Decentralization called education key

By Emily Richmond

Sunday, Nov. 20, 2005 | 7:35 a.m.

A UCLA management consultant hired to help a coalition of local business leaders examine Clark County schools believes students perform best when local schools -- not a central district office -- control everything from budgets to class schedules to hiring.

But consultant Bill Ouchi said his work for the Council for a Better Nevada will not include a personal evaluation of whether the Clark County School District might benefit from the application of his educational philosophy.

"I have been brought in to advise (the council) on how they might be most effective in being part of the community in wanting to improve public schools," said Ouchi, who has written four books on management and organization. "It's not really for me to opine about the Clark County schools, it's for them."

Ouchi also is assisting in the search for potential superintendent candidates the council hopes to direct to the School Board for consideration.

Chancellor Jim Rogers, who also is owner of Sunbelt Communications, wants the next Clark County schools superintendent's salary to top $400,000 and has offered to raise funds to ensure that happens. The Clark County School Board is advertising the superintendent vacancy with a salary starting at $290,000.

In his 2003 book "Making Schools Work," Ouchi argues that autonomy at the local school level is central to student achievement.

Ouchi visited 223 schools in nine public school districts -- including the three largest, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. He also looked at operations at the nation's three largest districts operated by Catholic dioceses and a handful of independent schools.

The most successful districts, Ouchi said, were those with only minimal involvement by a central office in day-to-day school operations.

The most successful principals operate as "entrepreneurs" with full control over everything from the budget to class schedules to curriculum, Ouchi said.

"You do get higher overall achievement and a reduced achievement gap when you have local school autonomy," Ouchi said. At the same time, schools succeed when principals are free to hire and train effective staff and then step back and let teachers do their jobs, Ouchi said.

Another common denominator of successful districts, Ouchi said, was the element of choice -- open enrollment allowing students to attend any school. Schools that are over-subscribed hold lotteries. But open enrollment means nothing unless each school has the freedom to design its own programs and compete for students, Ouchi said.

Ouchi also favors a "weighted student formula," where the "funding follows the student," with extra per-pupil funding for high-need areas such as special education and English for non-native speakers. Principals know their schools must meet those students' needs or they will lose them -- and the money -- to campuses that will, Ouchi said.

Nevada allocates additional money for special education students, but it is distributed at the district level rather than directly to individual schools. Districts also receive federal funds for schools with the largest populations of students from low-income households.

Jim Hager, former superintendent of the Washoe County School District and a professor of educational leadership at UNLV's College of Education, said Ouchi's research is well known.

"I agree that the more money you can get into the hands of the schools, the better," Hager said. "I'm not sure I would go as far as Dr. Ouchi on total autonomy. There are some things that need to be standardized for accountability. And there's a lot of purchase power in largeness."

Hager noted that all of the cities in Ouchi's landmark 2003 study had student enrollments that were either stable or declining. With Clark County's population continuing to soar, open enrollment in the 292,000-student District could be a logistical nightmare, Hager said.

Clark County School District officials also are familiar with Ouchi's ideas.

A study was conducted several years ago to determine whether Seattle's version of a weighted student formula might work here, said Agustin Orci, interim co-superintendent of the Clark County School District.

"What we found is that our per-pupil funding is so low that in order to implement on any significant scale what Dr. Ouchi talks about would create winners and losers," Orci said. "In order to provide for schools with the higher numbers of at-risk kids, we would have to make reductions at other campuses and that could be a devastating blow."

Orci said he would rather see Nevada adopt a weighted student formula at the state level, similar to plans used in Arizona and Texas. Under those plans, extra money is set aside for students with limited proficiency in English. And districts that see large jumps in student enrollment are eligible for additional funding throughout the academic year, rather than having to wait until the following September's official count.

"As long as the per-pupil funding remains low, it's difficult to get creative," Orci said.

"If we could establish a base (student funding amount) that would guarantee some of our schools wouldn't be on the losing end, we would be interested in doing a pilot study to see if more autonomy leads to better programming. But it's not appropriate at this time."

Emily Richmond can be reached at 259-8829 or at emily@ lasvegassun.com.