No surprise to readers here, the Cambridge Report has documented just why exactly, the BOE fails at improving Norwalk schools. The picture is not pretty.
Improve the district culture and climate which is regarded by many people in schools, central
office, and the community (including parents) as lacking in openness and authenticity. Many staff and parents feel undervalued, disempowered, and isolated. District senior leaders need to take action to improve the district’s culture, in part by improving communication as noted above.
Openness! Authenticity! Why not transparency and we’ll have the blog mantra of holistic governmental improvement.
And I’m only mid way through page 4.
The board of education and the superintendent should develop more effective and transparent
processes for evaluating and making senior district staff more accountable for district
performance. This relates both to student performance and the annual budget process.
Zoinks, there’s that transparency. Woot. Accountability. Woot just got added to the dictionary.
Still on page 4.
For our regular readers, none of this comes as a surprise. There are thousands of comments about the lack of accountability, the lack of transparency, the lack of communication in this school administration. Can we say demoralizing? The etymology is of course French;
de·mor·al·ize (d-môr-lz, -mr-)
tr.v. de·mor·al·ized, de·mor·al·iz·ing, de·mor·al·iz·es
1. To undermine the confidence or morale of; dishearten: an inconsistent policy that demoralized the staff.
2. To put into disorder; confuse.
3. To debase the morals of; corrupt.
Handy little definition there isn’t it? But if this was Travis Brickle writing this report, he would have said, “”You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? Then who the hell else are you talkin’ to? You talkin’ to me? Well I’m the only one here. Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to?”
Clearly no one. But 16 pages of report document it in detail.
Poor communication of the district’s values and objectives to schools, teachers, parents, students and the
wider community is a major issue. The district does not get its messages across in a clear and consistent
way to all stakeholders. It does not pay sufficient attention to the views of its constituents. Many
stakeholders who could make a useful contribution to district improvement are disenfranchised. There
are no formal processes for gauging their views in a systematic way. As a result, stakeholders pursue
their own agendas and have little commitment to a consistent, unified approach to improving student
achievement. There is a lack of understanding about what the district is trying to do, although the written
priorities contained in district publications are very clear. Strong, but inclusive and sensitive, leadership is
required from the district in order to utilize the undoubted strengths that exist in schools and the wider
community.
Opdahl’s mark on the district?
With few exceptions, principals
identified the district’s management of fiscal resources as being in need of improvement. Some of their
concerns were expressed as follows:
• not knowing from day to day what resources are available
• severely limited resources
• unable to buy necessary supplies
• lack of communication between district and school
• decisions on class sizes not based on educational needs
• loading of classes to contract maximum – for fiscal reasons, not based on student needs
• constant trouble in getting [district] budgets passed
• budget development not collaborative
• cuts in professional development money have had a significant impact
• very little input from principals into the district budget, and
• need better equity in distribution of funds.
All the hallmarks of mismanagement. Yet the Cambridge report says that the financial reports are nicely detailed. It’s like saying that all the lifeboats were clean on the Titanic.
And then there’s Bruce Morris.
The human relations officer, whose main job is to engage with minority communities to assure equity and
opportunity for all students, especially the most vulnerable, operates with a small budget. He works as
best he can with scarce resources to support the Black community and act as mediator between parents
and principals. The contacts with large numbers of parents from minority communities that used to be a part of his work have become less effective in recent years. The number of outreach workers has been
reduced from five to three. The officer now puts much of his energy into the Parent Leadership Training
Institute (PLTI) which offers a 20 week program aimed at empowering mainly Black and Hispanic parents.
Right, let’s review those those enrollment stats listed at the begining of the report.
Students come from a wide range of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, including 4
percent Asian American, 24 percent Black, 31 percent Hispanic, 0.1 percent American Indian, and 41
percent White. Fifty-four different languages are spoken by Norwalk public school students. Thirty-five
and one half percent of students are English language learners (ELL) with a non-English home language, compared with the state average of 12.6 percent.
Morris doesn’t account for his hours nor manage to fulfill basic academic requirements that he needs for his job, so why should we be surprised that he can’t seem to get along with the minority parent communities he’s supposed to be representing.
But that’s the administration. The report leaves know parent behind.
Some parents report that they have to search for district information and do not find it
readily accessible. They perceive the district culture as one which shows lack of respect for parents, in
which they are largely discounted and marginalized. Some parents believe that the major focus of PTO is fund raising and that PTO members do not regard themselves as having a locus in supporting the school in its efforts to raise achievement. Some parents describe the PTO as exclusive rather than inclusive, and not engaging or serving the needs of the minority communities. Some parents of children from minority communities do not feel encouraged to participate. They do not perceive the district as working collaboratively to improve student achievement.
The Nile is a river in Egypt, and denial is the state we find those charged with making our schools an open, inclusive, academic enriching experience. The teachers, under these conditions, are miracle workers.
Read all about it here:
