[EVSD News] Superintendent's Newsletter 07.07.10

[Jodi Brown]

July 7, 2010
 
The purpose of this newsletter is to update you on events that are happening in the district, provide information to address issues or rumors and provide you a forum to communicate with me on items of interest. If you are receiving this e-mail you are either an East Valley School District staff member, you have signed up for this service, you have sent me an e-mail or have had some form of contact that we think would cause you to want this information. If you do not want to continue to receive this information you may unsubscribe by clicking the link below or contacting the district office.  
 
This is a long communication and I want to thank you in advance for taking the time to read it.   
 
We have completed another school year and we did so in grand style. We avoided most of the economic hardships that faced many districts in the state. We were able to maintain our staffing levels and through innovation and prudent management we were able to not only maintain our programs for children, we increased our offerings to serve our students better. Next school year will see us continue to increase our opportunities for students.  We will have more advanced placement classes and we will have more options for students in need of remedial and non-traditional services.  It looks like we will end the fiscal year as planned and that we can begin to rebuild some of our fiscal stability with the coming budget cycle. Our administrators, teachers, para-educators and all of our other support staff deserve a huge thank you for continuing to move forward in a time when it would be very easy to move backward.   
 
Part of that movement forward was the engagement of and discussion with our community about the future of this school district.  Since February, groups have been meeting to recognize our strengths and weaknesses and develop a plan to move forward to become a premier educational organization.   
 
Many issues have been identified:  We need to be more consistent in our expectations around academic rigor, discipline, community involvement, student accountability and our out-reach to parents. We need to do a better job of how we communicate.  We need to adjust our programs so that the many students who are on an accelerated track through our system have expanded opportunities.  We also need to recognize that many kids struggle and we need to build flexibility into our system for those students. 
 
Summaries of this work to date have been published in the Valley Voice (June 26, 2010) and on our website at evsd.org. I will not take time or space to recap those hours of meetings.  I will however, again thank the many community members who took part in the process and ask that everyone else who is interested in this process engage in the next steps.   
 
Before I outline the next steps in this process, I want to review the reasons we chose to engage in the process of re-visioning.  In this current climate, it is popular to point out the shortcomings of public schools. Throughout the country there seems to be a widely held belief that our schools are failing and that our nation is at risk. While I can, based on some pretty sound evidence, defend that the United States does, by and large, have one of the best and most effective school systems in the world, I cannot be satisfied until our system, here in East Valley, meets the needs of every child who it engages. We have work to do to meet that target.   
 
Right now, according to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, about 76% of our students graduate.  This number includes those students who take longer than 4 years to graduate and those students who graduate with the 19-credit diploma that is offered through our alternative school (our EVHS diploma is 23 credits). Of those 76% who do graduate, about 70% of those students go on to college.  This means that about 53% (53 out of 100 students) of the students who enter our system eventually make it to a college training program.  Of the 53% who go to a college program, about 48% of those students complete a degree or certificate within 8 years of high school graduation (the trend for students who go to college and complete seems to be downward, for example; in 2008 and 2009 less than 50% of students went directly to college). The bottom line is that for every 100 students who enter our high school, 8 years after graduation about 25 have earned a college degree or certificate.   
 
Looking at this from another perspective: The data, in the best case, indicates that 75 out of every 100 students who attend EVHS are counting on their high school experience to be sufficient to meet their formal schooling needs.  We know, based on economic data, employment trends and employment projections that a high school diploma, in and of itself, is no longer sufficient to ensure living wage employment.  
 
Our data for our elementary and middle schools also show that we have work to do to improve student learning.  Using the WASL, as simply a point of reference, we find that as a district, less than 80% of our students can demonstrate mastery, in any subject or at any grade level, with the exception of 10th grade writing. This is after having spent years focusing on improving WASL scores. 
 
Now I want to be clear, all of my numbers, all of the data and all of my assumptions used to make the above assertions are open to debate.  I may have made mistakes in my calculations.  There are legitimate explanations for individual dropouts or for pockets of poor performance.  I also want to be clear that this is not an issue of not having and supporting an extremely competent and caring staff.  We have great teachers, para-educators, support staff and community.   
 
What we seem to lack is a system that supports what we are trying to accomplish, our changing times and the evolving needs of our students. I believe we all recognize that we need to do something differently, at least no one who has seen our data has argued that we should keep the status quo. Bottom line: No matter how we look at it, we can do better for our students.  I believe that if we can do a better job the requirement to do a better job becomes an ethical and moral obligation.  Therefore, we must create a system that at the very least provides more challenge to our high achieving kids and more engagement and help to our kids who need more time and flexibility.   
The purpose of the re-visioning is not to find a silver bullet or a magic formula that will transform our schools into outstanding paragons of educational excellence. The purpose of the work that we have engaged in to date is about creating the conditions for real and substantial systems change. The research related to successful school rejuvenation is clear:  We cannot fiddle around the edges and expect to see real improvement.  We must create a situation that challenges our paradigms and forces us to rethink how we operate.  The form we choose for our schools should be based on best practice and it should support and enhance our core beliefs but the power of this work comes from breaking the dysfunctional systems apart and reorganizing into a system that accepts nothing less than the best for every student.
 
This is a scary prospect. Change challenges the power structures and the comfort of embedded practice. Change requires that new skills be learned and by default indicates that what is being done is inadequate. The impetus for change is often misunderstood and the visceral reaction is often one of attacking rather than seeking to understand. Already, some folks are calling for my head.  I would encourage them to be patient.  The research shows that leaders who undertake these sorts of sweeping agendas rarely last more than 3 years. They rarely see the change that they try to implement.   
 
It is my intention to see this change process through, and to be here for many years after it is implemented.  I will champion this work because it is the right thing to do for the students of this district but I have no disillusions that it will not be a difficult and controversial process. I expect there to be, based in large part on fear and misinformation; misrepresentations, allegations, passive aggressive resistance and some downright anger.
 
All of the negatives associated with this change can be mitigated to some degree if you will get involved in the next steps of the process.  The committees have made their recommendations. The board has considered the recommendations and is working on the background information necessary to develop a formal plan. The leadership team of the district has met and discussed a plan that they feel honors the work of the community and creates the necessary conditions to improve learning for all students.   
 
In late August or early September a draft plan will be rolled out for community review and input. Every stakeholder who is interested will get an opportunity to give feedback and improve upon the plan. Based on the input that is received the plan may be modified and adjusted. Your voice in this process is essential to the success of this endeavor. This is a great school district for some children; I hope you will become part of making this a great school district for every child.      
 
As always, you may contact me at the district office 924-1830, at home 928-0519, or via e-mail glenewinkelj at evsd.org.  I do my very best to return all e-mails and phone calls the day they are received.   
 
Thank you for the opportunity to serve this district.  John
 
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