with any degree of confidence that they can guide this district to reaccreditation within two years,” she says. “What I wanted to hear is ‘This is how we’re going to address pedagogy, these are the changes that we’re going to make, these are the curricula we will employ,’” Grant says, adding to her list, “‘This is how we plan to get there, this is when we plan to get there, this is the support we need from DESE to get there, this is the support we need from the community.’ Nothing sensible has come out of these people’s mouths—just ‘We don’t want to be governed by a state board.’ You’re not articulating any strategy that says, ‘We know this is urgent.’” Green Stands Firm timeline, there’s no evidence that a governance change brings about measurable student achievement improvement.” Andrea Flinders, president of the local American Federation of Teachers, says that decades of challenges will not be entirely turned around within a couple of years, especially given high poverty rates. “What we have now is all sorts of distractions,” she says. “Community groups would like to see a state-appointed board,” she adds. “The charter school people would like to see this become a charter school district. Legislators are thinking, ‘Maybe if we divided this [district] up … ’” It proved difficult to convince civic Green would beg to differ with that assessment. He is confident in his team, which includes a new chief financial officer and will soon include a replacement for the other two deputies; he’s thinking seriously about consolidating the academic and curriculum-oriented positions that are open. “We are operating at warp speed on this end” toward meeting academic goals, Green says, even as the district on another track remains in “a wait-andsee posture” on the state’s plans and the mayor’s proposals. “It’s not a good use of my time and energy to spin through the scenarios,” he says. “I don’t advocate one [idea] over the other. I don’t know if there’s the best fit or right fit.” DA Ed Finkel is a contributing writer to District Administration. District Administration

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - January 2012

District Administration - January 2012
Contents
Letters
News Update
Conversations
District Profile
Administrator Profile
Finding the Perfect Fit
Kansas City Plots Next Steps
Seeking Savings in Special Ed
K12 Guide to Audio/Visual Solutions
Equipping Teachers to Infuse Technology
Flipped Classrooms Gaining Ground
Buying in Bulk
Online Identity Management
Going Mobile
Student Counsel
Online Edge
New Books
New Products
Product Focus
Professional Opinion

District Administration - January 2012

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