Three finalists for Commissioner of Education

 ...as reported by State House News Service shared by WWLP: 

The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education announced Tuesday that it will conduct public interviews Thursday with three finalists for the open Department of Elementary and Secondary Education commissioner job.

Board members will consider Jack Elsey, Lily Laux and Pedro Martinez.

Elsey previously worked as chief of innovation and incubation at Chicago Public Schools and as assistant superintendent at Detroit Public Schools. In 2022, he founded the Michigan Educator Workforce Initiative, which Massachusetts officials described as "an organization committed to addressing the teacher shortage crisis and building a more robust educator pipeline for Michigan."

Laux works as executive director of Economic Mobility Systems. Before that, she spent seven years as deputy commissioner of school programs at the Texas Education Agency, a role that involved overseeing academics and efforts to shift from a "compliance focused" approach to an "outcomes-driven" one, DESE said.

Martinez leads Chicago Public Schools, the fourth-largest district in the nation. He previously worked as superintendent of the San Antonio Independent School District.

You can find the Boston Globe report here, and Chalkbeat, which has a Chicago bureau, focuses most only Martinez here. 

please enjoy this sign left at an Orange line station in Boston after the march

I am going to strain to keep this post very straightforward, and I'll give some preliminary thoughts in another post.  

Worcester School Committee meets Thursday

The Worcester School Committee has their single July meeting this Thursday at 4 pm. You can find the agenda here.

For it being a summer agenda, it has some really important items on it (which one fears consequently will not get the attention they deserve). Most notably, Superintendent Binienda, who was evaluated by the School Committee back in December and never then had updated goals, is proposing her goals for I guess? the upcoming year; she also includes her self-evaluation from November; the full committee evaluation is posted at the first link above.
Goals are proposed by the Superintendent, but, just as with any educator evaluation in Massachusetts, are determined by the evaluator, in this case the School Committee. Those who are evaluated under this framework know that goals must be SMART: Specific and Strategic; Measurable; Achievable and Action-oriented; Realistic, Rigorous, and Results-oriented; Trackable and Timed. They also should be tied to the district (in this case) improvement plan and district strategic plan.
The goals proposed by Superintendent Binienda, along with some commentary based on the goals and benchmarks (in the link), are:

• By June 2020, update and utilize the WPS High Quality Teaching and Learning Frameworks to align and increase academic relevance and rigor across all grades. 

Note what this and isn't: this is revising the frameworks by January and then "implementing it" by distributing it. Whatever the relative virtues of revising the benchmarks, there is literally NO implementation strategy or system described. It's this old cartoon in action: 

• By June 2020, implement a comprehensive district-wide approach to monitoring, measuring, and improving student math outcomes.

What's this? New and continued district-level testing: STAR in K-9, enVision in K-6, quarterly "check-ins" in AP math are the first three benchmarks. There is what could be good professional coordination among teachers in the fourth item, but then there's just a new math program at two elementary schools, and then supplemental math for those with special needs.
Look, this isn't even a good goal or strategy if your only focus in on improving MCAS scores (which it pretty clearly is: note that no supplemental testing extends into high school if it isn't AP). As the classic line has it, weighing the pig doesn't make it heavier; if ALL you do is add the assessment, without their being anything beyond "analyzing," you don't FIX anything.

• By June 2020, implement a district technology strategy that prioritizes and supports student learning and achievement through increasing the digital fluency skills of students, staff, and district administration.

There's a nod here, through a survey and then"begin(ning) research on best practices" to the ongoing issue of students simply not having home internet access, despite the push at the secondary level of all work being online. This section looks to me as though it has been written by the department that's been pushing everything online; note the giveaway "advocate" in adding positions: administration doesn't need to advocate, as they create the budget. Most of this is online technology training, with the budgeted switch to third party data management by the end of the school year. The data privacy (which needs to be much more pervasive, incidently) note is good, but this is largely adding positions and training for specific kinds of technology (it's not a coincidence that the keynote speaker for the beginning of school is coming from Google). 

• By June 20202, identify and implement strategies to address social and emotional needs that impact student school performance.

Again, the goal is vague and then the benchmarks go in several different directions. Implementing a multi-tiered system of support was done several years ago (can we check that off or did it fall apart?). While the leadership institute dealing with student discipline could be promising--see here for who is being cited--that isn't supporting this goal, nor is the final item on analyzing disciplinary data. The culturally responsive classroom, likewise, could be useful (why only a handful of schools?), but isn't under this goal and doesn't involve further implementation. The bimonthly series on resilency could be more promising--one off training is notoriously difficult to follow-through on--but is is required of all?

• By June 2020, develop a plan for staff recruitment and retention and implement strategies that will increase access to well-qualified diverse candidates.

Once the Chief Diversity Officer is hired--and note the deadline here of October is well after school starts--and the "Real Talk" network (this is intended to be a group for educators of color, currently being running by the English Learner manager) is expanded (how? by whom?), there are a few concrete items: 29 IAs for licensure, 25 IAs for continuing education. The only difficulty? The administration didn't budget for that, so where is the funding coming from? 

Also, the continued stress on the Worcester Future Teachers' program without supporting data on its relative success (or not) does us all a disservice. 

Note that the goal only "increase(s) access" to candidates; it doesn't actually diversify the teaching corps.

• By June 2020, support the development of advanced and experiential learning opportunities for students to develop intellectual agility, (the ability to think and act well), social acuity (the capacity to communicate well), and personal agency (the ability to know yourself and the capacity to act towards specific ends). 

Someone read a book, I'm guessing? This is mostly specific "we're doing more dual enrollment, innovation pathways" etc catchall for a list. 

There is no goal that focuses on equity of discipline, access, graduation and the like.

There is no goal that pulls out the need for greater work with our English learners, the majority (at one time or another) of our students.

There is no goal that focuses on the over $100M owed by the state to the school district.

There is no capital goal. 

There is no mention of the growing number of schools that have dropped into the bottom 10% of schools in the state. 

We need to focus here.

There is also an update on implementation of the strategic plan, which doesn't seem to interelate with the Superintendent's goals (I also think it is supposed to be in color, if I understand the indicators of tracking correctly.) This probably also warrants its own post; in the meantime, the PowerPoint backup is pretty straightforward. 

There is a report of the Governance committee (on handbook language).

There are responses to FY20 budgetary motions. 

The annual review of innovation school plans (do we know if these are getting funded?) is on the agenda: 

• Chandler Magnet
• Claremont Academy
• Goddard Scholars
• Goodard School
• Woodland Academy
• WEMS
• Worcester Tech
• UPCS

There are three prior fiscal year payments (happy FY20!).

The contracts of both school attorneys are up for renewal (proposed for three years; there is no backup given).

There is a 61 page report on the proposed Chapter 74 (that's vocational) program at Doherty. UPDATE: It was announced tonight that these new programs, which would add substantially to the enrollment at Doherty, are intended as part of the new building, and in fact the new building is being designed in part around these programs.

There is a request for acceptance of donations:

There is a request for acceptance of a career and technical grant for horticulture at Burncoat (why Burncoat? Does it actually involve the greenhouse? These grant backups are so weak). 

There is also request for acceptance of donation of musical instruments from Berklee School of Music. 

Items proposed by members include: 

Ms. McCullough would like to look at pickup and drop off policies. 

Mr. Monfredo wants (again) to know about cursive.

Mr. O'Connell suggests school supplies being used to pay parking tickets as is done in Las Vegas.

Mr. O'Connell asks for coordination around gas leaks (something which adminstration has already been doing for some time). 

Mr. O'Connell wants to offer "training in domestic skills' and personal financial management" through after school and summer programs.
Mr. O'Connell has also submitted the following:

Request that the Administration review “Creating the Will: A Community Roadmap to Achieving Educational Excellence for Latino Students in Worcester,” and to consider both progress made, and topics which require further attention, since issuance of the report in July 2011.

This of course remarkably overlooks that the Mayor's Commission--the group that issued the 2011 report--has been meeting for months and has been asked, at the request of both the Mayor and the School Committee to update the report in August.
More troublingly, that item is cosponsored by Monfredo, McCullough, and Biancheria. This level of disengagement with work on the plurality of students in the district is concerning.
Mr. O'Connell, with the same cosponsorship, also has requested:

interact with the Harvard Teacher Fellows Program, and Teach for America, as to placement of prospective teachers in the Worcester Public Schools.

I hope that I don't need to go into the issues with Teach for America; in any case, I have done so before (Yes, that's from 2012). Also, if one of the concerns of the district rightfully is the diversity of its teaching staff, let's note that TFA's relationship with the diversity of the national teaching corps is 

not supportive. 

There is also an executive session (scheduled for after the meeting) for two grievances and a workers comp case.

Commissioner finalists: Jeffrey Riley

We have three finalists for Commissioner of education

Jeffrey C. Riley, superintendent/receiver of the Lawrence Public Schools
Angélica Infante-Green, deputy commissioner, Office of Instructional Support P-12 in New York State Education Department
Penny Schwinn, chief deputy commissioner of academics at the Texas Education Agency

Next up: Jeffrey Riley

Jeff Riley is on Linked-in and on Twitter.

Commissioner finalists: Angélica Infante-Green

We have three finalists for Commissioner of education

Jeffrey C. Riley, superintendent/receiver of the Lawrence Public Schools
Angélica Infante-Green, deputy commissioner, Office of Instructional Support P-12 in New York State Education Department
Penny Schwinn, chief deputy commissioner of academics at the Texas Education Agency

Next up, Angélica Infante-Green, who is on Twitter, though she hasn't tweeted since November.

Commissioner finalists: Penny Schwinn

We have three finalists for Commissioner of education

Jeffrey C. Riley, superintendent/receiver of the Lawrence Public Schools
Angélica Infante-Green, deputy commissioner, Office of Instructional Support P-12 in New York State Education Department
Penny Schwinn, chief deputy commissioner of academics at the Texas Education Agency

Let's start with Penny Schwinn.

New Board of Ed members

As I mentioned Tuesday, there were two new members of the Board of Ed sworn in before the meeting. The Governor's press release went out later that day and says the following:

About Martin West:
Martin West is an associate professor of education at Harvard Graduate School of Education and a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He is also deputy director of the Harvard Kennedy School's Program on Education Policy and Governance and executive editor of Education Next, a journal of opinion and research on education policy. He studies the politics of K-12 education in the United States and how education policies affect student learning and non-cognitive development. In 2014-15, he worked as senior education policy advisor to the ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. He previously taught at Brown University and was a research fellow at the Brookings Institution, where he is now a nonresident senior fellow. He received his Ph.D. in Government and Social Policy from Harvard in 2006 and his master’s in economic and social history from Oxford University in 2000.

About Amanda Fernandez:
In 2016, Amanda Fernandez, co-founded Latinos for Education, a non-profit dedicated to developing, placing, and connecting essential Latino leadership in the education sector. She was previously a vice president of Latino Community Partnerships at Teach For America, where she engaged with the Latino community for recruitment, development and advancement of staff and alumni. She led multiple efforts to highlight the need for Latino leadership in the education sector. While at Teach For America, she launched national summits focused on professional development for Latino staff, and boosted participation from 40 people to more than 300 participants and speakers. She also led the launch of a CEO sponsored Latino Advisory Committee, which fostered leadership and community building within the Latino population at Teach for America. Earlier in her career, she worked as director of organizational consulting at The Bridgespan Group, an organization that helps nonprofit and philanthropic organizations develop strategies and build their organizations. She received her bachelor of arts’ degree from Western Illinois University and a master’s degree from Fordham University.

So what do we need to know?
West is serving out the rest of Roland Fryer's term (which goes through June of 2020). West by far has the larger online footprint. Beyond his work at Harvard, he's easiest to find as the editor of Education Next, which is on the ed-reformy end of things. You can see some of his thinking in the conversation he had this spring on the "Building Excellent Schools," a training organization for charter school leadership. For example:

“For those, like me, who think that the expansion of school choice is a promising way to improve outcomes for American students, charter schooling has proven to be politically more successful, more palatable, and able to benefit from bipartisan support,” he says, pragmatic as ever. “I think it has demonstrated that when the right conditions are in place it can really produce dramatic improvement for students who have been poorly served by traditional school districts.”

His most recent research (that's been discussed popularly) was something over the summer on students not seeing long term negative impact in being held back in school; this is of course in contrast to four decades of research that found that students are harmed by being held back. He also formed the joint research project of Boston charters and MIT and Harvard researchers on character education, funded by the Walton Foundation. You can find his appearances on CSPAN here. Among them are his testimony before the HELP Committee as they considered the revisions to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. That largely focuses on testing and its impacts; he believes testing is efficacious, as it is reflective of long-term earning ability. Frankly, his testimony is a bit more nuanced than I expected, conceding, for example:

t some evidence suggests that heavy handed test-based accountability policies can promote rote, teacher-directed instruction and encourage schools to focus narrowly on test-preparation skills rather than ensuring that students are exposed to a curriculum rich in academic content. These tendencies may be strongest in schools with high minority and low-income populations, which typically face the strongest pressure to improve (Diamond and Spillane 2005).

and likewise:

the level at which students perform at a given point of time is a poor indicator of school quality, as student achievement is heavily influenced by factors outside of a school’s control. Measures based on the amount students learn from one year to the next can provide a more accurate gauge of schools’ contribution to student learning (Deming 2014).

...which is why he favored testing multiple times in elementary school. That's an argument, note, in favor of measurement of student growth. In the same testimony, he also argued in favor of moving much authority back to the states.
In terms of his political history, he was an advisor to Mitt Romney in his campaign for president, and he worked for Senator Lamar Alexander. He was among those who more than once said he had no interest in working in the Trump administration, however.

Fernandez, who has been appointed to a full five year term, prior to founding Latinos for Education, was the Vice-President for Diversity and Inclusiveness at Teach for America. Prior to that, she worked for Bridgespan in recruiting, which I know will raise concern in some quarters. Latinos for Education describes itself as:

Our mission is to develop, place and connect essential Latino leaders in the education sector. We are building an ecosystem of Latino advocates by infusing Latino talent into positions of influence.
We believe that Latino leaders should be at the forefront of creating an equitable education for Latino students. Latinos for Education prepares nuestra comunidad to break down barriers to educational opportunity for the next generation of Latino students.

Her other local education connection is a seat on the KIPP Massachusetts (charter) advisory board. She was the speaker at the Boston University School of Education convocation this spring, where she spoke of the importance of valuing your identity, working with passion on the struggle, and rising together.

September Board of Education: opening remarks and new members

The agenda is here.
Prior to the meeting, two new members were sworn in: Martin West, associate professor of education at Harvard Graduate School of Education, who also has an association with the Brookings Institute; and Amanda Fernandez, CEO of Latinos for Education, who previously worked with Teach for America, and had an association with the Bridgespan Group. James Morton has been reappointed for a second term.

Mary Matalin and James Carville!

James Carville and Mary Matalin
Yes, I am a political geek.
"proof that opposite attract...she speaks English; he does not"
proof "can in the spirit of bipartisan cooperation produce two lovely daughters"

Rebellion in the ranks

In case you missed it: there's a rebellion going on in the alums of Teach for America. Previously known for going on to law school or med school, or (more destructively) becoming the next wave of ed "reform" leaders, there's now a growing movement of those leaving the TFA ranks and fighting against much of what TFA does and stands for. TruthOut has good coverage of not only the "what" by the "why."
Go figure: you take a group of college grads who have just spent the past four years being trained by elite colleges in research and critical thinking, indoctrinate them in non-researched based education theories that don't stand up to critical thinking, and then send them out to experience how poorly those theories work on the ground. And then they come back and argue that it's not working. Who could have foreseen that one?
And while you're reading thoughts on TFA, you might take a look at this--angry, and rightfully so--post from Jess Yarmosky, who has finished her TFA time and has some thoughts to share.

Teachers being replaced in Chicago

And a bit more from Chicago: while 2100 staff were laid off last week, the Chicago Public Schools also:

"...has committed to more than doubling its investment in the TFA program that trains college graduates for five weeks then sends them into schools for two years at a time. The Board of Education voted to increase its payment to TFA from $600,000 to nearly $1.6 million, and to add up to 325 new TFA recruits to CPS classrooms, in addition to 270 second year “teacher interns”."

And remember, in addition to the payment to TFA, CPS will also be paying those recruits and interns a teaching salary and benefits.

Silly rabbit!*

I've commented before that Secretary Duncan was very strongly in favor of the federal government staying out of local decisions...right up until that federal government became, well, him.
The trend continues.
Leonie Haimson writes on Huffington Post this week that the Obama administration is pushing to take money from Title II--"Highly Qualified" teacher funds--to fund programs like Teach for America. She notes that in many cases, Title II funds are used to lower class size by hiring additional teachers, one of the things we know actually works when improving student achievement. And we also have ten years of data on what TFA does for student achievement.
But you know, when we've got a long-standing program that's been shown to work up against a new program that sure looks swell and has big money support...in an election year...
You can find how much money your state may lose here. For Massachusetts, it's a bit over $11 million, a loss of about 25% for FY14.
Worcester is budgeting for a loss of 15% for FY13 (see p. 181), though in our case, Title II has not been used for class size; it's used for instructional coaches.





*Yes, I'm sure I'm dating myself here.

Teach for America in Florida

Helpful article showing the "you want to do WHAT?" aspect of Teach for America, this time from Florida:
Concerned about teacher retention?

In August, about 100 Teach For America recruits will arrive to work as teachers in Duval County Public Schools. If past trends hold, as few as 11 of them will still be teaching here in traditional public schools five years from now.

How about budgeting?

Officials from those districts say the financial investment in recruitment and training, plus the replacement cost when those teachers leave, makes the program impractical given the limited funding for education...Cobb would have paid $8,000 per teacher to TFA for recruitment and training. Duval will use the federal grant money to pay TFA $3,000 per teacher for recruitment and training.

 Not an experiment we want to make, Worcester.

Teach for America and Boston Teacher Residency programs

O'Connell:
encourage people to try out education
"in hopes that we find that people who don't usually" try education
Boone
has met with representation
Monfredo
"let's be very cautious about hiring people without experience"
"I wouldn't hire a TFA applicant over a teacher with experience"
Novick
a 20 year experiment on, largely, poor children of color (again)
do about as well as any other other untrained person with no background in education:
BUT WE DON'T HIRE THOSE PEOPLE IN WORCESTER
moreover, each TFA member costs the district an additional $5000/person
also depress reading scores of their pupils
motion to split
TFA passes 6-1
Boston Teacher Residency unanimous

Check the evidence

Just a few quick things on today's T&G editorial:

• The Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice's document cited is not a study; it's a 2010 review of all available peer-reviewed research on Teach for America. You might call it a study of studies. 
• As TFA has now been around for 20 years, we have a track record to look at prior to leaping to embrace "innovative" ideas. As a data-driven district, we can do no less.

Expensive mistakes

I walked out of last night's event with a colleague from one of our suburbs. I asked him, "So, when are you guys going to bring Teach for America to your town?"
And then when we stopped laughing...
Because this is another bright idea that we're inflicting on high poverty students who can least afford it. The suburbs are not going to stop hiring well-educated, well-trained, experienced teachers for scantily trained college grads with no experience. That would be ridiculous.

Not to mention that paying TFA $5000 per corps member (over and above a step 1 teacher's salary) is a complete waste of public funds.

Speaking of Teach for America

At tonight's Worcester Regional Research Bureau event, we heard from Teach for America and the Boston Teachers' Residency program, in addition to contributions from Assumption's education department and myself.
In the interests of full disclosure (and in case it becomes a local issue), here are the resources I used in my response:
The most comprehensive look on Teach for America to date is the Great Lakes Center review of the evidence that came out in 2010.It exhaustively goes through the research available. Among other conclusions: TFA corps members do about as well as other teachers with no training or background in education and that they improve at about the same rates with two exceptions: in some cases they are marginally better at teaching their students math, and in several cases, there is a worrying negative impact on reading that persists over time. TFA is no longer serving students in underserved districts. Teacher persistence rate in actual classroom teaching,, when the numbers are dug down. somewhere around 20 to 15 percent of teachers remaining after five years.There is lots more there; if you read nothing else, go through that one.
This is included in that review, but  Linda Darling-Hammond on how teacher preparation makes a huge difference is here. This has lead to an ongoing attack on Darling-Hammond by TFA, incidentally.
A run through of the research TFA offers in support and how it...doesn't support can be found here. Seriously, there's a reason why we need to require statistic classes.
I borrowed Gary Rubenstein's line about every TFA corps member owning their district a third year due to the lousy job they did the first year from here 
Jim Horn does his usual good job of pointing out that far too much of this is being predicated on test scores, anyway, here.
A good run through of the somewhat crazy assumptions behind the very idea of TFA, also pointing out the harm that this does (and from a Canadian perspective) is here.
In addition to personal experience and much of what I've read and learned elsewhere, my argument on mutual development of teacher excellence was informed by Anthony Cody's blog post from last week on school turnaround.
I have not read Learning on Other People's Kids, but the title says much. Press release on the book is here.
A whole new set of questions is raised by Barbara Miner in her article for Rethinking Schools.What is the policy drive behind TFA? Where does all the money go? And what is going on with their 501 (c) 4?

For those interested: the forum was taped by channel 13 and will, I am told, be up online as well.

Statistics

If you read Thomas Friedman over the weekend, you'll want to read Paul Thomas, who checks Friedman's numbers.

Teach Plus...what?

You may have caught the glowing article in the New York Times about the teachers coming in as a group from Teach Plus to some of Boston's underperforming schools (recall that Boston chose the more draconian "fire at least half the staff and principal" model for some of their schools). The ever-inquisitive Susan Ohanian did some investigating to answer the pressing question: Just who is Teach Plus?
Yes, you can find some familiar names--Gates, Bridgespan, TFA, New Schools Venture Fund--on there, along with Quaker Oats (yes, like the man in the hat).

Teach for America

I'd be remiss in not pointing out the cover story in the New York Times on Teach for America from earlier this week. While plenty of people love the notion of sending out our "best and brightest" Ivy League grads to the inner city and needy rural areas to teach, the article does a decent job of balancing that with a few drawbacks: most notably, the new teachers get a five week crash course before they're in the classroom, and rarely do they stay for longer then their two year commitment. At a time when so much emphasis is on training and professional development, and when it's been widely acknowledged that the longer someone teaches, the better the teacher gets, both are troubling.
You can read a summary of the research on TFA here.
And there's some thought of TFA expanding in Massachusetts.