2. Warren Logee was the guest speaker. He is part of the audit team that the State of CT has assigned to review Windham Public Schools as part of the potential state takeover. He was a school principal of a high performing school with 73% free and reduced lunch population. His approach to school improvement is data driven – making decision based on real and accurate data.
He said that he teaches to the test and that that is not a bad thing. Good teaching he feels is based on three things. First is deciding first what you are going to teach, second developing a strategy for how to teach it and last measuring what is learned. The State of CT provides the curriculum which he feels makes the first part easy and explains why teaching to the test is a good thing. The other two involve building a culture in a school around student achievement.
Developing a culture of achievement in a school is difficult but essential. It boils down to an expectation held by all that “if you come to this school you will learn.” The two organizational requirements are outstanding teaching and strong leadership. He pointed out that research says that quality of instruction is the bottom line and the essential condition for success. Leader ship goes to developing this. It must be based on data since “what gets measured gets done.”
A well functioning school causes people to believe that success is not only possible but inevitable. He stated that “if we accept excuses we accept failure.” When asked by committee members to provide examples of studies supporting the premise that quality of instruction is the bottom line for educational achievement Mr. Logee said he would send some studies (which are attached at the bottom of these minutes.)
When asked if increasing teacher experience and the pay that comes with additional years of service translated into better quality of instruction Mr. Logee said that he felt that in Windham based on data that teacher performance peaks after about five years. After that higher pay is not correlated with increased performance.
He mentioned that Windham had noted how hard it was to fire incompetent teachers but had a good process to remove less competent teachers before they get hired and was doing this better than other districts. After their two year probationary period new teachers must prove that they are outstanding to be hired full time. The principal must make this case to a committee otherwise the contract is not extended.
He said that Windham teachers care about the quality of teaching but must learn to do things differently. There are hundreds of schools like Windham with similar challenges that are doing better. He said that it was important that people really understand that Windham has the lowest test scores in the State. It has the largest gap between minority students and white students. This is the reason that the State is working with Windham since there the need is greatest.
The technical assistance team has been working in Windham since 2008. The goal was to introduce research based and data driven improvement plan aimed at high quality instruction. The focus is on teacher behavior and holding teachers accountable using data collected on teacher behavior. To do this administrators and supervisors learn rubrics or testing standards which focus on target behavior.
He used an example of a tutor in a classroom. If the teacher sends a student to a tutor and says “work on reading.” That is too vague since it does not drill down to the specific problem the student has. Instead his approach aims at identifying the problem that individual student is having, for example identifying subjects in a sentence. Then the teacher asks the tutor to work on that and may provide assistance tools. The first approach gets the child out of the teacher’s hair but does not focus learning. The second approach will result in learning as shown on test scores. In terms of accountability Mr. Logee said that teachers have to come to the realization that “if they didn’t learn it we didn’t teach it.”
Boards of Education have an important role and are shown to be very important in high functioning districts. The State is using the “Lighthouse Training” to improve the functioning of the Windham Board of Education but this is a long process that will take years. They have had only one meeting so far.
Mr. Logee pointed out that the State Commissioner of Education has the authority to take over low performing school districts such as Windham. That is why the comprehensive audit is being done now. It looks at finances, governance, educational climate, special education, student performance, curriculum and quality of instruction. Findings will by synthesized and a set of recommendations developed in April. There will also be a structured community conversation which was found to be very useful in other towns.
He felt that a whole cultural shift needs to take place in the community but it needs to be lead by the Board of Education. Without that children will fail for life. He pointed out that jobs for people without high school diplomas were disappear.
3. Minutes from the previous meeting were adopted 3 for and 1 abstention.
4. The group agreed that the blog for SIFT was fine and should be continued. The also agreed to the scheduling change which would have SIFT create an interim report by March ,5 2011 and a final report by June 30, 2011.
5. There was no new business
6. A special speaker and meeting was announced. The speaker will be Alex Johnson, Executive Director of ConnCan (http://www.conncan.org/). He will speak at a special meeting Thursday January 20th from 7 pm to 9 pm and his talk will be televised. ConnCan is a leader in educational innovation in CT and Mr. Johnson has been very active lobbying for educational reform and active in the significant change in New Haven. He will be speaking about what changes have been most effective in turning around failing school systems such as Windham’s.
7. Citizens and Delegations: Mary Lou Devivo suggested that tax bills contain a line item detailing the cost of schools in Windham. This would prompt tax payers to understand just how much they are paying and prompt a demand for better performance. She also strongly encouraged SIFT to televise meetings and offered to help do that.
8. Meeting adjourned crisply at 8:59
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