Known versus unknown — Local contingent travels to New York to see firsthand

Saturday, Jan. 21, 2006 | 7:54 a.m.

NEW YORK -- International High School is the jewel in Eric Nadelstern's crown. The finalist for Clark County schools superintendent said the program he co-founded embodies what he believes works - and doesn't work - in public education.

Nadelstern is the chief academic officer for new schools for the New York Education Department. He is also superintendent of the "Autonomy Zone," an 18-month-old experiment that allows campuses greater control over budget, hiring, curriculum and daily schedules. In exchange for that freedom, schools agree to be held to stricter standards.

The trade-off has many educators and parents happy in New York -- and curious in Las Vegas. That's why Clark County School Board members came to New York this week. They want to know whether Nadelstern's approach will translate to the nation's fifth-largest and fastest-growing school district.

Board President Ruth Johnson and Vice President Sheila Moulton toured the district on Thursday and Friday. Board members Larry Mason, Terri Janison and Mary Beth Scow will spend Monday and Tuesday doing the same.

To Moulton, Nadelstern has much to prove. During his appearances before the School Board in Las Vegas last week, Moulton wrote down words she felt described the candidate. The list included "intelligent" and "innovative." But "consultant" also made her list.

"Mr. Nadelstern has many interesting ideas that I might be willing to explore on a pilot basis, but I wasn't seeing him as someone with the experience we need to run the entire district," she said.

But she and Johnson are reserving final judgment, which is why they were eager to visit International High in Queens. That school and Nadelstern are joined at the hip.

"Everything I know about accountability and school-based autonomy I learned at International High School," said Nadelstern, who was its principal for 17 years. "I learned small schools are better for students and for teachers. I learned that the lion's share of resources must go to support the relationship between students and teachers in the classroom. I learned that students must be expected to demonstrate knowledge beyond taking standardized tests. And schools must be held responsible for meeting all of those goals."

A tour of the campus found that the girls, like their peers in Las Vegas, favor designer jeans with chic frayed cuffs and fur-lined boots. The boys also would blend easily into most Clark County high schools. They wear their hair shaggy and sport T-shirts proclaiming their favorite rock bands.

Also remarkably similar were students lingering in hallways decorated with artwork and fliers, teachers being flagged down to answer just one more question about the looming final exam, voices chattering in a jumble of languages and backpacks loaded with books, cell phones and digital music players.

Here's what was different.

* At International High School, a typical school day runs from 8 a.m. to 3:25 p.m. with special electives and club meetings running until 4:15 p.m. That's four hours longer than the typical Las Vegas high school and a longer academic day than most of Clark County's magnet programs.

* Enrollment stands at 500, about one-sixth the size of the average Clark County high school, and smaller than most of the elementary schools.

* The staff works in six-person teams, made up of five teachers and one support services coordinator. Each team is responsible for 75 students. In Clark County, teachers generally are responsible for more than twice as many students.

Perhaps the biggest difference is the way students are taught.

Thanks to a waiver from the Education Department, International High School students are judged only in part by standardized tests. They must pass only the math and English portions of the Regents Exams -- the state's equivalent of Nevada's high school proficiency tests. Students demonstrate knowledge of other subjects, including science and history, by submitting a portfolio of their work.

Each instructional team develops curriculum around a central theme. This year's topics include "American Dreams: Bridges to Reality" and "Projects and Adventures in New York City."

Students are expected to stay with one instructional team for two years, said John Starkey, who teaches American history at International High.

The Regents Exam is broad but not deep, Starkey said. At International, students can be taught in greater depth about a host of subjects "that the students and the other teachers and I feel are important. The kids leave with stronger English and better knowledge of history." It's much better, he said, "than just expecting them to pass a standardized test."

In Nevada, students and teachers are judged largely by their performance on standardized tests, said Mary Ella Holloway, president of the Clark County teachers union, which favors the other finalist, interim Superintendent Walt Rulffes. The federal No Child Left Behind Act is largely based on accountability through standardized tests, Holloway noted.

As for teaching just 75 students a day -- and staying with those students for two years -- the idea is enviable but not likely in Clark County, Holloway said. Students are moved frequently between schools or into or out of the district altogether, giving Clark County a transiency rate of nearly 40 percent.

Starkey said he typically has only one student leave during the academic year, a transiency rate of less than 2 percent. When told of Clark County's high turnover rate, Starkey suggested that the district adopt a regimented, districtwide curriculum "because it provides consistency" between schools.

Starkey has taught students from migrant farm-worker families who come to New York from Florida and Texas. "If a child leaves in November and then comes back again in March, they're not doing the same lesson. You can still allow the teacher some freedom within that scripted curriculum. But 40 percent, no matter what, the students are going to be losing something with that rate of transiency."

Asked in an interview this week about high turnover rate, Nadelstern said that it could be addressed by giving individual schools more autonomy, which can lead to stronger relationships between students and teachers, enhancing the bond students have with their schools.

He acknowledged that in Las Vegas, economics are a powerful factor. Some students attend as many as four schools in an academic year as their parents move from one side of town to another, chasing affordable housing.

Students and their parents move without much thought because neither feel committed to particular schools.

Another problem is that attendance zone boundary lines are redrawn each year to accommodate growth, shuffling tens of thousands of students to other schools.

Nadelstern said that if he is selected for the Clark County job, he will find out why parents aren't given the option of keeping their children in the same school even if the family moves to another part of the valley.

Also, he noted, "If you organize schools around housing patterns, you're simply going to perpetuate the same kinds of class and racial divisions that are prevalent in housing patterns. Student and family choice is a very strong influence in whether or not kids succeed and whether families are prepared to support their children to succeed at these schools."

At International High, for example, student Sebastian Tinazzi, who was raised in Argentina, was recommended for admittance because he stood out in his local high school's bilingual English class. His adopted school is more than a hour's subway ride each way, but Tinazzi said he doesn't mind.

Tinazzi is part of International's dual-credit program and is working toward an associate's degree in civil engineering at LaGuardia Community College, which shares classrooms with International High. His high school counselor will stay with him for all four years of high school and then for a fifth year as he makes the transition to higher education. He hopes to transfer to a four-year college.

"At my other school if you don't speak English, OK - you're the leftover, nobody pays attention to you," Tinazzi said. "Here, they help you. Even my friends who speak Spanish, we all speak English (to each other) at school and after school so we get better."

Parents also can attend English as a Second Language classes, held at night at International High. Their presence on campus gives them a chance to check in with teachers in settings outside the more formal parent-teacher conferences, Starkey said.

"It gives me an opportunity to get to know more about my students and their lives and that lets me be a better teacher," Starkey said.

Clark County parents generally do not have similar bonds. In 2004 the School Board hosted a series of community forums to gather input on a variety of education-related topics. At the evening workshop scheduled to discuss ways to increase parental involvement at schools, the only audience members were district staff.

Holloway said parental involvement is typically high at the elementary level and then drops off sharply at middle school and high school. Work and other family demands are the biggest barriers, Holloway said.

"It's not that parents don't care," Holloway said. "It's the reality of life in a 24-hour town."

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