State of Education

Kenn Young’s State of Education address yesterday was to cover all of Riverside County. The county of Riverside is the 4th largest educational agency in the State of California with 430,000+ students. 

Supt. Young covered several different topics – starting with the great things that are happening across the county with our students. Additionally, he explored four points including:

1. EVERY student in Riverside County needs to complete high school and graduate.  There are dire economic consequences to the student and the community when that does not happen.  New state data on graduation and completion rates will be released on April 9^th.

2. Technology is an important tool for us to integrate in the instructional process with our students across the county. He said that we need to see that technology as an “everyday essential.”  Supt. Young talked about online classes, blended, flipped, etc.  He gave a special “shout out” to the California Open Campus Initiative.

3. We need to have concern and focus BEYOND high school as that is essential to our economic well-being and development across the county.  As we look at this issue remediation of skills and utilization of the EAP as a predictor are important consider.

4. “Where do we need to improve?” The essence of this question leads to higher expectations for all of us and the academic performance of our students. He specified several areas that we should focus on as we raise expectations and performance.  Ultimately, there is evidence that students that are acquiring skills necessary to be “college/career ready” are those students that are performing at the ADVANCED level on the CST (not just the proficient level).  As such, we need to shift our expectations and metrics.

Last, but not least, he affirmed that, “I believe in Riverside County.”

125 years!!

Today was a great day that represents just a portion of the heritage that we have here in Riverside.  This morning I was able to attend Highgrove Elementary School’s celebration of their 125^th birthday.  Wow!!  That was before I was born, my parents were born, and my grandparents were born.  As we look back at history, changes, and accomplishments of this school it is quite a heritage.

The amazing part was that in addition to those of us that you might typically expect to see there – there were graduates, former teachers, etc.  This was certainly a “Highgrove community” celebration.  Supervisor Tavaglione presented a well-deserved resolution from Riverside County along with a historical perspective and memento from Dr. Chuck Beaty, RUSD Board of Education.  Throughout there was student participation, song, and a good time.

Another Intense weekend

There was a lot happening on Saturday.  In the morning we had our 2nd Annual Parent Summit at Arlington HS.  The focus on this was to assist our Spanish-speaking parents in helping their students.  As such, we started with students in our DLI classes from Washington and Castle View performing several numbers for us.  Then we moved on to our keynote speaker, Lt. Col. Kickbush who essentially told her own story which arguably is a lot like those sitting in the audience.  She related with them – but also asked them to commit to being more active and engaged in the education of their children.  She particularly focused on “dads.”  From my perspective, I believe she was very powerful and unlike other speakers ultimately spoke from her heart.  From the keynote, parents moved to a multitude of breakout sessions involving all kinds of topics (e.g., bullying, GPAs and HS credits, college issues, etc.).

My thanks to Antonio Garcia and his staff from initiating this project and then continuing to grow it.  The district staff from our AEL group was highly visible and involved.  The publications team, as always, was involved with all the technical aspects.  Last, but certainly not least there was an army of volunteers.  Kudos and thanks to all.  We doubled the attendance from last year and had over 600 parents for the morning.

Saturday evening was a shift as we went to JW North for another CIF basketball doubleheader with both girls and the boys teams.  The final for the girls’ game was 55-43, which obviously is not close.  They will play again on Tuesday night on Bakersfield (quite a drive).

The boys’ game was even more impressive as they took off fast and never looked back.  For most of the game we were about 40 points ahead of the Hanford opponent.  I am sure the Hanford players thought that there were more than 5 Huskies on the court at any one time, given the speed of the game and defense.  The final score was 61-23.  The boys will also be playing on Tuesday night, but in the JW North gym again – but the predictions are that it will be a much closer game with West Lake HS.

An amazing day.  Thanks to all.

Tradition and Innovation

An interesting week for sure.  JW North continues with its journey to the state championship in Boys Basketball, with its girls’ team not far behind.  Certainly it was an extraordinary win on Saturday night by one point.  A great team to watch but the more interesting human interest story was the one outlined in the Press Enterprise last week.  Three of the players are repeating the path that their father’s laid out – when THEY were involved in similar CIF Championship playoffs as previous basketball players at JW North.  That is tradition!  Way to go Huskies!

As a point of interest I am attaching the upcoming bracketing for the Divisional Championships which begin on Wednesday (tomorrow) with the 6 pm game for our North Girls team followed by the 7:30 game for the boys.  Both at JW North Gym.  A doubleheader – and yes you will need to get there early if you want to actually get INSIDE of the gym.  I am sure it will be SRO.

Another interesting matter was the group performance at the Board meeting last night.  The performance demonstrated a great partnership and the spirit of Riverside.  We had Bryant Elementary students presenting a musical performance.  Not that unusual, you say.  Except the “music” teacher is a “volunteer” in this case who works regularly with our students.  Mr. V brings a lot to the engagement as they sang, played instruments, etc.  Interestingly several of the instruments were actually constructed by Mr. V to add to Bryant inventory.  Great job Bryant!  Great job Mr. V and students!!

 

Projections are NOT necessarily Reality

Recently, the Governor and his staff have proposed a new school funding model with is generally referred to as LCF or LCFF.  This past week he released projections on how that would affect individual school districts across – which is different in different school districts.  We are supportive of the Governor and his efforts to reform the California funding system for public schools.

	Free/Reduced Eligibility	English Learners	2011-12 funding	2019-20 funding
RUSD	63.5%	16.3%	$6,165	$10,637

However, it should be pointed out that these are all projections – and it sometimes can be difficult to move from the projections to REALITY.  So we need to exercise some degree of caution, until we see the projections move closer to implementation.

As an example:

• It is a projection that this Legislation (LCFF) and budget passes in its current form – which is not a sure thing.
• It is a projection regarding the number of dollars that are to be allocated to school districts, as released last week – which is based on a number of assumptions
• It is a projection of the number of students designated as English Learner and Free & Reduced eligible individually versus how many are actually duplicated through these two groups (and they can only be counted once) – obviously the outcome of this projection dramatically impacts the funding for each school district
• It is a projection of what the future looks like 7 years from now including BOTH funding and demographic configuration (which could change)
• It is a projection of impact on students in the classroom – which is based on more theory than actual best practice.

Obviously, there is LOTS of work to be done on all of this.  We believe it is THE best option and funding model that has been presented.  We are excited and optimistic about the Governor’s plan, but we aren't quite there yet.

Party at the Plaza

Once again we had our Party at the Plaza this past Saturday.  What a great day when we showed up with a few thousand of our friends on a sunny, nice day.  Our schools were well prepared and “told their stories” well.  I enjoyed visiting with each booth and receiving literature, etc. of my options as a "parent."  It is always great to see our best salespersons (students) out selling their school and their specific related experience.  I also had the chance to listen to several parents talk about their advocacy for the day and their individual schools. Kudos to all of our staff, students, and yes parents who participated and made this a Great Party.

Attention!!

Attention!!

 You may have heard that there was a shooting incident this morning in Riverside (Arlington and Magnolia). NONE of our schools are involved. At this point, school is open; however, we will support and excuse any student that you keep home this morning.

Welcome to our Tianjin Students

Today, we have guests that are visiting John F Kennedy Elementary School.  There are approximately 30 elementary school students visiting from Tianjin, China.  The JFK students have been preparing for this visit and are looking forward to meeting our guests.  We have certainly had Chinese visitors before, particularly with our John W North HS partnerships.  This is different as these students are elementary students.

Tianjin is about 65 miles east from Beijing, the capital of China.  There are certainly differences with our Chinese counterparts, but we can all learn and improve with these new relationships.  In March we will have another visit from Tianjin students.  In March there will be 200 students and they will divide and visit either John F Kennedy or Lake Matthews Elementary School.  We anticipate that our students will benefit and learn from these relationships.

Great Walk

As you can tell, I am already running behind but I am trying to stay with my commitment – but there are only 4 days this week.  However, Sunday and Monday I was able to attend Martin Luther King, Jr. events.  First the celebration on Sunday at the Park Ave. Baptist Church, which was great!  Then Monday it was off to the MLK Walkathon.  It is always great to see such a good crowd and it’s a great walk (5 mi for me).  This year was a bit different in that we had several detours given the construction on 14^th street and other locations.  It is always great to see our students involved.  I was able to connect with 3 of our high schools that were there (I am sure the others were there as well—but there were LOTS of people).  A great Riverside event, representing someone who made great contribution to us all.

Martin Luther King Day

Monday is the time we remember Martin Luther King and his multitude of contributions to our society.  I hope that you have the MLK Walkathon on your schedule for Monday.  That is always a great event as we walk from Bordwell Park / Stratton Center to RCC via the MLK monument downtown.  We will be starting at 10 am (Registration is before that).  Hope to see you there.

LCF?

Getting to the specifics of the Governor’s LCF (Local Control Funding) proposal, there are a variety of twists and turns that we should watch and appreciate as this major policy/funding issue moves forward in Sacramento.  Obviously this approach will require that we individually count students with this approach.  It should be noted that ONE of those wrinkles is that a student can only be funded as an EL student for a maximum of 5 years – and then they are “out” of any supplemental funding calculation – THAT is a major shift.

I always try to “get the picture” of what is happening.  This is my best attempt at the changes that we are undergoing with the LCF proposal.

Our current (Prop 98) system varies the funding from district to district based on unique, historical and unusual information.  LCF should keep the funding essentially the same but base the funding based on each of our students not historical district information.  As to the student funding, essentially all students get the SAME basic funding regardless of which district or region of the state in which they may be attending school.  However, the plan calls for some differences based on grade (e.g., K-3 vs. other elementary). 

Then as there are special needs (poverty or EL), students get supplemental funding that is an increase of 35% over the basic funding.  Finally, if on a districtwide basis there is a concentration above 50% of disadvantaged students – THEN the district will receive an additional 35% for each student ABOVE that 50% threshold.  In other words, the first 50% in this category won’t provide any additional support.  For each student beyond the 50% there will be the additional +35% funding.

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The Governor Has Spoken

The Governor proposed the initial state budget this past week and this is the START of the process.  While the proposal provides us with optimism, it is a long way from its conclusion and adoption in late June.  It is clear already that there is resistance in the Legislature about some of the provisions of this proposal and general discussion and the resistance within the Democratic Party.

The proposal is pretty consistent with what we thought would happen – though there are some interesting wrinkles. Without rehashing analysis of others I would highlight some points from a 30,000’ view.

·       Overall, consistent with Prop 30 and the budget proposal we see that the “bleeding” has stopped and there is hope that we will actually begin to see restoration – though the restoration portion is yet to be realized (BUT we are really close).

o   Additionally, there is a strong message about maintaining flexibility and moving even more to local control

o   There would be a requirement to write a District Accountability Plan

o   With the flexibility there would probably not be state approval of our plans but would be review in our annual audit.

·       As suggested previously we have moved from WSF (weighted student formula) to LCF (Local Control Funding).

·       There is a major policy shift with Adult Schools moving to Community Colleges.  The obvious impact on us.

·       The potential to move forward substantively on the online education issue as the Governor has addressed this issue in his proposal.

·       Certainly the mandate reforms and addition are welcome – as we have been advocates for a solution that looks something like this.

I will attempt to highlight other specifics over the coming days and weeks.

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WSF (Weighted Student Formula)

As alluded to earlier, the Governor should be out this week with his budget proposal that will include a new funding model for California Education.  Needless to say, that is a pretty big deal.  We have been aware of the discussion over the past year.  WSF as it has been termed originated with Dr. Michael Kirst et al from the Stanford faculty.  Dr. Kirst is the current President of the State Board of Education and a long-time advisor of Governor Jerry Brown.

Part of the Governor's purpose behind this change is to provide local communities greater flexibility with the dollars that are available to meet the needs of local students as opposed to the restrictions and regulations of "categorical" funds.  Additionally, he is recognizing the challenge of helping students learn can be somewhat different based on the background, available resources, and circumstances of the student (e.g., English Learner, Socio-Economic status, etc.).

When the Governor makes his proposal, he may change the name from WSF to something else (undisclosed at this time) -- however, the principles remain the same.  First, there is a BASIC allocation of funds for all students -- as public schooling has a price even under the best circumstances.  Second, there is to be a SUPPLEMENTAL allocation that would be added to the basic allocation for students that have special / additional needs (e.g., English Learners, students in poverty, etc.).  Finally, there is to be what has been called a CONCENTRATION grant.  The concentration value is again additional funds beyond the basic allocation and the by-student allocation of supplemental funding.  The purpose of the concentration is to recognize that according to the research when there is a certain concentration of special students achieved the challenges increase and therefore the required resources increase as well.  There is current discussion of the concentration threshold being set at 50% Free/Reduced Lunch eligibility.

After the Governor's proposal surely there will be lively debate in the Legislature -- which must approve an ultimate budget.  I am sure that there will be a similar debate across the land as districts and communities determine whether they are "winners" or "losers" with the new formula.

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The Governor should present his budget proposal for 2013-14 tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Maybe this time?

Okay, so I/we started off in the Spring of 2009 with a blog and I did pretty well logging 320 posts before the wheels apparently fell off the wagon in August 2011 .  Failure to post did not mean that I was not guilt-ridden about the issue.  Obviously, things have been busy but that does not change the basic concern about not living up to my end of things.

Well, it is a new year -- and time to give it a new try.  Heaven knows there are plenty of issues at the state, national, and local levels.  Watch for the Governor's initial budget proposal on this Wednesday, January 10th.  He will be proposing a fundamental change in how we fund California schools.  We have been using Prop 98 for quite some time and his proposal will be to create a new mechanism referred to as WSF (Weighted Student Formula) -- though my understanding is that he does not like the name and as such will "brand" it with a new name in his proposal.

Certainly other issues that bear consideration include such things as:  Common Core, the new Smarter Balanced Assessment plan, Proposition 30 and its impacts, California Voter Rights Act, Weighted Student Formula, etc.

I hope you will consider taking the time to peruse these blog issues.  I will make every attempt to post at least twice a week -- we will see how I do.  More importantly, I hope that this is a conversation and you COMMENT on the posts as that always adds value to the discussion.

So here is the latest and GREATEST

Within the last hour Riverside was named as the "most intelligent community in the world" by ICF (Intelligent Community Forum) who holds the annual competition for the award.  You remember we were named one of the top 7.  This was the culmination of the work on this award.  It was preceeded by information being sent and visitations to Riverside by the ICF representatives.  I believe this is the first time the award was given to a US city.

Additionally, we won the "coolest app" part of the competition that was lead by Jay McPhail and the student learning aspect of all of this

Kudos to all!!!!

Here are 2 short videos.  http://bit.ly/LK5N3X and http://bit.ly/KUe7kc

You REALLY Missed It!!

If you couldn’t make it, you really missed it on Saturday night when we had our Red Carpet premier for our student acted and produced video on the A-G requirements that are necessary for University of California admission.  While it was not totally full, it was a very full house in the Ramona Theater (over 650).  Students were introduced and premiered including several red carpet interviews.  We even learned how to “shuffle” – kinda.

As indicated earlier in the week, we have a great staff across the District that is producing some incredible results with our students.  Many from the HS media arts and publications staff were involved in this effort along with many students – essentially all on non-school time.  There were student producers, camera-people, actors, choreographers, and you-name-it.  When people talk about preparing our students for the jobs of the 21^st century (which is now) – I believe this is a great example – that can translate into real jobs.  Additionally, these students have a very valuable piece for their job or college portfolio that is very credible.

Bottomline, if you or others don’t know what each of the 7 letters (A-G) represent in the A-G requirements you could and should check out this video (http://bit.ly/NhKqLm) that will explain it in some fun detail.  Your friends might even enjoy it.  Great job students and staff!!

Graduation Week

To follow yesterday’s theme of great teachers and staff doing great work – here is another (and the reality is that there are MANY). 

Each school and each situation is different -- much like our students and their families.  One size cannot fit all and arguably fits none.  At one of our high schools, graduation looks a lot less like pomp and circumstance in the stadium and is much more intimate.  One of our teachers, enlisting their own creativity and resources, recorded just one of those graduations and the story of completion and achievement.  It has been published for the world to see the creativity and achievement of our staff and students on YouTube.  It is the story of one EOC graduation.

Thanks Ann!!

As graduation week begins there is much to celebrate.  Certainly, we have many graduates, their families, their teachers, and their mentors that have worked hard to accomplish the celebrations of this week.

On the other side, it is also a time to look at the spectacular work of many of our teachers and staff that do extraordinary things for our students.  To point to one example, that in my view represents many, I would look at the Senior Exhibition event at JW North HS.  This is certainly a great example of preparing our students for the world beyond high school (next week!). 

Though it probably is not an “official” Senior Exhibition project – I am stunned by the work of just one of our teachers in this area.   In this case, AFTER graduation, the teacher contacts you and asks you to write another essay and make sure it includes a literary work as part of the overall theme.  Guess what, many students did exactly that and emailed their essays back to the teacher (had to use email as they didn’t show up for class anymore).  The teacher, of course, commented and edited the work and returned it.  All of it ended up as the most extraordinary book of these essays – that are very thought-provoking and insightful from our students about their various journeys in life.

The book is entitled:  Bookmarked by Ann Camacho (JW North teacher).  If you haven’t looked at it I would highly recommend it.  I was intrigued and impressed by the project -- I was even more impressed by the quality of writing and thinking by our students.  To that end, I would also thank Ann and all of the other teachers across RUSD that are so committed to our students and their excellence.

P.S.  Ann, please don't edit my work as it is not likely to be to the standard that you have demanded of your students.

May Revise

So theoretically, it is done …we now know what the state budget is to look like for 2012-13.  Yesterday, the Governor released his “May Revision” of the budget.  Typically, this is the “budget” that in one form or another becomes the basis for the Legislature to act and ultimately provide the state with their plan – and, of course, it trickles down to local school districts and our budgets.  Actually, the “May Revise” is not much different than we have projected.  Not surprisingly, the Governor is counting on the passage of his tax initiative in November – if it passes his budget works, if it doesn’t I guess we start all over in the middle of the year.

Certainly there will be a lot of conjure about the various pieces and parts.  Obviously, there is LOTS of detail on a state budget.  However, there are two things that strike me at this time.

1. If the Governor’s tax initiative should pass in November, it would theoretically provide an additional $7 Billion to the state.  At the same time, it was announced yesterday that the budget deficit rose from $9B to $16B.  By my math, it would seem that the hole got bigger by $7B and if the initiative passes it raises $7B – sounds like it is even and the initiative provides no gain – at least in the short term. Humm...
2. The Governor has instituted a trigger mechanism that should his tax initiative NOT pass; the state would allow the reduction of another 15 days from the current school year (5 are allowed now).  Overall, on our calendar that would mean the last day of school next year would move from June 12^th to May 15^th.  I am not suggesting that we will be interested in doing that – just that is the state plan.

It seems abundantly clear that Sacramento has not figured out its finances, and of greater concern it does not value public education that provides a skilled workforce that provides economic development and drives the state economy.

Great Evening Great Student Performance

This is the time of year when lots of GREAT things happen and the students as they are recognized for their performance.  Last night is one of my favorite events of the year when the Riverside County Superintendent and his office honor the top High School students in the county of Riverside.  We have about 430,000 students that attend school in our county.  This year there will be approximately 33,000 of those students that will be graduating from high school.  The evening was devoted to recognizing the top three students (academically) from each of the 51 high schools in Riverside County. 

In addition, the highlight of the evening is when Superintendent Kenn Young names the top 10 county academic team from those 33,000 HS graduates.  The determination is made based on a weighted scoring of a student’s GPA, SAT performance, extra-curricular activities, and accomplishments outside the school.  This year 3 of the top 10 Academic Team are from RUSD.  Their performance and that of the other team members are phenomenal.  As an example our three students included:

·         Alan Z from North HS with a GPA of 4.65 and a SAT score of 2270 (out of a possible 2,400)

·         Kevin Z from North HS with a  GPA of 4.63 and a SAT score of 2340

·         Jeffrey G from Poly HS with a GPA of 4.71 and a SAT score of 2400 (yes a perfect score)

Beyond great work by these students, they are obviously supported by committed parents and great RUSD teachers that can meet the challenge of these high performing students.