Mea culpa, moving on, and what's next

First, my apologies. For those of you who have grown used to being able to find out "what does Tracy say" on what's happening in the Worcester Public Schools, I let you down yesterday. When the news broke about Superintendent Boone's acceptance of the position of Norfolk Superintendent at about 10:30 yesterday, my phone blew up with messages, and from that point on, I was returning calls, being interviewed, and otherwise running. I never got to a full keyboard. It's the first time I've experienced quite that as a headlong collision, and yesterday, blogging lost out. I'm sorry.

As much as I know everyone loves a good conspiracy theory, I feel honor bound to point out that Norfolk has had three superintendents in the past five years, with the most recent having his contract terminated in March after 70% of Norfolk's schools failed to earn certification and the district missed deadlines for Title I, resulting in the fortiture of $1.6 million. The board bought out that contract for a full year's pay. The position was posted in May, with applications due in July. This wasn't a recent decision (or reaction).
And, yes, in Virginia, the entire process can take place in executive session.

As a side note, I should point out that the current Norfolk school board is appointed by their City Council, though this current board is the last that will be, as Norfolk voted overwhelmingly to move to an elected board starting this coming spring.

So did I know? No. Am I surprised? No. I follow the national press on school districts, and Norfolk has had a rough couple of years. It's the district in which Superintendent Boone had much of her prior experience, and it's where her family lives. Seeing that district struggle would I think give any of us cause to think twice.

Let's be really clear: the Worcester Public Schools are an excellent argument for hiring anyone involved in what we're doing. From the graduation rate gains (nine points in six years) to the dropout rate declining to the largest number of innovation schools in the state to the pulling schools out of Level 4 status (ourselves, not by outside providers) to gains in kids taking APs and going to college to rising enrollment (yes, they're rising) to millions of dollars in building repairs to expanding programs (and I could go on, and that's all in the budget...)...we're a good argument for hiring her. We--any of us involved in public education in Worcester--should be proud of the job we're doing here. We're a city with a strong parochial school system, two charter schools, and a homeschooling community, and we in the public schools educate 85% of the kids who live in the city. That's an argument of itself.

And anyone telling you otherwise doesn't know much about education.

So what does that mean for us now?

If you look at the agenda that was posted this afternoon for Thursday's meeting, we have two items in executive session. The first is to discuss Superintendent Boone's contract, as there's a clause regarding notification of her leaving that a December start date in Norfolk conflicts with (I should perhaps point out that's my assumption based on what I've seen reported from Norfolk; I know no more than is the item). The second is connected to Mayor Petty's recommendation, which appears on the public section of the agenda, that Marco Rodrigues be appointed interim superintendent. We also have items on the public section to send out an RFP for a search firm and to set a timeline for the search.

Only a bit more from me, lest I stray into predeliberation and thus violate the Open Meeting Law:

The Worcester Public Schools are the third largest employer in the city, with nearly 4000 employees. We have 50 buildings, 44 schools, 25,000 students. We have a budget of $350 million. That's a lot to oversee. More than anything else, the actual administration of all that is the job of the superintendent, and it needs to be done, daily. It can't be put off. It can't be ignored. And it isn't something you can pick up overnight.

Executive session is scheduled for 6 on Thursday night, with the public meeting scheduled (I use the word deliberately) to begin at 7.

Accountability presentation

These are my notes from the presentation by Linda O'Konek from the Leadership and Learning Center on the proposed "comprehensive accountability system" that the superintendent is working on.
(I should note, by the way, that I didn't know that Ms. O'Konek was also employed by the Norfolk Public Schools, from whence came Superintendent Boone, until I read the paper the next morning.)
"focused on the improvement achievement"
"from a complience system to a performance-based results system"
needed to provide insight into leadership,teaching, policy, learning
cause to effect (cause is "the action of adults" "no student is held more accountable than the adults in the system") There was no mention of the actions of students during the presentation.

• tier 1 are quantitative systemwide data: "represent the values of the districts"
• tier 2 are quantitative school based data: "based on the unique goals of each building" (percentage of teachers that use particular kinds of instruction, for example)
• tier 3 are one page narrative "the story behind the numbers"

NOTE : Norfolk used this system and was given a Broad award for this framework

O'Connell asks of process and community inputcompleted by end of May: coming back every other week to work with "community based task force" (central
office, quadrant officers, TL support, plus parents from CPPAC and spedPAC, principals, teachers at all levels, union invited, demographic representation)
this group is "the design team"...it will be done by them without outside input or consultation
team at each school that develops this data

Novick: concern over expenditure of funds; question of why we aren't doing this in house: request for spelling out of funds and how they are being expended. To this the superintendent wishes to add the MOU, as the state weighed in on this plan.

Foley likes that we are looking at assessment and accountability in a number of different ways
"building based accountability"--make sure we are looking at all students
as a school begins to complete an accountability plan--task force will decide what will be the group to design the
plan and who will be on the team to monitor it
many districts look at student achievement; safe and secure learning environment; parent involvement
design draft will come back before the end of the school year

Biancheria asks if the school improvement plans will be in existence: no, the superintendent says: the accountability plans will replace them
"what gets measured gets done" quotes the superintendent
"it's not anectodal data anymore..."
will there be outreach for each school's team, asks Biancheria...