Thursday, May 2, 2019

AV #194 - Embarrassing: Eight years on the Accountability Clock - Risley in Pueblo and Adams 14


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

From AV #159 - When “on the clock,” Innovation Status to the rescue! – On what basis? (3/21/2017)

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

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