sound of ideas education reform

7/31/2019 Sound of Ideas Education Reform

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Notes from Sound of Ideas show May 23, 2012: Transforming our Schools

Host Mike McIntyre discusses the future of Cleveland schools with

Eric Gordon, CEO, Cleveland Metropolitan School DistrictTracy Radich, Sergeant-at-Arms, Cleveland Teachers UnionAnn Mullin, Senior Program Officer for Education, The George Gund Foundation

Mike McIntyreintroduces guests Eric Gordon, Tracy Radich, and Ann Mullin:

Starting off the conversation is Eric Gordon.

Eric Gordon: We need to find a way for our charter and community schools to beaccountable. Gordon expressed he is most excited about the alliance and collaborationbetween the city, the district and the union on the Civic Commons.

Everyone has a role. No one has ever done that. They have ministers and teachers,and foundations, public school people and charter school people in a room togetherdeciding what quality options are for the children. How can we connect families to thebest options? How can Cleveland schools be high quality? The district wants fewer andfewer bad seats for kids.

Together we are trying to decide what is the right level of autonomy with some qualitychecks.

The district is using quality standards but we need to be flexible about how we do it.

Tracy Radich:Mike McIntyresays that David Quolke said the plan is a great opportunity for Clevelandschools. Tracy says it is a great opportunity. They were divided but at the end of theprocess it came down to quality education and collaboration. It is a collaborative effort.

Teachers werent in the negotiating room so it is different for people who havent hadthat experience. Education of people who werent present is key.

Ann Mullin:Mike asks, what is different about this plan?

When you are in a room and you take off the labels of who is who and positions peoplehold and start to have conversations you get to a point where we say we are inagreement. There is common ground on these issues you can support teachers andhold them accountable for the work that you want them to do. We have a frameworkand now we think about what it looks like.

Caller: Scott in Oberlin

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How many of people in the room have been in public school classrooms teaching?Public schools, private schools, charter schools have a business model. What kind ofbusiness cant choose the raw materials coming in? Caller compares children to rawmaterials to make the point that children come in with varying levels of knowledge.

Mike McIntyre Kids arent ready for the schools and the deep poverty in the schools isjust one cause.

Eric Gordon: Children are not raw materials, education is not a business, but it is aboutwhere you put your investment. It is about shifting learning. Learning has to be constantand time has to be the variable. We have to be flexible about the time. We need extrasupport and time and energy. It makes it all more important that we educate thosepeople.

Tracy Radich: My goal for educating children is that my learning environment is safeand they can forget about things outside of the classroom. They can focus on learning

and focus on being a kid. Education is a great equalizer. They come from a backgroundof issues and circumstances that are very difficult.

Eric Gordon: At a classroom level, Tracy is a perfect example. Shes found mentors forevery child. At the macro level, parents dont know how to care for their children andadvocate for children, but it doesnt mean they dont want to. Parents care they justneed help about how to do it.

Mike McIntyre: What about getting kids to school on time? We need a plan for that.

Tracy Radich: It is all about communicating with students and parents. There was a

student missing school on Monday and Wednesday because her moms shift changedand she didnt have a way to get to school. Once we found out the issue we could finda solution.

Mike McIntyre: Lets discuss the levy.Levy is necessary to fund the plan. Eric Gordon says the district is asking for anoperating levy, which will be different than previous levies that just filled the growinghole. The legislature is key to passing legislation. It is not fair to ask the community topay for something that is the same slow method from 1996. We have new rules of doingbusiness, gains will happen quickly. This levy will be a time bound levy, residents knowthey can hold us accountable. New rules for charter school quality. As of now Gordondoes not know the exact amount, but will continue to be transparent about the figureand what it means for residents of Cleveland.

Ann Mullin: The levy is going to have to be hefty. A lot of the cost is due to dwindlingenrollment. We will support schools. We are going to deal with schools that are notworking. The sell is that this is not just plugging the whole. It is about high qualityschools in your neighborhood. We are going to invest in things that work immediatelyand long term. We have changed the rules of the game and made things more flexible.

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Eric Gordon: Autonomy at school level, teacher quality and school quality are the mostimportant. We have talked about accountability but we havent given them the tools todo so. It is about moving the power into Tracys classroom. You just need to get the jobdone. If you cant we need to do something differently. Its not that we dont have people

to do this work, we just need to make it possible.

Every one of us has to be accountable. We cant cut our way out of this problem. Wecan sell all of the board property, but at some point we need more funding. We donthave enough staff to do the things we want to do.

The challenge with the unconstitutional funding is that no one thinks that we should putthis on the backs of our citizens. The problem is that states across the country havefound their systems unconstitutional, but no one has a solution. We are spending a loton the back end in prisons etc. we need up front money now.

We're too late not to have serious cuts. We had to do this earlier and we didn't.

Tracy Radich,: We are advocating around the rainy day fund. We will have to see howthe budget process goes and see how much is left in the pot.

CallerRoxanne from Shaker Heights:In terms of preschool issue- there were cuts to Head Start and kids are going intokindergarten without preschool. Why cant we use corporate sponsorship to fundpreschools. Why cant you have Key Bank preschool or Peter Lewis preschool. Whyhavent we tapped private funding.Key Bank, PNC, and GE that are great partners?

Ann Mullin response: I can hardly think of a company in Cleveland that doesnt investin schools. They have been briefed through Greater Cleveland Partnership. However,there is no replacing public funding. The corporate and philanthropic sector is a drop inthe bucket. Across Ohio foundations are working on this issue. Education is the # 1issue to be funded

CallerKristin, Cleveland, Ohio:Parents are battling with ability or inability regarding accountability. She mentionsteachers who are cruising the Internet and that's discounted without challenge--really?Why? There ARE some teachers not doing their work. We keep teachers that are notputting in the effort because of seniority and losing good teachers. Teachers need torespect the children time.

Is there a role for the parents input in evaluation?

We are losing our best teachers--that's why we need to get rid of seniority.

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Let's spend the money on pre-K--goes back to the earlier comment about pre-K and Kbeing essential (the "raw materials" comments)

That conversation also focused on the needs of the extremely poor, but what aboutthose high-performing kids? If we don't serve them and create creative challenging

environments, don't we lose more families of every economic background who arepaying attention to their kids' education? (Noelle Celeste question)

Getting kids to school--the mentor program to help answer specific individualchallenges.

Tracy Radich: One of the cornerstones of education is a quality teacher in ourclassroom. One aspect is evaluation of teachers. We have newer object evaluation thatincreases communication between teachers and administrators.

Eric Gordon: What Kristin said is what we are fighting for. We are trying to change the

work role positions. We are building great instruments to help us know who is involvedand engaged. A parent needs to let the school know if the student reports teachers thatarent doing well.

CallerKristin: Sometimes principal has their hands tied. Time after time I see teachersnot focused and it is tragic. The children are engaged and excited. Cutting back onthings like art, gym and music is a travesty. Cant we cut back on interventions whenthey arent needed. The pre-K is where is starts. Lets spend the money in pre-K.

Discussion about teacher accountability

CallerJoan:

Grandmother with kids in school: Cleveland Public Schools work when the parentswork.

CallerBen:

I think there are teachers cruising the Internet and this cannot be denied anymore--that's why Eric wants the new evaluation--with more than a checklist and accountabilityto the principal

If this is all true, why can't we get rid of bad teachers? (Noelle Celeste question)

Tracy Radich: There is no panacea for fixing teacher accountability

Caller Kristina: Suggestion about pre school. Have some preschool drop in centers, dosome preschool work with parents. It could cut the cost. It would get parents involved.Will levy address cost of educating a student once it has fallen behind.

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Ann Mullin: Parent drop in center is a great idea.

CallerDanny: Teacher accountability. We need to get the entire community moving onit. Cleveland resident my whole life. Good teachers don't want bad teachers in the mix

either. We need to get parents and kids involved together. He will vote for the levy.

Mike McIntyre: When will we see details on the levy?

Eric Gordon:We are the one community nationwide where everyone is talking about education, andno bad can come of that.

We will present information to the board in July. There is so much to cover, it is difficultto get the word out, but we are trying through online webinars, online forums, the CivicCommon, and forums in the community. Everyone is talking about how we are going to

educate our children. This is how we are going to be successful.

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