March 9, 2010 8:17 am

Dr. Susan Marks Meets Norwalk

After a Sunday tour culminating in a dinner at Blackstone’s with everyone on the Board of Educatino except Migdalia Rivas, finalist in the secret competition for Norwalk’s next superintendent entered phase two with an introduction of Dr. Susan Marks to the public at City Hall Monday night. The evening began with a short, who-am-I presentation by Dr. Marks, and then settled into the familiar question and answer session from the public.

The public in this case, had former BOE members, Greg Burnett, Shirley Mosbey, Amy Jimnez, Rosa Murry and Bruce Kimmel in attendance along with the expected smattering of educators, administrators and PTO members.

Dr. Marks said some really interesting things. On of which was that she disagreed that the problem facing Norwalk schools is a lack of parental involvement. She said that the relationship to focus on is the one between the school and the student, and then revealed that she didn’t always attend her daughters school functions. If you believe that student performance is in fact the responsibility of the student, then Dr. Marks is stating the obvious. But there is a culture of excuses that permeates the school system, so change, might be a tad more difficult.

Dr. Susan Marks Meets Norwalk Residents from jackie lightfield on Vimeo.

Marks stressed multiple times the need for teacher training. She also stressed the funding for teacher training, a topic that cash strapped residents might not want to hear. Especially in Norwalk. The sum up of any discussion about school funding typically breaks down into the throw money at it versus cut money from it dialog. Investing in the programs to achieve desired outcomes is what everyone should be talking about. Dr. Marks was clear, fund teacher training and development and you train the people who are on the front lines to deal with the students who present the greatest challenges to getting educated. While she didn’t say it, it sure sounded like maximizing dollars into the classroom.

The almost entire video is here, the last answer cut cut off due to the end of battery life. If anyone wants to contribute to the purchase of a spare battery click donate above.

One last thought, Dr. Marks may be the best candidate to grace the application process since sliced bread. But we don’t know that because there’s a fundamental flaw in the process. The BOE has micromanaged this hire to a point where they haven’t presented to the public what they’re thinking or evaluating and we have no context by which to judge the candidates. And while the Q and A format was standard, it would have been nice if Dr. Marks could have addressed harder questions posed by people who could not be at the forum. As in a panel of representatives focusing on key areas of concern.

I sort of think even Dr. Marks, who mentioned Skype, as a communication tool, might have been a little concerned about the glaring lack of communication infrastructure that a BOE sponsored forum displayed. Live streaming web cast back to the schools? You can almost hear Migdalia Rivas mutter that she knows people who still communicate solely by carrier pigeon.

Missing the mark

The process leaves a whole lot to be desired, without doubt, board fell way short of the transparency and involvement that, honestly, many of us thought would occcur with all the heat. Nope. The process has not been open, transparent nor welcoming. Quid pro qo. There are a few thinking minds on the current board and perhaps it was too high a bar we set to envision those minds being able to bring common sense and vision to basically a board that consists of volunteers with alot of time on their hands and not much on the tube to watch.
Maybe thats the issue. Maybe we cant get good calls from the board because they donate their time and er, expertise. And what expertise do the people making theses calls have? Would we get a better selection of Board candidates
if we gave them some compensation? Its hard work and very time consuming, yet the folks that are in charge of being our guardian angels for our children when we send them off in the care and trust of strangers, get no compensation and take substantial flack. Some could say, “one would have to be stupid to do all that work, attend all those meetings and take all that flack, for, no benefit. And herin lies the issue. Dr. Marks is close, but can you see her at the inn chomping on a cigar downing shots and cutting deals for the kids. Thats real world here and now. Thats the way it works, right BOE?
Mr B.

I found it interesting that when asked what could be done to close the achievement gap, Dr Marks responded; “it is important to keep the student engaged” over the snoring of one attendee fast asleep.

Correct answer but left alot of room in the delivery of the message.

Getting and keeping students, teachers, administrators, parents and the community as a whole, engaged is spot on.

Can we get two (2) specific detailed suggestions on how Dr. Marks proposes to achieve engaging everyone.

concerned

The concern with her not being able to answer fully how to close the achievement gap, other than the obvious fact that it is an issue in Norwalk, is that it begs the question of does she have enough curriculum background. I believe her background was as a speech pathologist, which no offense to them because I have the utmost respect for what they do, but it does not usually involve classroom curriculum and closing achievement gaps. Is she capable of being the educational leader that Norwalk needs? It is a simple question and one that I’m not sure any board member thought to ask.

turfgrrl

concerned: I’m not convinced that the superintendent should be the “lead educator” in order to be successful. I think curriculum instruction and policy should come from teachers, not administrators and that overall objectives and resources should be the concern of the administrators, not day to day implementation. It seems that the past 30 year trend of inserting more authority on administrators has essentially yielded higher drop out rates, decreased literacy and a growing achievement gap.

Sick of excuses

“What could be done to close the achievement gap” is best answered by making the students’ parents accountable for the students’ success or failure in school. Make PTO attendance mandatory. Make parent/teacher meetings mandatory. Make the parents have a financial stake in the students’ performance (as in levied fines if the student does not achieve set goals, such as completing homework assignments in time, or special projects completed by date.) Only when the school system makes the PARENTS take some of the responsibility for their children’s success will you see this achievement gap begin to close.

NorwalkSpectator

Mandatory PTO? And you are going to enforce this how? Financial penalties for incompleted homework? If the parent don’t pay, are you going to have them arrested and tossed in jail?

Heck, the District still has over $5,000 of unpaid lunches to deal with, which had dropped significantly from over $70,000 in the last few years and even higher before. It’s taken a lot of work just to get that under control and you are advocating mandatory PTOs and financial penalties for incomplete assignments.

I can just hear it now…”Hey buddy, what are you in for?” “Uh, three incomplete math assignments.”

Or, in the middle of the night someone bangs on the door. “Psst, hey sis, open the door! Joey and I am on the run from the District. He lost his English homework and I can’t pay the fine. Can we sleep in the basement or garage tonight? We’ll be gone in the morning.”

Quite truthfully, there are parents out there that don’t care how well their child does in school. If the kid shows up for class, it’s a victory. If my child is doing well, would I, as an active involved parent, want a disrupter sitting next to my child, especially because troublemaker’s forced to be there? The other question is that if financial penalties are piling up, would I as the parent who wasn’t particularly interested in my kid’s education want to keep sending my kid to school?

Mother of 3

Hey there is no arguement that the success of the student, is, at the end of the day, the responsibilty of the parent, even if that parent should, himself or herself be attending school.

Advocating for your children is of equal if not greater importance than ensuring that assignmant is turned in on time.

Levy fines on the parents? Hmmmm.

Well, its thinking out of the box, even though it doesnt make much sense. But its a fair even though a really silly arguement that the parents have as much stake in the academic success of their child, as should also, the teacher be held to account of his/her students.

All together now.

DUUUUUHHH !!!

Did anyone attend Alex Johnstons presentation tonight?

What is everyone thoughts?

Feeling a bit disheartend by the challenges?

Or, are you feeling fired up, YET?
A sentient Norwalker

So, just so I get this straight, Dr. Susan Marks doesn’t subscribe to the out-there beliefs of Marva Collins (whose Chicago private school had to close when she alienated most of her parents and staff) and we want to be critical? Or, is it that Dr. Marks appreciated that ultimately, good education is one that imbues the student with a sense of responsiblity for his or her own education. Pardon me, but, don’t we want someone who is willing to tell our kids that they shouldn’t play the victim card and that they have the power to succeed?

As for transparency, I agree– totally sucks that the old board set themselves up as the screeners and lone interviewers. But, now, the folks screaming for TRANSPARENCY were all silent months ago (especially before the election). Who knows what was said and argued about behind closed doors– but we should not try to goad these folks into violating the ethics of confidentiality most applicants probably insisted upon. Right?

“Missing the mark” doesn’t offer what exactly it is she wants — seems she’d be happy with a good old boy who could down a scotch with central office admins. when they’re closed on a snow day to make a “deal” for our kids. Funny, but as a parent, I’d rather have someone who makes one deal for our kids with administrators and teachers– improve their learning or find another job. Marks, IMHO, has the chutzpah to be the no nonsense leader we need

As for our volunteers on the school board– maybe “missing the mark” has never read the city charter. But, guess what, the members (even the couple who I really don’t like) were elected to guide our schools and hire a superintendent. Guess that makes them the ones who are supposed to make the decisions.

NorwalkSpectator

Thank you for some accurate observations.

I find it interesting that alot of the former Board members keep showing up like Banquo’s ghost at the meetings, I guess because they think the people who were elected to the Board by Norwalk residents are incapable of doing the job. It must really be hard to know that the system the former Board members set up is now working against the former Board members since they aren’t on the Board anymore. I think the old saying “What goes around, comes around” is applicable.

Another interesting question….where was Migdalia Rivas? Wasn’t she also missing in action at the last Board meeting, too? I hope nothing bad has befallen her, but I also hope that we are not going to hear about how the minorities weren’t represented in this process because she wasn’t there, either.

http://YourCT.com Anonymouse

Parent accountability in this city is a rather hopeless aspiration. What we have to come up with is a way to help the frustrated educators work AROUND the lack of parental involvement, or we’re going to lose another generation.
C in the Hood

Regarding parental accountability–look, the parents who really do care about their kids ARE involved with their kids’ education. (BTW, things like attending all PTO meetings does NOT make you an “involved” parent–it makes you a fund-raiser. ) Being involved, however, does not mean that you do your kids’ homework for them or that you hover over them & follow up on every sheet of paper given to them. If all these things are considered “parental involvement”, then I’d like to remind people that a vast majority of Norwalk parents are working parents–be they single moms, dual income families or whatever. We do not necessarily have the flexibility to be “hover mothers” for this so-called “involvement”.

That being said, I AM involved in my kids’ education. I’ve attended all but one parent-teacher conference (the one attended by my husband in my stead); I’ve attended all SRT’s, PPT’s and what have you; I’ve helped my kids with homework when they’ve been stuck; I’ve even done alot of the fundraisers. It is so true that the kids themselves also need to be held accountable and responsible for their schoolwork–after all, it is THEIR schoolwork! (We’ve already been there, done that & graduated!)
CT Taxpayer

C in the Hood is right. My own parents were involved in my education but they never once attended a meeting of a parents’ club. Why not? For one reason, they didn’t own a car and there was no bus service that wouldn’t also have required a very long walk in the dark. For another, my father spoke broken English and he would have been embarrassed. My parents were among those who are never really noticed by my teachers and principals. However, my parents set goals for me and they let me know in no uncertain terms when I didn’t meet the goals. They urged me to accomplish what they never did – graduate college. I did. They had no wealth, never owned a home and had no savings, and yet they sacrificed for me. They taught me values.

Even though my teachers didn’t have my parents in the schools I attended, I’d describe them as being meaningfully involved in my life and in my education.