Minority Teacher Hiring

There is a story in today's edition of Leesburg Today called School Leaders 'Discouraged' by Minority Teacher Hiring Report. The story quotes me, accurately, from both an email that I sent to an individual and from a written response to the reporter. The quotes were of necessity edited for space but therefore leave out significant things I said. I thought I would provide the full text of my responses, and the numbers in a more readable form, here for you.

The discouraging fact is that minority teachers are drastically underrepresented among LCPS faculty. The following numbers are accurate as of fall 2006:

Ethnicity	Students	Teachers
White	65.6%	93.5%
Latino	12.2%	8.1%
Black, not Hispanic	8.1%	3.8%
Asian/Pacific Islander	11.7%	1.4%
American Indian	0.3%	0.1%
Nonspecified	2.0%	0.3%

Nonetheless, the news isn't all bad. Until 2004, the rate of minority licensed candidates hovered between 5% and 6%. In 2005, the number doubled to 11%. In 2006, the number jumped again to 16%. The LCPS goal for 2007 was to have the number increase to 21%. I am awaiting a response as to our success in meeting that goal.

So while there is much room for improvement, there are also good strides toward improvement.

The following are the preliminary numbers for the new hires, released this week. A full and final report will be made in September.

African American - 6.6%
Hispanic 3.8%
Asian - 3.5%
American Indian - .4%
Bi-Racial - .9%

Total 15.2%

Note that these numbers do not include teachers from the Visiting International Faculty program. When including those teachers (who live and work here for three years), the Hispanic number nearly doubles to 7.3%, the other numbers don't change significantly.

And my reaction to these numbers...

The proportion of African American teachers we hired this year is below the proportion of African American students in our classrooms. The share of new Latino and Asian teachers is far below the share of Latino and Asian students and actually fewer than our returning teachers. We need to do better. We're letting our community down.

We need more information before we come to conclusions though. These numbers, though they are the true benchmark, don't tell the whole story. Are we not targeting enough minority candidates? Are identified candidates more likely to teach somewhere else? Are minorities opting for a teaching profession in smaller numbers? Are the institutions graduating minority candidates not preparing them for the rigorous qualifications that we insist on? These are the questions I'll be asking.

NAACP & Minority Achievement

Last Tuesday, August 14th, the Loudoun NAACP came before the School Board and spoke about disparity between minority students (in particular those who identify themselves as Black or Latino) and students who identify themselves as White. The three areas of disparity are: Test scores, Suspensions & Expulsions, and Graduation rates. You can read the NAACP's letter for yourself, or watch the webcast on the school website. Leesburg Today also ran a story about it.

The school system has been working very hard to improve these disparities for over a decade now. About every 3-4 years, the NAACP stands up again and points out that the problems still exist. You can read some of the NAACP materials from years past, and also read about LCPS efforts from the Minority Student Achievement Advisory Committee website.

I have started to immerse myself in this issue, and I am finding that the more I know, the more I realize that I don't know. So you'll need to give me time before I have anything to say beyond the fact that A) the disparities are real, significant and important and B) our teachers and administrators are doing everything they can to eliminate them.

You can find out more about school testing results from the Virginia Department of Education website.

Catching up

Man, almost two weeks since I last posted. Sorry about that. Things have been extremely busy, both with School Board issues and my day job. There is a lot going on as school gets started, I will try to play catch-up on some issues by writing some short posts and then elaborating more later, particularly on any that readers show interest in.

Green School Buildings

I've been meaning to write this post since back in May, when we first received a briefing on "Green Schools" from Moseley Architects, one of the firms that does Architectural work for LCPS. At that meeting, we were presented with a report entitled "Greening America's Schools." This isn't a written post so much as my notes from that meeting.

• By designing LEED-certified schools it is possible to achieve 33.4% savings in energy and 32.1% savings in water, though Loudoun is already efficient and will save less.
  
• There is a 1.65% cost premium to build a LEED-certified school.
  

• Things LCPS is already doing
• Exterior Lights are “dark-sky compliant”
• 3-level classroom lighting
• Light turn-off programs
• CO2 detectors
  

• Recommendations:
• Reflective roofing
• Water-efficient landscaping
• Energy System Commissioning
• Enhanced refrigerant management
• FSC Certified Wood (renewable forest sources)
• Alternative transportation (hybrids, bicycles)
• Waste management – recycling construction waste
• Construction IAQ Management
• Open-Grid Paving
• Exhausted Air Energy recovery

Past Posts on this topic:
Is Green Design Right for Your Schools?
Recycling in Schools
LCPS Recycling Program
Recyclying Update
Energy Efficiency Briefing

LEA Endorsement

Today's online edition of Leesburg Today includes a story about endorsements of the Loudoun Education Association. My experience with the LEA has been very good so far, they are professional and practical, which makes a tremendous difference to me. I appreciate their endorsement very much, and look forward to working with them over the next four years.

Another Attempt to Quantify

There is a story in this morning's Washington Post about a new program in Virginia called the Governor's VIP Award for Educational Excellence. You can read more about it from this press release and other public documents on the Department of Education website.

I wonder if this is fulfilling a need that isn't there. How many school rating, ranking and award systems can there be? Like so many others, this one is testing-based: "a point system based largely on state Standards of Learning exam results," according to the article. The article cites Seneca Ridge Middle School Principal Mark McDermott reminding us "awards based on test scores tend to favor affluent schools."

I refer you to my previous statement about over-emphasis on testing. My prediction: this 'award program' will turn the heat up a little higher to teach our kids how to test well instead of learn and think and grow, and will confuse the issue for parents about which schools are succeeding. It will be one more medal we are expected to win, one more in a constellation of rankings and standards, and any school that doesn't get this one award will be vilified by some no matter how many other surveys in which it may rise to the top.

I'll reiterate what I wrote several weeks ago:

When you read about these rankings or hear someone talking about reforming the schools, particularly if they call the schools mediocre or over-funded, ask yourself a simple question: How has your own experience with the schools been? Think about your kid’s teacher, your principal, your school. Think about the bus driver, the counselor, the librarian, the coach and the cafeteria lady. More than anything else, ask yourself: is my child getting a good education?

Let your own experience be your guide, and if it has been a good experience then trust your instincts.

If not, tell me about it. Let’s see if we can get it straightened out.

Belts on Buses

Last night's Health, Safety & Wellness meeting focused on the topic of seat belts on buses. Committee chairman Joe Guzman has been pushing for seat belts and stressing school bus safety for quite a while now, and I also believe that seat belts makes sense. After actually sitting in a seat belt-equipped bus however, I may need to rethink my position.

First though, some stats:

• A school bus is just about the safest place for a kid to be. Safer than teens driving themselves, safer than parents driving their kids, safer than kids who walk to school.
• The insurance cost on a school bus is less than for a car, even though a school bus is carrying dozens of people.
  
• The national school bus accident rate is 0.02 per 100 million miles traveled, compared to 0.94 for cars
  
• The National Transportation Safety Board is currently reviewing possible school bus seat belt recommendations and will release standards (or choose not to) this fall
  
• Our insurance carrier is pro-seatbelt but prefers we not do anything until NTSA makes recommendations
• 200 LCPS buses already have some sort of restraint system for use with Special Education students
• LCPS is on a 12-year cycle to replace school buses. We place orders every year for about 50-60 new buses. We are waiting until January to order next year’s buses to give the NTSA time to issue its findings.
  
• It will cost an additional $12-15K each to install new seats with 3-point anchors in each bus.
  
• Once seat belts are in place, 100% Enforcement is not really possible. Usage goes down with age... kindergarteners are better at following directions than High School seniors.

So how is it that school buses are so safe, without seatbelts? In two words: size and compartmentalization. First, a school bus is a very big, very heavy vehicle. In the words of Transportation Director Mike Lunsford, "in a collision with a school bus, a car or a pickup will lose every time. The danger comes from dump trucks and tractor-trailers." The second concept, "compartmentalization," means that the seats are tall, padded and placed close together. The result is that in a collision a child may be thrown, but will not have far to fly and will have a large, soft surface on which the force of impact is dispersed. Buses are designed well for front & rear impact, not so well for side impacts or roll-overs.

So after learning all of these facts and discussing the implications for an hour, we went outside and toured a brand new school bus with seat belts loaned to us by a manufacturer. I sat down in a seat and buckled in, just barely. I'll tell you this much: if we're going to insist on our kids sitting in these seats together, we'd better solve the childhood obesity problem FAST. I'm not an especially wide guy, but my butt had seat belt buckles poking me on both sides. The seats are designed to fit three across, but once these kids hit adolescence that's just not going to work.

No decision has been made, but my prediction is that unless the NTSB says it's safer to forgo the seat belts, you'll start seeing them on our buses for the 2008-2009 school year. Get ready kids.

Upcoming Committee Topics

With the arrival of August, we're back into committee meetings again after taking a short break. This is the ground floor of policy, if you want to influence how things are done, this is the place to be. By the time it gets to the full School Board meetings there isn't much chance of making major changes.

On Monday the Health, Safety & Wellness committee gets a deeper look at seat belts on school buses and on Tuesday the Curriculum & Instruction committee reviews No Child Left Behind. Most committee meetings are held at the Administration building in Ashburn, see the LCPS website for details.

Report #4 from Conference

Session IV: Designing High Schools for the 21st Century
Presented by Dr. Kevin Castner, VP of Educational Services, SHW Group LLP. Dr. Castner is a former Virginia schools superintendent and plays golf on occasion with our own Dr. Hatrick and Mr. Waterhouse.

Presentation:
The presentation focused on integrating modern instructional ideals into construction planning. A powerpoint presentation was provided and referenced books, reports and articles about education in a modern digital world. The principles covered were Student-centered learning, digital delivery, interdisciplinary learning and improved methods of assessment. In essence, the case was made that our schools are still built on a 1950s architectural model, which was appropriate for a 1950s economy.

Reference Materials:
The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman
Don’t Bother Me Mom – I’m Learning, Mark Prensky
Report from the National Summit on School Design
Results that Matter: 21st Century Skills and High School Reform
A Whole Mind – Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age, Daniel Pink

Recommendation:
Because Loudoun County will build three new high schools in the next six years and because of our wealth as a community, we are uniquely positioned to take advantage of this kind of thinking and new design. Unfortunately we won’t. The financial pressure brought on by constantly building new schools makes major innovation beyond our reach given our low-tax priorities. Innovation will be seen first in Montgomery, Arlington and Fairfax counties, which have the resources but also a stable student population.

LCPS should still take steps toward innovation with each new building design. Many will not be realized in brick & mortar during our political lifetimes, but progress in Virginia is made step by step, not in leaps & bounds.

School Bus Drivers & Drugs

Last night at the School Board’s Personnel Committee meeting, we discussed policies relating to random drug testing of our School Bus drivers. Most of our policies are derived directly from Federal law which applies to all holders of Commercial Drivers Licenses. I found out some interesting facts during the meeting, I thought I’d share them with you.

• Loudoun has about 550 bus drivers
• 10% of drivers are randomly tested for on-the-job alcohol use each year. This number is low because of our extremely low incidence of positive results.
• 50% of drivers are randomly tested for drug usage each year
• Mike Lunsford, Director of Transportation, estimates that on average we have only one positive result per year, typically for marijuana use
• Most employees who have tested positive have immediately resigned their positions. When LCPS is notified that an employee has tested positive, that person is immediately terminated from their position as a bus driver if they have not already resigned.
• In 15 years of testing, only one employee has ever challenged a termination as the result of a positive drug test. The appeal was not successful.

Committee members were joined by school board members Priscilla Godfrey and Robert DuPree, who are not on the committee but attended anyway as is common practice among many members. We spent about an hour learning the details of the testing procedures and about what happens after an employee has tested positive. The questions expressed concerns not only about doing everything we can to ensure the safety of our students but also about the needs of school employees, even as we are terminating them for use of illegal drugs.

No action was taken.

It was just an average Wednesday evening on the School Board.