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By J. Patrick Coolican (contact) 
Tuesday, May 24, 2011 | 1:55 a.m.
J. Patrick Coolican
Sun archives
Dwight Jones, the superintendent of the Clark County School District since last fall, will introduce a hard-charging plan this week to improve the education of Las Vegas’ 300,000 students.
A district official briefed me on what to look for. I sense that in a community that has suffered a series of setbacks in recent years, Jones is soon to become a galvanizing figure whom we can rally around.
What Jones will present isn’t surprising because he had success in Colorado and is bringing his reform philosophy and methods to Las Vegas. The foundation is what’s known as the “growth model.”
The growth model focuses on measuring student progress — hence “growth” — rather than mere standardized test scores.
We tend to judge schools based on their scores, but in isolation. Good schools. Bad schools. We think we know what part of town they’re in.
But this masks the reality: There are schools where students start from nothing and make tremendous progress, indicating an outstanding teacher.
Then there are schools in well-heeled neighborhoods where students start at a relatively high level but don’t show much improvement, revealing mediocre teachers.
The key is measuring student progress over time, which will shine a light on the best teachers.
This matters because many education experts have come to believe that teacher quality is the most important factor in education outcomes — one Stanford economist has shown that the best instructors teach three times the amount of academic material as the worst. Another way of putting it: A quality instructor teaches a year and a half of material, while the worst of the bunch only teach a half a year.
This seems intuitively true — we all remember those teachers who had control of their classrooms and pushed and inspired, and those who didn’t.
“Where are the pockets of excellence? We’ll have data in six months. That will draw healthy scrutiny to the system,” my source says. Teachers will be evaluated on four levels of competency, pegged to the progress made or not made by students. Schools will be similarly judged.
From there, Jones will look to nourish what’s working. A program they call “wikitools” will encourage the best teachers to showcase their techniques to other teachers and then be paid “royalties” for doing so.
(Key unresolved questions: Will union contracts allow for innovation? Will the district succeed in getting the Legislature to enact reforms if statutory changes are required?)
Dwight Jones
At the same time, the district will provide assistance to the underperforming, but make changes when necessary. “If we can’t get achievement, we turn the keys over to someone else.”
Finally, Jones wants to know where the district is getting the most bang for its buck — a smart move in these troubled budget times — as well as ways to use technology as a cost-effective way to mitigate the burden of big classes. They’re looking at New York City’s School of One, for instance, which uses sophisticated software to create individualized lesson plans while also measuring each student’s daily progress.
Jones has publicly expressed frustration at the opacity of the district’s financial condition, and a top-to-bottom review is coming. “We want to build credibility throughout the community,” the official says on this point.
Expect bureaucratic streamlining.
Jones is getting solid early reviews, which may have helped to get the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce to call for a tax increase conditioned on certain reforms.
Steve Hill, former chairman of the chamber, says, “He’s gotten off to a great start, and the direction he’s going makes a lot of sense.”
Oh, one more thing: On the subject of budget cuts, Jones recently told the Sun, “I’ve made it pretty clear what is being proposed right now is just too devastating for the School District.”
Give the man what he needs.
When kids SEE their progress as evidenced by higher scores, that is one good thing. But when they FEEL the fire growing inside them and LEARN TO TRUST that growing voice, something fantastic occurs within a human soul. Teachers call it self-worth. Emerson called it self-reliance. Psychologists term it self-esteem. But kids know what it means.
It means they can HANDLE stuff. They can think their own way through stuff and trust the outcome. For the effort in trying new stuff, they receive an internal reward of having tried and maybe stumbled, maybe fallen on their faces, maybe sat crying and panting and moaning, but there is a little voice that says "I can do better. I can chunk it out, and bit by bloody bit, I'll get that thing until it's perfect."
Jones and Michael Jordan and some kids know what it's like to put out some effort and find some reward.
You get one more believer in success and the way forward every time you challenge enough to find out what's inside a human being.
Thanks for the insight and the opportunity to see what we are made of. This gratitudinal message goes out to challengers, pushers, steep slopes, rising tides and immense difficulties. You make us who we could become.
Please stop making this situation what it is NOT. It is simple to know what makes a good school district. Quit protecting all the bad situations: bad teachers, special needs kids need to be in a learning environment, trouble makers need to be in detention or home with ankle bracelets..we call it teaching not sitting. There are good performing school districts in this nation, look at them, implement their models and quit making excuses.
The public school system is beyond repair and should be scrapped and replaced by charter schools & vouchers. Parents should make the determination as to which school is best suited to educate their children, not nameless, faceless, unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats. Parents should also be charged with the task of seeing to it their children get to school, not the public at large. Bussing should also be eliminated and that would free up millions of dollars now being used to subsidize indolent or indifferent parents.
I have heard Super Jones speak 3 times since the start of the year and he did not once say "what is being proposed is devastating".
If the Super is frustrated with the opacity of the districts financial condition, the public feels stonewalled with it. Why would the public want to put any more money into a black hole where there are no answers to simple questions and no accountability?
One area where a lot of money goes without transparent accounting is in building and maintenance. I keep hearing this department head has been around for a very long time and has more power than the Super or the school board. I think his name is PAUL.
Hey, FINK...
You cannot be for real... can ya?
Looking forward to hearing the Super's plans...
He's a bright guy, and deserves a SINCERE LISTEN..
CHANGE can be a great thing, as long as long as it's not change for change's sake.
Here we have a Man With A Plan...
looking for "investors".
Good luck with that, Mr. Jones!
The union will fight any real change he has. Its the sole function of a public union to get in the way. They have already said not to common sense reforms and proven they don't care about the education of the kids. U watch it will be the same story.
Jones needs to supervise a private school. He's way too bright for the public school system.
Although I want to give Dr. Jones a chance to make substantial reforms, I have a suspicion that mwh710 is dead on. Gaming and mining hold all the cards in NV. I read the super's letter; he said 2500-3500 positions, not just teachers, may be cut. I highly doubt many administrators will be cut. They have a much more effective union. If CCSD would start by offering retirement incentives to all 25+ year administrators and replacing only those critically needed, it would be a good start.
IMO: student achievement and behavior would improve dramatically if parents were more involved. A teacher told me yesterday that she is more involved in most of her students' lives than their parents. Very sad. Parents, are you listening?
Notice the few comments on this article. People are just tired of the failure of the school district to educate and the district's desire to get more money to fail in a greater way. Kids don't care and teachers burn out after a few years because the administration will not discipline. No more money for failure.CCSD is dead in the water. Sink the ship and start over.
As a twelve-year teacher in CCSD, I have absolutely no problem being evaluated on student growth as long as it is done fairly. Test them upon entering my class and then again towards the end of the year and I'm confident that the vast majority of my students will show tremendous growth. As mentioned in this article, CRT test scores cannot show growth and should not be used in the evaluation process. Also, habitual discipline and truancy problems need to be dealt with by a school's admin. in order to make this a fair evaluation tool.
We taxpayers have given and given and given. And we've received less and less and less. TIME TO START OVER. Go back to the 1960's, 35 in each classroom, teachers take attendance when students are otherwise busy (read, no class room help), no teacher aides, no reading specialists.... GET BACK TO BASICS.
Evaluation of teachers is only one part of the solution. Don't blame the teachers for the child who does not value education, rarely does homework (if they are lucky enough to have a book to take home) and frequently misses school.
Regardless of salary (the lowest paid teachers with a family of four, will again qualify for public assistance), every teacher wants to see a student succeed. Students will continue to play the game to the point where teachers are forced to "teach to the test" to demonstrate success.
Stop social promotion, hold both students and parents accountable. Remove disruptive and disinterested students from the classroom. Make each student responsible for achievement at each grade level, the teacher is the tool. It is time that education regains value.
Kids and parents not interested in school are NOTHING NEW. Teachers dealt with this throughout history. Excuse after excuse why CCSD cannot TEACH OUR CHILDREN TO READ AND WRITE. We need GRADUATES, like Europe, at half the cost we pay.