Sacramento City Unified School District has a new superintendent: Jonathan Raymond. He arrived in mid-August, fresh from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) in North Carolina, where he was chief accountability officer. His prior district and state are both in the vanguard of the accountability movement. If Sac City gives him the freedom to do his best, he's likely to make the district a shining star. Take a look at his very first public message after taking the reins.
"Transparency means sharing information with all of the people who are involved in children's education. Parents, citizens, the community at large - all of us should be, indeed must be, involved in public education. We can't expect people to support something they don't understand or know much about. So as a district, we have an obligation to be transparent, to share information and to be honest and straightforward with parents and the public." — Supt. Jonathan Raymond
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) enjoys a well-deserved national reputation for enlightened management and academic achievement. It leads the nation in the number of "Middle Schools to Watch" (six altogether). It was the first district in North Carolina to have an International Baccalaureate program, and now boasts 15 participating schools. For the past three years, it has led the state and the nation in SAT scores for the top tenth of its students. They have a method of their own for monitoring school quality. When they say "continuous improvement," they walk the talk.
WHAT PUTS CHARLOTTE-MECKLENBURG SCHOOLS AHEAD?
CMS is also known for candor and clarity. Part of CMS's reputation for transparency is due to Jonathan Raymond's success in improving the way the district reports results. He led a team that built on a strong foundation of speaking plainly and invested in its public's knowledge of its schools. His team created the Data Dashboard, an interactive online tool that met the increasing appetite of the public and staff for detailed information on each school and the district as a whole. This fact sheet explains how to use the Dashboard.
The Data Dashboard can answer questions like the following: Is one school safer than another? Are the buses running on time? How much does it cost to run each school? If you're a teacher and want to see if other schools are doing better than your own in math, you'll find the answer with ease. The Dashboard is easy to use, and it relies on the same categories and the same icons for each school. Learn it once for your school and you've learned it for all. The Dashboard's effectiveness has been recognized by both Microsoft and the Data Warehousing Institute.
If that's not enough to "wow" you, take a look at the district's recently released annual report. It is a talking document, one that presents strong writing, clear thinking, and modern design. Short videos are laced throughout its pages. No more than half of each page is text, and each word is there for a reason.
Schools' improvement plans are also posted in the light of day. This brings the notion of transparency down to earth. The reports are a tight 12 to 18 pages. They are focused on realistic results and measurable goals.
Jonathan Raymond's success at CMS was made possible by two other factors. First, the district's communication director, Nora Carr, was his ally in setting the accountability bar so high. She is perhaps the best-known communications professional working for any district in any state. Her monthly columns in the American School Board Journal and eSchool News have educated tens of thousands of citizens who govern districts. She is also a leader within her own organization, the National School Public Relations Association, and is currently chief-of-staff at Guilford County School District in North Carolina.
Second, and more important, the state of North Carolina set the bar high for its own accountability reports. This pushed public expectations higher. These reports provide key facts about attendance, test scores, crimes and violence, growth scores, and teachers, including turnover—all of which are compressed into a two-page summary.
The North Carolina accountability report has shortcomings, however. The design is awkward and less readable than it could be. The report uses dense data tables and fails to provide any graphics to support the data, which detracts from the reader's ability to grasp the data's meaning. Also, the only text is from the district's leader, not the school principal. One positive, however, is that you can email the principal directly from the report (although this benefit is hidden in plain sight).
CHARLOTTE-MECKLENBURG UPS THE ANTE ON NORTH CAROLINA'S SARCS
Because CMS's accountability standards were higher than those of the state education agency, Jonathan Raymond's team created its own four-page school progress reports. When compared with the state's accountability reports, they are more readable and better designed. They contain important information about programs the school offers as well as a message from the principal. Other pertinent information includes three measures of real-world parent and community engagement (satisfaction, volunteer hours, and partnerships). The reports are updated twice yearly and are published in English and Spanish. The district printed reports in December 2008 for the prior school year and sent them to parents and staff.
Take a look at this progress report for East Mecklenburg High School.
The CMS school progress report also incorporates two indicators of progress that California lacks. The first factor measures what percentage of the students in a school made a year's progress in a year's time. This is based on each individual student's expected growth over the prior two years. Typically, about half of the students in the state meet this mark, but North Carolina sets the mark at 60 percent.
The second factor is the school's ABC designation based on growth formulas established by the state. This combines the growth factor for each of the students together with a point-in-time snapshot of how well students performed against state-set standards of academic excellence. Schools are assigned one of seven designations ranging from "Honor School of Excellence" to "Low Performing." East Mecklenburg High School met its mark, fell right in the middle, and was deemed to be a "School of Progress." You can read more about ABCs school-level accountability system and ABC designations on the North Carolina state department of education Web site.
CAN CALIFORNIA LEARN THE RIGHT MOVES FROM NORTH CAROLINA?
It's time California learned some lessons from states with more evolved accountability methods and publishing practices. We could certainly look to North Carolina for lessons in reporting results, for measuring teacher and school effectiveness in advancing student learning, and for its candor in reporting about real-world measures of school safety.
As a state we may be lagging, but some California school districts are doing great things to communicate outside of the accountability zone. San Jose USD is publishing its climate survey results with polish and care. Santa Rosa City Schools is marketing its high schools with pride, and has won awards for its intelligent work. San Dieguito UHSD is investing in reaching its larger community through a magnificent Web site. Los Angeles USD, under Ray Cortines's direction, is in year two of its own school report card project, and it persists despite incredible financial strain.
RECOMMENDATIONS
| Step #1. |
Get directed. The state keeps tripping itself up with laws that block progress. It took a special emergency session of the California state legislature to remove barriers in the Education Code to measuring teacher effectiveness and putting that data to work, but at least it was a step in the right direction.
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| Step #2. |
Get more courage. Instead of simply reporting about school safety plans, report crimes and acts of violence like CMS does. This requires that you trust the public. Report teacher turnover. Report what percentage of students made a year's progress in each school. This requires that we measure gain-score and use value-added methods. We need to get the courage to take these steps.
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| Step #3. |
Get wise. Investing in good reports is no more costly than investing in poor reports. Good reports only require clear thinking, effective design, and good writing, all of which are available for the same amount of money spent on poor reports. Good reports are also concise while offering more detail for the curious, and they are easily accessible to all. Why not bring this pursuit for wisdom to your district's leadership now? Improving effectiveness for not a nickel more is indeed a wise response to a downturn.
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