September 1, 2007 9:32 am

Norwalk: Bring In the Clowns Consultants

I’m not sure what to make of the Cambridge Group coming in to evaluate the schools. Today we read the pontificating, in circles of course from Corda:

Cambridge Education previously assisted the city in developing its District Improvement Plan several years ago.

The district is required to participate in such a quality review by a recent amendment to the state Act Implementing the Provisions of the Budget Concerning Education. The amendment, which became effective July 1, “require(s) an operations audit to identify possible programmatic savings and an instructional audit to identify any deficits in curriculum and instruction or in the learning environment of the school or district.”

The review is paid for with Education Cost Sharing grant funds from the state.

Superintendent of Schools Salvatore Corda said on Friday that the district received approximately $962,000 in additional ECS funding in June. Under the amendment, 20 percent of these funds must be set aside for a review by Cambridge Education for any district in need of improvement. Corda said he did not know if the full 20 percent would be required to fund the review, but noted, “It’s going to be a good chunk of it.”

On the first day of school, Corda distributed to all Norwalk public schools staff and members of the Board of Education a letter detailing the review process.

“We are committed to the continuous improvement of our schools and school district in meeting our goal of ensuring that every student will perform at high levels,” he wrote. “Toward that end, each of our schools annually completes a School Growth Plan. In addition, the district has developed a District Improvement Plan to ensure that school and central office efforts are aligned across the district.”

Corda added, “While we continue to improve, the pace has not been fast enough to meet the standards imposed by the No Child Left Behind legislation.

“Our concern continues to be focused on particular groups of students: African-American, English Language Learners, Special Education students, and those who are from limited economic means,” he wrote.

Ah, so we see the Corda way many words, more studies and introspection, no action. Yep, let’s have another review of the plan since that has worked out so well.
source: The Hour, Outside panel to review schools, by Lauren Garrison, September 1, 2007

Aunt Bertha

NCLB is what is not working out well for our very diverse community. The high schools have been through National Board Ceritfication with NEAASC and have gone through visitations making the paper work up to their eyeballs. Why doesn’t Corda get into the buildings and tell us what is wrong? Other Superintendants do…Raplh used to let us know what to improve. Why? Because he talked to us and knew first hand because he was in the schools that were having trouble. With all the new admin and admin assissts down town you would think that Corda would be freed up to get down to really seeing what is out there. But why do that when you can pay someone else to do it? Seems to be the way to do business lately around here. Sorry, I have said too much.
anonymous

great headline.

Aunt Bertha, thanks for bringing up Ralph. I thought he was very effective and I’ve been wondering what others felt about his performance as superintendent.
Silence Dogood

Ralph knew the schools, their strengths and their needs. He knew the people and he was there to celebrate the successes of our students. He is a man who, while in Norwalk, found joy in doing a very difficult job, and he did it with far less central office administrative support than the current administation has. He has what I like to call “quiet wisdom.” He is very intelligent but I never knew him to consider himself more intelligent than others. He valued the input of teachers and administrators alike, very much unlike the current administration.

With all of the out of district meetings and conferences Dr. Corda and Dr. Lang attend, shouldn’t THEY have been able by now to provide leadership and support to the teachers and administrators? Shouldn’t THEY be expert enough?
anonymousdem

Let’s review why these tests are here in the first place. George Bush created the NCLB act to pad his brother’s educatuonal software business. All the testing didn’t work in Texas and it’s not working in Connecticut.
disgustednorwalker

#4 – You are so right.
tired of politics

Ralph Sloan was run out of town by Jeff K. , Peter N. and the republican party ten years ago. It is too bad because Ralph was one of the best leaders that our school system has ever seen, and it has been all down hill since. He knew his business, surrounded himself with good honest people, and was highly regarded in the region and throughout the state. But he was no longer good enough, so they hired Herbert, Riccio, LoBocco, and company. WOW!! What a success story that was….good job Jeffrey and Peter. If anyone thinks the current leaders are bad, just go back in time to these clowns. Were talking laugh out loud and cry bad here!! And now the Republicans are blasting the democrats over the current mess????
Aunt Bertha

#6. Some of your observation is true but some is a little sketchy. Here is my reasoning on it. Ralph wanted to switch seven elementary principals around. This was back in the day of NO vice principal positions. Parents and teachers who wanted to keep their successful principals were enraged by the aspect of the switch and the problem with it happening to only a handful of the elementary schools. It was like punishing you for doing well, your scores are up so now your school can afford this crazy principal while your hard working principal can go to the other school and clean up the mess of the crazy one. Norwalk has to learn to fire those who do not produce. That’s all. Ralph made a bad call, and then he was not backed by the BoE. It was ashame. But I would not put all the blame on Jeff or Peter.
Charles the Hammer

Aunt Bertha’s got it right about Ralph’s demise in Norwalk, but “tired of politics” has a good point. Konspore and the Rascal Republicans went on a radical tear back then. Does anyone recall the Charter Revision? The ripple effect of that revision was to politicize the BOE far more. Herbert was given free rein to gut the structure of the district in the name of “restructuring”, but the result was just damage.

Now we’ve had a Democrat BOE for some time and the district still suffers. The new agony stems from unrealistic navel gazing and ivory tower detachment from the realities actually existing in the schools. There is a distinct lack of connection to the classroom and foolish squandering of resources. Recall that Ralph Sloan was constantly among students and teachers. He was acutely aware of conditions in the field. He knew teachers, parents, kids, and principals personally. He lived here.

The blame game by political partisans, evident in posts 4, 5, & 6 do little to address the serious dilemmas now faced in this district.

The hyperbole of blaming George Bush for NCLB is simplistic. When Congress passed the act in January of 2002, the Senate voted 87-10(including 43 Dems) and the House went 381-41(including 191 Dems). Those numbers do not reflect the will of a single man. NCLB has so many problems, I’m not even going to try and address them in this post.

Providing high quality, public education for everybody is a tall order, but one so worthy that sometimes even politics can submit to its value. We need to be about the important work before us.
Muckraker

Charles the Hammer is right on. It’s not about rebublicans or democrats. The problem is clearly an incompetant BOE and a central office which is detached from reality. One scary prospect to ponder is if the superintendant were to be dismissed, it would be the incompetant BOE who would be required to hire a replacement. As for No Child Left Behind, Ted Kennedy was a chief sponser and advocate.
Silence Dogood

“The amendment, which became effective July 1, ‘require(s) an operations audit to identify possible programmatic savings and an instructional audit to identify any deficits in curriculum and instruction or in the learning environment of the school or district.’”

Programmatic savings? How about the elimination of elementary assistant principals at the smallest schools, the elimination of the Executive Assistant to the Superintendent and the elimination of the jobs of any certified staff member who doesn’t at least visit the schools on a regular basis? I guess that would eliminate the superintendent’s job, the assistant superintendent. . ..
Aunt Bertha

Silence, you seem to have a great deal of common sense. Is there any chance you could become an administrator in the future? We seldom see those who can teach and communicate become Administration.
unhappy parent

Charles, Silence and Bertha, I’m in tears reading here about our schools. I’m frustrated dealing with my son’s school administrators. You all speak so passionately and eloquently about the problems facing us. I hope my son is lucky enough to have you as his teacher(s) and we are all lucky to have you here. Thank you for communicating in this way.
Silence Dogood

unhappy parent: Despite the behavior of King Corda, Queen Lang, the Duke of Opdahl, “Legislator Morris,” many of us still care deeply about our profession, and we resent those who show disrespect for parents, students and others.

Don’t forget that the teachers and administrators work for you and your son. Don’t let them off the hook.
anony

This Cambridge Group is coming into Norwalk at the behest of the State of Connecticut—not NCLB, Norwalk is one of ONLY 12 districts, out of 169 districts, in the state who has to do this, has to take 20% of its ECS funding to pay for this. Norwalk schools are in there with districts like Bridgeport, New Haven, yep those guys. Norwalk schools have failed, and failed for a long time, NCLB just broke out how badly we were failing and now the State has said ‘fix it.’ This isn’t about politics, it’s about failure.
Aunt Bertha

Unhappy Parent, Get into the school and help out. Talk to your child’s teachers and tell them what is going on, I can’t tell you how many times I go to bat for my students when they are in a jam. I call for both good things and kid needs you can do the same. Call when you love what a teacher is doing, when you hear you child saying some thing positive. There is a lot of good out there and a lot of good people doing it. I am old fashioned and want to work as hard as the persons I work for…so now I had to put a new spin on it -I work for the students and their parents in my class. Keep your chin up we are all in this together.
Silence Dogood

Aunt Bertha:

I strongly hold to the belief that you stated: “I work for the students and their parents in my class.”

I have always cared what the students and parents think about me. Even students who don’t especially like school usually respect a teacher who likes what he/she is doing, who treats students with respect, who treats parents as he/she expects to be treated by his/her children’s teachers and administrators, who is fair, who at least listens (even when he/she doesn’t agree with the student or parent), who is hardworking.

I call that integrity.