Oklahoma Department of Education Will Ask For Yet MORE Strings Attached Money

March 2, 2010 by jenni

Please read the article below, published in the Oklahoman March 1st. I forward it because as I sat in the OKCPS Board meeting last night (Mon. March 1), I heard mention of this fabulous new FREE MONEY and what the school board could do with it! I thought that the rest of you - like me - would also be COMPLETELY excited about the prospect of more FREE FEDERAL MONEY for 'our kids' in Oklahoma public education!

Here's the actual irony...Even the current Superintendent of Public Instruction says that there are strings attached in taking this 'new' Federal grant money for "persistently lowest achieving” schools, yet our public servants in the education department will gleefully run down the road with both hands out to get it. I promise, no matter how many times I hear the pleas for money from the Administrators of our State Schools, I don't think I will ever get over the shock of hearing the undercurrent of "WHEEEEEE!!!" when presented with the opportunity to spend it. As many times as I've heard talk of spending money (stimulus money, federal grant money, Oklahoman's hard spent property tax money), I just don't believe I can ever believe that any of these people understand the fact that MONEY ISN'T FREE!!!

As an affiliated aside in defense of my previous statement, I was quite interested to hear OKCPS board member Phil Horning express his concern last night over the fact that 52 THOUSAND dollars of the OKCPS budget was used by the 'team' members of the new wonderful ACT America's Choice program in attending an ACT meeting in California. ACT AC was instituted by the OKCPS board - through the use of STIMULUS funds - in order to bring up grades in underperforming schools by providing consistency of curriculum among school districts within the system. Two comments:
- I'm in the wrong business...I paid for my last conference out of my own pocket to the tune of $600.00
- We've already thrown stimulus money at underperforming schools, but now we'll ALSO take federal grant money thank you very much!

HELP ME UNDERSTAND THIS SOMEBODY PLEASE!!

Before bloviating regarding this new federal grant program, let me reiterate that the Federal Government has no business in the education policies created by the states. Please see the article "Race To The Top of What?" http://www.restoreokpubliceducation.com/node/256, if you are in anyway uncertain about this. This will provide you just a few reasons why.

As you read the article below, I draw your attention to the four models upon which the money will be specifically used:

→Turnaround model: Replace the principal, screen all existing staff and rehire no more than 50 percent, and select new staff for the remaining positions.

→Restart model: Convert or close the school to reopen under a charter school operator, a charter management organization or an education management organization.

→School closure: Close the school and enroll students in other schools in the district that are higher achieving.

→Transformation model: Replace the principal, implement an evaluation system for teachers and the new principal, reward the high achieving and remove ineffective employees.

DOES ANYONE SEE THE NECESSITY FOR MORE MONEY TO DO ANY OF THE ABOVE?

I mean, truly. Seriously. Let's look at number 1 - the Restart Model. How do you not SAVE money here in at least three ways:
1. Hire a principal at a lower salary
2. Fire first the lowest performing highest paid teachers
3. Hire newer teachers that cost less on the pay scale

Okay, on to number 2 (no pun intended) - The Restart Model. I see money SAVING options here in the removal of unneeded administration and the removal of overpaid underperforming faculty. I also see an added benefit of increased parental input once the school is converted to a charter school.

Next...School closure. The money spent on administrative staff and utilities should be divvied up among the schools accepting students of the now-defunct school to offset any cost in accepting a larger student body.

Finally, the Transformation Model...Replace the principal with one in a lower pay grade. Use current personnel to administer the 'evaluation system' and reward the high achieving teachers with money they spent by removing ineffective employees.

Hmmm...while I will agree I do not have experience as a public school administrator, and will gladly admit and accept a certain amount of ignorance on this point, I honestly can't see how in the world the basically common sense approach I have described above shouldn't work. It's how I make my family's budget stretch and keep everyone in activities and food. My thought is that it would, but the smell of all that FREE money is just too intoxicating to create an environment of common sense in the Oklahoma Public Education system. Too bad for Oklahoma tax payers...and all those undereducated kids, huh?
Jenni White
3/02/10

Oklahoma schools could get grants
BY MEGAN ROLLAND The Oklahoman
Published: March 1, 2010

The state’s lowest performing schools could receive up to $2 million each under a federal grant program that rewards schools for plans to drastically change administration, teaching staff or curriculum.

"If someone were to ask me ‘is this money with strings attached?’ You bet,” state Superintendent Sandy Garrett said last week before the state Board of Education approved an application that would allow individual school districts to apply for the money. "This will be a big decision that our districts will have to make.”

The new program offers grants to schools that are defined as the "persistently lowest achieving.”

For Oklahoma schools it could mean as much as $33 million, said Cindy Koss, assistant state superintendent in the Office of Standards and Curriculum.

At least the 35 schools on the state’s needs improvement list would qualify under the federal definition of lowest performing schools, Koss said.

Strings attached
In order to receive the federal funds, districts will have to select between the following four school improvement models:

→Turnaround model: Replace the principal, screen all existing staff and rehire no more than 50 percent, and select new staff for the remaining positions.

→Restart model: Convert or close the school to reopen under a charter school operator, a charter management organization or an education management organization.

→School closure: Close the school and enroll students in other schools in the district that are higher achieving.

→Transformation model: Replace the principal, implement an evaluation system for teachers and the new principal, reward the high achieving and remove ineffective employees.

State Board of Education members speculated last week about whether the "turnaround model” could legally be used because it requires the mandatory firing of teachers.

Last week, the education department in Rhode Island voted to fire all of the teachers, staff and the principal at Central Falls High School, selecting the controversial turnaround model.

Several schools in the state are facing the prospect of having to select a massive measure of reform.

In Oklahoma City, F.D. Moon Academy Elementary School and U.S. Grant High School are in the planning year for restructuring, the No Child Left Behind Act’s final stage of mandated reform after a school has been on the needs improvement list for four years.

Those schools and three in Tulsa would be likely candidates for the money since they already face tough federal sanctions.

A transition plan
But accepting the new grant of federal money would eliminate one of the most popular options under the No Child Left Behind Act — the option of implementing "any other” school reform plan.

According to a study of five states by the Center on Education Policy, the alternative option was the one most frequently employed by school districts.

School districts will begin to be notified that they have the option to apply for the grants, and this spring the applications will be submitted to the U.S. Education Department.

Koss said ideally the money will be allocated before the end of the school year so that the schools can put reforms in place by next year.

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City schools on needs improvement list, 2008-09

→Year one: Coolidge Elementary, Emerson Alternative, Rockwood Elementary, Willow Brook Elementary,

Jefferson Middle School, Northeast Academy Middle High, Oklahoma Centennial Middle High, Star Spencer High, Santa Fe South Middle

→Year two: Rogers Middle, Roosevelt Middle, Taft Middle

→Year three: Douglass Middle, Webster Middle

→Year four: F.D. Moon Academy, U.S. Grant High
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Read more: http://newsok.com/oklahoma-schools-could-get-grants/article/3443003#ixzz...