It’s tempting to think that the pending shakeup at East High School is just the State Education Department doing its job: pushing for greater accountability. But the situation at East mirrors the serious problems permeating much of the Rochester school district. And a plan for improving the district as a whole instead of just focusing on individual schools seems more imperative than ever.
The SED has given school officials roughly a month to come up with a plan to fix the chronically under-performing high school. The district’s options are: convert East to a charter school; hand it over to the State University of New York; partner with an outside organization, possibly a university; close the school and relocate the students; and close the school and open an entirely new school on the site.
At a press conference earlier this week, Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas said that all options have to be considered, but that he doesn’t want to close East High. And he has been critical of another SED option for improving failing schools, the phase-out, phase-in model.
Vargas said the school’s crisis was predictable. There’s no way that East’s graduation rate could hit even 50 percent, he said, when only 80 percent of its students attend on any given day.
It’s hard not to empathize with East High Principal Anibal Soler. At the press conference, Soler said he knew improving East was going to be a heavy lift when he took the job. And his professional evaluation has been adversely impacted by the problems at the school, he said. It’s quite a reversal of fortune; not long ago, Soler was considered one of the district’s rising stars.
It won’t be surprising if district officials opt for a plan that involves partnering East with another organization, such as a university. Vargas has already indicated that he wants area colleges to take over the management of some city schools.
But before a plan can be submitted to the SED, district officials, school board members, parents, teachers, and community leaders must agree on the approach. Given the district’s history, it’s hard to be optimistic about that. But we may know what to expect if they can’t work together in this case. A mix of politics, special interests, warring factions, and personal agendas led the SED to take extreme measures in the case of two of Buffalo’s schools. The SED moved management of those schools to an outside entity.
Vargas said he’s unaware of any other schools the SED is targeting for reform. But considering that many of the district’s schools are priority schools – those the state says need dramatic improvement – don’t be shocked if the state demands changes at more city schools.
The big question regarding East is what, realistically, can the district do? It’s difficult to find certifiable success stories from the district’s past attempts to fix broken schools. (This is the second time East has come on the SED’s radar.) How much more funding will go toward rearranging the desks? What have school officials learned after years of trying to improve East? No one seemed able to articulate that during the press conference earlier this week.
And if East’s students are so far behind before they even set foot in the door — based on graduation rates and test scores — we have to ask ourselves whether it’s even possible to resuscitate the school.
East’s problems reflect a much larger milieu of systemic issues. Recently, audits of the multimillion-dollar schools modernization project revealed cost overruns and delays, and a damning report about the efforts to improve Monroe High School surfaced. And the district’s struggles with attendance and student misbehavior continue. A teacher who asked to remain anonymous says that student misconduct in many of the district’s secondary classrooms borders on chronic mayhem. And she’s not alone in this observation.
Earlier this week, Vargas gave a presentation he called an action plan for improving student achievement. Though there was little new in it, much of what Vargas presented seemed pragmatic enough: improving attendance, getting all students to read proficiently by third grade, providing more instruction time, and providing students with some of the extracurricular activities more readily found in suburban schools.
Though strong on what needs to be done to positively impact student outcomes, the presentation was weak on how to get it done. There were few of even the most incremental timelines. And confusion continues about how to implement the Common Core curriculum.
Vargas said he has the budget and resources to improve the district, including schools such as East. He said it’s a matter of making the right choices and being clear about budget priorities. But it’s much more than that.
It’s abundantly clear that the district suffers from interminable management problems, and inability to successfully complete even the most basic tasks and policies. And now well into his term, Vargas is causing some people to worry that his plan, whatever it is, isn’t working.
This article appears in Mar 19-25, 2014.
Great analysis, Tim. Heartbreaking, but great.
My question is: with each of the options that NYSED has presented, does the RTA contract carryover? Throughout all the decades of reform churn, the RTA contract has been the constant. For all the rhetoric about the RTA supporting innovation, etc. the contract is notorious for it’s power to obstruct change–it’s very doubtful that outside partners (local or national) would willingly take it on without the power to make changes to it. As far as I can tell, only Commissioner Elliott has had the courage to talk about the need for concessions from the RTA.
Great essay. The presentation (action plan) from the superintendent the other night was a sales pitch for what he said months ago. Do we really need to be shown in print that reading by third grade is important? Why in the world is no one stating the obvious? East is too big. Best practices on urban schools has confirmed this for years.
East is just the beginning and unless the district takes drastic action internally, more RCSD schools will end up in trouble for many more years because years of research tells us simply changing management doesn’t work. It will take a whole new approach, a blank slate. It is pitiful that no one of influence is stepping up or stepping in.
The superintendent, school board, unions and others must give power back to those in the schools. It is the only internally solution offering any real hope.
Ms. Remis-
Can you elaborate on how RTA has obstructed change? What concessions do you envision?
Ms Remis,
I also wonder how the RTA contract has been “notorious for it’s (sic) power to obstruct change.” It seems to me that you apply the fallacy of logic that correlation implies causation. In fact, the RTA contract has not even been constant over the past decades. It is a “living contract” with built-in flexibility for schools to fit certain components to that building’s needs or programs.
More importantly to me are the questions of why we do not replicate those components of successful programs or schools that have a track record. I can outline three such components that were implemented at All City High (ACH) that could be replicated at East, but have not been (why I do not know).
Flexible schedule: from 7 am to 7pm allow students to construct a schedule that works for them. More of them will attend.
Employ at least 10 Social Workers and 10 School Counselors to problem solve the root causes of student difficulties in and with schools by engaging with families.
Family of 5 mentoring: Each member of the East High Community could “adopt” 5 students and be a caring stable adult for those kids in their family. Note that at ACH we often had “families of 6, 7 or 8.”
None of these initiatives are outside of the contract or couldn’t be worked out in a memorandum of agreement (MOU) as was done in the case of ACH.
Hello-
Ms. Remis?
How about making parents more accountable for their children’s education? I would love to know the percentage of parents in the city who actually help with their children’s homework and actually read to them at night. The lack of parent involvement in the RCSD is laughable. The only time parents actually show up to my school is if there is free food. I find it absolutely appalling that the state is giving the RCSD one month to find a way to successfully restructure East High School. Please show me a school that is state run that has actually been successful.
What about giving the school financial resources to provide adequate, updated materials needed for students? I graduated from East in ’97. I had to get into honors classes to get teachers who wanted to teach and students who wanted to learn. I had classes with not enough desks, dilapidated class materials, outdated computers. Every time I read about state funding it always goes to suburban schools. If more money was allocated to the schools directly and not to the RCSD administration, I think more can be accomplished.
Consider the schools physical appearance. It looks like a prison. It looks like a place the city and neighborhood expect students to end up. The city provides unattractive environments of course you will create low student morale and decrease incentive to learn.
Also, many students in the city only know a life of instant gratification. Many students do not know what it means to work for a reward and the school offers few incentives to work towards a longer, rewarding education. There needs to be more encouragenent about where an education will lead students and how it will improve their life. The few teachers who try work effortlessly to convince students there is a better life outside of Rochester or even the ghetto.
Another fact, students are told to not go into local businesses during school hours because a few bad apples have ruined the schools reputation for all. Right away they are being told no one wants them around, they are treated as worthless people so why should the students come to school?
Instead of giving up on the school give it financial resources for updated, technologically current tools, incentives and reasons to achieve higher education, a physically attractive place to learn and just maybe student attendance will increase and teacher morale will improve.
I graduated from east in 05 and its true it was hard… but I had parents that cared and were there for me… maybe rcsd should make more parents accountable for there child’s education.My youngest sister is currently at east and she is supposed to graduate next year and my sister is a honor students someone explain what is going to happen with the students like my little sister? The problem here isn’t the school its the students that don’t want to go to school and put the effort kiss like my lil sister does people think about it.. you shift these kids that don’t want to go to school to other school then those school are going to end up like east
Mark & MichaelO- My point was that outside partners have not been knocking down the door to work with RCSD. Isn’t it time we asked why?
While I can appreciate why teachers like the concept of the Living Contract, the other side of the story is that provision is responsible for an ever-expanding scope of bargaining in Rochester. LC is not just in play at the school level, it’s also at the district level and results in an almost 24/7/365 state of bargaining. The results of which are not part of the contract proper, but a mountain of MOUs the public never sees.
Ms Remis, the MOUs are what make things flexible based on school need. I cannot speak to whether teachers like the LC or not. I can say that your original post intimated that the contract was the impediment to change. Now in your response to Mark and me, you acknowledge that it has been the catalyst of MOUs. All of which are public documents. FOIL them if you like!
What concessions do you advocate for? Can you please name them? How would those concessions make partners more willing to step up? Please create a logical trail for readers to follow instead of generalizations. We need ideas, what are yours?
What other reasons can one imagine for partners not stepping up?
MichaelO- Andy Rotherham’s book, Collective Bargaining in Education Negotiating Change in Today’s Schools might be a good resource for you. Available at http://hepg.org/hep/Book/5
Ms. Remis-
I’m still waiting for an answer to how the RTA contract “is notorious for it’s power to obstruct change”. Posting a link does not answer my question. It’s very easy for some to throw out phrases that fail under scrutiny. Nor does saying, the Living Contract “results in an almost 24/7/365 state of bargaining” prove anything. Where is your proof? It appears to me and others that the Living Contract means that the parties can negotiate changes to the contract. If anything, it creates a flexibility not seen in a contract that cannot be amended nor changed until formal negotiations begin. And you’re assuming (you know what happens when you assume) that the RTA teachers always get what they want. If we did we’d have smaller class sizes and more changes that would help students achieve. I only wish you’d been more thoughtful and been more forthcoming with some answers to our questions. And please, no links, I could bury you in links but it seems so impersonal and lazy.
Ms. Remis-
One more thing….I did some digging into the link and book you suggested. I happened to notice that the book could not have been written without the backing of The Broad Foundation. The Broad Foundation that produced such RCSD luminaries as Jean Claude Brizard. Oh my. Not only are they guilty of that but Eli Broad and his ilk are virulently anti-union especially teachers’ unions. So, recommending that book as a “good resource” is like suggesting you read watch Leni Reifenstahl movies to learn about how compassionate the Nazi Third Reich was to its citizens. A great resource!
Easy there Mark, you can’t bully anyone into talking to you.
I think the point about the contract is an interesting one, especially since it riled up a couple of you so much! A few years back, parents had a rep at the collective bargaining table. Urbanski HATED it and Rivera got rid of it, but the board should really think about reinstating it. The problem is not that the union has too much power, it’s that the people have too little.
And Macaluso should FOIL those MOUs. Frankly, City should be making all the different accountability plans associated with East and all the priority schools available to the public.
Put the public back in public education! Lift the veil.
Thanks for your advice GeorgeOconnor. I’m a big boy and know what to do. I’m sick of folks making statements with no proof or information. Parents should not be part of the negotiation team. I am not sure Urbanski HATED it. Did Adam say that? Weird you would know that. And I agree with you that parents and the people don’t have enough power. The negotiating teams should be the RCSD and the RTA. Just as BENTE should not have parents negotiating their contract neither should RTA.
I’m probably stepping into a hornet’s nest here, but what the heck…
Go back to neighborhood schools. Lose the fancy names (e.g. “Rochester Early College International High School”… can’t we just call it “Wilson”?). It sounds simplistic, and admittedly I’m far from an education expert, but the so-called “experts” are and have been failing for a very long time. Get back to basics. Kids need a solid foundation (i.e. the ability to read & write) before we can expect anything else of them.
I just noticed that the example I gave is not actually Wilson HS (which unintentionally proves my point!)… All of these ridiculous names to keep track of. Even “Wilson High School” is not “Wilson High School”… no, instead it’s the “Joseph C. Wilson Commencement Academy” – whatever that means.
George and Mark: your discussion includes important information that’s well worth posting. But it’s becoming a personal squabble. That’s not the purpose of our comments section. Please address issues, not personalities, and take your personal discussion offline. Thanks.
George-Love that idea of a newspaper creating a repository of all the accountability plans. Sunshine is the best disinfectant, right? (I think you first mentioned it at a CAFEE meeting many moons ago?) It could be a great way to build community engagement in the school improvement process, informed engagement. Each school and turnaround effort is required to create several plans that describe the “how” and set goals. Theoretically, the public has a seat at those tables. Theoretically. There’s lots of information to glean from the plans, if you know they exist. City or the D&C could really help elevate the conversation by making it easier to access those documents.