Sunday, March 27, 2011

CARES Discusses Challenges, Opportunities with 201 Superintendent

Thanks to Dr. Kuzniewski, District 201 Superintendent and Joe Keating, District 201 Board member for their attendance at last month’s CARES board meeting. Their presence allowed for a great exchange of ideas and spirited discussion of many topics related to the education of students in Berwyn. Readers may recall at the CARES Town Hall meeting held in December, community members had the opportunity to hear Berwyn districts 100 and 201 respond to a CARES presentation about the 2010 standardized test scores. At the end of the 201 presentation, (which unfortunately was cut short due to time constraints) Dr. Kuzniewski was asked what the community could do to support their efforts to improve education. His response was to “send me your kids!” This, of course, called for some follow up conversation. My question to Dr. K and the team at 201 is “Why should I?”

CARES Board President, Bob Pauly and I had lunch with Dr. Kuzniewski to continue our conversation about the challenges and opportunities at District 201. While we kept coming back to the myriad of excuses for poor performance including a disengaged population, lack of adequate funding and students coming in as freshman without the skills they need to succeed, eventually we got around to some of the rays of hope that may be the key to turning around Morton West High School where only about 30% of students meet or exceed standards on the Prairie State Achievement Examination their junior year. Here are a few of the topics we discussed.


1) New leadership. Since Dr. Kuzniewski took over as Superintendent, there is a new administrative team in place working hard to align curriculum with state standards and make consistent the formative assessments across disciplines and across the district. For example, a test in Algebra at Morton East is the same as a test in Algebra at Morton West. District 201 was without a Curriculum Director for several years. During that time, there was little accountability for aligning the curriculum with the state standards, thus resulting in poor results on tests of those standards. The current assistant Superintendent for Educational Programs, Michael Perrot, oversees all academic programs with his staff of Directors of Instruction for content areas. These Directors of Instruction cover multiple disciplines due to budget limits. Visit the district
website for a complete list of course offerings.

2) MAP testing. Morton is in its first full year of using a tool called MAP testing.
MAP tests are computerized, individualized assessments given 3 times per year that allow teachers to know immediately what learning needs the students have and adjust instruction and classroom activities accordingly. Prior to this tool, teachers had little data about their students and were limited in their ability to differentiate for different learners. MAP testing will give excellent data to help teachers be more effective instructors and to help measure the progress of each individual student frequently rather than waiting for one test their junior year (The PSAE). The results of the PSAE are not readily available until the following October, when it is essentially too late to make a difference for those students. MAP assessments provide actionable data for every student, delivered quickly and correlated to their curriculum and standards.

3) Technology investments. Morton has received some federal funds for purchasing new technology. Dr. Kuzniewski explained that often the computers and other hardware he has been able to purchase with those funds are not fully utilized because of the limited infrastructure in the district. The community will need to make a large investment in the near future to update the old buildings with the infrastructure needed for 21st century learners. For now, while the rest of the country is purchasing smart boards, computers and other technology, our teachers are limited to overhead projectors that need frequent bulb replacement! It is unclear how much this infrastructure might cost, but in a district that has been forced to cut classes/teachers, reduce credit hour requirements and make due with a bare bones system, it will be a while before funds would be available for such an investment. The district has been able to greatly improve the website to offer better information to visitors and to update the phone service in order to save some money. But, the real changes that would directly impact learning are currently out of reach financially. This administration continues to look for creative ways to fund the improvements necessary to really educate our students in a way that is relevant in 2011.


So while the challenges are great, there is hope for improvement in District 201. Time will tell if these changes will impact learning. Currently the only measure used is student performance on the Prairie State Achievement Examination given each spring. Morton juniors take the PSAE on April 27th and 28th.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Correction

In this blog article, we incorrectly described April Wozniak as working in a finance department. Rather, Ms. Wozniak wrote us to explain:

"Just one correction – I currently work in Financial Development (which is the fundraising department) at the Y. Despite the confusing name, it is very different than working in a finance department. My specific skill set is in building donor relations with corporations and foundations, in order to retain multi-million dollar donors and encourage increased philanthropic giving to support key national programs at the Y."

April Wozniak is running for one of the 4 year seats up for election in District 100 on April 5th. We apologize for any confusion.

Morton Board to Meet on Monday

There is a notice on the Morton website posting a special board meeting for Monday April 4 at East at 5pm in the Auditorium. There is no agenda posted, rather just a statement saying "action will be taken". This may hint at more lay-offs for teachers and staff as regulations require tenured teachers be notified by April 9th and non-tenured to be notified by the end of April.

Surrounding districts including Oak Park District 97 and Riverside-Brookfield High School are facing similar cuts, but those districts have referendums on the April 5th ballot, which if passed could save those districts from the painful cuts proposed. No such referendum is presented to the voters of District 201 at this time. Recall 3 failed referendums a few years ago may have led to the current situation at Morton.

In this article in the Chicago Tribune, Oak Park district 97 lay-offs of 91 faculty and staff as well as demotions and pay reductions are described. From the article:

"All three (District 97) district unions, as well as the administration, agreed to pay concessions to both send a message to the voters and to lessen the impact of cuts if the referendum fails."

Morton District 201 is currently negotiating the teacher's union and other contracts and with as much as 80% of the budget dedicated to human resources, those contract negotiations will shed some light on the future financial picture of our high school district, which historically has a yearly deficit in the millions.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

School Administrators, Residents Discuss Project Based Learning

On Friday, March 18, the Education Committee of Berwyn C.A.R.E.S. hosted a discussion of project-based learning at a private home. We were fortunate to be joined by Daniel Ryan, founder and director of The Children’s School, and Marilyn McManus, principal of Hiawatha School and Pershing School, who offered their insights into the process of learning through purposeful activity.

Mr. Ryan gave us some background on progressive education, a philosophy of education connected with the work of John Dewey (founder of the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools) and Francis Parker (founder of the Francis W. Parker School). In this philosophy, learning involves a process of inquiry, activity, and reflection. Instead of asking children to passively absorb information, as was typical of schools in the 19th century, progressive education challenged them to be actively engaged in their learning experiences, and gave them opportunities to put new skills and concepts to immediate use in the context of meaningful work. It emphasized learning by doing, intrinsic motivation, and active citizenship. Mr. Ryan explained that progressive education had some great successes through the 1920s and 1930s, but fell out of favor in part because of the demand to prepare students for factory work, which made up a large share of the job market in the 1950s.

In the economic and educational climate of the 21st century, progressive education is beginning to attract renewed interest among teachers, parents, and civic leaders. Mr. Ryan mentioned the revival of the Progressive Educators Network, a national organization which will host its annual conference in Chicago in November.

Mrs. McManus confirmed for us that a philosophy of learning by doing is by no means confined to private schools. With the new technological tools available in District 100 schools, students have been able to immerse themselves in active and collaborative learning experiences like Challenge Based Learning, a model of project-based learning developed by Apple. Teachers have been receiving professional development in Challenge Based Learning and have been implementing it in their classrooms. Mrs. McManus reported that these projects have strengthened student engagement and helped students make connections between their school learning and their daily lives outside of school.

When asked what parents could do to support Challenge Based Learning and other project-based learning in Berwyn’s schools, Mrs. McManus suggested that teachers respond to some degree to parents’ expectations, and that parent and community enthusiasm for these kinds of learning experiences could help prompt more teachers to implement them. Shelley Titzer suggested that the Berwyn C.A.R.E.S. Education Committee tackle the task of investigating and documenting Challenge Based Learning and other classroom projects centered around inquiry, investigation, and real-world problems.

One question that came up was whether students whose teachers ventured beyond textbooks and standardized lesson plans to incorporate project-based learning would be adequately prepared for state testing and able to master basic skills in reading and math. Mrs. McManus shared that some of her most creative teachers had the best results when ISAT exams were compared by classroom. Mr. Ryan affirmed that there is research on project-based learning which shows it to be correlated with an increase in students’ standardized test scores, not a decrease.

Another question was whether the terms project-based learning, inquiry-based learning and problem-based learning were interchangeable. We did not go into this question in depth at the meeting, but both Mrs. McManus and Mr. Ryan have noted that educators often use them interchangeably. The terms progressive education and constructivist education come from educational philosophy and theory; project-based learning is a teaching practice that is often, though not exclusively, associated with these theories.

One more question was whether school leaders in Berwyn would have an interest in possibly joining one of the national networks of schools that research and support models of project-based learning (examples mentioned were Expeditionary Learning and New Tech Network). Mrs. McManus thought that they would.

In terms of school connections and networks, Mr. Ryan mentioned that he is eager to establish relationships between the teachers at his private school (located in North Berwyn) and those at surrounding public schools, in the hopes that they can learn from one another. He would be glad to welcome Berwyn teachers and administrators as visitors to his school.

Throughout the evening, committee members voiced their hopes for schools that would support skills like critical thinking, creative problem-solving, and effective collaboration and communication, as well as dispositions like curiosity, independence, and self-motivation.

Our next steps will be to seek out research on classroom practices that support these skills and dispositions, and to look for examples of those practices which are currently under way in Berwyn’s schools. We would welcome the involvement of C.A.R.E.S. members and other interested community members. To join the C.A.R.E.S. Education Committee or to learn more about our work, please email Shelley Titzer or Gloria Mitchell.

Further reading on Project-Based Learning:

Edutopia
www.edutopia.org The Web site of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit organization which advocates for “innovative, replicable strategies that prepare students to thrive in their future education, careers and adult lives.” Project-Based Learning is one of six Core Strategies supported by the foundation’s research, and Edutopia contains a wealth of information on the implementation of PBL in diverse classrooms across the country.

The Buck Institute for Education
www.buckinstitute.org
BIE is also a nonprofit organization. Its mission is to improve 21st century teaching and learning throughout the world by creating and disseminating products, practices and knowledge for effective Project-Based Learning.

Project-Based Learning: Inspiring Middle School Students to Engage in Deep and Active Learning
http://schools.nyc.gov/documents/teachandlearn/project_basedFinal.pdf

A publication of the NYC Department of Education. One passage of special note: “English Language Learners, in particular, thrive in a project-based learning environment because projects give them the opportunity to learn with others through peer-to-peer exchange, to develop their academic vocabularies through conversation, to use their own strengths and cultural backgrounds, and to accelerate their language acquisition at the same time that they are learning about topics of interest. Project-based learning requires the production of authentic (oral and written) language from ELLs.”

What Berwyn Can Learn From Helsinki

I read with great interest this article about the Finnish Education Model. Since Students from Finland consistently rank on top of all the world, officials from other countries look to duplicate some of their successful practices:

1) Invest in teachers. Finland provides an additional teacher in classrooms to assist struggling students while they remain in the classroom. The practice of co-teaching with a focus on the struggling students is becoming more common here in the United States and, indeed, in Berwyn. However, the Finnish Education Minister, Henna Virkkunen is now turning her attention to those students who are gifted. The District 100 DACEE Gifted and Accelerated Committee is recommending a "Gifted Coach" in each building and a curriculum and approach for all children that supports differentiation for the gifted. This benefits the whole class through inclusion/co-teaching rather than separate instruction.

2) Fewer transitions. Finnish students remain in the same school through elementary and secondary years and their teachers follow them for several years. The frequent tranisition in our American system can be very disruptive to the learning process. Berwyn CARES researched the possibility of a unit district, which though it would not be a totally consistent building, students would benefit from better articulation between their elementary schools and high schools. It is also possible to share a charter between districts in IL. What would a charter school for grades 6-12 shared between D98, D100 and Morton West high school look like?

3. Late start? Finnish students do NOT begin formal schooling until age 7. While I do not think this model would be effective in the United States or Berwyn because of other factors that differ between the cultures, I do think this Finnish model supports play based learning in early years over academic rigor. Should kindergarteners be sitting in their desks, struggling to write their alphabet and sound out words or should they be communicating, creating and playing to build a foundation of language that will make the eventual leap to literacy much easier at age 7 or 8? Might we in the states analyze this practice in Finland and modify it to fit our very different needs?

4. Culture of Educational Excellence. Here's the biggie! In Finland, teachers are highly valued and the career is a prestigious one. Parents are involved and regularly communicate with teachers. Consider this quote from the article:

"Finnish parents obviously claim some credit for the impressive school results. There is a culture of reading with the kids at home and families have regular contact with their children's teachers."

The parental involvement is not the rigid, militant approach of the Chinese parent (who read about the Tiger Mother?), but a relaxed and natural acceptance of education as a PART of their culture. How can we duplicate that? Berwyn school officials all identify parental involvement as one of their #1 priorities. School board candidates mention it as a part of their campaign platforms. District 98 lists a presentation on their school board meeting agenda THIS WEDNESDAY titled "District Parent Partnership Program".

Citizens! We should be paying attention to some of the solutions to the parental involvement problem our schools and candidates are proposing. Be a part of those solutions (if you are reading this blog, it is assumed you value education!). How can we promote a culture of educational excellence in ALL of Berwyn?

Sunday, March 13, 2011

School Board Candidates Greet Residents, Ask for Votes.

The All Berwyn Committee (ABC) hosted a candidates' forum last week, giving residents an opportunity to greet and question those who would seek to control over 50% of local property taxes. Here is a summary of what CARES members who attended heard:

North Berwyn District 98:

Most of the D98 incumbents were not there because of a conflicting meeting the same evening.

Joseph Festa is a 35 year resident of Berwyn and a former employee of District 98 in the maintenance department. He said he was running for the school board because he thought there were some redundancies in administrative staff that could be eliminated, saving the district money that could be spent on educational programs.

South Berwyn District 100:

Eight candidates for D100 were present; six are running for four open 4-year terms and two (Jim Swicionis and Mark Weiner) are running for one 2-year term.

Current members Anne Marie Suter (appointed to fill a vacancy) and Joanne Zaworski and Jim Swicionis (up for reelection) detailed the new programs and school improvements the board has been able to accomplish over the past several years, without additional tax revenue: full-day kindergarten and upgraded technology in the classrooms were the ones most mentioned. Jim Swicionis also pointed to increased teacher retention and better morale.

New candidates Andres Avila, Debbie Suchy, Gil Pena, Mark Weiner, and April Wozniak offered praise for the work of the current board and of DACEE (District Advisory Committee for Educational Excellence) as well as some new ideas they would like to bring to the district.

Ann Marie Suter - 16 year resident; 4 kids with 3 currently attending D100; dental hygenist; Appointed to fill vacancy in November, 2010. Advocate of PTAs and community involvement. Wants to bridge gap between schools and home.

Andres Avila - He is a high school counselor in Chicago Public School system at Namaste Charter School; bachelor's degree from University of Wisconsin; M. Ed. degree from Harvard University. He is working on a second Master's degree and has two sons currently attending Piper and a daughter who will be attending Piper in a few years. He is Piper PTA president and believes his experience in the Chicago Public School system will help on the board. He loves the way technology is being used in D100 (his son has a laptop) and wanted to get more parental involvement in the school systems, especially those who normally don't get involved. He has devoted his professional life to helping kids from working-class backgrounds like his succeed in school and go on to college. He is knowledgeable about new and best practices in education.
He talked about improved parent involvement and outreach, and particularly the need to connect with and engage families that don't typically come to PTA or other school meetings.


Joanne Zaworski - She is a 20 year resident of Berwyn. Her daughter is attending Hiawatha. She is a Northeastern University graduate and works as a real estate agent. She was first elected to the board in 2007; she is proud of the hiring of Stan Fields, the district's vision statement, the use of technology in the classroom, full day kindergarten and the hiring of reading teachers. She thinks the district needs to do a better job of communicating with its residents and wants to increase enrollment in the gifted programs.

Debi Suchy - 35 year resident She has had 2 sons go through District 100; one son is now in college while the other son is a sophomore at Morton West. She works as an accountant and was Berwyn City Collector from 2005 to 2009. She serves on the South Berwyn Education Foundation board, the YMCA board and the Berwyn Development Corporation board. She is excited about the District 100 vision. She talked about the fact that there are two types of families sending their kids to schools in Berwyn - the haves and the have-nots and the achievement gap between the haves and the have-nots. She believes the kids of the haves will have the resources to do well but the have-nots will struggle. She believes that the school board must serve every child in the community.

Gilbert Pena - He is a 17 year resident of Berwyn with 3 kids attending District 100 schools. Gil works as an engineer and architect. He is involved in Youth Crossroads and is a member of the Berwyn Community Relations Commission. He says the current board has done a tremendous job of using technology. He wants to see more partnering with businesses and corporations and wants to retain good teachers and increase the use of technology. Gil also talked about increased parent involvement and volunteer opportunities, and out-of-the-box funding that could be pursued through business partnerships or other avenues besides the district's tax revenues.

Mark Weiner - Running for the 2 year seat. Mark works as a lawyer and served on Berwyn City Council for 4 years. He believes education is the backbone of a strong community and supports District 100 goal of being in the top 25% of schools in the state as evidenced by standardized test scores, but wants to shoot higher. He believes the district needs to engage the community on education. He stated that he was impressed by all the people running for the board this year.

James Swicionis - Current board member running for the 2 year seat. Jim is a 34 year Berwyn resident and has 4 kids who are attending District 100 schools. He works as a lawyer. He is proud of the achievements of board in his 8 years on the board and of hiring Stan Fields He listed the use of technology by the district, full day kindergarten and the increase in ISAT scores as major indicators of the current board's effectiveness. His main goal in the next term would be to improve the "marketing" of District 100 to the communiy and expand pre-school and gifted services.

April Wozniak - Has a 6 year old attending Irving. April has a bachelor's degree in child development and works in finance for nonprofits and currently works for the national organization of YMCAs. She also mentioned the achievement gap and three specific areas through which the district could better address it: improved parent engagement, access to early learning opportunities, and summer programs to address summer learning loss. She believes the biggest issues that need to be addressed are loss of learning over the summer and early learning experiences, especially for those who are the "have-nots"; She has also worked with something called "Friendly Math", a program which makes math less intimidating for youngsters.

Morton High School District 201:

Only one candidate for District 201 participated in the forum.

Rita Maniotis - She is running as a write-in candidate in District 201. She believes that people want quality education in District 201. She wants to accomplish 3 things:

1. Cut ties between Cicero political machine and District 201 - She talked about the fact that the board now allows only one comment in public session on action items and said it was increasingly hard to find out what is going on. A question in the audience asked whether it was true the board was ending meetings early and not starting at 7 PM, she responded that when she went to board meetings in November and December, the meetings were ending as she walked in the door.

2. Restore graduation requirements - She talked about the fact that her son will not be able to get into the University of Illinois with the current limit on credit hours in District 201. She stated that she will have to pay tuition to send him to summer school in order for him to take the additional courses he will need when he graduates in order to get into the University of Illinois.

3. TIF districts - She said she wanted to look at the impact of TIF districts on school budgets. She stated an IASB study showed that the Chicago Public School system would get an additional $150 million if there were no TIF districts. She also pointed to Oak Park, which is giving TIF money back to the originating districts.

When asked a question about the fact that there were no black teachers at Morton, she said there needed to be more minority teachers.

When asked if she had a magic wand, what would she change, she responded that she would put solor panels on the field house to save energy. She ended by saying that she thought Morton High School had simply become a machine to send kids to Morton College and that the district is sending a message to its kids that a 4 year college is out of their realm.

Many of the candidates brought a clear passion for education and for their community to the forum. In many cases, they echoed one another's sentiments about fiscal responsibility (said no to the question about a referendum) and putting the needs of children before any other considerations, including pursuing consolidation of Berwyn school districts.

Berwyn CARES has sent all candidates surveys about their positions on various educational issues. We will be publishing their unedited responses on our website in the coming weeks, giving YOU the opportunity to do a side-by-side comparison. Please follow this election carefully and be sure you are informed before you vote on April 5th.