We'll review the board agenda and Spanish translation will be provided.

MEETING NOTICE

DISTRICT I LEADERSHIP MEETING

Tuesday, March 9, 2010 - 6:30 P.M.

Guest Speaker

Ann Best - Chief Human Resources Officer

Topic

"The New Teacher Project" and how it will affect HISD schools

Location

Jeff Davis High School - Library

1101 Quitman (77009)

PLEASE RSVP (713)556-6112 Diana 

Last weekend, beginning Friday morning, the Houston Chronicle's editorial page ran several thoughtful pieces about the transformation underway in HISD.  

Terry Grier gave his first State of the Schools speech to a packed house at the Hilton Americas Friday morning.  

I've spent the last couple of weeks in new board member trainings with Mike Lunceford my fellow freshman at the table, on top of routine workshops, school visits, communicating with voters in district 1 and throughout HISD via email, facebook and telephone if not in person.  

In the meantime, I've been busy with my own kids, the goings-on at their schools in just life in general.  We move at a fast clip around here, each of us terribly protective of our own interests.  Dinner time is sacred around here.  The table might not be set formally, but we do our best to gather in the kitchen at some point during the evening.  We don't have a tv downstairs, which means we don't watch American Idol and have managed to miss the entire Winter Olympics.  Talking to each other is nice, though.

Here are links to the Chron and NY Times pieces.  Also, remember to check out the School Zone Blog on Chron.com

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/6874344.html

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/6877559.html

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/6877422.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/opinion/23herbert.html

I think I've directed you to already, but will again.

The Widget Effect

widgeteffect.org

and Then New Teacher Project at tntp.org

First blog since Thursday's meeting.  I was flooded with automated petition emails on Thursday and we had a packed house at the meeting.  The Chronicle counted about 750 people in attendance.  There were 62 registered speakers to agenda item H-4, over half of whom were in favor of the policy changes.  It was fascinating to see democracy in progress and to have a public dialogue about something people feel so passionately about.  

To be perfectly honest, it was difficult to hear the crowd boo when parents of children from some of our most struggling schools spoke out in favor of having effective teachers.  I completely understand the philosophical differences, the concern for one's profession and the desire to ensure we have a fair and accurate process.  That said, I found myself frustrated and uncomfortable, to say the least, when a parent would speak and the crowd would jeer and heckle.  It was definitely overwhelming, but also impressive to see so many turn out.  I hope that the passion that drove them to be there will spill over into classrooms and continue to be present at our meetings and in the dialogue to make HISD all that it can be.  

I was proud that the measure passed unanimously.  I believe each board member that voted for it did so with great conviction for the quality of education we want HISD to provide for our children.  

I read many blog posts and continue to see comments that question, "what about the parents?"  I find the assumption that in an attempt to hold ourselves more accountable we are somehow absolving kids, parents and community of all responsibility shortsided.  Parents and families come to the table with all types of resources, experiences, challenges and levels of education and income.  The more energy we spend blaming some "other" for our own shortfalls, the fewer positive outcomes we'll have.  I know this sounds lofty and broad, but we each need to claim our responsibility and own it.  

Other thoughts:

Optional year-round calendar.  Most important word, optional.  This was approved to allow us to create and offer a program similar to what we see working at successful charters right here in Houston.  There is no movement to make this district wide.  We could not afford it.  Principals, teachers and students would all have the option to choose it and employees would be compensated for the extra time spent.  There is a demand for this, I've heard it at many a community meeting in my district and I'd like to see us be able to offer the choice within our system.  

Thanks for reading.

I woke up this morning to expected, nasty, cold, wet weather.  My morning will be filled with preparing the afternoon for the sitter because I will be gone from two o'clock on.

My kids have told me five or six times that there is no school on Monday and I have not believed them.  I was excited last night to discover they were correct.  We have been so busy and will have guests in town this weekend so the Monday together will be nice.

Our meeting has a short, but intense agenda.  We will look at approving an optional year round calendar.  There has been some concern that this could be district wide or that schools would be arbitrarily picked to switch.  Truly the calendar is being approved so that we can have the OPTION to offer it to some of our most struggling communities where we are seeing success with the same kids at charter schools who have the extended calendar.  There would be extensive community and school based input before this was approved.

We will also be voting on the policy changes that will allow for the consideration of a teachers value-added data trends in everything from professional development, prinicpal evaluation and teacher's contract granting or renewal.  A giant step in the goal of putting an effective teacher in every classroom.

I've heard from many teachers who are frustrated, confused, concerned for their profession.  While I believe this is an important step, I also believe that we must use it with integrity.  I believe all levels of the system need to be held accountable and I wish people could trust that.  I am going to refrain from using terms like "teachers," "principals," or "parents."  We all know there is huge variety among these groups, they are as complicated as each individual person that falls in the category.  Our job as a school system is to honestly attempt to ensure that we hold ourselves to the highest possible standard for the kids we're charged with educating.

I am open to comments and emails, but I'd ask that they are thoughtful and constructive.  Direct, constructive criticism and challenging comments and questions are welcome.

Please try to come to the board meeting tonight, whatever your feelings on this issue tonight.  We are sure to have a lively discussion and a variety of veiwpoints.

Tonight we had our agenda review for Thursday's board meeting.  You can get the official board agenda at www.hisd.org, go to the list on the left and click the Board of Education tab and then click the Official Board Agenda tab.

We discussed at length, the proposed optional, year round calendar.  This would make it possible for us to offer a longer school year at select campuses.  The schools and communities would be involved in any decision to move to this type of calendar, but having the chance to serve some of our most at-risk kids in a continuous, intensive learning enviroment could further our desire to eliminate the achievement gap and greatly reduce the drop-out rate.  

We had extensive discussions around the controversial H-4 item (previously H-6 at the January meeting) where we would link student acheivement data, EVAAS scores, to teacher evaluations and contract renewal decisions.  We also ammend the principal evaluation to include effective teacher evaluations, among other things.  I have heard from several teachers who are concerned about the policy, some who are deeply philosophically opposed to it and some who are supportive.  

It is so important to step away from this and understand that these policies were generated from a place of sincere hope that we can finally begin to take giant steps in our mission to close the achievement gap and eliminate the drop-out rate.  We have a system that is failing far too many of our children.  For me the most important thing to note is that linking these things will not be the end of our work.  The ASPIRE program is mostly noted for the performance pay aspect, but not for the other core pieces or "pillars.

You can read more about it here:  http://portal.battelleforkids.org/Aspire/images/HISD_aspire_brochure.pdf

This brochure does not go into a detailed explanation of the data analysis, but google value-added data education, for a wealth of information as well.  

I will post more specifics later in the week.  The use of value-added data is not a panacea on it's own, but only one piece of a complex and intricate puzzle.  We must also provide teachers with supportive leadership, relevant professional development.  I challenge nay-sayers to stick with us on this journey to provide every child with a quality teacher and to provide each child with the education he or she deserves.  It is currently a lofty goal, but my hope is that one day soon it will be viewed by all as one that is possible.  

I've spoken and will continue to speak to the fact that we are overhauling our human resources department.