One school, one district
Risley in Pueblo and Adams 14
It is wrong to get tough on our
lowest-performing districts and schools. Provide support. Be patient.
So we tell ourselves. Patience is one of Aristotle’s virtues. And yet
his definition—part of his famous articulation of the Golden Mean—is
instructive: “the good-tempered man tends to be unperturbed and not to be led
by passion, but to be angry in the manner, at the things, and for the length of
time, that the rule dictates…. For those who are not angry at the things they should
be angry at are thought to be fools.” (Nicomachean
Ethics: Book 4: “The virtue concerned with anger”).
Where we see dismal results every
year, is it wrong to feel fed up? To demand a change?
We often state it this way: In a “local control state,” we feel obligated
to expect (to hope) the school district can figure this out; we cannot have the
State Board of Education or the Colorado Department of Education decide, “Time
is up.” But this stance is not working. Consider the 130 students “graduating”
from 8th grade at a Pueblo middle school in a few weeks, where achievement
and growth scores tell us they are now even further behind than they were in 6th
grade.[i]
Have we done our best by these boys and girls? Of course not.
Risley Middle School – Pueblo City Schools
I visited James H. Risley Middle
School in Pueblo in the late 1990’s, following up on a GOALS 2000 grant to the
school from the Colorado Department of Education (CDE). Risley was not performing
well, and as I recall, I was there to meet with the principal and bring back a
report to CDE on the school’s progress.
Last month (twenty years after
that visit) the State Board approved of having MGT Consulting take over the
management of Risley. Numerous district efforts, endless state involvement, $2.1
million from the federal government – and it had finally come to this. So much
failure. Aren’t we embarrassed?
James
H. Risley Middle School (renamed Risley International Academy of Innovation in
2013-14)
Colorado’s School
Performance Rating[ii]
– and % points earned for last three years
4 categories - High to Low: Performance, Improvement, Priority Improvement (PI), and Turnaround (TR).
Year on
Accountability Clock
2010
|
2011
|
2012
|
2013
|
2014
|
2016
|
% pts
|
2017
|
% pts
|
2018
|
% pts
|
TR
|
TR
|
TR
|
PI
|
TR
|
TR
|
32.5%
|
TR
|
25%
|
TR
|
31.4%
|
Year 1
|
Year 2
|
Year 3
|
Year 4
|
Year 5
|
Year 6
|
Year 7
|
Year 8
|
State and district officials will
insist they were neither too forgiving nor too passive. Look at how we kept trying. (Note that GOALS 2000 grant from two
decades ago.) We knew for years Risley
needed support. Jump ahead to 2010. The federal School Improvement Grant promised
nearly $40 million to Colorado to support dramatic change at 18 of our
lowest-performing schools over three years. We awarded Pueblo City Schools the
second largest portion of that grant (after Denver): $12.9 million. Risley and
three other Pueblo middle schools were each set to receive over $2
million in support for the next three years.
But within two years reports by The Denver Post, A Plus Colorado, and Another View pointed out the lack of
improvement with the SIG funds. Red flags were raised annually. (See Addendum A.) A Denver Post headline
read: “Federal
grants don’t equal academic progress in low-performing Pueblo schools” (Feb.
20, 2012).[iii]
Pueblo misspent a good portion of
its $12.9 million years on the Global Partnership Schools (GPS) as its
“turnaround provider.” The district and GPS ended the contract after two years.
After seeing little progress CDE withdrew year 3 SIG funds for two of Pueblo’s schools.
Risley, however, received its full $2.1 million.
“…Our students cannot wait for gradual
change. Our students need access to a high quality education as quickly as
possible.” From Risley’s Innovation School Application to CDE[iv]
(April 26, 2013).
|
The district staggered ahead. In 2012 the Pueblo school board “approved the
middle school realignment proposal, allowing each middle school to reinvent
itself and develop a unique educational focus to facilitate improved
achievement.”[v]
Good intentions, but another blunder. In a school where most students were performing
below grade level, it adopted the highly demanding International
Baccalaureate curriculum. (So much for “meet students where they are.”) It also
acquired an impressive new name: the Risley International Academy of
Innovation.
More
foolishness soon followed. Pueblo City Schools (PCS) sought innovation
status for several of its lowest-performing schools, including Risley. (Based
on no evidence that it was an effective turnaround strategy, as I showed in Another View #159.) Still, the State
Board approved of the plan in May 2013. The result? Risley’s SPF dropped to Turnaround the next year, where it has stayed ever since. (Addendum B–More Red Flags.)
No doubt much more was taking
place that I have missed and failed to mention. An honest effort by many, I am sure.
Perhaps more stern warnings from the state than I would know about. Perhaps,
too, a rising frustration from CDE staff, as they witnessed a string of poor
choices and felt powerless to challenge them.
Finally, time was up. Last November the State
Board ordered PCS to bring in external managers for Risley and another
chronically low-performing school, Heroes K-8. In April Pueblo presented its
choice to the State Board. I have listened twice to that hearing. The district
displayed no shame. Not a word about its
own failure to raise achievement Risley since 2010. “We’re pleased to be here,”
now Superintendent Charlotte
Macaluso began. (Note: Macaluso had been
Risley’s principal, 2010-2016.[vi])
Upbeat talk about of Risley’s new manager: MGT Consulting. Familiar
promises (see Adams 14, 2017[vii])
about achieving Performance rating by
Fall, 2022.[viii]
My question: How does such a
school district even get to pick its partner? In such cases, is it likely to sign
on with any group that will do exactly what is needed—challenge and upset the
status quo?
Our failure since 2010 with Risley is
nothing compared to the consequences for Adams 14
Which brings us to the present, and
the State Board’s dilemma over what to do about the Adams 14 School District.
Two basic similarities with the story above: 8 years of woeful performance, and now a school board—whose recent
discord with its neighbor, the Mapleton School District, was so revealing—believes
it has the right to choose who it wishes
to accept as a managing partner. However, ONE HUGE DIFFERENCE, which must
give the State Board pause. We are now talking about a far greater charge: transforming
not just one school with 340 students, but an entire district—with over 7,000
students.
Adams
14 School District
Colorado’s
School Performance Rating[ix]
– and % points earned for last three years
5
categories – Accredited with Distinction; Accredited; Accredited with
Improvement Plan;
Accredited
with Priority Improvement Plan (PI);
Accredited with Turnaround Plan (TR).
Year
on Accountability Clock
2010
|
2011
|
2012
|
2013
|
2014
|
2016
|
% pts
|
2017
|
% pts
|
2018
|
% pts
|
TR
|
TR
|
TR
|
PI
|
PI
|
TR
|
32.5%
|
PI
|
37.6%
|
PI
|
36.8%
|
Year 1
|
Year 2
|
Year 3
|
Year 4
|
Year 5
|
Year 6
|
Year 7
|
Year 8
|
I leave it to others to provide an
account of Adams 14’s missteps over these years—similar to the one given here about
Risley. The State Board might recall, in May of 2017, then superintendent Dr. Jose Abrego presented the district’s choice
for an outside management partner, with this promise: "Give us one year
to implement this Beyond Textbooks, and in one year we will see results."[x]
And then, last fall—when the State Board stripped the district of control last
fall, without any apparent shame, Abrego managed to say: “We’re very pleased
with the decision of the State Board for honoring our request to contract with
an external management organization.”[xi]
There is
nothing to be pleased about here. A decade of failure. We would be fools not
to be angry about this.
Addendum A - Reports
on School Improvement Grant in Colorado – 2010 – 2014
Report by
|
Date
|
Title – web site
|
Another
View #81
|
Aug. 2011
|
“$37 million to Colorado for Turnaround Schools – How’s
That Going?
|
A
Plus Denver
|
Oct. 2011
|
“Background–Turning around
low-achieving schools in Colorado”
|
The Denver Post, Jennifer
Brown*
|
Feb. 19-21 - 2012
|
“Grades Out on
Consultants,” a three-part series
|
Another
View #86
|
Aug. 2012
|
“One last swing – before another $10
million is misspent? - The School Improvement Grant to DPS and Pueblo City
60”
|
Public
Impact*
|
Oct. 2012
|
“SCHOOL TURNAROUNDS IN COLORADO -
Untangling a Web of Supports for Struggling Schools (Donnell-Kay Foundation)
|
A
Plus Denver
|
Oct. 2012
|
“Colorado Turnaround Schools – Rays of
Hope”
|
Another
View #90
|
Oct. 2012
|
“On NOT TURNING AROUND SCHOOLS:
Too Quick to Celebrate, Too Eager to
Point Fingers, and Too Happy to Make Much Ado About All Too Little”
|
Another
View #92
|
Jan. 2013
|
“Regional economic development works. Why not a
regional recovery school district?”
|
Another
View –
follow-up
to #92
|
Sept. 2013
|
“Brief follow-up to AV#92, ‘Regional
economic development works. Why not a regional recovery school district?’”
|
A
Plus Denver*
|
Dec. 2013
|
“COLORADO’S TURNAROUND SCHOOLS
2010-2013: Make a Wish”
|
Another
View #111
|
March 2014
|
“OPENING DAY – GO ROCKIES! - Schools, Baseball, and
Turnarounds –
From Worst to First”
|
Another
View #121
|
Oct. 2014
|
“More federal dollars to Colorado for the School
Improvement Grant? After
$63 million, time to say: No thanks. We haven’t earned it.”
|
*Prophetic? Three excerpts.
2012
1) From “Federal grants don’t
equal academic progress in low-performing Pueblo schools,” (Feb. 20, 2012).
“Only in education would you take the worst school districts in the
state and give them a lot more money and tell them to fix it when they haven’t
been able to fix it in decades. Also, tell them to find somebody to help them
fix it so they have to manage a contract around these schools too.”
Van Schoales, chief executive of A Plus Denver
part 2 of series, “Grades Out on Consultants,” The Denver Post.
2) From “SCHOOL
TURNAROUNDS IN COLORADO - Untangling a Web of Supports for Struggling Schools”
(Donnell-Kay Foundation) – Oct. 2012. (All bold mine) http://publicimpact.com/images/stories/DonnellKayReport_feb2011.pdf
Supporting Rigorous Turnaround Strategies
Despite a
renewed focus and unprecedented resources dedicated to school turnarounds in
recent months, in many states nationwide education
leaders have tended to resist radical
change, even in schools where previous strategies have fallen flat. Indeed,
national surveys of states’ use of SIG funds show that very few districts have
strategically replaced leaders or a significant portion of schools’ staff, and
even fewer have used restart options such as chartering or contracting. As the data above show, a similar trend is
playing out in Colorado. (p. 19)
District capacity
In chronically failing organizations, the
changes required to turn performance around can be substantial…. For future
rounds of SIG applications, which may offer as much as $7.5 million in
additional grants to struggling schools, CDE leaders may adopt a more selective
approach, awarding funds only to those
districts that demonstrate the capacity and willingness to implement these new
structures. (p. 20)
2013
3) From “COLORADO’S TURNAROUND SCHOOLS
2010-2013: Make a Wish,” by A Plus Denver, Dec. 2013.
“Two years ago, A+ Denver sounded an alarm, claiming that
there had been little selectivity, transparency, accountability, or most importantly,
evidence that the oversight body was using past experience to inform its
award-making. … Now … we find that nearly a third of Cohort I, II, and III
schools are doing worse than they were pre-funding…. The lesson learned from this expensive effort is that we must go much
farther if we are to succeed in turning around failing schools where dozens of
past efforts have nosedived.”
Addendum B - More Red Flags for Risley
Innovation status leads to renaming, to
restructuring, and to – better results?
School
Performance Framework - for year prior to, and after, year one on Innovation
Pueblo 60
|
2012-13 -
Before
|
2013-14 -
After
|
Risley
Middle –
now
Risley International Academy of Innovation
|
PRIORITY IMPROVEMENT
– year 4 - 41.6% pts
|
TURNAROUND –
year 5 - 33% pts
|
August
2016 - The state released test results for 2015-16—including the results
for all three innovation schools. Pueblo’s
newly appointed superintendent, Charlotte Macaluso, had previously been named
head of the innovation zone—after leading Risley during its first few years on
innovation. According to Chalkbeat Colorado:
The most recent testing data for Risley
paints a dire picture. Only 60 of the roughly 350 students at the
school met or exceeded the state’s expectations on the inaugural PARCC
English exam in 2015. Only 26 students met the state’s benchmarks on the math
test the same year.
From
AV #167- Even LESS evidence now to grant
innovation status to low-performing schools (9/6/2017)
Three turnaround
schools on the right track in Pueblo?
GROWTH
Not one of
Pueblo’s first three innovation schools demonstrated growth of even 40% on
either subject.
Chalkbeat’s data base for 2017 Growth
Scores includes this explanation: “Student growth measures how much groups of
students learn during a year compared to students who scored similarly to them
on previous state tests. The state’s average is also 50, which represents about
a year’s worth of learning.”
School
|
ELA
|
MATH
|
Roncalli STEM Academy
|
37
|
30
|
Pueblo Academy of the Arts
|
34
|
31
|
Risley International Academy
|
33
|
29.5
|
ACHIEVEMENT
Risley International Academy
ELA – % meeting
expectations
Grade
|
2015
|
2016
|
2017
|
|
COMMENT
|
6
|
15.2
|
7
|
13.2
|
|
2017 lower than 2015
|
7
|
31.2
|
18.9
|
9.7
|
Declined 21.5 % pts since 2015
|
|
8
|
10.1
|
14.8
|
15.5
|
|
|
MATH – % meeting
expectations
Grade
|
2015
|
2016
|
2017
|
|
COMMENT
|
6
|
15.6
|
4.3
|
7.0
|
|
2016 & 2017 – less than 9% meet
expectations in all grades
|
7
|
8.3
|
8.8
|
NA*
|
|
|
8
|
7.9
|
6.3
|
6.4
|
|
*NA – fewer than 16 students
ENDNOTES
[i] Risley, International Academy of Innovation
- School Performance Framework
Academic Achievement
|
% pts earned
|
Rating
|
Academic Growth
|
% pts earned
|
Rating
|
2017
|
25%
|
Does Not Meet
|
25%
|
Does Not Meet
|
|
2018
|
25%
|
Does Not Meet
|
35.7%
|
Does Not Meet
|
[v]
Innovation School Application to the Colorado Department of Education - http://www.cde.state.co.us/choice/pittsinnovationplan.
[vi] “Pueblo City Schools’ interim leader failed to boost test scores at
struggling middle school,” Chalkbeat Colorado, Nic Garcia, Aug. 24, 2016
“A
longtime Pueblo City Schools educator who was unsuccessful in boosting
test scores at one of the city’s most troubled middle schools will lead the
academically struggling district through the 2016-17 school year.
"An
educator for 24 years, Macaluso ran Risley, a middle school in one of Pueblo’s
poorest neighborhoods, for the last six. The school has been on the state’s
watch list for low academic achievement almost as long."
[vii] “The proposed partnership has the following specific
and actionable goals:
· By the end of 2018, all Adams 14 schools will attain
Improvement Status
· By the end of 2019, all Adams 14 schools will attain
a rating of Performance Status.
· By the end of 2020, the district will attain a rating
of Accredited with Distinction.”
From Letter to Dr. Angelika Schroeder, Chairwoman,
Colorado State Board of Education, April 26, 2017, from Adams 14’s Superintendent
Dr. Jose Abrego and Board President David Rolla, part of the presentation to
the Colorado State Board of Education, May 11, 2017.
[viii]
“Accountability Pathways Update Risley International and Heroes Academy,” Presentation
by Pueblo City Schools to the State Board of Education April 10, 2019.
[x] “Adams 14 School District asks for more
time on accountability clock - Lowest performing district hires outside manager," May 11, 2017. https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/adams-14-asks-for-more-time-on-accountability-clock
[xi] “Struggling
Adams 14 Becomes the First Colorado School District to Lose Control,” Colorado Public Radio, Jenny Brundin, Nov. 15, 2018. https://www.cpr.org/news/story/struggling-adams-14-becomes-the-first-colorado-school-district-to-lose-control
