The “Thoughts on Public Education (TOP-Ed)” blog put out by the Silicon Valley Education Foundation had the clever idea to ask Kilian Betlach, who used to write the delightful “Teaching in the 408″ blog, to ruminate on the school reform process. Betlach, previously a seventh-grade teacher in east San Jose, has just had a jarring personal experience with school reform. He is assistant principal of a small middle school in Oakland, Elmhurst Community Prep, forced to fix itself under federal rules.
Here is how he told the tale in a guest column, “Liposuction approach to school reform,” posted Aug. 8. The point he makes about the limpness and aimlessness of what is supposed to be a tough and constructive process deserves attention. This is going on all over the country.
By Kilian Betlach
Last March, the California Department of Education released a list of “persistently low-performing schools” that would be part of the federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) process. Our school was on it.
In the weeks and months that followed, as every day became increasingly dominated by our place on the list, our school community went through the Kübler-Ross grief cycle:
Shock: Are you kidding? Elmhurst Community Prep has posted a net gain of 39 API points in three years, and stands 120 points higher than the last year of the since-reconstituted Elmhurst Middle School. This is persistently low-achieving?
Denial: No way this is right. Get our picture of the front page of the paper.
Anger: This is what we do now? Not teaching and learning, but reading about federal grant processes? This is what’s best for kids?
Bargaining: We’re clearly caught in an algorithmic error. Tweak the algorithm and focus on some schools that more desperately need aggressive intervention.
Depression: Turns out the Department of Education welcomes algorithm changes the way Arizona welcomes immigrants.
Testing: Okay. We’re here. We have four options. We’re not closing (#1), and we’re not reconstituting again (#2). Are we going charter (#3) or doing this transformation thing (#4)?
Acceptance: As professional educators we feel the riptide urgency to close the achievement gap. We recognize that we have to get better. Our staff and our community believe the transformation option is a way to do this. Let’s roll some sleeves and get to work.
Roll up our sleeves we did. It hasn’t been an easy road, but we came out of this with a strong finish to the 2009-2010 school year, and a compelling plan to raise the quality of education we provide.
I came out it with the belief that the SIG process — and all similar initiatives — represent an insufficient, low-leverage path toward improving our schools. I do not believe that reform-by-grant-application is capable of bringing about the dramatic change our kids deserve.
Reform-by-grant-application asks small numbers of schools to make small changes over a short period of time, supported by temporary funding. Even if presented in a manner that does not discredit past improvement or spread disharmony and discord, such initiatives lack essential staying power and capacity building. Yes, we may have funding to extend the school day for the length of the grant, but then what? Yes, we may have funding for additional specialists to work with our kids, but how will we pay them after the grant expires?
The reform-by-grant ideology sees a school system in need of tweaks and temporary fixes — change, not reform. It’s the ideology of liposuction, not diet and exercise.
This is problematic, not because Elmhurst Community Prep and schools like us won’t benefit from increased funding. We may. The real problem lies in the stark reality that after all the grief and long hours of planning, after all the revisions and implementation meetings, the reform-by-grant-application approach may bring about better results in one or two of Oakland’s over 100 schools; it will have done nothing to reform the conditions that make improvement necessary in the first place.
adapt, and that is exactly what a liberal arts education gives you. It will teach you how to read, write and speak effectively. It will develop your critical and analytical skills. These are skills that will serve you well regardless of what kind of profession you enter.”
Amy Lyford, associate professor of art history and visual arts, and Dennis Eggleston, professor of physics, were presented with the Graham L. Sterling Memorial Award. Established in 1972 in memory of former trustee Graham Sterling, the Sterling Award is bestowed each year on one or more professors with a distinguished record of teaching, service, and professional achievement, as selected by faculty members.. Lyford and Eggleston were each presented with an engraved silver platter as well as a check for $1,000. Another $1,000 will be deposited into their department’s account.
Caroline Heldman, associate professor of politics, was presented with the Linda and Tod White ’59 Teaching Prize. Established in 2008, the White Prize is awarded based on the votes of sophomores, juniors and seniors, who are asked to nominate teachers who have the ability to engage students and increase their learning, as well as showing a real concern for individual students.