Dear Dan:

We regret that our interaction at last week’s Board of Education meeting was not what any of us would want.  Several of the comments you made at the meeting deserve a thoughtful response.  However, to give an off-the-cuff response to very complex questions would be irresponsible.

Technical questions are best addressed by professionals after careful analysis.  To that end, we have asked the staff to prepare the following:

• A review of the New York City Charter Schools Evaluation Project.
• Information on best practices for improving student test performance in Shaker’s K-4 schools.
• A representative sample of research-based programs and practices that are being used in the Shaker schools.

We will share this work upon completion.  As Dr. Stokes indicated in your conversation with her, we are also looking at the Kumon reading program to see whether it might be suitable as a supplemental activity for some students.

We also believe there were factual inaccuracies and mischaracterizations in your ‘open letter’ published in This Week in Shaker.  We will address these issues in detail at a later date.

Our commitment to the achievement of all students is unwavering.  Although we may not always see eye to eye with you on how best to reach that goal, we do appreciate your concern for the schools and hope for a more constructive relationship.

Sincerely,

F. Drexel Feeling  

Mark Freeman

Open Letter to Mark Freeman and Drexel Feeling in response

Gentlemen:

In response to my ignored questions of last week’s meeting, you now propose, in your letter this week, to ask your technical staff to prepare answers for me.   An Achievement Task Force would have this at their fingertips.  But why be so timid about discussing this?  It is not rocket science.  It is largely about more time on task with personal attention, phonics and vocabulary building.  Kumon effectively provides that.

The deadly silence to my questions last week spoke volumes and apparently served to expose the lack of The Board’s acquaintance with, and ability to discuss this problem.  I already know enough about the answers you are having prepared.  They are producing the following kinds of results:        

Between 19% and 42% of the 3rd graders can’t read well and between 19% and 36% of the 4th graders can’t read well according to the state Achievement tests.  Aside from the tragic frustration, loss of self-respect and potential among these kids, this problem is at the heart of The Shaker schools’ slide in ranking and reputation.  Meanwhile the Board spends thousands of dollars and surveying time searching for a “Strategic Objective.”  Well here’s one; teach EVERYONE to read comprehensively by the 4th grade.  It’s the raison d’être of all elementary schools.  Life’s learning tool should be denied to no one. The first and biggest dime you spend should be here.

While I’m focusing on getting better results in closing the achievement gaps, you are focusing on defending what gives you the current results.  That implies The Board is satisfied with the present results and thinks it’s the best that can be done.  We are talking past one another.

You’ll recall one of the questions that went unanswered by The Board last week was: ‘Are you satisfied with the current Achievement gaps?’  The silence was uncomfortable to say the least.

You propose that your technical staff provide information on ‘Best Practices.’  This might be more useful to you and The Board than me since none of you could tell me why Lomond and Onaway consistently lead the others in producing the smallest Achievement gaps.  If Shaker’s Leaders really do employ ‘Best Practices,’ one would think you should be conversant with the foregone and would be asking and helping the other schools to emulate Lomond and Onaway.  Some of them don’t have the voluntary help to carry this out.  I think they call that leadership in most places.

Best Wishes,

Dan Hoffman

published in This Week in Shaker, Volume 7, Number 42                    December 7, 2009

 At the last Board meeting, Drexel Feeling’s response to my pilot program for out-sourcing failing readers to Kumon was, ‘There are a number of programs already in place.’  And that’s just the problem; a number of programs piling up with no evaluation or accountability as to their effectiveness—which could be done by a task force.  Only Lomond and Onaway score consistently number one and two respectively, showing some valuable results.  Below are Shaker’s achievement gaps by school reported from the State Achievement tests.  They haven’t changed much for 15 years. 

             From page 64 of the 2007-08 Fact Book

 ‘The racial/ethnic achievement gap in third grade reading varied from 19% difference at Lomond to 42% difference at Mercer. 

 ‘The racial/ethnic third grade achievement gap in math varied from 21% difference at Lomond to 55% difference at Fernway.

 ‘The racial/ethnic reading achievement gap in the 4th grade varied from 19% difference at Onaway to 36% at Mercer.

 ‘The racial/ethnic 4th grade math achievement gap stretched from 16% difference at Lomond to 42% difference at Fernway.’

 Other districts and schools are narrowing the gap.  We aren’t.   A Kumon reading out-sourcing pilot program can be available for evaluating in 9 months.  Each child is first tested to find his or her level of understanding.  Then each is started separately with individual attention at a level slightly below his or her competency so each can first experience success.  This creates momentum and enthusiasm in each child immediately.  The child begins to enjoy it and starts to accelerate up through his level of difficulty and onward. 

No extra teachers needed.  No loading extra hours on teachers.  No extra time needed for additional teacher training.  No union contract problems.  Just a bus two or three times a week to take them over to Mayfield Road Kumon Center.

You could start saving these kids next week.  While we talk and plan and dither, many little lives are losing the one chance they may ever have to avoid a lifetime of failure.  If their lives don’t move you, what about the later behavioral effects they have on the school and society.  Common sense tells you the cheapest and most effective fix is here and now.  What does your heart tell you?  You say I’m pushing this like it’s a major crisis facing the School Board to act on?  Well, it is a major crisis, not in your lives, but for those little kids in the second grade.  How many more years must you talk and dither, providing no direct leadership?  No evaluation and decision at the top.  Oh, look!  Another year’s gone by.  Oh, well. 

 I’m reminded of a time before any of you were born, and history now seldom speaks of it.  The Germans were over London every night, pulverizing it in preparation for invasion.  The man at the top in Britain, Churchill, signed every order emanating from that office with a footnote reading. ‘ACTION THIS DAY.’  When there’s a need, that’s what leaders do.  They point the way, and demand action.  Those kids would love ‘Action This Day.’  You run a school.  Teach ’em to read.

Will the leader of the Shaker Schools please identify himself, stand up and tell us what he’s going to do?

Sincerely,

Dan Hoffman

published in This Week in Shaker, Volume 7, Number 39                    November 16, 2009

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     source: Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, does not include overseas or provisional ballots

More details to come.

Report Cards and additional information are on the ODE website Report Card page.

Imagine Shaker

We can only hope that the newly imagined Shaker includes equity in education.

Speech on health care reform is here

Questions & Answers are here

Making Data Work: A Parent and Community Guide

Mission Statement: The Education Trust works for the high academic achievement of all students at all levels, pre-kindergarten through college, and forever closing the achievement gaps that separate low-income students and students of color from other youth. Our basic tenet is this — All children will learn at high levels when they are taught to high levels.

Now the challenge – sit down and go through the worksheets with data from Shaker schools.

The African-American community will fall behind in the United States and the United States will fall behind in the world unless we do a far better job than we have been doing of educating our sons and daughters.   In the 21st century – when so many jobs will require a bachelor’s degree or more, when countries that out-educate us today will outcompete us tomorrow – a world-class education is a prerequisite for success. 

You know what I’m talking about. There’s a reason the story of the civil rights movement was written in our schools. There’s a reason Thurgood Marshall took up the cause of Linda Brown. There’s a reason the Little Rock Nine defied a governor and a mob. It’s because there is no stronger weapon against inequality and no better path to opportunity than an education that can unlock a child’s God-given potential. 

Yet, more than a half century after Brown v. Board of Education, the dream of a world-class education is still being deferred all across this country. African-American students are lagging behind white classmates in reading and math – an achievement gap that is growing in states that once led the way on civil rights. Over half of all African-American students are dropping out of school in some places. There are overcrowded classrooms, crumbling schools, and corridors of shame in America filled with poor children – black, brown, and white alike.

The state of our schools is not an African-American problem; it’s an American problem. And if Al Sharpton, Mike Bloomberg, and Newt Gingrich can agree that we need to solve it, then all of us can agree on that. All of us can agree that we need to offer every child in this country the best education the world has to offer from the cradle through a career.

From the statement -

 What work still needs to be accomplished?

Although college enrollment rates for African American and Hispanic students have increased since 1976, significant disparities exist between underrepresented minorities and their white and Asian peers in terms of college enrollment:

• In 2004, 60.3% of Asian/Pacific Islander 18- to 24-year-olds and 41.7% of white Americans were enrolled in college, compared to 31.8% of African Americans, 24.7% of Hispanics, and 24.4% of American Indian/Alaska Natives in the same age group.
• Similar disparities exist for college completion. In 2003-2004, African Americans represented 12% of the population, but earned only 9.4% of bachelor’s degrees and 5.9% of doctorate degrees. During the same school year, Hispanics represented 14% of the population, but earned only 6.8% of bachelor’s degrees and 3.4% of doctorate degrees.

Significant disparities also exist in elementary and secondary schools throughout the country:

• According to the U.S. Department of Education’s 2006 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), African American students represented 13.4% of graduating seniors in U.S. public schools, and represented only 7.9% of students enrolled in Advanced Placement courses.
• According to the 2006 CRDC, African American students represented 17.13% of enrolled students, but comprised 35.67% of students receiving corporal punishment, 37.40% of students who received out of school suspensions, 37.86% of students who were expelled, and only 9.15% of students in Gifted and Talented programs.
• According to the 2006 CRDC, Hispanic students represented 20.41% of enrolled students but comprised only 13.72% of students receiving a high school diploma, 12.79% of students in Gifted and Talented programs, 11.53% of students enrolled in an AP Math course, and 12.04% of students enrolled in an AP Science course.