Last week was completely insane schedule-wise, and an invitation early in the week to a district town hall meeting for schools in PI (program improvement under NCLB) was the maraschino cherry that tipped it well-past being merely ambitious into Bedlam land. I did volunteer for this, but afterward I have to wonder why? The meeting was at a pretty rough time, 5-8 p.m. and on a Thursday to boot. I met with Larry Ferlazzo this weekend and when he asked me what happened,  I sounded like some passive-aggressive teenager who fell asleep in class, “I dunno?” I was not the only one, when I asked a fell0w attendee from my site what on earth happened, she had the same response.  Here is my attempt to glean something from the experience…

Just the Facts: The meeting was set up by the superintendent, a new one from Charlotte-Mecklenburg, NC, and a Broad Academy grad. He apparently has made parent engagement as a priority, which I think is a good thing. They invited principals at schools in PI to bring 5 representatives, including two parents, and three teachers. They also asked middle and high schools to send a student representative. The turnout was somewhere in the 100 – 150 range, filling the entire community room where board meetings are normally held. They promised snacks, but had nice mini sandwiches, some veggies, cheese, crackers, and a selection of desserts. I was almost sorry I had treated myself to Der Weinersnitzel for dinner before the event. It started with an outline of the problem (test scores rising–but not enough) necessary for the community and parent folk (and probably more than a few of the staff, although lord know it feels like I have the school % proficient by significant sub-group, etc. tattooed on my frontal lobe). Then we were split up into homogeneous groupings (admins, teachers, parents/community folk, students), and went off in groups to identify the various problems in the way of achievement.

Where it starts to fade: From that point forward is starts getting more more hazy. We started off identifying problems that were global/systemic, about teaching, about process, etc. They were perfectly happy to have myself and a number of other teachers rant about the fact that with poor children, teacher may be the most significant in-school factor on student achievement, the out of school factors take precedence. Being earnest sorts, many also offered suggestions about things that were within the realm of control of not just the district (hey, could you stick to a plan for a while, and quite changing things so abruptly on us all the time?). The only coherent observation that I have from this, and it’s a pretty good one considering how whack I was feeling by the end of the session was this…some of the high school folks kept saying stuff about how we need to focus on the basics, we have kids coming up to us who can’t read or read at a fifth grade level. At the same time elementary teachers discussed  how for kids the curriculum was so restricted, lacking in more high-interest content (like Science), and is just not engaging or culturally congruent with our students’ lives or interest  in any way, shape, or form. I understand the point the high school teachers are making, but I think they don’t understand that when they ask for more of the “basics” they are exacerbating the reading problem they are having in high school. It’s not because they  haven’t been taught reading, it’s because they don’t or can’t learn material that is so far from their experience or interest as to be laughable. They need more science (with reading and mathematics) and less time on second rate stories that were picked for some silly notion of alignment.

Where I totally lost any sense of what was going on: We got back together to share what we found out in our separate groups. Students complained that they asked for help and couldn’t receive it in a way that worked with their lives. Specifically, she had to watch siblings, took a bus (no car), and couldn’t go to tutoring after-school which was the only time that her teacher offered it. A parent who I’ve seen at board meetings who didn’t like how numbers games were played by schools to stay out or get out of PI. Suggestions about programs that were working (a book club at one middle school to encourage reading) were also offered. Whoever summarized what teachers had discussed, offered something that not only bore no resemblance to most of the discussion in the group, it wasn’t even really coherent to myself or my neighbor. The rest is but a blur, and then we went back to our homogeneous groups to come up with “solutions”. We were behind, and  were barely able to get some comments from fewer than 10 of us (there were at least 40 -60 teachers), when we saw the administrators heading back down. We went back, and strangely, none of the administrators were there. The facilitator was looking for someone from either the admin or teacher group to share the “top” priority solution we had come up with. Since we hadn’t listed everything, let alone prioritized, I shared that there was a discussion about extending the school day or year, but that although we hadn’t had a chance to speak, I knew that myself and others felt that there was no way we were going to get to where we needed to, if we used that “extra” time to do more of the same. What else was said is lost on me now.

In conclusion: I hope they take all the index cards they had us pin up and come up with some notes, because I have no sense of what was discussed on at a global level at that meeting. I will say this meeting was the first time I heard the term PLN used in my district.

Below are Tweets I sent from meeting which may make more sense that all I wrote above. It’s in blog chrono order with the latest at top:

Some teachers want to extend day or year but I think it won’t get us where we need to go if it’s more of the same.7:51 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

This townhall marks the first time I’ve heard term PLN in my district7:49 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

teacher preaching to choir here it’s the parents not here at townhall7:06 PM Oct 22nd from txt

Parent talking about long lunch line at kids school is so long that they can’t get food in time.7:06 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

Cmmty org at townhall discussed curriculum not being relevent among other points.7:02 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

Should parents be involved? Kids some won’t care but they should.7:00 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

I AM a goddess and don’t you forget it.6:59 PM Oct 22nd from txt

Students need support but are embarrassed to get help.6:57 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

Not interactive listening to teacher talk for two hours. His school does projects on their interests.6:55 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

Backpack overload. Hey solution, at son’s school they have a single class set of text and one for home for each student.6:54 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

Students want more support and are being pushed out. Some of the interventions don’t mesh w/schedule and life.6:51 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

What were our take aways? Student group is concerned about push for grades? not clear but hard 2 talk in lg grp6:49 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

Saw the super doing walkthru of breakout6:37 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm
Tying test scores to teacher pay will exacerbate discrimination in high minority low score schools6:32 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

poorly done pcing schedule has little to do with reality6:28 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

those were my issues6:15 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

#4 Equal start gap starts early and we need comp early childhood and parenting.6:15 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

#3 we need to stop blaming each other, parents, schhols, kids and stop working ag each other6:13 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

#2 the environment while teachers are the biggest IN school factor home and enviroment are bigger6:12 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

#1 equity all schools are not equal need significant resources to erase gap.6:10 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

Lady from parent ctr at SDSU is leading us in an activity where we list four issues impeeding achievement.6:08 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

Breakout groups coming up5:49 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

teacher citing teachers as biggest factor is specious as teacher is biggest in school factor, but out of school has larger effect.5:49 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

That parent feels title one funds arer not being allocated well in general and schools are pushing out behavior problems.5:48 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

Parent is dinging luther burbank because they got out of PI with scores from only 18 students, and thenis building a stadium.5:45 PM Oct 22nd from txt

a teacher talked about teachers being the most important factor for student success…5:44 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

Trying to close achievement gap that is still a yawning hole in our test scores.5:38 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

Crowd is somewhere in the 75-150 range at scusd townhall.5:37 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

Next year our % goal for AYP is ~56% which will be damn hard as it’s a 11point jump5:33 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

Surprised super is not here at townhall?5:26 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

as with most comtgs the intros and late start mean we just started the general session now.5:26 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm

Starting dist town hall on PI schools focus is on family engagement.5:18 PM Oct 22nd from Ping.fm