I-SS AYP Comparisons

As was recently reported in the Statesville Record & Landmark, the NC Department of Public Instruction has released the preliminary 2009-10 Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) scores. For the 09-10 school year, 19 of 35 (54.3%) of the I-SS schools met the AYP standards. This is quite a drop from the 08-09 school year when 28 of 35 (80.0%) of the I-SS schools met the AYP standards.

For more information you can read the Record & Landmark on-line article following the first link below or check out the AYP information on the I-SS web site using the second link below.

Record & Landmark AYP article

I-SS web site AYP information

Below is a comparison of the I-SS scores for the last two school years.
(Click on an image to enlarge it.)

Although the AYP scores are not the only indication of the quality of a given school it is an important measure that must be taken seriously when evaluating schools. There are many factors that determine the success of a school and the I-SS administration must examine these factors and find a true path to success.

Perhaps I-SS should take a close look at the Mooresville Graded School district, which had 6 out of 8 (75.0%) of their schools meet the AYP standards. The Mooresville Graded School district has made a concentrated effort to integrate technology in all classrooms and to get computers into the hands of all students. I think that it is time for I-SS to move away from the current I-SS model (aka Baldrige) and move students into the twenty-first century.

Central Office Reorganization

According to the agenda for the upcoming meeting of the I-SS Committee of the Whole, Mr. Johnson will be presenting a Central Office Reorganization Plan to the School Board. The meeting is scheduled for Monday, June 7^th.

The agenda is available on the I-SS web site but it does not give any information regarding what might be included in the reorganization plan. I doubt that there will be any trimming of the administrative excess since many of the administrators have just had their contracts renewed or extended and apparently they are hiring a couple of new administrators. Maybe they are just going to shift personnel between the Race Street and ADR offices.

Creativity vs. Standardization

There is an interesting article available on CNN.com titled How Schools Stifle Creativity by Sir Ken Robinson Ph.D. It also includes a video of a talk Sir Robinson gave at the 2006 TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference. Sir Robinson speaks of how educational institutions often stifle the creativity of students. The following are some statements that Sir Robinson makes in the article.

“What is the argument? In a nutshell, it's that we're all born with immense natural talents but our institutions, especially education, tend to stifle many of them and as a result we are fomenting a human and an economic disaster.”

“In education, this vast waste of talent involves a combination of factors. They include a narrow emphasis on certain sorts of academic work; the exile of arts, humanities and physical education programs from schools; arid approaches to teaching math and sciences; an obsessive culture of standardized testing and tight financial pressures to teach to the tests.”

“It happens in part because the dominant systems of education are rooted in the values and demands of industrialism: they are linear, mechanistic and focused on conformity and standardization. Nowadays, they're buttressed by major commercial interests in mass testing and by the indiscriminate use of prescription drugs that keep students' minds from wandering to things they naturally find more interesting.”

“There's a wealth of talent that lies in all of us. All of us, including those who work in schools, must nurture creativity systematically and not kill it unwittingly.”

I-SS must follow State and Federal regulations, but in the last several years the administration has put in place a ‘one size fits all’ application of the Baldrige plan. This has forced teachers to comply with an I-SS mandated standardized mechanism of PAs, PDSAs, formative assessments, PLCs, IF lead meetings, plus/deltas, and the like. Teachers are left with little time or energy to truly promote student creativity.

At Monday’s Committee of the Whole meeting, two teachers gave enthusiastic presentations of how they use Predictive Assessments in their classrooms. I am glad that these teachers have been able to integrate this mechanism in their classrooms and use it to enable their students to succeed. The problem is that the Board members and the administrators see these presentations and think that since this instructional method is working in these classrooms, then it should work in all classrooms. Educational studies have shown that teachers need the freedom to use whatever instructional methods best suit the strengths and talents of their students. These two teachers were invited to speak at the Committee of the Whole meeting. There are many I-SS teachers who successfully use other instructional approaches to inspire their students to learn. Why doesn’t the administration invite them to speak at School Board meetings?

Click on the link below to access Sir Robinson’s article and video.

How schools stifle creativity

Update On The Shifts In Personnel

In my last post, I stated that at the last Board meeting Mr. Johnson announced several shifts in personnel to cover positions as he assumed the role of interim superintendent. I also reported that he mentioned that with these changes and the retirement of Steve Hill, I-SS would be saving about a hundred thousand dollars and redirecting about seventy-five thousand dollars. I e-mailed Mr. Johnson and asked him about these amounts and if any of the Central Office employees would be receiving raises due the shifts in personnel, and if so, how much of a raise each person would receive. In addition, I asked how the raises would relate to the 2% furlough initiated last month. The following is from the response that I received from Mr. Johnson.

The money saved will be used to offset some of the other cuts. I'm not sure where yet, but we will hold onto those funds for a few weeks. I'll will probably use them as part of our central off discretionary reduction to the state which is about $184,000. I have a couple other jobs that we plan to fill with part time people or just not fill this year. (CTE Director and the Director of Recruitment). One of my goals is to rehire the TAs that have been laid off.

The redirection is coming from the FLC Grant, I will not fill the job of the current FLC director who is moving to another county due to her husband taking a new job with a community college. What I plan to do is shift those responsibilities to the Associate Superintendent of Learning. The money saved from her salary will then be put back in the Title II funds which is currently where part of the salary comes from. All the people that were moved into interim positions have been given a salary increase to reflect their new responsibilities during this interim period. When the new superintendent is hired everyone returns to their old job and their old salary. The 2% still comes off the new salary as well for all the people who serve in interim positions.

Brady Johnson

Mr. Johnson did not tell me how much of a salary increase each employee received. I sent a reply to Mr. Johnson and asked him for that information. I will write another post when I get the amount of the raises.

Want to Help?

A number of people have asked how they could help bring some sensibility and fiscal responsibility back to the administration of the Iredell-Statesville Schools. I will list some here, if you can think of others please leave a comment and share your ideas.

• Spread the word. Tell your friends, relatives, and neighbors about our efforts.
• Tell every teacher and teacher assistant you know that we support their efforts and will do everything possible to improve the quality of the schools.
• Attend the Concerned Citizen's School Advisory Committee meeting on Tuesday, July 7th, from 7:00 p.m. until 8:45 p.m. in Meeting Room A at the Iredell County Library.
• Attend the I-SS Board Committee of the Whole meeting on Monday, July 6th, at 5:00 p.m. at the ADR Education Center on Garfield Street. This is the meeting where most of the actual business of the Board is conducted. Also, this meeting is held in a former classroom, therefore our group would be very noticeable. The public is not allowed to speak at this meeting but our presence will speak for us.
• Attend the regular Board Meeting on Monday, July 13th, at 6:00 p.m. in the meeting room on the second floor of the Iredell County Government Center. And please consider speaking during the public comment segment of the meeting. If you are going to speak make sure that you sign-up before the meeting on the sign-up sheet that is outside the meeting room. You only get three minutes to speak so take some time before the meeting to think of what you want to say. The Board policy is that they do not respond to any comments during the meeting, and I have learned that they do not like to respond at all, but perhaps if we get enough people to comment the Board will feel required to respond.
• Write a letter to the editor of the Statesville Record and Landmark.
• Contact the investigative news team at one of the local TV stations.
• If you have children who attend I-SS, talk to them about their experiences in and out of the classroom. When school starts back up, talk to their teacher and find out what extra work the teachers are being required to do and how that is effecting their classroom teaching.
• Do everything possible to make sure that the I-SS administration is made to act with accountability and complete transparency.
• If you know of something that I-SS is not doing correctly, then consider filing a formal complaint. You can do that on-line using the I-SS web site using the link below, or you can pick up a complaint form at Tuesday's meeting.

Online Complaint Management System

Again, these are just few suggestions and, of course, it needs to be a group effort if we are going to make a difference. So, do consider being an active participant. One last thought, I think we need to have some way of identifying the members of the group when we attend school meetings. Perhaps we could wear an arm band of a particular color. Any suggestions?

Dr. Holliday's Profile

Do you need a good laugh? Yesterday, I was looking at the profile of Dr. Holliday that is posted on the I-SS web site and I came across something very interesting. Of course it had the usual information such as Dr. Holliday's educational background and a list of all the dubious awards that he has received. Then, the profile ends with the following sentence.

Dr. Holliday believes in 'open-door' leadership, involving all public school stakeholders- parents, teachers, students, and the community- in creating the best possible schools for the children of Iredell County.

Now, as many of you know, my own experience of Dr. Holliday's 'open-door' leadership is that of Dr. Holliday directing me to leave the I-SS Central Office and not to have any contact with the School administration. It seems like the only time that Dr. Holliday wants to have contact with public school stakeholders (parents, teachers, students, and the community) is when they totally agree with him.

School Administration: There and Here

Source: Each System's Organizational Chart

Buncombe County Schools

Superintendent

Personnel Administrator

Assistant Superintendent

Associate Superintendent

Finance Officer

+17 Other Directors, Coordinators, etc.

Equals 22 Total Central Office Administrators

for about 25,700 students.

Davidson County Schools

Superintendent

Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction

Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources and Administration

Chief Finance Officer

Executive Director of Auxiliary Services

+20 Other Directors, Coordinators, etc.

Equals 25 Total Central Office Administrators

for about 20,600 students.

Iredell-Statesville Schools

Superintendent

Deputy Superintendent Of Operations

Associate Superintendent Of Learning

Assistant Superintendent - EC

Assistant Superintendent Career & Tech. Ed./Innovation

Assistant Superintendent Secondary Ed. (6-12)/Student Services

Assistant Superintendent Human Resources

Assistant Superintendent Student Services

Chief Academic Officer

Chief Finance Officer

Chief Quality Officer

Chief Accountability & Technology Officer

Executive Director Leadership Academy

Executive Director Secondary Education/21st Century Reform

Executive Director Elementary Education

Executive Director of Facilities and Planning

+19 Other Directors, Coordinators, etc.

Equals 35 Total Central Office Administrators

for about 21,200 students.

Comparisons:

I-SS has 59% more Central Office administrators then Buncombe County Schools while having 21% fewer students.

I-SS has 40% more Central Office administrators then Davidson County Schools while having only 3% more students.

Dr. Holliday has continually said that I-SS has a lower administrative cost than that of comparably sized schools. It seems like he is being very 'creative' with his statistics.