Should We Concentrate On Building Better Teachers in Greeley Colorado?

Greeley-Evans School District 6 is my idea of a good example. It is a "hiring" problem. But that's not all. The article below on Building Better Teachers shared from the New York Times talks about the problem in common terms we can all understand. Although that isn't the only reason it is a great article. The article looks at the complexity of the problem of measurement and attaching pay to that measurement. Very long but a worthy read for the profession, for parents, and for voters. It focuses the debate on change in a reasonable and identified target area.

I am thinking about the content a lot. For me a hiring problem, like the one I have described underlying Greeley District 6's problems (these are performance problems prior to the fall back in State and Local Taxes), is a management problem. To say that hiring a good Human Resources Director is crucial kind of undermines our common dislike of such people. And most people I know are just happy to have a warm personality in the job. But this job is so very important to a large organization and developing a productive strategy and atmosphere we should get beyond the stereotypes. I've had to do this job and I've got to say there is a good reason the personality types tend to be cool and distant. It also clarified to me why Unions are a good thing to have around as a check and balance. It is not a fun job when all the human drama in an organization gets dumped on your lap and, personally, I didn't find many rewards in it except I was forced to learn an abundant amount of regulations which come in handy. Along with the various methods large organizations use to shed nonperforming employees, measure performance, and how to build a rubric for, and assess, candidates for new positions. Oh, and I know how to read 'ERISA' language and understand the 401k statements before I went to business school. That helped in a course or two.

There are three million teachers in the United States. Unless the merit pay (or similar) idea is used I don't see how education expects to only attract the cream of the crop. As I have said earlier in this blog--some of your teachers are bound to be average. In fact the bulk are likely to fall under the curve.

I'm not convinced either that really low performing districts shouldn't start with the management and the semi-skilled ideologues running the show. Train the human resources department at least. The Director can help train the Boards.

I get the measurement idea but the most effective teachers have something beyond mechanized skills in their pocket. They have spontaneous innovation and a vast breadth of learned material to draw upon. This could be addressed by better education of teachers. I stayed in a fifth and sixth year, before it was "cool", to do so in order to take the courses they didn't make the teachers take. I took the advanced math, genetics, chemistry (the professor thought I was nuts enrolling in bonehead course when I didn't have to), and later pursued upper level economic courses.

Still I remember clearly one of the questions on the teaching credential test. It isn't much of a math test certainly. "If Sue bought a car in 1973 and Bob purchased a car in 1978, how much older would Sue's car be than Bob's in 1980?"

But I digress. On to the article. I'll post a couple paragraphs below from the beginning. And spread it around please.

"But when it came to actual teaching, the daily task of getting students to learn, the school floundered. Students disobeyed teachers’ instructions, and class discussions veered away from the lesson plans. In one class Lemov observed, the teacher spent several minutes debating a student about why he didn’t have a pencil. Another divided her students into two groups to practice multiplication together, only to watch them turn to the more interesting work of chatting. A single quiet student soldiered on with the problems. As Lemov drove from Syracuse back to his home in Albany, he tried to figure out what he could do to help. He knew how to advise schools to adopt a better curriculum or raise standards or develop better communication channels between teachers and principals. But he realized that he had no clue how to advise schools about their main event: how to teach.

Around the country, education researchers were beginning to address similar questions. The testing mandates in No Child Left Behind had generated a sea of data, and researchers were now able to parse student achievement in ways they never had before. A new generation of economists devised statistical methods to measure the “value added” to a student’s performance by almost every factor imaginable: class size versus per-pupil funding versus curriculum. When researchers ran the numbers in dozens of different studies, every factor under a school’s control produced just a tiny impact, except for one: which teacher the student had been assigned to. Some teachers could regularly lift their students’ test scores above the average for children of the same race, class and ability level. Others’ students left with below-average results year after year. William Sanders, a statistician studying Tennessee teachers with a colleague, found that a student with a weak teacher for three straight years would score, on average, 50 percentile points behind a similar student with a strong teacher for those years. Teachers working in the same building, teaching the same grade, produced very different outcomes. And the gaps were huge. Eric Hanushek, a Stanford economist, found that while the top 5 percent of teachers were able to impart a year and a half’s worth of learning to students in one school year, as judged by standardized tests, the weakest 5 percent advanced their students only half a year of material each year."

Greeley Colorado District 6 School Superintendent: Up to $16 Million in Cuts

Ranelle Lang, Superintendent of Greeley Colorado District 6 School system, has proposed that all department heads produce multiple budget scenarios preparing for cuts of anywhere between eight, ten, to twelve percent or more according to a letter distributed by email (so much for Ms. Lang's personal touch and consideration) to District 6 employees.

Strength is what we need locally over the next several months and even years. We have significant challenges. The State of Colorado, reeling from the recession, must severely reduce the amount of money for K-12 education. These cuts will result in us having to pare $9 million to $16 million from our budget for the 2010-11 school year.

Have those department heads been given any guidance on what to trim? Is the least favorite employee to go? Do they not see the need for this program or that? Out it goes. Who is Captain of this ship anyhow? Where is the strategic planning for the budget cuts? Is the public going to be allowed to determine cuts? "Let's lose educating all those poor and brown people because they are, well, poor, and brown." What a recipe for disaster.

What Ms. Lang doesn't mention is any culpability on District 6's administrative watch. Relying on the fact that people assume all school districts are facing cuts is not quite the same as illustrating the depth of the problem and the history of the problem in D6 schools. Where are the reserves Ms. Lang? In economic good times reserves are created to be spent to soften the blows in economic downturns. Will you be voluntarily taking a twenty percent pay reduction for your own part? Will Mr. Eads, the custodial worker turned manager of operations turned administrative mouthpiece, be turning over his spacious and elegant official digs to save facility costs? Will the administrative offices be closed and the paper-pushers be given a seat in the back of an overcrowded classroom? Will the expansive payroll department be moved to a smaller, less costly, outside facility?

My beef isn't that Colorado is facing a downturn, although Ms. Lang would be well advised to understand the nature and trends in the recession before writing about it, it is that not once, in this letter or any other pseudo communication does the primary mission of the District rule the pages. All signs point to the fact that the Board and Administration in place do not have the skills to be managing a sinking ship. A fully floating ship might be fine under their direction but the 'Shari Lewis Lamb-Chop approach' to fixing this situation is really hard to stomach.

Education. It is about education. Education is the goal here folks. Money is the tool to achieve the goal but the goal must still be met.

Will jobs be lost and will that impact the surrounding economy? Of course it will. It doesn't take a college degree to figure that out. But it does take some intellect, some integrity, and a whole lot of spine to ensure that the cuts made impact the outcome of the educational integrity of the school district in the least intrusive way. And it takes even more character than that to admit that D6 has created, with poor management choices, a much bigger problem than any other school district faces. The voters of Greeley shouldn't escape being chastised either.

This is what Ms. Lang isn't discussing--educational outcomes. She is discussing people. She is discussing shared sacrifice between the adults and she is discussing ways for the community to help balance the checkbook. She isn't discussing educational impacts. She isn't discussing the fact that each student in this district is going to pay a price much bigger over time than any adult will be likely to pay.

District 6 already performs dismally. What is 20% less efficient than dismal?

Ms. Lang needs to be challenged to prove she is worth the money paid. Stand up to the crisis. Demand that educational value be delivered. Hold classes on the field if needed. Go camp on the doorstep of the legislators. Send the kids in who will be paying the price of these cuts for years if not decades. Let them march on Denver. Make them visible so they too can be counted.

Extend the school district into red tape and then let the State explain why it demands the board fire you when you are doing your job of educating the public--and defend yourself with that fact. Is the State really going to subsidize those oil & energy company interests when it has education bills to pay? It is extreme but then again so is the situation and the voters of Greeley just don't get it. They are looking at the checkbook online rather than the objective. They are mad because the checkbook doesn't balance!

Who cares about educational quality?

Meanwhile, behind the curtains, the job is simply not being done--seeing to the education of the youth in this district even when the tools to do the job are not being provided. Get a backbone and make EDUCATION the priority. Do something.

Do anything besides disappear from view and write comfort letters while the executioner runs the guillotine 24/7. Superintendent is a leadership position. The job is to see to the education of the youth and to communicate needs to the community in a way that is clear, concise, and delivers an accurate assessment of needs and brings home the bacon. The community and the State's job is to fund the means to make it happen. The Board's job is to see Superintendents have the tools to do their own job. Put the consequences where they belong on these groups and not upon the backs of the very students without resources in the first place to fight the political battles.

We can fund the military complex but not education? We can fund prisons but not education? We can fund Wal-Mart but not education? What is wrong with this picture? Leaders need to point to the failings of the system not be a jockey on the horse that dissembles the education system for the underclasses. And sometimes it takes a whole lot of courage to stand up and point to the real priorities.

And, by the way, it would also be nice if Ms. Lang attended to the job in person instead of distant, touchy-feeling letters of heart felt consideration as heads of your organization are about to cut off other heads with the axe. Be real. Look the people in the eye and tell them that education is the most important thing to provide when cuts come calling. Look them in the eye and tell them that you truly feel for them while you spend your own corporate salary and Mr. Eads gives operational management suggestions for cuts that will effectively slaughter what remains of the quality of education in this district.

"I am also certain about this: Together we will figure this out. We have no choice given the cards we have been dealt."

Really? From behind a desk you are going to develop camaraderie with those who will suffer? Have you talked to the kids that are about to be thrown into larger class sizes, lose their favorite teachers, or will be turned away by their college of choice because they need remedial coursework just to be accepted? Have you commiserated with those teachers who had a contract forced down their throats or did you send Mr. Eads to do the dirty work? Go to the Greeley Education Association meetings and face the music like a professional should and bring Mr. Eads.

Okay, I'm done with this rant. You asked for my input Ms. Lang and I have given it. In the same cold impersonal way you've delivered your messages. In writing.

Mango Couscous And A Big Turkey

I hate cooking the same things over and over again. I don't like reading the same book twice, driving the same route every day, and I rarely watch a movie twice. I think that sensation of newness and creativity. I like the exploration of spaces, nooks, and crannies that can fill my mind. I'm an insatiable woman that way.

Hence I look for new ways to torture my family on Thanksgiving every year.

This year however I will be cooking at my brother's home. So I may have to calm the raging fires a bit and produce something akin to a normal Thanksgiving. I've got the organic bird. The stuffing recipe that could float a whale. Mashed potatoes (the one common bond between all genetically linked family members and non) with gravy. Oh, and the pumpkin pie.

So I figure that leaves everything else to mess with.

I'm posting one of my favorite previous, more successful, "different" things I've thrown in for Thanksgiving. I'm thinking of doing it again this year--since I didn't get time in isolation for this dish last year.

I thought I'd post and share with readers. An apology for not blogging so to speak. Feel free to send me others--I'll post them if you want or else put them in with your comments. There is a comment link at the end of each post. If you click on that link you should get a comment window to open up.

Mango Couscous

The Washington Post, November 8, 2006

* Cuisine: African

* Course: Side Dish

* Features: Fast, Meatless

Summary:

Who knew that tomato, raisins and mango go so well together? This is a very fruity, pretty and easy side dish.

4 servings

Ingredients:

* 1 cup couscous

* 2 tablespoons olive oil

* 1 medium clove garlic, minced

* Flesh of 1 mango, cut into 1-inch cubes (about 1 cup)

* 1 jalapeño chili pepper, stemmed, seeded and finely chopped

* 1/2 cup dark raisins

* 1 medium tomato, cored, seeded, and coarsely chopped

* Juice of 1 lime

* 1/4 cup loosely packed small cilantro sprigs, finely chopped

* 1/4 cup loosely packed small flat-leaf parsley sprigs, finely chopped

* Salt

Directions:

Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, mango and jalapeño chili pepper and cook about 5 minutes, until the mango begins to color lightly. Add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil and the couscous, raisins, tomato, lime juice, cilantro and parsley, stirring to combine. Cook long enough just to heat through. Season with salt to taste. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Making Instant Window Ice in Greeley Colorado

All right. Stop calling. I'll write. I'll write!

It's true I have been skipping out on those refreshing blood pressure gushing cynical observations of mine. And, yes, I realize I've let some of my readers down and made them go search for some other neurotic politically minded blogger.

But my heart has been more into reflection the last couple of months and I don't generally write about things when I feel befuddled and undazzled.

I first came to Greeley less than a year ago. After finishing the job from Mars, I wanted to be near my Mother where I could visit her in her final declining months. I also wanted to rekindle that spark of extended family I had left while my sons spent their twenties chasing mates. I figured my sons would check in as soon as they found someone they could bring home to Mom.

The last Blondy bimbo barely-high-school grad wannabe my youngest son almost introduced me to flopped miserably. He will be joining the household for Thanksgiving. I've noted he isn't bringing a guest. Is it the stuffing recipe or is it Mom?

Or to put it another way, the nest was finally empty and I decided it wasn't really a nest at all so I set out looking to find a new one or at least have the fun of poking around other people's nests.

After a few months I have learned some exciting things about Greeley and northern Colorado. One is how to make instant ice on my windshield in the morning. Another is that almost every town in Colorado sprawls all over the place uncontrolled. Greeley doesn't have a lock on the poor planning decisions department at all. I've also learned to expect the streets of Greeley to roll up at about seven in the evening. The only things I've seen out on the town in the evening are furry, harry, and Peter Cottontail. Maybe I'm just not looking in the right places.

But what daunted me the most, and made me draw back considerably from writing, was the election process and the ideologies that process highlighted.

I've never been someone who seriously wanted to tell other people what to do with their lives. In my book, if you are living up to your set of ideals and what you believe in, and you are not physically menacing or threatening another human being then that is a good thing. If some one's politics are not my own I have never really felt a serious need to change them.

Then, again, I've never felt harm threatened by a conflicting political mindset.

As I drive around Northern Colorado I can definitely feel the forces at work for minimum government and regulation. Every time I have visited my Uncle Billy's ranch I see those forces at work. He would sic his ranch dogs on any government anything that came on the ranch I think. Jail be dammed. Just leave him alone and he will be just fine. Probably some of the last words he whispered in his head as his family, not my side, shuttled the 96 year-old off into the rest home so they could mine his landed fortunes.

Government has its place. Rules and regulation have their place. Keeping government out of our individual lives has a place too. There isn't one way that works for everything or everybody.

But watching and reading and talking to people in Greeley holding vested interests in their own future well-being and their children's vote down 3A made me take a big breath and retrace my own views a bit.

Yes, I blogged furiously about the problems in the District. I still believe that those problems are a big problem. But promoting the gutting and dismantling of what is left of Greeley's public school system was never my own intent. You don't identify that there is a deep gaping wound on your leg so that surgeons can cut the leg off. You identify it so it can be tended and bandaged and returned to normal.

I guess that is not what the voters in Greeley are in tune with. They are in tune with taxes and their own personal advantages in the world. Well that may be a sweeping generalization but it does represent the total experience I've heard, summarized.

To add onto my personal feelings of woe over the political environment I've recently read through the City's Charter and discovered that technically most the political power really has been handed over to a nonelected official, the City Manager. The City Council are in effect stuffed puppets used to assuage the public mindset that they are the ones in charge and can vote out those who don't perform.

Do Greeley citizens really think that paying someone $1200 or so a month gives them a full-time Mayor for the city? Do Greeley citizens think that Greeley is still small and rural and doesn't need a full-time Mayor? Do Greeley citizens really think it is in their best interest to limit the people who can run for political office to a pool of people who are retired or have enough money they don't have to work for real wages or to build a real career? Fire the Mayor, either one Clark or Norton, I doubt they would be troubled about losing their position for long. Neither would the other council members. After all being the public whipping post when your City Manager really makes all the calls on how things are done and who gets to benefit isn't a position of comfort.

But I digress here over my disillusionment. Just remember YOU CALLED ME and asked me to write! Suffer my melancholy whims.

But I still like the people here. I like all the trees. I like the fact that the downtown needs fixing--it is something for the community to work on together. I like my family and they are here. I like it that Denver is only an hour away but that Denver is not HERE. And I like the snow. I haven't had to shovel it yet though.

In short, I'll get over it. I've decided I've just got the change blues. I'm going to volunteer for a while I think doing something that matters to the future big picture. It should help lift my spirits. There is a lot of work to be done in this community. My only regret is that I meet so many people that say change can't happen here and won't. They quit before they start. Or they have started before and it hasn't happened.

Well change comes incrementally and it always demands payment in the form of human energy, patience, conflict, and time.

I'm not quite sure it works the same in a town like Greeley. As I said I've never been particularly inclined to try to change things for other people. But here I don't think I'll be working to change things. I think I'll just be working to put reasonable working solutions together. The people Greeley already want good schools and good government. We just disagree on how to get to that nice safe warm place. As I see it, the places we are heading aren't going to get us there, so time to change course as compared to people. The people are good, the system choices are bad, and it is time to look further than out into our own backyards.

The people can, and will, choose which path they want to walk.

In the end I guess that is just like how it is supposed to be.

Don't Forget Cranky's Students Are Posting Good Things

The UNC class covered election night at the Greeley Tribune. It is interesting to read their impressions for that night. So don't forget to give them some support and visit their postings on the Cranky Copy Editor's page. If you look to the left hand side of the blog you'll see the City Council links to the student postings. I am not a big fan of the Tribune myself. And I certainly would like to see their editorials improve. Maybe they could let the students write them so they have more factual reasoning and content. That would be nice! Some of these students are pretty good at this stuff.

But the Cranky Copy Editor's post is a little life-changing. I just went back and changed the title on this piece from "Kids" to "Students". Sometimes it is easy to forget how language can be offensive even when not intentional. My favorite complaint is why does an individuals race or color has to come into a conversation when their race or color has absolutely nothing to do with what is being discussed. For example this conversation recently passed during a routine dinner in this household, "My old roommate, who was black, showed up later after I had talked to the landlord." Race and gender bias is embedded deeply in a culture. Always a hot button issue. These references happen frequently I've noticed but yet no one else seems to pay attention. Kind of like the gender discussion on CCE's (Cranky Copy Editor) page.

Anyone got other ones?

Congressional Shocker: Betsy Markey Bats For The Other Team

It would appear that I am not the only one peeved at the Democrats voting against health care reform. Thunderhead, a Greeley Colorado resident, posted the following note to my previous thoughts about Northern Colorado's Congresswoman Betsy Markey. I thought I'd repost it here.

Thunderhead: No one wants you on their football team when you cannot come through in the pinch.The Virginia governor's race should have been example enough, Betsy. Virginia's progressive base stayed home last Tuesday because their democratic governor decided he'd behave legislatively, like a Republican, and did so throughout his term. Like Virginia, we mistakenly believed you were on our team. The rule of thumb: when there's a choice between a republican candidate, and a democrat who acts like a republican, the republican will be chosen every time.That is what happened in Va. and is why Betsy, you do not deserve, nor will you win a second term as House Representative in this district. You betrayed your base on an historical issue. You may think, like other handwringing democrats who cannot be progressive, "what will the voters do instead, vote in a republican?" Wrong reasoning:That is what the, now former, democratic governor of Va. thought.To your base you are now a republican; you cannot make it up by voting left on other important issues; you voted to keep our health insurance industry monopolized, you voted for zero competition for the health insurance cartel, your base told you clearly: single or payer or robust public option. Always do what your base tells you. If in doubt within your district, always do what progressives nationally tell you; progressive democrats are progressive democrats anywhere in the country; they're not timid shape-shifting chimeras. But you knew better Betsy; you chose to be a political hybrid and try to hold your base hostage to a republican taking your seat. But it was you who brought harm to your base. You're a lame duck now, one year in to a two year term. And you are no democrat.

Betsy Markey Votes to Support Second Class Citzenship

It deeply saddened me this morning to find Betsy Markey voted against the Health Care Reform bill. While I realize she is playing to the conservative base in Northern Colorado it is appalling to watch someone in office drive the rest of us, also on the bus, over the cliff.

Bye-bye Betsy. You have lost every voter in my family. Sometimes you have to stand up for what is logical and reasonable and in the interest of those without political power. But it takes a spine to do so in this region.

I've never taken to the idea of single issue voting. But in the case of health care reform I believe it transcends other single issues that have become before it. Voting to support the egalitarian viewpoint that there are fundamentally two types of people who live in this society--those who die early and painfully because they do not have enough accumulated wealth or status as compared to those who have status, political power, and wealth is a fundamental undermining of all the principles on which this nation was established. Generations upon generations of my family have worked their fingers to the bone to keep this country moving towards equality.

It is not the 1920's any longer Betsy. We are reaching the carrying-capacity point of many of our current systems. Those systems designed for "the few" cannot be expected to carry everyone into the future. Voting against a reasonable health care reform plan is foolish unless you hold to the egalitarian notion that there are two classes of people in our society and one of those classes deserves to work for the other but be rewarded with only as much gruel as the holders of political power will permit a second class citizen to gain.

Personally I don't want to live in a society based on those principles. My ancestors left Europe in 1660 to shed the suffocating cloak of oppression. I cannot vote for a representative who desires, whether blindly or simply for re-election purposes, to use her power of authority as an elected representative of the people to restore such an abusive and inhumane system.

Second class citizenship based on wealth is class warfare.

For more information on Democrats who voted against the bill, this morning's New York Times is carrying a list.

Betsy Markey(COLO. 4)

+12

MCCAIN

+1%

18%

Negotiations: Greeley Colorado District 6 Teachers Get Thrown Under the Bus

Greeley Colorado District 6 school teachers got a parochial school lesson last evening from the District School Board when the Board basically decided on a package deal for the teachers. Teachers are howling and the Union is threatening action. It remains to be seen what can or can't be done. While it would be reasonable during an economic downturn to curtail cost of living increases it is a hard pill to swallow when federal stimulus funds are coming into the district and a recovery is well underway except in job creation. Top that off with the fact that the Consumer Price Index shows that what $1.00 bought in 2007 now costs $1.04 or a $50,000 salary in 2007 is worth 2,080.27 less than it was in 2007.

Of course the District is facing the same problem. It is going to have to spend $1.04 for every $1.00 spent previously and with property values sinking, the Tabor Act limiting tax increases not yet through the court system, and 3A swinging in the wind, I'd be sweating bullets too if I were on that School Board. Except that I suspect the State automatically adjusts the payments to the local schools for increases and, as I said previously, the state and local schools are eligible for stimulus funding. I've posted a couple of paragraphs on the federal money below taken from the Colorado Department of Education website. There are a few opportunities too, if I am reading the language on this page correctly, that District 6 should be applying for that could help with building attractive pay packages for high quality teachers and administrators in the future. Hope someone is on that and making it happen.

Overview

Congress designed the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund to prevent reductions in critical education and other services.

The Recovery Act allocates the following:

1. A one-time appropriation of $53.6 billion for the overall State Fiscal Stabilization Fund
2. $39.7 billion in Education State Grants for states to use first in restoring state support of primary, secondary, and higher education through 2011 to the greater of 2008 or 2009 levels, and $8.8 billion in Government Services Grants to support any public safety or other government services, including education
3. At least $4.35 billion to fund Race to the Top State Grants, which includes $350 million in Standards and Assessments Grants
4. Up to $650 million in competitive grants to LEAs or nonprofit organizations under the Investing in Innovation Fund

Funding

Colorado is expected to receive $760,242,539 in Recovery Act funding for its State Fiscal Stabilization Fund state allocation, which includes $621.9 million for its Education State Grant and $138.3 million for its Government Services Grant.

I'll write more on the negotiation topic when I get more information. I haven't posted too much on the topic as it is because to be honest it is difficult to tell facts from fiction and media hype. I've been in the middle of mediation before and it is not a whole lot of fun to have the media perpetuating panic points. For example, a mild one, I heard last week that the Board were secretly putting new contracts in front of some select teachers and telling them they should sign them and that the new contracts would allow the teachers to be fired at will once signed.

I sent that worried teacher back to dig for more details because it just sounded more than a little implausible that those details were correct. Every one is worried about the state of education in Greeley District 6. That much is obviously the truth.

Part III: Greeley School District Six Admin Mill Levy Blues

Ballots are out in the mail. Hair is flying in and around beauty shops and barber stops over the Greeley District 6 Mill Levy Override. Northern Colorado pays attention it appears when someone wants to reach into their pockets for whatever reason. This blog has seen quite an uptick over the last week, even as I rambled across New Mexico on vacation instead of finishing up the series I promised, with people searching for election information. That can't be a bad sign can it?

So I will roll up my sleeves here and see if I can dig some more depth out of my research on the topic of the D6 Mill Levy Blues. For background, if you missed it, or fell asleep somewhere in the middle of my calculations, here are the first two installments of the series.

Part I: Greeley School District Six Mill Levy Blues

Part II: Greeley School District Latino Levy Blues

Now for the remaining questions:

• Is the performance problem related to a lack of support materials?
• Is the performance problem related to the transitory immigrant population?
• Is the performance problem related to ineffective administration?
• Is the performance problem related to wages and quality of people hired?
• Is the performance problem a direct correlation to money?

I am going to eliminate addressing the second question above, in this third installment, because I believe I covered the immigration issue in Part II along with answering the question "Is it Us?".

Let's start here, with the opening paragraph to chapter five of an essay on A LEGISLATIVE AND LEGAL HISTORY OF PUBLIC EDUCATION FUNDING. A little light reading for bedtime and a statement on the quantitative changes in American public education. Couple this with the Colorado Tabor Act and the pickle local schools are in becomes much more chewy and sour. The entire paper can be purchased online if you are interested.

The past half century has witnessed more than a five-fold increase in the real value of resources devoted to public education. While the number of students has also risen over that period, real expenditures even when adjusted for the number of students have also risen steadily so that today per-pupil educational expenditures are now about four times as large as they were in the late 1950s. Interestingly, however, educational expenditures as a percentage of GDP, while higher than the late 1950s, have remained roughly the same (in the neighborhood of four percent) since 1970. Moreover, while the percentage of the federal government's budget devoted to public education is double the level it was in 1960, it still amounts to less than two percent of all federal government expenditures.

Now onto the first question: Is the performance problem related to a lack of support materials?

The support material question aims directly at the heart of the tax measure. The district has used the plight of the suffering impoverished student without a personal textbook or up to date computing equipment to tug at parental heartstrings in hopes of securing support for the tax increase (Measure 3A). Much of this measure is designed, as you can see on the Greeley District 6 web site, to cover the cost of new instructional assets (supplies and materials). White electronic boards and textbooks, to name a couple, are direct support materials for students. Buses, security equipment, and other miscellaneous items round out the list. Vague indications exist that support staff might be hired under 3A.

Can the absence of these items create a negative performance for students on test scores? My guess is probably, collectively, just like rain droplets will eventually create a full bucket of water, yes it can create a small performance issue. Here's a couple reasons why.

The time spent organizing textbook sharing is a cost to the teacher. That time used is an opportunity cost. The teacher loses the opportunity to do other things that could better benefit the students such as preparing a lesson plan, consulting with an individual student, or doing some other task that will now be left undone. Students, in the meantime, have a great excuse, beyond the "printer ate my homework", by pointing out the unavailability of a textbook and their complete lack of fault for that circumstance. It's the adults' fault (every teenager's dream statement).

Now, of course, we all know that collaborative learning and organizational skills will benefit students as well. Most people also know that electronic textbooks will be on the retail shelf soon. But I am guessing we, at least parents and grandparents, also know that most students will still take advantage of the textbookless situation in the interim to do less work than expected. We did. Okay, at least I would have even if you won't admit it. I don't think students have changed that much and their arguments have even improved but I could be wrong.

So that is one drop in the bucket.

The District's Public Relations arm, AKA Greeley Tribune, has made sure the public is aware that taxpayer dollars will not go to teacher salaries. What they don't cover is that taxpayer dollars might go to administrative support or non credentialed teaching assistants to help lower the load on teachers and administrators. What they also are vague about is how much will go into these areas.

Do smaller class loads help performance? Depends. Spin the wheel and pick a study. There is some conclusive studies that students from lower income homes that also have parents with literacy issues tend to benefit from smaller class size. These students are most likely to be the beneficiaries of trained reading assistants potentially hired with A3 money if that is the plan. That would be my guess where the district will hire support. What that won't do is help signficantly with the District's poor math performance or the lack of science education, etc. Good math teachers and scientists are in higher demand and often draw higher salaries. Something that appears to be a situation the District seeks to avoid by putting general education teachers without enough specialized training into math and science courses and appeasing their regular workload by using non credentialed teachers in other areas. A questionable practice, especially if the objective is to raise performance, if I am correct in my assumptions.

Which all leads to the notion that should 3A not pass then performance issues will continue much as they already are with regards to classroom size. The exception would be that it could get worse if student populations are predicted to increase over the next few years.

A second drop in the bucket potentially.

The technology items like electronic white boards and better computers are an increase in efficiency within the classroom just like they are in our homes. It takes us less time to pay our bills if we can do it electronically. It takes us less time to argue with our spouses if we can Google-Up the fact that we are right... again. It takes less time to write an email than to hand write a letter, put it in an envelope, and lick it and stick it in the snail mail. These are all time savings so that we can, in theory, get more done (sans napping on the couch).

The same time-savings work for the students and teacher. More time to zip open those greedy little sponge minds and stuff new concepts inside helps considering there are a whole lot of new concepts to add on top of the ones we learned as young students.

That is three, maybe four, drops in the bucket.

As the bucket fills however it might be prudent to point out that the real underlying question is whether these students, when tested, are being tested against a standard performance measure where "standard" has been established by students in other districts who have more technology tools, textbooks, and other things. Boulder comes to mind. In other words are Greeley students worse off than their counterparts when it comes to materials and supplies yet expected to test out at the same levels.

I don't really have a specific answer to this question. But I doubt that these annual test scores are adjusted for material goods in the same way they are not adjusted for the annual income of the household of the student.

We do know that some levels of funding are less in Greeley than other parts of the State, and in the nation, but it really comes down to how each district spends the money they do have and what the priorities are in each district. Each Superintendent and School Board make active decisions on priorities especially when new demands on the budget exceed the current funding supply.

The situation reminds me of a small futile exercise in mechanics I once had during high school wherein we all learned a quick lesson that it isn't just the things you have to work with that count it is what you can make them do for you that counts.

In our high school we had several technical courses to participate in as freshmen and freshwomen. All of which I greatly benefited from over my adult life. Few of which still exist in public schools. One of these was agricultural science and I had to cut the horns off a cow. I still have a great appreciation for ranchers to this day. But I digress into my own unpleasant memory here (and some students think dissecting a frog is abuse). The pertinent class to this piece is auto shop.

We divided up into teams of three. We were given the pieces, parts, and other essential supplies to build a small engine. We were also given extra parts and pieces. Each team kit was a little bit different but all had minimal essentials for success included. All lumped together in a big scary box. We had three weeks to accomplish our task in. Needless to say at the end of three weeks there were seven small engines in the classroom. All started and ran for a couple of minutes before dying a death more tragic than anything Shakespeare could put on a written page. Except one. The one built by the kid with the local mechanic for a parent hummed along perfectly until it ran out of fuel.

This leads me to the next question to be addressed: Is the performance problem related to ineffective administration? I am going to combine this question with the next one as well: Is the performance problem related to wages and quality of people hired?

(Before I begin on this aspect I'd just like to say that the Administration of Greeley District 6 is a pretty easy fall guy to pick on. Mostly because those doing the picking don't have to do the hard work and deal with the very real hard problems our education system is facing. That includes me of course. I'm doing the picking here. If you've ever had the opportunity to be a public figure standing before a crowd of angry people who think that they could do a better job because they know that a jar of pickles should only cost $4.30 instead of $4.35 you know what I mean. And yes, that is a representative metaphor and not a specific example.)

In my previous post of the series I took a look at some comparative figures. I'll post the main two paragraphs below here so we have those figures in this post

Administratively District 6 with 24,809 students is running .0006 administrators per student while Poudre Valley with 35,630 students is running .0005 administrators per student. However District Administrative support inPoudre is higher at .0046 per student than Greeley's Administrative support which is at .0038. What entails District Administrator support can very widely between districts. One district might hire Vice Principal's for instance whose job duties are very isolated while others may hire for the same position and also assign teaching duties.

As investment examples, in 2005/06 Poudre paid out in salaries per student 24,185.00 Greeley paid out in salaries 17,547.5 per student. Greeley by comparison is running much lower in salary dollars spent per student.

Essentially Greeley District 6 has significantly fewer students and is running more administrative pay per student than Poudre. Poudre however puts more into administrative support than Greeley D6. In 05/06 Poudre paid out more dollars in salaries per student than D6.

So one conclusion could be that Poudre staff are higher paid on the average and perform more effectively with less administrators than Greeley D6.

Now there are problems with my conclusion here. First of all it is not known exactly whom and what job descriptions these salaries entail and obviously Poudre administrators have more funding to hire support staff. But I would assume since the figures are reported from the same governmental agency site that the job descriptions included are similar.

The conclusion I have drawn here leads me to one of the next questions: Is the performance problem related to wages and quality of people hired?

Relying on some behind the scenes information from Greeley D6 staff and teachers there have been some questionable hiring based on nepotism and "the good old boys" league. One with substance is a case where a prominent top administrative position has been given to someone with minimal academic qualifications but a long work history with D6--starting at one of the lowest non classified positions. Another is a case where potentially a firing was made, in part, to hire the relative of another employee.

I would like to be clear here that I have not seen any job descriptions in D6 nor is anyone else I talked to, about these specific cases, privy to that type of information. I fully respect the right of any employee's privacy and there will not be any names bandied about here. I've seen damage done unfairly before and what I am doing here is pointing out possible issues that are underlying performance problems. However nepotism and the political bedfellow problem is hardly new to Colorado and all Americans for that matter. And certainly academic credentials are not a substitute for experience but a compliment to experience and vice versa.

My question, based on the above speculation in combination with the administrative ratio, would be whether or not high-level staff are being appropriately screened and placed in positions where they have the skills and talent to be successful. Are the administrative applicants being selected based on a priority of high level skills, knowledge, and experience as compared to nepotist or ideological considerations.

I bring this question up because, contrary to some of the running commentators on various blogs, Greeley overall has a lower percentage of overall funding going to administrative pay if you don't break it down into the ratio of "per student" as I have done above. Basically the administration on paper, collectively, looks underpaid. If you are the type of person that simply reads headlines this looks good. But in reality the question is whether or not the students and community are getting the job done right for that amount of money. I'll leave each reader to their own conclusion on that regard.

I am more interested in the other implications of what these figures and comparisons could mean. It could indicate that fewer administrators in D6 are covering a broader scope of work duties and making higher wages per individual position. It also could imply that more administrators are covering smaller scope of work duties and drawing smaller salaries per individual. This smaller salary would be based on the individual's skill and educational background qualifications. So effectively there are more administrators covering the entire workload. (Note: that there are internal costs associated with each employee added to the payroll so smaller pay scales do not generally mean a cost savings to the district). Essentially this "More-4-Less" scenario could potentially mean that administrators with less skill and expertise are being hired to keep administrative pay lower. This is one scenario that would lead to the higher administrative ratio I earlier indicated.

Potentially this "More-4-Less" could also be a result of a trend that higher qualified candidates do not apply in D6. Certainly D6 performance has been lackluster and professionals might not care to be associated with the district. Quality of life issues in the surrounding community may also be in play in this scenario. Another scenario could be that the quality of screening by the human resources department is lacking due to work load or lack of appropriate competency. Perhaps the hiring process is corrupted by nepotism or ideological priorities at other levels being handed down to the Human Resources division. From the outside one can only speculate at the various causes.

Also, to be fair, none of the above could apply. But I'd certainly like to hear another explanation.

It seems to me, given the .0006 ratio in combination with the salary distribution for Greeley that the second scenario "More-4-Less" above is more likely than the first. Greeley is running more administrators than Poudre for a much smaller student body. This would lead me to suggest that the administrators in Greeley, other than Ms. Lang, are being paid less than their counterparts and perhaps, collectively, do not have a similarly rich combination of skills with theory to draw upon to solve the problems they have been handed. Over time experience could kick in for these administrators and the trial-and-error costs associated with lower skilled administrators will fade. I doubt though current Greeley students and residents really want to be the test guinea pig.

The public doesn't have access to the type of information to assess this situation more fully, and shouldn't, as the process Human Resources goes through in hiring is protected information unless challenged by the employee in court (to the best of my knowledge). But the Board certainly can gain access to what they need to check into this situation--and should have already. A really good governance plan would prevent this problem from developing, if it does exist, no matter whose watch created it.

That again brings up the issue of quality school board candidates in the local area. I've neglected to cover the current candidates well in my blog but I have posted on the issue of qualities needed.

My above scenarios also do not directly implicate Ms. Lang's competency of administration necessarily. Since Ms. Lang arrived belatedly in the position of Administrator to help correct a bad situation she certainly had to, for a while anyhow, work with the clay mold handed to her. It may have not been her oversight of human resource policy that has led to this situation, if it does indeed exist, or it may be a nuanced political pressure fostered by current Board policy. The question Ms. Lang does need to address, in my opinion, is whether or not she has identified human resource distribution on the administrative level as a problem and if hiring policies have been changed and a redistribution of administrators has been forth coming. And she needs to give specifics on the direction of the change and the steps taken to correct the situation.

Unfortunately the only evidence available to the public is not conclusive on whether new policies have been adopted. I can find no mention of it in past Board minutes. The two cases I have used to set up my thoughts on this performance issue are ongoing and recent.

But I have to return to the fact the Board and the Superintendent are the easy scape-goats to take aim at. Also complicit in the problem is that higher quality employees simply may not attracted to Greeley District 6 and the Human Resource department is left choosing from applicants with limited qualifications.

In that case the only solution available to the Human Resource Department and to Ms. Lang would be to offer more attractive salary packages to attract higher performers. I can already see that politically it would easier to elect a flaming liberal to the position of Mayor in Greeley than to get higher pay packages past the school board and local population. Most likely the problem underlying, if this nonapplication scenario is the reality, is quality of life issues for small town Greeley. And that is about the community as a whole not just the Board and their employee.

An informal survey by a local teacher concludes that a good many of her peers live in Fort Collins and commute to Greeley.

I'll leave the readers to assume why such a situation may exist.

All told, the above suppositions and scenarios lead me to the last question: Is the performance problem a direct correlation to money?

Of course it is. It isn't the only problem but it is a fundamental one.

You get the quality of administration you pay for. If Greeley wants this situation resolved it needs to either clarify what Ms. Lang sees as the real problems in this district and demand a detailed plan and timeline for cleaning it up or replace her with someone who can build a better engine by distributing and using the parts given more effectively. This may also entail recalling and replacing the school board. If Greeley wants the students to perform more effectively against other districts then it is going to have to pay for higher quality administrators and probably better supplies and materials.

I'll also mention it is going to have to pay for high quality teachers as well but that argument is already being made by the Union.

The gist of my post here is that good effective systems are built and maintained and paid for by an involved community. If this community really wants to be fiscally conservative there is nothing bad about being sure money is spent in prudent ways to get effective results. But at the same time trying to micromanage systems after the damage has been done by gutting funding is extremist and dangerous. You have to pay to rebuild the engine and then make sure it is maintained once optimal function is reached. That is the time to get the fiscal conservatism argument in. Right now Greeley has to pay for the mechanics to fix the machine that crumbled while the electorate looked the other way.

Arguing, as some have done, that punishing administrators and making their jobs even harder is the way to get this administration to spend more wisely flies in the face everything this community has voted for and believed in for decades--smaller government is better and fiscal conservatism rules the day. The inflexibility of that ideology has built the system these administrators are now faced with changing and are being pummeled for creating. Even if guilty for continuing poor policies they certainly didn't get here all alone. They are elected.

Jane steps on soapbox.

Education is an investment and it takes money to stay at the top of the heap. Being at the bottom of the heap has the type of consequences the community is now reaping. But, yes, it costs less money to be at the bottom of the heap than the top. In the name of fiscal conservatism and, in my opinion, probably racism, Greeley has accomplished its goals. It has gotten the least educational results for all the children in the community for the least dollars spent.

Greeley, together, has institutionalized and supported the dysfunctions that exist in the education system and in the end, Greeley citizens, need to pick up the bill and invest in the community's future prosperity by investing in its youth and help correct this mess.

And if some kid happens to get two pencils instead of one--great maybe they'll use them both.

Which brings me to my thoughts on Measure 3A--the Mill Levy Override for Greeley Colorado District 6. Greeley needs to pass Measure 3A. Plus Greeley needs to recall the board in order to replace the executive administration. That or Ms. Lang needs to go public, in person, with a workable detailed plan and timeline far beyond tacitly touting that Measure 3A is a magic bullet. It isn't.

I still think that the Mill Levy Override has been poorly and misleadingly sold to a community looking desperately for an easy solution to the performance problems. Measure 3A won't fix what is wrong with the distribution of human resources. But not passing 3A will certainly do the students of D6 more harm than good as new priorities in funding would likely be made on par with ones suggested in the Greeley Tribune scare-tactic editorials. If the poor choices I pointed about above, do indeed exist, I hate to think of the impact of what a new round of cuts would mean. And the consequences of such damage in the long run is a bullet in the heart of this community that Greeley needs to avoid.

So my Jane-conclusion, for now, on what the performance problems are in Greeley District 6 basically comes down to ineffective administration complicated by a rigidly ideological community promoting less efficient management policies.

But that is not the end of this series. I have one more to write on testing in the District. I have homework to do first.