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Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2011 | 2:01 a.m.
Sun archives
The comments under this paper’s story last week about the governor calling for teachers to accept a pay cut — while sometimes grammatically and syntactically challenging — were gratifying in their way. Fewer people than I expected barked the usual noise about pampered teachers needing to take a hit like everyone else.
Sure, several of the positive commenters were no doubt teachers, some were merely agitators, and a few were, I hope, the product of a school system other than ours. But there also seemed to be a dawning recognition that cutting into an already distressed system isn’t, in fact, the best way to make it work better.
Small reassurance, I know. But for those of us concerned about shoring up education, tiny handholds of optimism are all we have to cling to right now.
These are odd and frustrating times in education. The call to do more with less — not, in itself, a bad sentiment — becomes, in successive years, an ongoing mandate to do even more with even less. When I hear that Dwight Jones, the new superintendent of the Clark County School District, wants to commission a privately funded study of the district’s $2 billion budget to analyze “our return on investment,” I can both applaud his due diligence and rue the application of a business-model mind-set (“return on investment”) to an institution that we all should consider more of a public trust.
So, to be clear, I’m progressive on education. I think we need to pump money in, not suck it out, and if we have to, for example, rob the mining industry to do so, oh well.
Nonetheless, although I am (full disclosure) married to an educator, and (additional disclosure) know some educators, and (I’m on a roll here!) have been somewhat educated, I’ve never been an actual, sneakers-on-the-ground educator. There are limits to my practical knowledge. Which means, if I’m being fair-minded, there are times when I should yield the floor to someone who’s been there.
Enter “L.” That’s how I’m identifying a local teacher who recently left the profession after 26 years. She doesn’t want to publicly jump into the fray, but after one of my recent columns — I was berating Gov. Brian Sandoval for underfunding schools — she thought there were a few things I should know. So she sent me a passionate 1,704-word e-mail titled “Waste at CCSD?”
That’s a common theme among the School District’s harshest critics, that it’s heavy with trimmable fat, but L’s note was more rueful than scathing. She’s saddened by what she perceives as questionable decision-making, squandered materials and bureaucratic blind spots that are bogging down education.
Not all of her complaints sound compelling — show me a sizable operation that doesn’t waste copy paper or fritter away valuable time in meetings for meetings’ sake. Nor is it surprising that there’s some unwieldy bureaucracy. Anytime two or more people work together, the first thing they do is generate reams of paperwork covering their own asses. Given that this is the nation’s fifth-largest school district, there’s going to be red tape.
But she makes some good points, too, some small and specific (why ferry a couple of special ed students to school in full-size buses instead of a properly equipped van?) and others that highlight avoidable inefficiencies. Textbooks that didn’t get used; pricey science kits for grades in which science isn’t regularly taught; school-rehab projects in which fairly new materials get replaced with brand new. “A 1-year-old, perfect chalkboard, recently installed in my room — thrown in a Dumpster.”
Then, of course, there’s the testing, testing, testing.
“My friends tell me the greatest waste in their schools today is the endless red tape, documenting and testing which goes on daily,” she writes. “When I came to the district in 1981, teachers were constantly being cautioned not to ‘teach to the test.’ In today’s schools, there is no time for creativity because, if those endless tests aren’t passed, schools will lose federal funds. Well, guess what the teachers are doing to pass those tests?!”
Teaching to it, of course.
What a waste.
Point taken, L. For me, her e-mail was a nice reminder that somewhere between Sandoval (“Cut!”) and Dickensheets (“Spend!”) there ought to be a reasonable middle ground: Think of it as doing more with not quite so much less.
Here’s hoping Sandoval, the test-happy feds and the rest of us eventually decide to seek it.
I agree with L. There is still a colossal amount of waste going on. When we get money to improve achievement, I cannot believe what they spend it on. I have never seen the money spent effectively. And that is just one area.
Professional development is a joke. My personal favorite is "team building." This is where the admin gives us a silly activity that is supposed to bring the staff together. All I can do is think about how much work I have to do. I never enjoy it and I am being paid at my contracted rate all the while. (The PE teachers always love it, though.) Most of the rest of the day is spent on trainings that I have already had or whatever new system, program, or new time waster they they want us to administer. The new time waster is always out of fashion a year or two later.
No one wants to look at why achievement is really declining. It is always easier to say to teachers that there is something wrong with them.
hey scottie...
do you negotiate like obama???
do you give stuff up before you even get to the negotiating table???
stop it...
our children will get hurt....
and...
i have severe issues with your choice of a single word...
a word that needs to be retracted immediately...
that word...
"rob"...
as in "rob the mining industry"...
are you frickin kidding me...
"rob the mining industry"...
come on man...
stop it...
mining strips the land...
they send the profits overseas...
profits enjoyed by foreigners' children...
and...
mining has bought the politicians...
they own the politicians...
got that buddy...
mining is so powerful they have a constitutional provision regarding their taxation...
think about that...
let that sink in...
let that marinate...
there is but one explanation for it...
complete and total abuse of power...
period...
end of story...
so you see my friend...
"rob the mining industry"...
PUH-LEASE!!!
Often, people that see "waste" are just "under-educated"...
For example;
"(why ferry a couple of special ed students to school in full-size buses instead of a properly equipped van?)"
Probably because the full-sized bus is already on the road, has some free time betweeen regular-ed routes, has a driver that's already being paid, has the proper equipment, (wheelchair lift), & is MUCH safer than a similarly equipped "van".
Yes, there is waste. Inherent in any bureaucracy is a waste factor.
However, a LOT of TRIMMING has been done in the past few years in an effort to slim down the budget without affecting classroom students via draconian budget cuts.
BOTTOM LINE:
"The call to do more with less -- not, in itself, a bad sentiment -- becomes, in successive years, an ongoing mandate to do even more with even less."
Exactly.
And that AIN'T GONNA WORK.
Question for the spend more for education folks?
How would giving the teachers a BIG raise increase the graduation rates?
Does the Clark county school system do an exit interview with the many dropouts so they can assertain where 'fixes' in the system are needed to avoid this problem?
Shouldn't the demographics of the population in Clark county be considered when any attempt to fix the educational problems is considered instead of cowering behind political correctness?
Would changing the newspapers lining the bottom of Birdies cage improve its disposition?
Would we [the taxpayers in Nevada] be more willing to pay more taxes to fund education if we could see where spending more money would address the issues instead of chirping give me and trust me?
As a person who had a rigorous elementary and secondary school education at "Union Free School District No. 1" in New York, and as a person who benefitted from an excellent public and private education through the doctoral level, I must reiterate my view. The Clark County School District is the second-worst public school district I have ever encountered.
I have watched as two young women who are family members, one very bright and one a special education student, have battled their way through CCSD's uncaring bureaucracy. Both of them have encountered teachers who are illiterate, venal, demeaning or racist. The number of bad teachers they have encountered is far greater than they number of good, caring teachers. The number of helpful school administrators in the CCSD who they have encountered can be counted on one hand.
Union Free School District No. 1's students were the children of factory workers and tradesmen. So good was the school system, in each graduating class of 1200, at least 10% went on to Ivy League or equivalent colleges. When I think back to what Union Free School District No. 1 accomplished, with far less money, I can only conclude that the only way to "fix" CCSD is to abolish it, and start over with neighborhood oriented, parent managed school districts graduating no more than 1200 students per year.
The difference between NY Union Free School District No. 1 and CCSD is that at UFSD every year the local school district's parents and taxpayers voted on the school district's budget. In contrast, CCSD is not directly unaccountable and receives boatloads of cash from the state. It was that direct veto power in the hands of parents and taxpayers which kept the UFSD administrators and teachers on their toes.
Of course, I'm dreaming because CCSD's administrators, bureaucrats and principals will never agree to be accountable, or give up their power let alone their cushy jobs. And of course, Nevada's union funded Democrat legislators will insure the lack of school district accountability, and will insure the continued abject failure of CCSD in teaching the vast majority of its students, at all grade levels.
Good article. Birdie, you criticize Scott for being candid. Another reason not to listen to what you have to say. You aren't honest and you don't worry about solving real problems. You're a partisan puppet, and you deserve no attention.
This isn't a friggin poker game! We need to make dramatic improvements, and we can't sit around playing chicken. The CCSD budget needs to be addressed. I hear many of the same stories outlined in this article, and the budget offered on the CCSD website is not clear at all. There's no simple, summarized list of expenses. It doesn't clearly explain some of the most expensive programs. All I hear are stories/complaints, like the ones listed in this article, but it's tough to verify.
I'm not a teacher, but I've had enough of the kneejerk "teaching to the test" reaction. The union must program the members to reply with that complaint. Maybe the problem isn't that there IS a test/tests, but rather that the test isn't designed very well. If it was well designed, maybe "teaching to the test" wouldn't be a problem. Regardless, I always found that the poor, ineffective teachers were the ones that simply told us to read the textbook and offered no commentary, and tested us on the material. They served no purpose, we could just read the book and take a test online. But the great teachers found ways to cover all of the material in the textbook, but did it in an entertaining and engaging way.
There are some incredible teachers out there, and yes, even in this horrible district. But there are a lot of REALLY bad teachers. Everyone I've talked to in the district acknowledges it. Those bad teachers are a huge part of the problem, and it's low hanging fruit that we can fix. The uninvolved parents is obviously another problem, but that's a very difficult problem to solve. We need to address the bad teacher problem, and the unions simply can NOT refuse to address the problem unless other groups (administrators, parents, etc.) do their part. I think we get rid of the crap teachers, and we pay the remaining teachers what they're worth (and it's a LOT). Yes, tax the hell out of mining. I'm fine with a state income tax if we actually see results. Generate revenue however you can. Cut spending on useless DOT projects and redirect those funds to education. There are other things that can be done.
Cynical Observer should change his/her name to Pompous Observer and not take himself/herself so seriously.
Hey, DickinShorts!
You have a funny name. So, we can just ignore what you say, right?
How to shear a sheep:
1- hold sheep still and firmly in place
2- turn on shears, while calming the sheep with soothing, sheep-like, sound byte murmurs
3- shear in even strokes, removing fleece, while carefully not cutting into the skin.
4- Once fleece has been removed, release sheep and return it to its flock...until next year's fleecing.
------------------------------------------------------------
Warning: Stop shearing at the skin level, unless you intend to eat the sheep.
Who is Cynical Observer and why should anyone believe what it has written?
I am a teacher. Here are some ideas I'd like to present. 1. Allow all administrators to rehire teachers at their school just as those at empowerment schools have been allowed to; those teachers who are not rehired, may enter the pool to apply for open positions. If needed, start this process on a cycle so not all schools are going through the process at the same time. After 5 years, we'd see who were the least effective as they would be in the pool over and over again. 2. Use the evaluation process wisely. Right now, it is not linked to pay raises. Make it a three pronged process....a. evaluations by school administrators b. test scores c. parent evaluations. After 3 consecutive years, if teacher is consistently above the cut line, they move up in pay, and 3. to increase the amount of money a teacher can qualify for on a step pay raise, continue to factor in educational level of the teacher AND allow them to volunteer to teach entry level classes (either online or face-to-face) in English, Math, Science, Special Education, etc. at the community college level which will bring the freshest ideas into the college and alleviate the need to hire more professors. I am a 25+ veteran of the CCSD and I am privileged to work with many teachers who would easily meet these requirements. They already challenge themselves every day to do a better job than the day before....
Sheila, I wish you would post your thoughts more often. Really appreciate you attempting to come up with real solutions, and not just pass the buck.
Please try to convince your fellow teachers to get on board with your ideas, or at least attempt to solve the problems, including accountability measures on their end.
Really refreshing to read that. As an extremely concerned parent and community member, I definitely support those ideas.
Gmag in the 1950s the Clark County School District employed 1 person for every 24 students. Today they have one person for every 8 or 9.
In what way have they trimmed down?
"L." is speaking the truth. Just go past and inspect a school trash dumpster either at the end of the school year or beginning, and you will find incredible finds tossed in there as trash/waste. It has been to my personal horror, being a witness to this, reporting it to a site administrator, and well, not seeing much done about it. As a person who recycles and doesn't generate much classroom trash/waste, this simply stuns my sensibilities.
Every year, instead of finding ways to recycle, sell, or just donate texts, kits, and etc. these items find their way into the dumpster. Some items ended up being needed for the next school year, and had to be ordered again. My head simply spins.
It would do the new Superintendent well to have a way this could be reported, without an employee getting into trouble reporting it.
Keep in mind most decisions as tossing texts, materials, and fixtures must be cleared by the school site administrator. And life is real hard if you cross them.