"Schools: a community enterprise" Says PPS Doug Wells

(Doug Wells is a fellow national board member for Parents for Public Schools. He just wrote this great OpEd piece for the Oregonian)
by Doug Wells, guest opinion
Friday February 20, 2009, 9:55 AM
It is with great sadness that I read "Facing the failures of public education" by Leslie Spencer. Spencer's rhetoric makes it appear that our public schools are on the brink of failure, that we are failing our children, and that the only reasonable solution is to offer vouchers. She supports her arguments with survey data that she claims is unbiased and balanced.

But upon closer inspection, it becomes painfully apparent that the research was entirely funded by like-minded, pro-voucher institutions, the most prominent of which is the Friedman Foundation for Educational Excellence (founded by conservative economist Milton Friedman, the self-proclaimed founder of the voucher movement).

In sharp contrast to the numbers cited by Spencer, the research firm of Davis, Hibbitts, & Midghall recently conducted a survey of Portlanders about the state of our public schools. Their findings show that we strongly support our public schools and the direction they are taking.

As is true in most cities, a high majority of the survey participants were taxpayers without children in schools -- mirroring our population -- yet they showed a commitment to our kids and schools and do in fact see funding as one of the major obstacles facing our public education system.


I'm sure an opinion survey can be found to support almost every point ofview, so I won't continue to dwell on the statistics. But here is the bottom line: In our country, high-quality public education is not a privilege, but an expectation, and our community has an obligation to provide high-quality education for every child. Vouchers are a quick fix for some, but they are inherently inadequate because we need long-term solutions for all children.

Community & Parents for Public Schools of Portland, a chapter of Parents for Public Schools, is not naive about the state of our schools. We are in the deteriorating buildings and overcrowded classrooms every single day.

The incredible schools, of which there are many, fuel our optimism; the bad schools fuel our tenacity and persistence.

We believe that as parents, citizens and owners of our public schools, we must take responsibility for addressing the toughest and most persistent problems facing our kids, schools and communities. We believe that public education should be a community enterprise. A community must not abandon its public schools and children in their time of greatest need.

Following the same logic, poorly performing schools must not be tolerated, period. We believe that we must unite to find solutions that work for all of our kids. This sets us apart from voucher supporters, who know that the "school choice" they clamor for cannot guarantee a good education for every child. In order to give all our children equal access to high-quality education, we must concentrate on fixing the schools that we already have. We must push for greater accountability, because if excellent schools can be provided for some students, they can be provided for all students.

When families, schools and communities work together, children succeed, and our communities grow and prosper. Together, we can make a difference.

I will also close with President Barack Obama's words from the presidential debates. "Where we disagree is on the idea that we can somehow give out vouchers as a way of securing the problems in our education system. If Senator McCain were to say that vouchers are the way to go, I disagree with him on this because the data doesn't show that it actually solves the problem."

Let's hope that Obama's words continue to shape our debate on education policy, both nationally and locally.

Doug Wells of Southeast Portland is president of Community & Parents for Public Schools.

Parent Consultation? @Dialogue @ Curriculum

In a recent focus group interview, parents responded to several questions. Some parents in the all Latino group answered in Spanish. Prominent & recurring topics were concern about academic achievement and the support students need to succeed. Most were ill-informed about the curricular requirements beyond vague notions that their children are required to take basic core curriculum courses. But all, to a person, showed great interest and concern.


Curriculum Consultation
Because these were parents from an economically disadvantaged Title I high school the school receiving those federal funds is required to consult with parents. But, to consult, that is to have informed dialogue, school personnel must explain and provide comprehensible information.
In a previous article, "Raising the Bar on Parent Engagement," I noted that dynamic and informed parent engagement is required for educational reform to benefit all children. "The No Child Left Behind Act gives parents increased influence over the education of their children in public schools, and curriculum is central to that education. But are parents and other laypersons unable to inform the technical aspects of education?" (2007)
One analogy can be found in health care, which is certainly technical, complex and seemingly inaccessible to the layperson. But in spite of layperson technical ignorance, contemporary enlightened doctors want patients to be informed about their health, their medical options and have more control over what happens in their health care.
Education also can be made more accessible to families and laypersons. Just as a patient does not have to become a doctor to have clear understanding of his/her body, or the meaning of a medical diagnosis and the possible paths available to better health, likewise a parent and a student can have a clear understanding of what helps and hinders his or her learning, what different options are available to learn and what alternatives could prove more compatible to the child’s learning and academic achievement.
In this way, families and communities can hold their schools to high standards and success for all students. As educators, we must have ongoing conversations with families about standards and how children can be supported to learn. Bilingual forums in lay terms inform and enable families to learn about the specifics of standards, how they are measured, and how they are assessed and can empower them to ask the right questions. We, my colleagues and I, know this first hand because we do this often and experience wonderful dialogues with families that represent the gamut of social class, education and experience. See: Authentic Consultation,
Latino Parent Engagement in High School Math , Engagement Sounds Sparks and Movements
Quality Schools Action Framework
IDRA’s Quality Schools Action Framework, our institutional change model, includes the following as key elements:

• fair funding,


• governance efficacy,


• parent and community engagement,


• student engagement,


• teaching quality, and


• curriculum quality and access (Robledo Montecel, 2005).

Parent and community engagement is: creating partnerships based on respect and a shared goal of academic success and integrating parents and community members into the decisionmaking processes of the school.
Curriculum quality and access is: the educational programs of study, materials and other learning resources such as technology and their accessibility to all students. It also relates to assessment and accountability – the school practices related to fair and unbiased assessment of students and degree that schools take responsibility for the academic success of all students.
These two factors should not be dealt with in isolation. In point of law, school personnel have an obligation to consult with parents and community members about students’ access to a high quality curriculum.

So: Title I Must Continue Informed Dialogue
Whatever changes and modifications are made to the new federal education law as the new congress convenes, it will be important that the consultation with informed parents continue as a requirement. We recommend that all schools support authentic dialogue and true listening of the families whose children are served by public schools. Families can be and ultimately are the strongest and most consistent advocates for the educational success of their children.

(This post is a slightly edited & tweaked version of an article just published in the IDRA January 2009 Newsletter Parent Consultation and Curriculum – Meaningful Dialogue)

7 Resolutions To Make for our Student's Sake

This post is mostly taken from the e-newsletter my colleague Laurie Posner produces for IDRA , our organization.
● ● ● Seven Resolutions We Must Make and Keep for Kids ● ● ●
Resolution #1: Count All Students; Make Sure All Students Count As 2008 drew to a close, the U.S. Department of Education set final regulations for a uniform way to calculate graduation rates across states. We’re making progress on the issue. But a 2008 survey by the Data Quality Campaign finds that just six states now have all 10 essential elements of a robust longitudinal data system.
Take Action: Be the voice for transparent counts and accountability in your community. Visit the Data Quality Campaign to find out how your state is faring, then press for all needed systems to be in place to count and account for every student. If you are a school leader, convert data to action by convening a school-community forum to set out a joint vision for students, look together at outcome data and form a plan for improving results. IDRA can help. For a model of how cross-sector, cross-race leaders have gathered for such forums as part of IDRA’s Pathways to Graduation project in southern and southwestern states, see: A Community Speaks – A Report on Little Rock’s Coalition-Building for Education: Blueprint Dialogues for Action or IDRA’s Blueprints for Action teamsite.
Resolution #2: Replace Silver Bullets with Sea Changes Education Week’s Diplomas Count 2008 found that while graduation rates have “inched up” nationwide, still only 71 percent of ninth graders graduate with a diploma four years later. IDRA’s most recent study of attrition shows that eight Texas regions have higher school attrition rates than they did two decades ago. When one in three students doesn’t graduate with a high school diploma, it’s time to stop tinkering around the edges of the problem.
Take Action: Holding on to all students and preparing them for success calls for comprehensive action. We must make immediate changes to keep from losing students who are right now at risk of dropping out. But we must also transform teaching and learning so that all students thrive. For a model of coordinated action, visit IDRA’s Quality Schools Action Framework or tune in to “Action for School Change” a Classnotes podcast episode that features IDRA president and CEO, Dr. María “Cuca” Robledo Montecel, describing the four elements needed for school success. In promoting systemic change, school-community-family partnerships are key. Organized Communities, Stronger Schools, research findings from the Annenberg Institute, found that “successful [community] organizing strategies contributed to increased student attendance, improved standardized-test-score performance, and higher graduation rates and college-going aspirations in several sites.”
Resolution #3: Value All Children, without Compromise Research on IDRA’s Coca-Cola Valued Youth Program, implemented in the United States and Brazil, shows that the single most important factor in keeping students in school is to ensure that there is at least one caring adult who values them, follows their progress and helps keep them on track. The results are evident: since the program’s inception in 1984, over 98 percent of participating students stay in school. To date, the program has kept in school more than 25,000 young people who were previously considered at risk of dropping out.
Take Action: Refuse to define students in terms of deficits; instead, recognize and build on their strengths. To learn more about how to put a valuing model and service learning at the core of dropout prevention, visit the Coca-Cola Valued Youth Program web site , listen in to: “Learnings from the Coca-Cola Valued Youth Program,” “Dropout Prevention for Students with Special Needs,” “Creating Leadership Opportunities for Students,” or visit “Valuing Youth with Disabilities Educational Outcomes and the Art of Culture.”
Resolution #4: Start Early, But Don’t Stop There Investment in quality pre-K programs pays off, according to study after study including state data released by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). In Enriching Children, Enriching the Nation: Public Investment in High-Quality Prekindergarten, Robert G. Lynch reports that annual benefits of investing in pre-K education outstrip costs by more than 12 to 1. Lynch finds that the benefits don’t fade over time: quality pre-K programs result in greater student success in school, higher graduation rates and job earnings.
Take Action: Support students from the start. To make the case in your community, click here for EPI factsheets on the costs and benefits of pre-K programs in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia and here for data from Annie E. Casey’s Kids Count Data Center. Beyond promoting access to early childhood education, press for high quality programs for children of all backgrounds. To learn more on how to transform early learning centers into “centers of excellence” visit: http://idra.createsend3.com/t/r/l/jyurdd/uyyhilu/z.
Resolution #5: Secure 21st Century Teaching Quality – for All Students In spite of the emphasis on quality teaching built in to the No Child Left Behind Act, children in high-poverty schools in America are more likely to be taught English, science and mathematics by an out-of-field teacher than those in a low-poverty school. Teaching quality and student-teacher relationships are critical to success, but as education researcher Dr. Linda Darling Hammond asserted in an interview with PBS, schools are still “constructed as though teaching doesn’t matter.”
Take Action: Take a lead role in promoting equity and 21st Century teaching quality in your district and state for all students. Help shape the conversation about teaching and learning for today’s students and how this must be tied to professional development by visiting the Partnership for 21st Century Skills’ “Route 21” web site. To zero in on strengthening teaching quality, see: “Seven Principles for Effective Professional Development for Diverse Schools” by Dr. Abelardo Villarreal, director of Field Services at IDRA.
Resolution #6: Overcome Inequities It is not news that we continue to face structural inequities in our public school system. As one example, citing “palpable injustice” in July 2008, Judge William Wayne Justice ruled that the state of Texas failed to effectively educate secondary level English language learners and to monitor school district compliance with the Equal Educational Opportunity Act. Texas is not alone. Education Week’s Quality Counts 2009: Portrait of a Population points out that across the country, academic achievement gaps between English language learners and their peers are significant and persistent.
Take Action: Be an advocate in the capital, courtroom and classroom for quality schooling for every student. The basic rights of English language learners to a quality, equitable education are guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, in federal and state legislation, and court rulings (EEO of 1974, Lau vs. Nichols of 1974, U.S. vs. Texas of 1970). For a review of court rulings that establish children’s rights, visit: http://idra.createsend3.com/t/r/l/jyurdd/uyyhilu/yd and “A Framework for Effective Instruction of Secondary English Language Learners ” by Dr. María Robledo Montecel. To help schools and communities look together at questions of educational equity and create a plan of action, the IDRA South Central Collaborative for Equity (SCCE) has outlined Six Goals of Educational Equity (#1: Comparably high academic achievement and other student outcomes; #2: Equitable access and inclusion; #3: Equitable treatment; #4: Equitable opportunity to learn; #5: Equitable resources; #6: Accountability). You can use these as a yardstick to measure your progress or as a lightening rod to galvanize change.
Resolution #7: Open Pathways to College We know that schools are most successful when they see high school graduation as a minimum milestone and look to prepare their students for the future beyond secondary school. At Ysleta ISD in El Paso, for example, kindergarteners don gowns and sashes naming their selected future university – an approach at the outset that is tied to the district’s long-term goals for student achievement. But the future does not look so bright when students are not adequately prepared to succeed in college or find that college costs put this option out of reach. Measuring Up 2008 national and state report cards on higher education awarded almost every state in the country an “F” in college affordability.
Take Action: Develop partnerships with local community colleges and universities, make sure all students get the kind of college and financial aid counseling found in elite schools and advocate for adequate funding for higher education. Tune in to "College Access for Low Income and Minority Students" for a conversation with Aurelio Montemayor, M.Ed., director of the IDRA Texas Parent Information and Resource Center, on how K-12 schools can actively support college access for their students. Promote Sound Preparation: Make sure, for example, students "get math." In Students Whose Parents Did Not Go to College: Postsecondary Access, Persistence and Attainment , Susan Choy reported that more than three out of four high school graduates (76 percent) who took advanced mathematics courses in high school enrolled in a four-year college or university. Robert Moses, founder and president of the Algebra Project said: “I believe that the absence of math literacy in urban and rural communities throughout this country is an issue as urgent as the lack of registered voters in Mississippi was in 1961… and I believe that solving the problem requires exactly the kind of community organizing that changed the South in the 1960s.”