Tami Pyfer – Utah State Board of Education, Chair -attending the School Grading Working Group

The manner and results of our new school grading system does not match the legislative intent. This is one of the things I learned this past Thursday, while participating in the school grading working group chaired by Senator Stuart Adams (Senate sponsor of SB 271 School Grading Amendments [2013]).

I was particularly intrigued with the presentation by Frank Anderson of Timpanogos Academy. Mr. Anderson demonstrated that the current manner in which school grades are calculated, utilizing the “complex Algorithym” from “R” program has a flaw that does not accurately reflect a school’s ability to move “low performing students forward”. This in turn, skews the proficiency data and artificially drops the overall scores of a school. The discussion then turned to a static or more normative approach in school grading. There was a commitment from USOE to follow up with evidence that he presented.

Here is a link to his PowerPoint presentation:

Anderson Presentation

We also agreed to forward the following recommendations to the legislature:

• Define High School as a school that includes grade 12 and does not include any grade lower than 7; or grades 9 through 12 of a combination school.
• A school that is designated as an alternative school will be exempt from school grading
• The State Board will assign two grades to combination schools
• A school will not be graded on writing as indicated in the original bill
• College ready will be determined by ACT scores (how subjects are weighted is still unresolved)
• If a school does not have 95% of its students for testing, it will drop a letter grade as opposed to an automatic F.

Other ideas I am proposing:

• Two letter grades for all schools: #1 Overall Grade #2Grade based on student growth. Or some other way to measure student growth within a school.
• The state will provide funding for additional FTE for an Elementary School that receives an F letter grade.  The FTE will be in the subject or subjects that the school needs help in. The FTE can then rotate through out the classrooms when that particular subject is being taught.

Link to an op-ed I wrote some months ago, stating my position on school grading:

Clara: Educators’ Pessimism Doesn’t Help Students (Tribune)

Local school boards are important and powerful institutions of our society. They manage and determine the quality of education our children receive, set policy, levy taxes and spend our tax dollars. However, now some seem to have abdicated their fiduciary responsibilities to administrators. Local school board members are elected to serve the people, not the institution. (Jessie L. Bonner, AP)

By John Florez , Deseret News
Published: Saturday, Sept. 14 2013 12:00 a.m. MDT

If Utah’s local school boards were graded, they would get an F, or at best an incomplete. Some seem to suffer from chronic public absenteeism and don’t do their homework.

When the law went in to effect requiring schools be given a grade for their performance, there was an immediate outcry by school administrators, teachers and some parents for its unfairness. Noticeably absent were the voices of local school board members, the ones responsible for overseeing schools. It speaks volumes about what’s wrong with Utah’s educational system. Local school boards are important and powerful institutions of our society. They manage and determine the quality of education our children receive, set policy, levy taxes and spend our tax dollars. However, now some seem to have abdicated their fiduciary responsibilities to administrators. Local school board members are elected to serve the people, not the institution.

Utahns are strong advocates for local control, with elected school board members being closest to the people. Yet few of us know the name of our local school board member. Bright and dedicated people run for school boards; however, once elected they are briefed and intimidated by professionals who quickly “educate” them as to the complexity of education and succumb to the language of the enterprise — collaboration, communication and partnerships. As a former school board member, I was briefed on board protocol calling for getting along, cooperating, being “family,” and discouraged from speaking out on my own and voicing the concerns of the people I was elected to represent.

Though board members are elected to represent their districts, in many instances they quickly become isolated and insulated from any criticism from the public, so taxpayers never know where they stand on issues. Board meetings often become show and tell, where board members listen to professionals as to what they do, rather than what they are supposed to deliver — well-educated students prepared to succeed in an ever-changing world.

As Senate President Wayne Niederhauser and House Speaker Rebecca Lockhart have pointed out, “School Grading is a transparent and easy-to-understand accountability system that focuses on outcomes instead of inputs … We believe such a system is necessary for teachers and administrators to focus their efforts, for parents to understand what’s happening at their children’s schools, and for board members and lawmakers to evaluate policy changes and reallocate resources effectively.”

The grading system has shown the need for changes in our educational governance. Currently everyone — legislators, the state board, district boards and schools — and no one is responsible.

As a consequence, there is much finger pointing; school districts blame legislators for school problems, lack of money, a multitude of regulations and needless reporting systems.

As legislative leadership renews education’s governance structure (SB169), instead of simply giving school districts more money, they ought to consider having the state contract with local school districts for established education outcomes and monitor for results. This would give school districts greater flexibility and require school districts to publicly show local people the results of their decisions. Once the public sees who is responsible for how their schools are managed, they can vote board members out or keep them in. Board members should be elected for two-year terms.

Once board members remember they are elected to serve the people, not the institution, stop looking for scapegoats, start evaluating their policies and reallocating resources, they will find great support from their local citizens.

Link To Original Article

A Utah native, John Florez has been on the staff of Sen. Orrin Hatch, served as former Utah Industrial Commissioner and filled White House appointments, including Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor and Commission on Hispanic Education. Email him atjdflorez@comcast.net

Chris Detrick | The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake City School Board member Michael Clara

Clara: Educators’ pessimism doesn’t help students
BY MICHAEL CLARA
PUBLISHED: SEPTEMBER 14, 2013 01:01AM

In recent days, many oppositional voices have been raised over Utah’s new school grading system. Mine was not one of them.

As a local school board member, one of my statutory responsibilities is to “use progress-based assessments as part of a plan to identify schools, teachers, and students that need remediation and determine the type and amount of federal, state, and local resources to implement remediation” (53A-3-402, Utah Code).

It is within that context that I welcome any system of measurement that will tell me the health of the schools within my purview.

I echo the words of Winston Churchill when he said “I was not the lion, but it fell to me to give the lion’s roar.” Let me herein give the “lion’s roar” about the state of education in my community.

The only two elementary schools within the Salt Lake City School District receiving an F letter grade are in District 2, which I represent. I take full responsibility for those failing grades.

I extend my sincere apologies to my neighbors, parents, teachers and students for the grade their school received. I say to them that this failing grade is not a reflection of their failure; it is rather a reflection of the poor leadership at the top pinnacle of this school district.

On Sept. 3, the day that this new system made its debut, school board members received a frenzied, enthusiastic email from the school district media relations specialist, Jason Olson, stating in part, “Dr. Withers is speaking on behalf of the district … in a press conference …. many of his comments are being tweeted out … I expect the superintendent’s comments will receive attention from most media outlets.”

One would have expected the superintendent’s comments to be about the resources we were going to deploy into these so-called “failing schools” in an effort to raise student achievement. Instead of addressing that part of this equation, Superintendent McKell Withers was investing his time and energy into garnering “attention from most media outlets” in an effort to “kill the messengers” and divert attention from the fact that his lack of leadership over the years has placed my neighborhood schools in the situation they now find themselves in.

In the school board meeting later that evening we received more of the same rhetoric from him. Not one single word on what we were going to change in order to help our low-performing schools achieve success.

As I listened to his spoken and written words over the past two weeks, I was taken aback by his “once a failing school, always a failing school” type attitude and his tone that a child’s “demography determines destiny.” How do we expect the schools in our district to see improvement with that type of ideology at the helm?

These are the issues we are not to discuss in school board meetings. We are, instead, told to engage in “happy talk”; everyone must accentuate the positive, even if it has to be made up. This same culture dictates that the bureaucracy never takes responsibility for failures, because “the problem is always out there.”

I can unabashedly commit to my neighbors that, contrary to the prevailing educational climate, I will assume my leadership role more assertively and with greater dedication as a guardian of educational excellence and equity of our neighborhood schools. Together, we can put pessimists like Superintendent Withers to shame and see this year’s F-rated school become a D-rated school next year, and C-rated school the following year, all the way to an A+ school.

J. Michael Clara represents District 2 on the Salt Lake City School Board.

Link to Tribune Commentary

Micheal, Representative Romero, Señor Archuleta at Glendale Middle School

Utah’s House of Representative Angela Romero, Archie Archuleta
and I had an awesome meeting with Glendale Middle School’s administration on Wednesday-September 4, 2013. We received an update on the great strides in academic success that the students at Glendale are achieving. 

Below is the text of a letter I sent to the Principal: 

4 September 2013

Mr. Chris Gesteland, Principal
℅ Glendale Middle School
1430 W. Andrew Avenue
Salt Lake City, Utah 84104

Re: Congratulations!

Mr. Gesteland,

I wanted to take a moment to congratulate you, your administration, teachers and staff for achieving a B grade under Utah’s new school grading system. I recognize that this is no small feat for a Title 1 school. In recent years, I have been thrilled to witness Glendale Middle School’s upward academic trajectory.

This new pinnacle is a testament to the leadership of your administration and the hard work of our teachers. I am particularly impressed with the way community involvement from various organizations has been leveraged to help make Glendale the school it is today.

There is no question that the success of Glendale Middle School is a reflection of the hard work, dedication and maturity our students. We all recognize that our students have achieved these new heights because of the expertise, effort and enthusiasm of our teachers and support staff.

This B grade level of achievement for your school is something we can all celebrate!

This achievement is to be celebrated, not just in how this school grade reflects the heightened academic abilities of our students, but also in the currency these new heights will provide for so many in opening the doors to an exciting and challenging new future in High School and beyond.

Always know of my continued support and admiration for a job well done.

Shalom,

J. Michael Clára
Board Member, District 2

cc: Senator Luz Robles
Representative Angela Romero
Señor Archie Archuleta

PDF Link to letter