Text 9428, 90 rader
Skriven 2005-02-27 23:19:19 av Ed Connell (1:379/1.6)
   Kommentar till text 9367 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Re: School system
=========================
Hey, Jeff.

 JB> http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2005/0314/038.html

 JB> When I started chairing Philadelphia's School Reform Commission three
 JB> years ago, schoolchildren, parents and teachers greeted me with threats
 JB> and protests. I won't forget the sign hoisted by a grade-schooler that
 JB> read, "We Hate You Nevels--Go Home."

 JB> Why such animosity? My commission was making a controversial
 JB> proposition: to run the nation's eighth-largest school district like a
 JB> business.

 JB> After two years of dramatic reforms we're showing striking results.
 JB> Between 2003 and 2004 the percentage of the city's public school
 JB> students scoring "proficient" or better on state exams increased an
 JB> average of eight percentage points in reading and math for fifth grade
 JB> and an average of eleven points in reading and math for eighth grade.
 JB> Our gains are among the largest posted by any of the 50 biggest urban
 JB> school systems in the country, according to the Council of Great City
 JB> Schools.

 JB> How did we--teachers, principals and our chief executive, Paul Vallas--
 JB> do it? We defined the district's "customers" exclusively as the 200,000
 JB> children we serve. Not interest groups. Not adult constituencies. We
 JB> held adults accountable for results.

 JB> To start, we instituted businesslike systems. First came a standardized
 JB> curriculum so that all students would learn what we agreed was most
 JB> crucial for success and could easily transfer among schools.

 JB> Elementary school students now spend two hours a day on reading and 90
 JB> minutes on math, double what they spent before. We conduct benchmark
 JB> testing every six weeks in elementary and middle schools and every four
 JB> weeks in high schools. This helps teachers to either dedicate more time
 JB> to a subject in which students are struggling or provide advanced
 JB> instruction in subjects students have mastered.

 JB> We improved conditions for teachers by reducing class sizes in 2,300
 JB> classrooms and by adding 225 academic coaches who help teachers tackle
 JB> deficiencies in literacy, math and science.

 JB> Our code of discipline is one of the toughest in the nation, and even
 JB> extends to acts committed after school hours, off of school grounds. If
 JB> a bully beats up a classmate at a bus stop on a Saturday, we will
 JB> suspend him. In the past he wouldn't even have received a reprimand. A
 JB> high schooler who damages property or commits an assault will be
 JB> removed from his neighborhood school and sent to an alternative
 JB> education high school. We have a district police officer in every
 JB> school, and we have invested millions on metal detectors and video
 JB> cameras.

 JB> Those reforms cost money, so we had to get the school district's then-
 JB> $1.85 billion annual budget on a firm footing. When we took over, there
 JB> was literally no accountability. School officials couldn't even tell us
 JB> how much was being spent on transportation. So we instituted standard
 JB> bookkeeping practices, and then we started to cut the fat. One of the
 JB> many things we learned to do without: an assessment test that would
 JB> have been custom-designed for our district. Instead we use a standard,
 JB> nationally recognized test.

 JB> We raised $25 million in state, federal, corporate and foundation
 JB> grants and increased our budget to $2.3 billion. We're devoting $60
 JB> million to reducing class size and $40 million to developing
 JB> alternative schools.

 JB> Through negotiations with the teachers' union that resulted in a new
 JB> contract in November 2004, we've overhauled the way we assign teachers.
 JB> The most troubled schools used to get the newest teachers. Now we
 JB> assign teachers to meet children's needs.

 JB> In the face of heated protests we assigned 45 of our 276 schools to
 JB> private managers, including 20 to Edison Schools. The result: Schools
 JB> that were stagnating are seeing jumps of ten points and more in
 JB> proficiency scores.

 JB> We've instituted a new culture of accountability. One of our private
 JB> partners did not produce and we terminated our collaboration. The ones
 JB> that have produced results may receive more schools. That's the way it
 JB> would work in business. That's the way it will work here.

 JB> James Nevels, chairman of the Swarthmore Group, an investment advisory
 JB> firm in West Chester, Pa.,and chairman of the Philadelphia School
 JB> Reform Commission.

What a great report!


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 * Origin: Procrastinate NOW, don't put it off for tomorro (1:379/1.6)