“I don’t make jokes,” Will Rogers is said to have commented regarding the source of his humor. “I just watch the government and report the facts.” This column has had a steady supply of material from the hospital board in years past: put it here, put it there, vote no on our ballot measure, leave it where it is! It seems the school board is our steady source now.
At its special meeting on Tuesday evening, the board again pondered its strategic plan. Due for revision every five years (next in 2010), this plan is intended to guide the district in its decision-making. Trustee Cam Hawing in particular often cites the positive discipline of the strategic plan.
Last spring the trustees all read and discussed the manuscript “Good to Great and the Social Sectors.” This short work by best-selling author Jim Collins was to provide a framework for the board’s policymaking moving forward, and its metaphors continue to illuminate the discussions of the trustees. Trustee Helen Marsh called back in the spring for the “big ideas” Collins recommended, goals that would inspire and define the work of the district.
Trustee Gary DeSmet recently presented the board with a big idea when he pitched “Every student at grade level” as a working mission statement, being “clear, concise and measurable” as suggested by “Good to Great.” Lacking a second, his motion never came up for a vote. He put forth another big idea on Tuesday, asking his fellow trustees if there was consensus on “classroom accountability,” the concept promoted by President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan; the consistent testing data since 2002 should show, particularly at the elementary level, which teachers elicit the greatest gains in achievement by their students. While not necessarily the whole measure of student growth, the ability to perform at grade level in math and English are threshold skills whose acquisition builds a student’s self-confidence. DeSmet’s suggestion was that the teaching in those classrooms would become the “best practice” examples for use throughout the district, but the trustees could not reach consensus on this big idea, either.
The presentation on Tuesday by Superintendent Pam Martens concluded with a summary list of five big ideas, headed by this one: “Model high school • A-G for all.” Much of the effort in government work is focused on input, that is, how much money is spent, how many training seminars are conducted, what new programs are adopted, etc. The beauty of this big idea is that it shifts the focus to output, to demonstrable student success. “A-G” refers to the admission requirements at California public universities. Fulfilling that goal for all graduating seniors would give them all the opportunity to attend public college if they choose. That would, of course, be a terrific accomplishment, as less than half of the seniors have met those requirements in the past.
Some of the other big ideas have merit, too, but we’re concerned that the school board has been “all hat and no cattle.” Student achievement data show that less than half of Sonoma’s students can do grade-level work. While the trustees have devoted countless hours in public meetings and have extolled the virtues of several big ideas, they have not adopted any as a galvanizing statement for changing the status quo.
We recall the true wisdom we’ve heard from senior staff at the district. Paraphrasing comments from earlier meetings, Assistant Superintendent Justin Frese has said, “Anything is possible – it’s a matter of setting priorities,” and Director of Curriculum and Instruction Louann Carlomagno has said, “If it isn’t measured, it doesn’t get done.”
In our view, the school board trustees need to enunciate a measurable goal and make it a priority in order to move us beyond the status quo. That’s what they were elected to do, and they owe it to the students – and to the voters.
