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.