Superintendent Search

I recently wrote about FPS unfinished business in 2013 and listed 2014 actions to change the direction of the school district.  The School Board responded with a best of the best list to claim District Excellence to justify their intent to maintain the status quo.  My reply follows:
Trustee Wallach accurately represented the District by omitting "effective" when discussing the instruction of all students. An informed and focused perspective on improvement would address achievement levels of students in the 20% quartile. Effective instruction improves the achievement of all students but those in the lower quartiles are improved the most. Effective instruction does not leave students behind.

Review Farmington MEAP scores by school, subject, grade, and student category. The State Standard is Proficient. Farmington passes through high percentages of nonproficient students. The State provides a trend line. A flat or downward (4) year trend line signals neither effective classroom instruction nor an effective response to that signal.

Review the (10) findings of the district’s Memorandum on Algebra 1 Student Performance in the December Board Packet on their website. The findings are similar to the MEAP results. Wallach’s comments are inconsistent with these findings. Worse these findings are based on a C- grade demonstrating proficiency. The District has names, class grades, latest Math MEAP scores and the MEAP Proficient standard. A simple graph would show the lowest Algebra 1 grade that most of the MEAP Proficient students earned. I am confident it would either be an A or B student. The National Research Council defines Proficiency as a student who:

• Knows major subject ideas and can apply them appropriately,

• Can collect and analyze evidence from experiments and observations,

• Understands that subject matter is a way of knowing about the world and can apply this to his or her own thinking, and

• Can argue from evidence, identify ways to test an idea, formulate hypotheses that can be tested, use diagrams to represent ideas and record data, and participate in other intellectual practices.

That definitely does not describe a C- student!

The original C- based findings require intervention. Consider the higher extent and urgency of intervention using a higher grade threshold of proficiency.

Without data, statements are only an opinion. The data speaks to the effective instruction in our district and provides a prescription for the new superintendent. Contrast that to Trustee Wallach’s description of the District. Blind arrogance will not select a Superintendent who can deliver the effective education of the 20% quartile of students and, in doing so, effectively educate all of our students.

Is Farmington K-12 funding impacted more by changes in State funding, budget structure, or the continuing decline in student headcount and the effective reaction and management of that decline?   The numbers don't support the District's blaming of the State.  The numbers identify declining student enrollment and, more so, a declining local property tax base as the major sources of reduced revenue to FPS.  If not properly focused, how will the Board serve us in the selection of a Superintendent?