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Three-quarters of the way into his 100-day “Entry and Learning Plan,” Santa Fe schools Superintendent Joel Boyd gave what he called a snapshot of the strategies being used to guide school reform to the school board Tuesday night.
“We’ve been unveiling strategies as quickly as we felt ready for them to be unveiled,” Boyd, who came on board as the schools’ chief on Aug. 1, said prior to the meeting. “We’re not presenting them until they are ready and have been thoroughly vetted.”
Reorganization of the central office, introduction of a parent academy and performance compacts used to evaluate employee performance are three strategies Boyd has already made public.
Tuesday’s presentation was titled “Creating a System of World-Class Schools” and focused on a “theory of action” Boyd said is designed to take the school system to the next level. In essence, the theory is that if the district improves the quality of teaching and learning at every school, heightens expectations for teachers and students and increases family and community involvement, then classroom experiences will become more rigorous and relevant, and students will be better prepared for college or to join the workforce when they graduate.
Boyd used Standards-Based Assessment scores to illustrate the need for reform. Bar graphs show little improvement in reading and math scores over the past four years. “At our current rate, it’ll take 156 years to get to the point where all our students are proficient,” he said.
Boyd said proficiency should not be the standard for measuring student progress and success. Instead, college readiness – having skills necessary to succeed in college without remedial courses – becomes the new standard.
Seven keys for tracking the trajectory toward college readiness are defined under the plan, starting with keeping kindergarten through second-grade students at the “low-risk” level on the DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) scale. SBA scores in reading and math and algebra track student progress through elementary and middle school, and college placement scores measure readiness prior to graduation.
As was discussed after the presentation, these keys are subject to modification to create a better model.
To get students on track for college, Boyd said a foundation for improving the quality of teaching and learning must be set at each school. Boyd’s plan calls for the district to redefine the role of the central office to maximize support at each school. Schools are placed in one of three zones – transformation, acceleration and innovation – to set them on course for improvement.
“The goal is to have schools correctly identified as to which phase of improvement the school lies,” Boyd said. “Aligning schools along these three zones creates a demand and allows us to make sure resources are available to them when they need them. In the long term, central office becomes a service provider.”
Schools are assigned to the zones based on student achievement, relative growth and other factors. “Within each zone there are certain levels of autonomy, and these can change as we see them move up a level of achievement,” Boyd said. “It’s aligning services provided by central office to the needs of the school.”
Boyd said increasing family and community engagement is a key part of school reform. Engaging parents as learners through the parent academy is part of a two-pronged approach. The other is expanding options for families through secondary school reform. A plan for that won’t be ready to be rolled out until December.
In the meantime, a series of meetings for committees made up of internal and external educational partners and community feedback sessions will be held.
“In order for reform to work, it has to be community-based,” he said.
Board member Glenn Wikle said he liked the concept but felt that criteria should be broadened to include oral and writing skills. Boyd agreed, saying including such data would make for a better model.
Board President Frank Montaño commented on the terminology chosen to label the achievement zones. “I like the fact that Superintendent Boyd and his team have figured out a way to assess how schools are performing that isn’t offensive. A to F is offensive,” he said, referring to the Public Education Department’s accountability grades.
