Following Up on Sal Khan

First of all my thanks to whomever pointed it out and apologies for misspelling Mr. Khan's name.  One of you pointed it out, and I appreciate the correction.  

For those of you that are interested, I am  including the URL for the speech Khan gave in San Diego.  This is the same presentation our Board of Education saw.  There is lots of other stuff there, so... my recommendation is that you slide the video slide across to 34:30 and then sit back and enjoy the next hour.

URL:  http://aec.csba.org/Programs/Sessions/~/link.aspx?_id=F3D6849A2B3F4D95B660FF55B1863849&_z=z

You should also know that this video will be archived in this spot until December 31, 2011.  Therefore, it is imperative that you and others that may be interested look at this prior to that time.

Enjoy!

Yah But

It was pointed out to me recently that the opposite of “YahBut” is “What If” – which is a rather interesting idea.  Actually, we have a school in RUSD that is discussing what happens, if we replace the word “can’t” with “how” – which is a similar idea. 

“What if” – allows us to dream a bit, even in the face of tough circumstances (or outstanding opportunities?).  Potentially, we may through this process "see" connections and possibilities that were not immediately obvious otherwise.

So in a crazy way here might be some “what ifs”:

• What if 2d became 3d?
• What if we were focused on learning rather than teaching and testing?
• What if we built ideas rather than tore them down?
• What if we doubled the college completion rate of all of our students in Riverside?
• What if we gave each other the benefit of the doubt rather than am allegation of dissonance?
• What if we doubled our math performance at all grades in RUSD?
• What if our students had access to high-quality learning 24 hours per day for everyday of the year?
• What if “YahButs” were replaced with what ifs half of the time?
• What if California led the nation in educational innovation?
• What if the U.S. led the world in the production of ideas and thought-leadership?
• What if?

So "what if" I am wrong about this "what if" stuff and the real question should be "how?"

December 15th is Getting Close

The budget drama continues with all the focus being on the “mid-year trigger.”  In an earlier post (November 17^th) we reported that the State Controller stated that we weren’t making the revenue as projected by the 2011-12 California budget.  Just prior to Thanksgiving, we received similar notification from the non-partisan LAO (Legislative Analyst Office) with similar information.

So it appears that in the middle of this month the Department of Finance (DOF) will declare that such is necessary.  It would also appear that it will actually happen and there will be budget reductions for both K-12 and institutions of higher education in California.  As the Governor himself stated two months ago, “This year, for the first time in a long time, we passed a no-gimmicks, on time budget. Why would we undermine the plan that has earned widespread respect and helped stabilize California's finances?” 

More recently, Assembly Speaker John Perez publicly stated that it is unlikely there will be any significant changes, or attempts to change, the budget cuts required should the DOF’s December 15 revenue projections fall below the $4 billion in new revenues.

"The only way to avoid those triggers is to get revenue," Perez told KQED’s John Myers. "And that's not going to happen, because none of the members of the minority party have shown a willingness to engage in that kind of conversation."

So what does this mean to RUSD?  Specifically, it means a reduction of $10.4 million in our budget for this year.  The only way that we can manage that reduction (in the remaining 6 months of the budget year) is to take it out of our reserve – which further complicates creating a manageable budget for 2012-13 without making further reductions to an already emaciated system.

What is becoming more interesting by the day and the looming potential of a "mid-year" trigger is the real testing of the concept of "too big to fail."  Recently Dan Walters of the Sacramento Bee publicly talked about the potential problems of one our neighbors in San Diego (SD USD -- 2nd largest school district in the state).  I keep hoping (not a good strategy) that we will have leadership in Sacramento and we will realize that there is a REAL problem AND that we will create a plan to get us out of this interminable mess.

Truly FREE education?

Last week, I wrote about the article I happened to find about India and how potentially they will put a mobile computing device in the hands of every Indian student.  What would that mean for us?

This week, I had the occasion to see and hear Sal Kahn discuss the generation and vision of his Kahn Academy.  What is so striking to me is that he believes that he can offer learning and ultimately high quality education for FREE.  Further, he is getting lots of support from foundations, etc.

When Kahn talked to us he appears to be making a very different set of assumptions than we normally hold in American public schools.  As an example, he stated his propositions as:

• School no longer needs to be age-based as learning is not a respecter of age per se.
• The assignment of grades in a classroom for student performance begin to lose relevance as the issue is not the grade but the learning that makes the next learning possible.
• Ultimately this Kahn application and other applications will “crumble the textbook industry overnight”
• Learning should be based on achievement not the amount of time students spend in a chair or desk.
• As stated by Kahn, “For the ever decreasing cost of education you can get a pretty good education ...you can have the same educational option as Bill Gates kids” [BTW – Gates children utilize the Kahn Academy resources].

All of this would suggest a truly different paradigm for our schools and students.

I suppose that while his ideas are rather outlandish, his data would support that he is actually accomplishing his goal to some degree.  He reports that currently:

• The availability of 3,000 videos now – and found at Kahn Academy
• A use rate of these videos (primarily math …but growing including art history) is at 3.5 million separate users per month
• Each day students complete 2 million exercises on this website

Sal Kahn via a Google grant and others is expanding his program and videos to include 10 languages other than English.  He is currently prepping for deploying this opportunity to India in the very near future

So what do you think?

Guest Blogger

EQUAL ACCESS TO COLLEGE PREPARATORY CURRICULUM

by Dr. David Haglund 

It may surprise you to learn that more than one million high school students in California – upwards of 50% -- attend schools that do not offer sufficient courses for admission to state schools, the so-called A-G curriculum.  The California Student Bill of Rights Initiative, a project of Education Forward, seeks to remedy this inequity in access through an initiative slated for the November 2012 ballot.   

While many California students suffer from a lack of A-G coursework, low-income and minority students suffer most.  Latino and African American students graduate high school, complete    A-G courses and go to college at rates significantly below average.  These students are also more likely to live in low-income neighborhoods, a geographic factor that essentially determines their future: California’s existing public education system creates barriers that prevent students from attending schools or taking online courses outside of their district of residence.

Students can currently attend publically-funded virtual charter schools, but even this opportunity is geographically restricted – students can only attend these schools if they reside in a county contiguous to the one in which the school is based. In the age of the Internet, why are we still limiting students’ educational opportunities based on geography?   

The California Student Bill of Rights Initiative addresses this problem directly by utilizing technology to break down the barriers between students and the educational opportunities available to them.  Under this proposed law, students will be allowed to take online courses offered by districts other than their own to complete the college preparatory curriculum.  These courses must be accredited and taught by teachers with appropriate credentials.               

School funding is currently based on the Average Daily Attendance (ADA) formula, which gives schools money based on attendance regardless of educational outcomes or student needs.  The Student Bill of Rights Initiative restructures the school financing system so that ADA money can be appropriated to schools based on the classes students take – in the classroom or online – a  fairly simple modification since ADA is already based on time spent in class.

For some perspective, consider this: In 1966 the young Steve Jobs entered a low-income middle school in Mountain View, California, where he was confronted with gang violence, overcrowding and poor instruction, and he threatened to drop out.  His parents scraped together enough money to buy a house just three miles away on the other side of the district boundary, which meant that Jobs could attend a school in a more affluent neighborhood with better educational opportunities.  Other kids have not been so lucky.  Forty-five years later, the world has been transformed by technology – from the Internet to tablet computers.  Innovators like Jobs have fundamentally changed the way we do business, communicate, shop and learn.  The California public education system, however, remains stuck in the past.

With the passage of the Student Bill of Rights, California will be one step closer to educational equality across demographic, economic and geographic boundaries.  We will be one step closer to giving our kids the chance they deserve to succeed in the highly competitive 21^st century global economy.

Are we nervous yet?

I don’t know about you, but I am getting very nervous when I look around and see how the world is changing and morphing at warp speed.  In the middle of last school year, I saw the soon-to-be elected President of Turkey holding up a Coby android tablet device and saying that in his 4 year tenure ALL 16 million students in Turkey would have such.  Then last spring I saw the news reports out of South Korea stating two things:

• Seoul would have a citywide free WiFi system that was robust and could sufficiently handle the bandwidth issues
• South Korea is planning to have ALL of its students on fully digital textbooks by 2014-15.  These textbooks are not just “flat” versions like our hardcopy texts – but rather an enriched version that looks much more like Wikipedia, CK12 Flex Books, or the Houghton Mifflin FUSE products.

Meanwhile, we really haven’t adjusted much in California, other than our reducing commitment / investment in public education.  All of that was not too bad, until earlier this month when I came across another news article that talked about India where ¾ of the population makes less than $2 per day.  There are efforts to make sure ALL students have an iPad-type device to assist them with high levels of learning.  Impossible!  Yet the device has been developed, has a name, and sells for less than $50.  If all Indian children and students have one of these devices – do you think it will affect us, our competitiveness, our global stature, or our lives?

Triggers and December/January

The pressing question that many of us in public education in California are facing is what are the current year budget projections AND does the Governor et al “pull the trigger.”  As you might recall, when the budget for this school year was passed by the Legislature in the summer, it included what many of us perceived as $4 Billion in revenue that no one could explain.  In fact, the budget terms the $4 B as “unallocated revenue income.”  The stated plan, was that if the money doesn’t show up (according to either the Legislative Analyst Office or Dept. of Finance report in December), then the state has a Legislative obligation to make mandatory reductions in the budget in the middle of the year – i.e., “pull the trigger”.

So month by month, many of us have been watching the revenue reports to see what is likely to happen – as reductions in the middle of the year are about the worst nightmare that public schools can imagine.  As of last week, after 4 months, here is the situation.

John Chiang, State Controller, reports that we are now $1.5 Billion below revenue projections.  Additionally, and possibly even more troubling, is the apparent fact that the state has not made it’s promised reduction in expenditures – therefore, we are now $1.7 Billion OVER the budgeted amounts.  Obviously, the net effect is a loss to the budget of $3.2 Billion.  This is a report of the first 1/3 of the year (4 months), clearly things can improve in the final 2/3; however, if we had to “guess” the next 2/3 one would not be optimistic.

Net effect?  More reductions to local school districts either in the mid-year or in the next budget year (2012-13).

Statewide Assessment Measures

Much has been said about the pro and con of Common Core standards and whether we should or should not be involved.  Another piece of the puzzle is that regardless of which set of standards we in California choose – how would we know whether the standards have been achieved or not?  This is the assessment question that is currently resolved primarily through the State CST (California Standards Test) examination.

While there are several choices and we have bounced around a bit in California we currently seem committed to what is termed the Smarter Balance option.  This assessment package is interesting in that it promises a computer adapted assessment that will pinpoint the competency levels of students to a much higher degree.  Additionally, it should provide a much timelier response in results – so that we can actually use them in planning for the subsequent year.

While there remains much to be done with this issue, my understanding is that it is slated for full implementation in the 2014-15 school year (which is NOT far away).  Additionally, in an era when we are still trying to make CalPADS work statewide, this assessment will require a substantial upgrade in digital infrastructure statewide – at a time when we all have diminishing budgets.

My apologies again

Well, it has been a long time …and my sincerest apologies.  There has been a lot going on and we are short of key staff members.  In any case, a number of you have asked me why I have not been blogging – just ran out of time.  I was amazed and embarrassed as I went back and saw when my last posting had been.  In any case, I will try to get going again and not drop the ball as I have this fall.

On a timelier note, our Maintenance and Operations (M&O) folks did a tremendous job over this past weekend.  As you might be aware, there was a theft of electrical equipment at Fremont Elementary School that left the school in the dark with the potential for attempting to run school without electricity.  Through the great efforts of M&O and others, we were able to obtain the parts from the East Coast and get them installed and operational before Monday morning.  All of that is evidence of a great team and great commitment to the RUSD students and their learning.

The Anniversary of a Horrific Day

Sunday will be a special day across the U.S. as we remember (rather than celebrate) 9/11.  Most of us have a very clear remembrance of where we were, what we were doing, and the impact that the Twin Towers and other related events had upon us at that time.  I was in Caldwell, ID and was delayed getting to work due to some family issues.  As a result, I got to hear and see the early reports of the Twin Tower "accident" with a "small plane" colliding with one of the towers.  I further saw the on-going saga until I needed to get to my District and deal with the obvious damage control that we all faced across the country.  Do you remember ALL flights being immediately grounded and then people trying to figure out how to get home anyway they could?  What a horrific day and event!!

The interesting part is that MOST of our students have limited, if any recollection of the issue as they were at best in 1st or 2nd grade, and most were much younger or not even BORN.  Therefore, it is important to make sure that our students learn about what happened on that day.  We will be blessed on Monday to be able to share with some of our HS students at 3 schools primary witnesses to the event (e.g. Terry Abbott, who was with President Bush on that fateful day along with Riversider Dave Austin, who was one of the early responders).  Pearson Corporation has provided learning materials for 9/11 learning (including some very engaging video resources)  May we consider the impact of that day and what we should, will, and do differently as a result?

The times of these events at the 3 High Schools on Monday will be

North High School-- 8-8:56 AM (all times are Pacific)

Ramona High School-- 10:06 -11:01

Arlington High School -- 12:51-1:48

and the link to view a live stream of this is HERE

Annual Report

We have published and you should be receiving the ANNUAL REPORT provided by the Board of Education to our community.  I bring this to your attention as this is the second time that we have provided this report in RUSD.  As such, you should be aware of a variety of pieces regarding this annual report:

1. This report is provided in color to enhance its legibility and interest.
2. The report will be delivered to the homes of parents in RUSD for ease of access.
3. The report will also be available for community distribution sites (e.g., Chamber of Commerce, local businesses, etc.).
4. The intention of the Board is to provide an informative report that is also authentic -- and not necessarily a "glitzy" marketing report.
5. The entire cost of this report is paid for by Altura Credit Union.
6. We will be providing similar reports every year, as we progress forward.

We hope that this annual report will be helpful to you and inform you of just a few of the things that are happening in our School District.  Of course, we continue to provide daily updates on any number of topics through our District webpage at: http://www.rusdlink.org/

NCLB Waiver??

Over the course of this summer, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan signaled his potential willingness to “waive” some of the requirements for NCLB based on an application, etc. from individual states.  This seems to be the solution, rather than the 4-years-late reauthorization of ESEA (i.e., NCLB).  AND it seems to feel a lot like the coercive approach they took with Race to the Top [RTTT] – remember sign-on and we will tell you about all the details later.  In fact, as I understand this issue, there is once again not a clear definition of what is required to qualify for the “waiver” of the NCLB requirements and sanctions.

The beltway discussion seems to suggest that the requirements would include things like: 

• continued turn-around of poor performing schools [not bad],
• adopting and implementing teacher/adm evaluations based on student test data [this will probably create comment and concern], and
• adopting rigorous college / career-ready standards [so is this different than common core standards?].

In any case, California’s Superintendent of Public Instruction [SPI], Tom Torlakson, sent Duncan a letter on August 23^rd to apply for the waiver.  The need for the waiver was based on:

• a significant number of schools falling into Program Improvement,
• “insufficient” funding in California to meet NCLB requirements, and
• “NCLB’s flawed accountability system.” 

As a result the SPI requests a freeze of all AYP designations and sanctions for THIS year (11-12), and in return we in California will:  continue to work on improving schools, and will do something regarding teacher/principal evaluations in regards to data.  Torlakson further voices concern that the apparent requirements for the waiver would require a serious commitment without commensurate funding [sounding like RTTT?].

Making Sure It's Done Well

School began yesterday across the District, but we should also recognize that there were a variety of orientation activities provided at schools across the District on Friday the 26^th.  As an example, I attended King HS that has a celebratory way to bring their freshman on-campus and welcome them to their high school experience.  It was outstanding and was facilitated by many including their Link Crew that will mentor and support their fellow students throughout the school year.

I was also able to attend the opening of the STEM Academy and the initial orientation for those students.  The event was covered by several media sources including a video representation by the Press Enterprise.  It was pretty exciting to see one of our two “new schools” launch on Friday.

Our staff across this District is clearly committed to our students and their success.  It couldn’t have been better represented than to view the activities (both the ones I saw and the ones I didn’t see) that occurred across the District – before school even started.

First Day of School

School begins today and there is obviously lots of excitement for lots of different reasons.  I know I always love the beginning of the new school year with new students, teachers, staff, and opportunities.  Or perhaps it is just a long-standing habitual reaction that I have for this season of the year. 

In any case, we are off and running for a new school year that promises to be a good and interesting one.  There are obviously many new programs along with a multitude of adjustments in programs across the District.  As just a small example we have:

• The new program at Bryant Elementary that focuses on arts and innovation
• The dual language immersion program expands both to additional grade levels as well as from Washington Elementary to an additional site at Castle View Elementary
• Ramona HS is going to a full 1:1 deployment of mobile digital devices
• Most of our middle schools are engaged in something similar to what is happening at Ramona HS

• The Riverside STEM Academy at Central Middle School

Welcome back and have a great year!!

Dollars to help our Student Programs

We have been engaged for some time (as are most school districts) with a federal program we refer to as MAA (i.e., Medi-Cal Administrative Activities).  The dollars “earned” are based on providing on-going surveys and accounting of the activities of many of our employees.  This past year, we believed we were not fully utilizing this resource and therefore increased our efforts.  Our staff did a tremendous job and increased the reporting many times.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is that it takes literally years for the feds to get around to catching up and paying us for what they identified as legitimate costs.

However, as a result of the efforts this year, we are able to release, on a one-time basis, $500,000 back to our almost 50 schools with the intention that the dollars are to support those programs that students and parents used to support with fees (before we changed our policy).  Therefore, there are options at those schools to provide a minor amount of money to support such things as:  6^th grade science camp, fieldtrips, Mock Trial, band, athletics, etc. 

While this is not enough, it is a start in the right direction and we continue to look for strategies to generate revenues to support these important, valued programs.

Marching Forward to the Mid-Year Decision

As part of the state budget scenario (which obviously impacts us in RUSD), the Department of Finance must make a determination of whether the anticipated revenues outlined in the state budget ($4 Billion) has in fact materialized.  The good news is that nationally, consumer spending and therefore revenues were up across the nation in July.  The bad news is that is NOT the case in California, where essentially the first ½ Billion dollars did not show up in July. 

Earlier in the month, the State Controller, John Chiang, in his monthly report indicated the loss.  However, there were other opinions in Sacramento.  This past week, the Department of Finance made a similar statement – indicating that revenue projections were off by 10% in July.  Each month such might occur, makes it much more difficult to get back on target.  Bottom-line, each month something like this occurs begins to ensure that there will, in fact, be a mid-year budget reduction for school districts and others, as outlined in the “trigger language” of the state budget legislation.

We have understood this concern all the way along.  The real issue for us in RUSD, is what will our ultimate funding from the state be and how badly will if effect not only this year but the coming years as well.  I think Sacramento needs to develop a real, accountable budget plan and stick to it -- rather than engaging in on-going smoke and mirror accounting.

Congratulations and Thanks!

I had the occasion to participate in a “Birthday Party” this past weekend at the Marriott Hotel in downtown Riverside.  The subject of the occasion was Dell Roberts who was celebrating his 75^th birthday.  Actually, I always thought Dell was 29, so I was quite surprised to find out that he was 75!!

Dell clearly gave a vast part of his work life (38 years) to serving the students of RUSD in a variety of roles.  I realize that I am the new kid – having been here only 2½ years.  However, I can tell you that when I arrived I heard a lot about Dell and his contributions and given time to reflect I can see it was my loss for not having been here to be part of the time Dell spent directly with RUSD.  On the other hand, since I have been here (and Dell has not been employed by RUSD), I have seen Dell everywhere throughout the community – always contributing, encouraging, holding people accountable, and mentoring.  His contributions did not stop because he was no longer employed by our District.  Dell continues to contribute everyday.

My life has been enriched because I have known Dell Roberts and been in Riverside.  Happy Birthday, Dell!!

New Stuff

If you haven’t visited our RUSD website, you should – it’s brand new and quite different than its predecessor!!  Not only does it look different it has much greater functionality.  I would encourage you to take a look – AND explore a bit.  There is a good video explanation of some of the functions that you can find on the tool bar on the right-hand side of the page under Quick Links.

The Calendar also has some interesting functions as it allows you to set up a customized calendar and "see"  a combined calendar that represents your interests.  Also new to the system is the ability to look up and find various employees in our school district along with their email, position title, and site location.

As we have done before, there continues to be Board agendas, etc. along with videos of the meetings, etc.  Also schools are listed separately and can be found with a searchable listing at the top right of the page.  When there is a separate school website, that also is listed for reference on the left side of the page.

I understand that there are more things coming, but we hope you enjoy this change and will find it helpful.

The Invisible

Sometimes as we look about us, we see what we want to see and don’t see some of the realities that face our students.  This past year we had 2,165 students that were categorized by the federal government as “homeless.”  The amazing part is that represents about 5% of our school population.  These are not students and families that we see on the freeway entry and exit ramps, but rather they tend to be invisible throughout the community – constantly on the move looking for both food and shelter for TONIGHT.  Those are the ones we know about, there are others where we know less about that in this difficult economic time have had are reversal of fortune and have similar issues though not the same categorization.  All these students and families tend to be “invisible.”

So here is the problem, when we don’t have school there is no school lunch or breakfast (provided through federal funds targeted for that purpose), where and how do these students eat?  We do have community organizations such as the Assistance League and others that help bridge that gap.  But then there is the case of the summer (which is obviously a much larger problem than a mere weekend).

This is where our great Nutrition Services group has stepped in by partnering with the City of Riverside (Parks and Recreation) to provide through a federal program food (lunch) in the parks for many of our students and more.  Last year, we served 145, 679 meals to those young people.  Applying the lessons we learned from last year, we will serve 280,000 much-needed meals by the end of summer.  In the view of the Nutrition Services group, "hunger doesn't take a vacation, and neither do we."  I appreciate the intervention provided by the Nutrition Services group in partnership with the City and personally feel blessed to live in such a community and be able to work with such caring, compassionate people.

School Starts Again

Sorry for my absence during July, but is has been a seriously crazy month with LOTS going on. Of course, that all culminated for all of us with a week of furloughs. For me, I went to the Sierra’s for a backpacking trip – the room rent is cheap, you know.

We were able to have a great trip, but with LOTS of snow and serious water crossings that are unlike what is “normal” for this time of year – but we were all fine and enjoyed the entire week. We exited short of our goal and therefore needed to figure out how to get back to our car, etc. Fortunately, we were saved by our trail angel, Joe, who gave us a ride back to our car. We met Joe on Glen Pass (11,987’) and traveled with him for a day. He was a great young man from Orange County, with whom we enjoyed visiting and chatting.

So what did you do during the furlough time?

Getting back to reality, school starts for students on Monday, August 29th – which is not far away. At the same time there is LOTS going on in Sacramento and locally. It will be a good year, as we have the opportunity to assist our students with their learning and maturation.