Placement on High Quality Teachers in Cincinnati Public Schools

Research clearly shows teacher quality is the most important factor in determining student academic success. Cincinnati Public Schools in blessed with a high number of National Board Certified Teachers, one means of recognizing high performing teachers. But according to this Enquirer analysis the Board Certified teachers are not as present in the schools rated as in "academic emergency" by the state. What are we going to do to ensure students in these schools have access to the highest quality teachers possible?

There are options to incent placement in high need schools. The recent report from The New Teachers Project highlighted two options: incentive pay for teachers willing to serve in these schools and performance bonuses for increased academic growth at the classroom and school levels. What other options do you think should be considered?

Top teachers assigned unevenly
Elite CPS instructors gravitate to high-achieving schools
By Ben Fischer • bfischer@enquirer.com • December 20, 2009
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20091220/NEWS0102/912210333

Breakdown of Number of National Board Certified Teachers by School Rating Groups

Rating group: Excellent or Ex. w/ distinction (5 schools)
Total Student Enrollment: 4,259
Number of Nationally Board Certified Teachers (NBCT): 20
Students/NBCT: 213

Rating Group: Effective (9 schools)
Total Student Enrollment: 5,730
Number NBCT: 26
Student/NBCT: 220

Rating Group: Continuous Improvement (14 schools)
Total Enrollment: 7,109
Number NBCT: 22
Student/NBCT: 323

Rating Group: Academic Watch (16 schools)
Total Student Enrollment: 8,929
Number NBCT: 26
Student/NBCT: 343

Rating Group: Academic Emergency (13 schools)
Total Student Enrollment: 6,584
Number NBCT: 6
Student/NBCT: 1,097

CPS total
Total Student Enrollment: 33,121
Number NBCT: 111
Student/NBCT: 298

Note: Does not include Hughes STEM High School. Nine NBCT are not in the classroom.

Louisiana as Model in Teacher Assessment

Secretary Duncan is pointing to Louisiana for how they are assessing teachers by including achievement scores.....what do you think?

Louisiana Serves as Model in Teacher Assessment - Through an initiative that Educ. Secretary Arne Duncan calls a model for the nation, Louisiana has become the first state to tie student test scores into a chain of evaluation that reaches all the way to teacher colleges. Programs that fail to perform on this new metric could face shake-ups or, in extreme cases, closure. Univ. of Louisiana – Lafayette, a major teacher producer already is working to fix possible flaws in its program that the state board of regents identified based on 3 years of test data of 1st and 2nd year teachers. Thus, it will offer professional development to any alumni with gaps in teaching skills, and increase writing and grammar instruction for undergrads.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/12/AR2009121202631.html

New Haven Teachers Contract

See stories below on the New Haven Contract from Learning First. The second offers a first hand administrators perspective. We plan to compare this contract that is being hailed as a national model to the local contract in order to inform the upcoming negotiations in Cincinnati:


District/Union Collaboration
New Directions in New Haven: Union Leader David Cicarella on the District's Pathbreaking New Teacher Contract
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has praised the New Haven, Connecticut teacher contract as "an important progressive labor agreement." The president of the New Haven Federation of Teachers recently told us more. http://www.publicschoolinsights.org/new-directions-new-haven-union-leader-david-cicarella-district-s-pathbreaking-new-teacher-contract

New Directions in New Haven II: The District Perspective
New Haven Assistant Superintendent Garth Harries and Chief Operating Officer William Clark describe the innovative collaboration that made the New Haven deal possible. http://www.publicschoolinsights.org/new-haven-2

Class-based Affirmative Action?

A recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education asks whether it is time for higher education to consider affirmative action policies based on socio-economic status after a new report by Public Agenda finds that the main reason students drop out of college is because they have to work. http://chronicle.com/article/Reactions-Is-It-Time-for/62615/


As a former college admissions officer at a selective institution, I certainly have some opinions about affirmative action policies, but I am not going to discuss such a controversial subject in this blog. I just used it to draw you in. ;)


But now that I have your attention, I really want to direct it to the Public Agenda report, on which the Chronicle article was written, as it provides an honest look at the struggles of today's college students, struggles that must be addressed if the United States is going to remain competitive in terms of higher education attainment.


Anyone who has worked on a college campus knows there is no one reason why students leave college. Thus, there is no silver bullet for improving college retention and graduation rates. Reasons for leaving range from poor academic preparation to homesickness to having a spat with a roommate. But, as evident from the results of this study, today's college student looks different than the college student that higher education was designed to serve. The numbers from the report shows that today's college student is working an average of 20 hours outside of classes and drops out because of the difficulty in balancing classes with work life. Most students who drop out would like to go back, but work and family committments keep them from going.



Strive's partner higher education institutions recognize the barriers to success at their respective institutions and are actively working to address them. We know that lower-income students struggle to pay for college and thus various programs such as the University of Cincinnati's Pride Grant and Northern Kentucky University's Holmes/Newport Grant have been designed to eliminate financial barriers to college for low-income students from the urban core. We know that students with exposure to college-level work while in high school are more academically prepared to be successful in college and nearly all of our regional higher education institutions offer some type of dual enrollment opportunities for local high school students to earn college credit and build their skills prior to enrolling. Gateway Community College, for example, is now offering college classes at Holmes High School in Covington. And, we know that students benefit from living on campus and participating in learning communities as evident by the success of University of Cincinnati's Gen-1 Theme House for first-generation to college students and other programs at local institutions.

We know a great deal about the various reasons students leave and our institutions have developed some excellent and evidence-based interventions to help retain them, but I believe this report, which provides insight directly from students, shows us that designing interventions isn't enough. If we want more students to be prepared for and succeed in postsecondary education, it will require a bit of a culture shift for higher education. Like any good business, higher education must work to meet the needs of its customers. This includes more flexible scheduling, more online course offerings and more innovative ways to educate today's students. Listening to students is the first step in making this shift. Kudos to Public Agenda for going directly to the source in order to dispel the myths and shed light on the realities of today's college students. We can only hope that higher ed is listening!

Harlem Children's Zone

60 Minutes recently featured the Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ) in an incredible piece. If you have not seen it, you can find it at the following link: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/11/60minutes/main1611936.shtml

One piece of the story focuses on the recent evaluation of HCZ. It is worth a read (we have a copy if anyone is interested). Several findings:

• Either the improved charter school alone of the school with community support services is driving improved academic outcomes......but not community supports alone.
• Community support services had a clear impact on math scores at the elementary and middle grades, as well as elementary English/Language Arts. It appears community programs are more impactful on math.
• Communithy programs do help increase student attendance in school, but attendance was not linked to improved academic outcomes.

These findings, along with others, can help inform our work. They complement recent findings from the national model Community Learning Centers in Cincinnati Public Schools that has found we need to focus on acadmeic improvements AND aligned support services in order to get the academic improvements we all desire.

This also informs our discussion as a partnership about what measures to select related to the goal "Every student supported inside and outside school." We need to be sure the measures can be linked up to academic outcomes.

But there is a definite connection between HCZ and our local efforts - Strive partnership, Community Learning Centers, and Place Matters most notably. We could be the place nationally that figures out how to take the comprehesive system of supports from cradle to career to scale......we have the leadership at all levels across the community to do it!

Dell Foundation Report - Excellent Examples Aligned with Strive Partners Efforts

The Dell Foundation just released an outstanding report on performance management and how it is beginning to be applied in education now that so much more data is available than in the past. The report provides three concrete examples of how cities are developing dashboards at the district and student level to improve instruction.

See the report at: http://www.msdf.org/Programs/Urban_Education/Performance_Management.aspx

We have several leading examples right here in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky:

• Northern Kentucky Success By 6 has led the charge with Northern Kentucky University to develop the early childhood dashboard. Newport and Covington can track students as soon as they enter partner early childhood programs. This data is then used to better serve student based on their developmental progress and range of services.

• Cincinnati Public Schools has developed a groundbreaking Learning Partner Dashboard that will connect early childhood data from the Hamilton County Success By 6 Innovations database to the district student dashboard, and postsecondary data. It will also include information from community partners so they can see what types of support students are receiving to drive improvement.

The Six Sigma process can be used by organizations and networks to use this data to do continuous improvement, or in Dell's terminology, performance management over the long term. The Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky region is leading nationally in this arena!

Comparing Teacher Salaries in CPS to Peer Districts

A chart in a recent Enquirer article on the upcoming contract negotiations compared teacher salaries across the state. Here is the chart:

Beginning and highest* salaries on teacher pay scales:

Cincinnati: $36,905; $83,454

Columbus: $41,503; $90,399

Cleveland: $37,412; $79,353

Jefferson County (Louisville): $37,069; $75,635

Indianapolis: $35,684; $71,042

*Notes: In Cincinnati, the highest salary is for a teacher with 27 years' experience and a doctorate. In Columbus, it is for 30 years' experience and a doctorate. In Cleveland, it is for 36 years' experience and a master's degree plus 30 graduate semester hours. In Louisville, it is for 25 years' experience and a doctorate. In Indianapolis, it is for 25 years' experience and a doctorate.

The question needs to be asked about how Cincinnati can best attract the highest quality new teachers with low beginning salaries........

See also:
Ohio "Big 8" (2007-08) Academic Performance and Teacher Data

Op-Ed's on CPS Teacher Negotiations

CPS Superintendent Mary Ronan submitted an op-ed to the Enquirer in advance of The New Teacher Project Report, as did Cincinnati Federation of Teachers President Julie Sellers. Both are very encouraging in that they express a recognition of the importance of this moment and a willingness to innovate. Nothing could be more important as research states that quality teaching is the single most important determinant of student success - even more than home environment.

Mary Ronan Op-Ed:
Talks represent tremendous opportunity
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20091022/EDIT03/910250301

Julie Sellers Op-Ed:
Collaboration key to success
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20091022/EDIT03/910250302

Enquirer Articles on CPS Evaluation System

'Broken' teacher evaluation system defended

http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20091212/NEWS0102/912130317/

National leaders offer an alternative perspective on The New Teachers Project's assessment of the current CPS teacher evaluation system. The article provides good insights into the specific issues related to teacher evaluation that must be addressed in negotiations.

When the report was released, the Enquirer offered up the following story:

Rewrite teachers' contract, CPS told
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20091201/NEWS01/912010359/Rewrite-teachers%5C--contract--CPS-told

New Teachers Project CPS Human Capital Study

The New Teachers Project released a study of the human capital practices of Cincinnati Public Schools that provides the public data points to consider as the administration and union begin negotiations.

The major findings include:

Ineffective evaluations: The current teacher evaluation system does not differentiate teachers based on their impact on student learning, nor does it give teachers the feedback they need to improve.


Failure to reward excellence: Nearly two-thirds of CPS teachers say they would support bonuses for outstanding performance, but teacher compensation is based almost entirely on seniority and qualifications.

Forced placements: 1 in every 4 CPS teachers who changed schools last year was placed in his or her new school without the opportunity to interview, to the widespread dissatisfaction of both teachers and principals.

Losing the best new teachers: 60 percent of administrators report losing a qualified new teacher candidate as a result of the district’s late hiring timeline.

See the full study at: http://www.tntp.org/files/TNTP_Cincinnati_Report_Dec09.pdf

The Geography of a Recession

According to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are more than 31 million people currently unemployed -- that's including those involuntarily working parttime and those who want a job, but have given up on trying to find one.

In the face of the worst economic upheaval since the Great Depression, millions of Americans are hurting. "The Decline: The Geography of a Recession," as created by labor writer LaToya Egwuekwe, serves as a vivid representation of just how much. Watch the deteriorating transformation of the U.S. economy from January 2007 -- approximately one year before the start of the recession -- to the most recent unemployment data available today.

Source: http://cohort11.americanobserver.net/latoyaegwuekwe/multimediafinal.html