As I complete my seventh year as principal at Clintondale High School, it has

become abundantly clear what our educational institution will have to do in

order to create a thriving academic environment that is financially solvent.

Since 1992, our school district has been open to school of choice. The policy
was instituted in order to offset the transitioning amount of students who
chose other schooling options. These options included private and newly
formed charter schools, as well as, local area traditional public schools.
These local schooling options forced our school district to compete and the
competition is even fiercer under the state’s current economic condition.
Since the acceptance and inception of a school of choice policy within our
school district we continuously examined the pros and consof having such a
policy. We have compared and analyzed data pertaining to grade point
averages and discipline records of in-district and out-of-district students and
have found that there have been some notable differences in culture, and
preparedness among new students.

Upon my analyzation of our school districts MEAP trend data, as well as,
interviewing teachers and students my findings have reveal a profound
pattern between school of choice and state scores. Below represents the
current trends in social studies MEAP scores.

When examining the high school’s student enrollment for the 9th grade, the
number of students who were enrolled in our 6th grade in 2005-06 that
entered the high school is 54%. Therefore, producing a turn over (rotation of
students) rate from this particular class of 2012 of 46%. In order to validate
this trend the turn over rate of our students that enter the 9th grade and are
going to take the MME test in the 11th grade in 2009 is 30% and the number
of seniors who went K-12 from the class of 2009 is 12%.

This data is significant because the numberof students did not change
dramatically. The class of 2012 was expected to have approximately 190-
195 total students and it arrived at the high school on count day between
195-200 students. Therefore, giving the appearance that when looking at
the scores that are released to the media that our school district is failing
however, this movement of students provides us with a significant academic
1
challenge. Their educational backgrounds, socio economic status, family
structure, distance traveling to school, did change the make up of 46 per
100 students.

In addition, our school of choice families demographic make up were mostly

African American families that came from the city of Detroit in which 26.8%
live below the poverty line. Furthermore, according to city data.com ”Detroit
has struggled mightily trying to maintain a quality level of education in the
face of budget shortfalls within an educational system that is embedded into
a largely impoverished city population.” In 2005, the average SS MEAP
scores for Caucasian students was 83% and for African American students
the scores were 57%, a 26% learning gap, with a large percentage residing
in Detroit.

The chart below represents the number of students entering the high school
from are most recent school of choice marketing campaign. The total
number of school of choice students enrolled from our campaign is 91
students, with 71 of the students being African American and from the city
of Detroit.

This school enrollment data reveals that the majority of our new student
population has the following socio-economic and learning characteristics:

• Economically disadvantages; lacking basic physical and emotional

needs
• Student lack of exposure to a rigorous curriculum
• Student learning gaps due to normal school differences
• Low level of mother’s education level

Historically, the above mentioned characteristics have a profound and

negative effect on student achievement and can provide great educational
challenges. The next chart below provides a general comparison of the

2
background of a typical student who left and the student who replaced them.

% of
Pop.
With
City or Town Income Degree HS Grad %Poverty

Detroit $29,500 11% 69% 26%

Clinton $48,000 18% 87% 9.2%
Township

State of MI $44,00 21% 83% 10%

0

2000 US
Census

Simply stated, we are educating a different student at the secondary level

thus, validating many of our concerns and frustrations among our staff.

When evaluating our current population trends and academic situations, it is

increasingly apparent we need to address our entire student learning issues
and our all of our student movement trends.

We Are Not Built To Handle It

Furthermore, when investigating thehuman learning processes, research will

indicate that not all students learn at the same rate or the same way. For
example, within our K-12 educational system that we have total control over
student movement, we are going to have a normal bell shaped curve
regarding student achievement. In other words, we are going to have some
students who will be excelling, some students who maintaining and some
who are falling behind. Thus, like all current school districts, we will react in
a methodical way making sure that teachers are trained to deal with the K-
12 issues getting teams together to align our standards, enabling building
principals communicate with each other about the current student learning

3
issues, evaluate data pertaining to students coming through the system, and
adjust and align curriculum so that it provides a good foundation and
support for learning.

When comparing students graduating in 2007, students who entered our

school system before second grade had an average ACT between 20-22, and
a school of choice who entered in middle school student averaged 14-16.
This indicates that the longer we have them in our system the better they
will perform and that our K-12 system is solid from a traditional K-12
perspective. However, upon evaluating our movement trends this systematic
approach only works for only 50% of our current student population.

Upon looking at the other half of our new student population, what do you
do with students in which we don’t have controls over their academic
environment? Furthermore, how do we hande the economic and educational
challenges of students who come from the poorest large city in America and
make up roughly 50% of our population? Is our school system equipped to
handle this type of student? What effect does it have on our scores? How do
we become financially solvent and handle our educational issues at the same
time? I ask these questions because I believe those are the most pressing
questions facing us in the next few years.

When addressing our academic and financial issues, I believe the most
important things that need to be accounted for when dealing with student
learning and finances are; exposure to a rigorous curriculum, student
learning gaps and retention of K-12 students.

I have had the good fortune of being able to sit on various committees and
have seen a wide range of issues from different perspectives. I would like to
now summarize how are system is built and provide some recommendations
for long term financial and educational success.

Providing Exposure to a Rigorous Curriculum and Dealing the

Learning Gaps

When dealing with global competition and expectations exposure to a

rigorous curriculum is absolutely necessary. Our school district has taken
the initial and necessary steps by increasing high school graduation
requirements, providing dual enrollment opportunities, adjusting K-12
classes and curriculum, as well as, implementing Advance
Placementclasses. Therefore, we have systematically improved our K-12

4
system to handle our traditional students (54%) and by providing rigorous
educational opportunities for all.

However, how do we deal with students who have not exposed to a rigorous
program and bring them up to par, in order to get them on a level playing
field for a chance at academic success? How will we handle students who
have not been exposed thus causing large gaps in their learning foundation?

Currently, we traditionally offer our community of students a systematic

approach (Model A) which is illustrate by the picture below:

This model contains one teacher, exposing all of our students to one concept
for an hour a day, for 180 days,which is equal to 180 hours per year of
maximum exposure to a topic. Using only this delivery model does not
account for learning gaps nor does it offer the opportunity to vastly
differentiated instruction and content.

In Model B, which is shown below we have occasionally provided our

students the opportunity to work within computerized programs that allow
for differentiated instruction and can address individual learning gaps.
However, we still only expose them traditionally 180 days for an hour a day,
equaling 180 hours of exposure and differentiated instructional services i.e..
Success maker.

5
In the third model; Model C, my suggested model, I find that we can address
both issues that plague our educational learning systems. I feel strongly
that by implementing a Web 2.0 / Web base learning and communication
system and along with a traditional model will allow for greater exposure
time and also provide for differentiated instruction, as well as, addressing
the needs for personal relationships.

The following are examples in which we can provide students exposure to a

rigorous curriculum and provide services for our student learning gaps.

• Teacher blogs and/or websites- Teachers can post assignments,

videos, and slideshows and even hold on-line discussions exposing
their students to their current and past classroom content. Also
being web based it allows students to keep up academically is they
are absent from school and parents can also track assignments and
help homework assignments 24 hours/7 days a week.

• Study Island- Web based; enables parents and students to access it

from their own home. It provides tutorial exercises that enable a
student to work on their individual needs in and out of school.
Furthermore, it allows staff and students to create reports on
individual strengths and weaknesses which make for better decision

6
 discussions with parents and parents have access to it 24 hours/7
days a week.

With just the implementation of the blogs/websites and Study Island we

could effectively increased our instructional capacity to provide exposure and
per classroom to go from 180 hours to 6,720 hours per instructional
year/per subject. In addition, we are also able to provide support to fill in
the learning gaps and accommodated student’s individual concerns, as well
as, provided parents a vehicle to help get involved in their child’s education.

Education in School is Not Only for Students

The following represents the educational responsibilities of a district. By

going Web 2.0 I feel that we can better serve our students but also better
service our teachers and parents as well.

Teacher Education

Currently, we enable an individual or group of teachers go to a conference to

learn about the most recent educational trends or programs that may benefit
our students. Most often they return from the conference and they provide
insight to the staff regarding what they learned through content area teams
or school improvement.

However, if we had them posttheir findings and information on a school

improvement blog we would increase our teacher education exponentially as
well. Our educational processes would not be limited to conferences and
scheduled in-services. Education would be an on-going evolution, not limited
to contractual obligations and financial burdens. Therefore, putting a well
trained and well prepared teacher in front of our students every single day.
Furthermore, the information would be available to not only our staff but to
other buildings teaching staff and administrators. Furthermore, each building
school improvement chair could use it as points of discussion in every

7
building and continue to provide content during their school improvement
hour release time.

School Improvement Websites / Blogs could do the following:

• Provide educational videos

• Educational podcasts
• Educational journal articles and links
• Discussion board to collaborate
• Helpful teaching hints from experienced staff
• Links to effective lessons
• Classroom management tips

With this change in communication procedures, this content would be

available to staff 24 hours / 7 days a week. It would also enable us to
increase the potential for staff educational services from 51 hours a year to
6720 hours thus improving teacher training by being able to expose them to
more topics, new research, in a collaborative forum, while not increasing
cost.

Parent Education and Communication

The expression that a village raises a child infers that educators and parents
need to work together to educate a child. I do agree with this scenario,
however, as district we have struggled with getting our parents to come to
us.
Current Model

Low turnouts at parent teacher conferences, financial aid nights,

orientations, senior meetings have frustrated our school personnel. In
addition, with the increase of school of choice parents traveling sometimes
20-25 miles, for a 10 minute meeting,during poor economic times will only
exacerbate the situation even more.

8
Parent Education Blogs and Websites

With a simple implementation of teacher and administrative blogs and web

base attendance and grading programs I feel that parents can increase their
opportunity to connect with our staff and administration outside the school
day. By keeping them informed about their student, as well as, provide
educational awareness forum enables us to truly partner with them without
having to bring them to school.

Parent Education Blogs and Web 2.0 services

• Administrative Blogs containing announcements, daily happens, video

introductions, tours etc.
• On-line newsletters to provide recognition and school vision
• Twitter can provide daily reminders about events or happenings
• UStream.com can provide live coverage of a game or program on
web
• Cover it Live.com provides an interactive discussion board within a
teacher or a principal’s blog
• Gcast.com allows for school to post audio announcements
• Links to helpful tutorial sites and services that enable them to obtain
educational services
• Web base grade and attendance verification service

This philosophy of using the web to deliver some of our educational services
allows us to take our school to our parents and families and also enables us
despite the distance, travel expenses and convenience increase our
communication with our households and truly build a school community
despite not being in close proximity of the school.

Retention

9
Recently, families have more and more opted to use their option of school of
choice.School can no longer afford to not offer top quality services for their
students and families because of the competitive nature school market has
become.

By offering educational services that customer friendly and informative in a

convenient and serviceable fashion I feel we will not hurt our efforts but only
help. By increasing student retention it will not only add to our student
counts but also solidify our academic scores because our system will begin to
reap the rewards of our own efforts. Our teachers will finally build upon a
solid academic foundation and will not have to continuously start over.

The critics will say that not all families have computers and that is a true.
But, if our district wants to compete, we will have to provide additional
services to our customers as part of our “doing business” routines. For
instance, our school district must open up their computer labs and staff it
before and after school, as well as at lunch to help support students who
don’t have a computer at home. Furthermore, we also can provide a list of
local libraries in which computer services areavailable. These services only
add to the value of our district.

Finally, it is in my opinion that the answers are in front of us. There are
more than a handful of talented people are quite willing to put the time and
effort into the school district. It is going to take open minded approach to
make this a unique and special place.

10