Coolican: Education panel’s resolve inspires new hope

By J. Patrick Coolican

Wednesday, April 6, 2011 | 2:01 a.m.

There’s plenty to be pessimistic about when it comes to the Clark County School District. It is beset with high dropout rates, high turnover among teachers who are paid less than the national average, and a student population challenged by language barriers, familial instability and economic collapse.

Last week, I led a discussion among teachers, students and an administrator after we watched the education reform documentary “Waiting for Superman,” which makes the case that we are failing our children, and especially low-income children, like many in Clark County.

I came away at least a little bit hopeful.

I was joined by Zhan Okuda-Lim, the student body president at Valley High School and student representative to the state Board of Education; William Johnson, a standout student athlete at Las Vegas High School; Shirley Webb, a science instructor at Mack Middle School; Marc Hechter, chairman of the social studies department at Palo Verde High School, and Ken Turner, a special assistant to Clark County Schools Superintendent Dwight Jones.

The participants, whom I take to represent a wide swath of the valley, are committed to education and improving the district for all students. They seemed eager to discuss ideas and challenge the status quo. That’s a start.

Turner laid out a vision of change that the community can get behind, which helps explain why his boss is getting rave reviews so far.

He says the new leadership hopes to unify the community around the simple phrase “Ready by exit” — to be prepared for higher education or the workplace, without needing remediation.

If the student is off to College of Southern Nevada, she should be ready. If she’s off to UNLV, she should be ready. If she’s off to Harvard, she should be ready.

To accomplish “ready by exit,” the district will pursue what the new leadership calls the “growth model.” This means the focus is on progress and improvement, irrespective of where a student is at the moment. If the student is struggling, he should be brought up to grade level. If a student is at grade level, he should be pushed to be above grade level. And so on.

Turner says the district will be relentless about literacy, which he calls, “First among equals.” He likened reading to a portal without which most learning is blocked.

Finally, Turner says the district hopes to create a culture “where it’s cool to be smart.” Considering that in our community it’s cool to be stupid, I’d say this would be a welcome development.

I was also encouraged by the teachers, Hechter and Webb. I put to them two key facts that come out of “Waiting for Superman.” First, even though the best teachers are often three times more effective than their weakest colleagues, they are rarely rewarded for performance but instead get paid more for years on the job and time spent in graduate school.

Second, if we were to eliminate the 6 to 10 percent of our teachers who are the lowest performing and replaced them with merely average teachers, we would have one of the best — instead of one of the worst — education systems in the developed world.

Webb and Hechter are open to innovation, competition and change, be it in compensation, organization, curriculum or anything else that will improve our schools. All they ask is that we develop a plan and then be consistent implementing it.

They’re deeply committed to the community’s children: “I have great aspirations, as many aspirations as I had 11 years ago, and I assume you have as many as when you started many years ago,” Hechter said to Webb.

To which Webb replied: “I certainly do. More, as a matter of fact.”

What they’re not cool about is being demeaned, and we ought to stand with them on this. You ever tried standing in front of a group of children and teaching them? It’s really hard.

Finally, I came away impressed with the students. They are young men of poise and equanimity who will be ready for whatever comes next.

I was most impressed with their moral clarity.

Okuda-Lim, on our failing schools: “It’s a disgrace to this nation, as far as I’m concerned.”

Johnson: “Everyone needs to be in the community, and we all need to work together as a family ... to hold ourselves together and not fall.”

Amen.

•••

In my previous column on “Waiting for Superman,” I was wrong about per pupil spending because of an honest miscommunication with the School District. The number I recited, $5,035, is basic per-pupil funding from the state. Total per pupil funding in Clark County is $7,842. The national average is above $10,000.