Reply to What do I need to know about the Fairfax County School Board?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

I made some general observations and a few specific recommendations at 00:05.   Education in Fairfax is an industry employing 25,000 people, it consumes more than 53% of the total County taxes - more than $3 billion each year, it provides services to more than 190,000 students with all sorts of individual objectives and talents and capabilities, it spends hundreds of millions of dollars on consultants and technology and services.  And yet this is all overseen by a School Board with limited to no financial or management expertise.  There is limited accountability - until very recently there has not been an effective Auditor General.  The Administration is not very experienced and has been shaken up recently with the departure of the COO, the CFO, the Asst Supt of SpecEd, and now the head of HR.  Supt Brabrand appears to be focused on accountability, and this is welcome, but building an efficient administrative team is a seriious challenge.  [b]There is a culture of defensiveness, an unwillingness to be open and transparent, to encourage nepotism/favoritism, and to avoid accountability - metrics, measures, and to confront vested interests.[/b]  This is normal politics for any school system but it becomes consequential in a system that is as large and expensive as FCPS.  So, the first step is to ensure [b]real transparency, accountability, checks & balances and responsibility by the Administration[/b].  A big part of achieving this is whether it is demanded/supported by the Board.  [b]With Hynes and Strauss retiring there is an opportunity to elect members with more relevant experience and a focus on instituting good governance (ref. Storck, Schultz)
[/b]
The education of a child does not readily fit into set time lines and regular curricula.  I've taught for 8 years and learned that learning occurs in lumpy progress.  It is a dis-service to our kids to promote them without demonstrating competency, and this is most critical in the early years as this is the basis for everything else.  Honest appraisals of the talents, capabilities, determination and objectives of students and parents should be done semi-annually - this is more than simply evaluating grades.  From FCPS data, 41% of AP students are receiving A/A- in class marks (48% of IB students), but this grade inflation is misleading parents and students.  I favor posting all test results (anonymized if necessary) along with the mean and standard deviation, to allow students and parents to evaluate where their child is performing relative to their peers.  This is to be honest in the appraisal of opportunities.  At the same time, we must offer alternatives to the strict "intellectual academic" track.  Many students will be more interested and capable in trades, arts, manual labor etc and the skills (technical and inter-personal "character") that ensure success should be taught.  Respect for all learning and for individual effort and achievement of personal goals should be celebrated.  As an aside, there is a lot of value to teach basic home economics - how to buy, save, prepare food, hygiene, manage finances etc. - this is not done well in the current FLE and EPF courses.

Perhaps we need an IEP for each child - but it must be grounded in a culture that is honest, respectful and focused on stewardship of resources.  [b]Currently FCPS constantly calls for more funding with no focus on controlling spending - this is disrespectful to those who work and pay taxes[/b].  To respect the resources that are derived from the work of County taxpayers is critical to developing a culture that respects work, and this is an important element in the education of our children.  Advocates naturally seek more resources and special interests can secure substantial resources that favor them and necessarily disfavor others.  The School Board has the role of deciding these allocations.  The balance between general interests and special interests is dynamic and it results in tensions that are resolved respectfully or by drastic change.  To reiterate what I've asked elsewhere;  What do we spend money on?  Who gets special services?  How do we determine what spending is appropriate?  A Texas judge recently asked "do we spend money on the bright kids or the slow ones"?  This was impolitic, and ignorant of the benefits of spending money on both, but it reflects an important question as to how do we measure value in spending money on kids education?  My recommendation is to spend money on ensuring that young children learn to read and do sums competently.  I also favor spending money on teaching trades and "life skills" - instilling knowledge of character traits that we know lead to success, whatever other skills or attributes one possesses.  When we care about spending money we evaluate the outcomes and measure the returns - this is an important skill and practice to pass to our students.  We teach our students to be stewards of the environment and to care for each other - why does this not extend to being careful when spending money?  The effort of the CAG group is instructive - minor improvement has been made in one metric (B vs W reading) but the gap has widened in every other measure (both in reading and math).  After 8 yrs of this program we must conclude that something is not working.  Unfortunately, the ability to terminate failing programs (or even accurately evaluate them) is complicated by political considerations and the beneficiaries/dependencies that arise with these programs.  This is where a committed Board can provide guidance and support to the Administration.

We know that kids are born with a wide range of abilities and talents.  In a perfect world we would provide resources to maximize the potential for each student.  But the schools are but one part of the triad of student/teacher/family that develops these potentials into achievement.  Respecting the roles and the obligations of each of these parties, and respecting the contributions of money from taxpayers, while encouraging accountable, responsible and measurable administration of the schools can go a long way to achieving social justice and a thriving community.  By the same token, ignoring waste and ineffective programs, favoring special interests, ignoring/assuming the role and responsibilities of the student and families, being disrespectful of taxpayers' contributions is a recipe for a divisive, ineffective and ultimately destructive education system and a failed community.  See D.C. for an example of a failed public school system that is wasting human capital and perpetuating dependence.

FCPS has many committed and caring individuals who work hard to be effective.  Most of the Board members are people of goodwill and take their job seriously. My recommendations are offered with the intent to make a good system better and I support everyone who is working honestly to that end.

[/quote]

Let's start with this post, since otherwise each post will take up too much space.

I believe you suggested that posts from other posters were laden with accusations and buzzwords.  I see plenty here.

Hynes and Strauss both had or have direct teaching experience and/or education degrees.  Are you suggesting the School Board and FCPS administration need more professional managers, and fewer people with education backgrounds?  What in Schultz's background or tenure on the School Board suggests she really understands education policy?

Your post is specifically personal to suggest that you may, in fact, plan to run for School Board yourself.  Do you wish to identify yourself and indicate, for example, where you have taught?  Teaching in a private school, or a small public school system, may or may not provide you with an understanding of the different challenges that FCPS students face.

If you favor holding students back in greater numbers, how do you anticipate that will affect drop-out rates or school accreditations? If you favor grade deflation, might that not impact FCPS students negatively relative to their peers in other jurisdictions when applying to colleges and universities?  If you favor teaching students more about hygeine, how do you expect to deal with parents who already object in some instances to FLE?  How does one draw a meaningful distinction between a "general interest" and a "special interest," especially when programs that you deem "special interests" are, in most cases, intended to meet the needs of large number of students with similar needs?  Suggesting a "back to basics" approach focusing on reading and arithmetic in the early grades suggests falsely, in my opinion, that these are not already major areas of focus, too often at the expense of science, arts, music and physical education.  Criticizing programs that have failed to eliminate the achievement gap is low-hanging fruit, but you've neither offered a clear alternative to CAG or acknowledged the role of institutional racism and other circumstances that give rise to the disparities in achievement in the first instance.

I pose these questions not to harass you, because the length of your post suggests you do care about public education.  However, past School Board races have seen any number of candidates, typically endorsed by the local GOP,, who have offered a "tastes great, less filling" alternative that consists largely of vague promises that, if we somehow audit or review more existing programs and slash FCPS administrative staff, we can simultaneously redirect resources away from schools with more high-needs students to schools with more higher-income kids and see overall gains in student performance.  I have my doubts about that approach, which has no small amount in common with trickle-down economics. [/quote]

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