Category Archives: Learning

One of the best things about working with young people is that I never stop learning. Today at lunch with six of our stellar sophomores, I mentioned our school climate survey and how much I’m looking forward to the results. I quickly realized that school climate means something different to our students than what I mean when Austin replied, “what? I think it’s fine. Well, the Spanish room is always cold.”

Families are all receiving more information about the survey via a phone call home today, paper surveys are being sent home in bookbags or in the mail, and we have links to the survey on our webpage and in PowerSchool.

This survey begins today, October 1 and continues through October 15. The idea to survey all of our school community members developed at a Board of Education (BOE) Retreat in the summer of 2013. It grew from a genuine desire on the part of the BOE members to know what everyone in our school community thinks and to identify our strengths and weaknesses. Along with the BOE members, I’m looking forward to learning what we can do better together in our efforts to continually improve our school system. We sincerely want to hear from every member of the school community and our hope is that everyone will be involved in the process.

School climate refers to the subjective experience of being in a school. It exists at the intersection of individual perceptions and the structure of the school environment. Research has confirmed that the way students feel about being in school shapes their learning and development, and school personnel are also better able to do their jobs in a healthy and supportive school climate. After researching the options, we chose the Comprehensive School Climate Inventory (CSCI) survey which was developed by the National School Climate Center (NSCC) over the past four years. The dimensions of school climate measured (safety, relationships, teaching & learning, and environment) and the individual survey items are built on several decades’ worth of research on school climate.

The Comprehensive School Climate Survey (CSCI) is unique in that it is designed to help a school collect responses from the entire school community—all students, parents, teachers, and staff members at the school are asked to fill out surveys, and the report shows how the three groups differ in their perceptions of the school climate. The CSCI is designed to be a needs assessment for schools, helping us to evaluate the school’s strengths and weaknesses, and provides a platform on which to build an action plan for improving school climate. By incorporating the perceptions of the entire community, we can create a more effective and accurate plan that addresses core strengths and weaknesses.

We know there is a key factor that will affect the validity of the survey results and therefore we chose CSCI because they manage the data, not RCS. The survey results are completely anonymous—no names are recorded and no identifying information will ever be attached to specific responses. Results are reported only in terms of the way groups of people have responded. [The report does include information on sub-groups (by race, gender, grade, etc), but in an effort to maintain anonymity, these results are suppressed or combined for sub-groups with fewer than ten people. Respondents should answer as many questions as possible (although no one is required to answer questions that make them uncomfortable). The more responses we get, the better the data. [Note: on the electronic version of the survey, respondents have the option of selecting a “don’t know” or “not applicable” answer, but survey items may not be left entirely blank.]

Diane Graham, Kristie Ling, and Maureen Pitts are leading this effort for us. They will be the “point” people in each building to answer questions and to help with general information. Please know that you can ask any of us, and our building leaders, if you have any questions. Contact the school at 716-358-6161 with any questions.

My younger brother, named Ziggy (that’s a story for another time), is technically smarter than me. I know this because I contacted our school upon my graduation and obtained my school records, which included my IQ score. Then I did the same thing, as if I was Ziggy, and obtained HIS school records and his IQ score. His score was one point higher than mine. Can you tell that we grew up in a somewhat dysfunctional home in which our father was constantly comparing us and baiting us (well, me) about who was “smarter”?

We were very different students. I was the student who joined (and often led) every possible school club and activity. Why? My parents were very strict and the only things that I was allowed to participate in were school events. Ziggy is seven years younger and because of the turmoil in our parents’ lives. . . well. . . let’s just say he was parented a bit differently. He was the student who did as little as possible to get by, died his hair purple, skipped school up to the maximum days allowable and appeared on the Pittsburgh evening news because he was lobbying for a smoking lounge for students because the teachers had one (it was 1988) and so the students should have one provided too.

I went to college (to spite my dad who said he wouldn’t pay for it and that I wasn’t smart enough anyway) and Ziggy joined the Marine Corps. He worked in Marine intelligence for two decades and now has a successful career as the associate director of industrial security for a federal contractor in Washington DC. We earn about the same amount of money annually.

He was NEVER CHALLENGED in his entire school experience. When the standardized test results came back to the high school he attended, the guidance counselors were somewhat astonished that my lackadaisical, pain in the neck brother, had achieved the highest scores in his class.

Fast forward 25-30 years. Meet my beautiful six year old niece Kaylee. Kaylee attends first grade and she doesn’t like it. Why? In Kaylee’s own words, “It’s not as much fun. There’s homework. They don’t have a play kitchen. And the teacher talks too much.” My brother’s words, “the usual.” My sister in law’s words, “they’re doing simple spelling words like a, up, and, we and go. She’s bored.”

Now here’s the thing about her first grade teacher. She’s likely an incredible educator with such a HUGE variety of students in her class that the challenges may be enormous. If Kaylee behaves well enough, the teacher will be happy to have one less kid to worry about. In other words, Kaylee (like my brother), will likely turn out okay no matter the quality of her education. But I say, “that’s not good enough.” We need to challenge all of our students, including the best and the brightest. We need them to solve the problems of our world and to make it a better place.

We cannot afford to teach to the most needy student in the class for another generation. We have to learn to differentiate learning and to challenge every child.  And it’s most critical with our youngest students. Students like Kaylee. As our kids get older, they become accustomed to praise for good grades earned for not much effort and challenging them later in the system becomes problematic. We have to challenge them all along the way. If students are given rigorous work with high expectations, they rise to the challenge and they enjoy school more. This problem in our schools is clearly and thoroughly covered in the September 2014 publication of Educational Leadership. It’s definitely worth spending some time studying this topic and incorporating the ideas of motivation, particularly through our expectations, into our classrooms. I’ve watched our own Randolph teachers do this over the past four years and the comments from veteran teachers who say, “I never thought my students could do this” are the most hopeful we can hear.

On this Wednesday, August 13, 2014, we have just three short weeks until our students return to us! This summer has been even busier than most as we plan for a possible capital project to present to the voters sometime before Winter Break. A committee of teachers, students, administrators, parents and community members worked throughout the Spring to identify needs for consideration by our School Board. With a project architect and construction manager, we looked at needs within the buildings, educational needs, dreams (a pool!) and athletic fields, among other things.

And so my summer has been filled with the analysis of the financial end of the project including the scope of work possible within the confines of our public school district budget. We’ve focused on what do we need now, what can wait another five years, and what will make us a better facility for our students. And just like projects that we do at home, it comes down to what can we afford to spend.

Our job now is to present the work of the committee, fine tuned by the BOE facilities committee, to the full Board of Education. We will then return to the larger facility committee to review the items that “made the cut” and why. Explaining the project to our entire school community follows in preparation for a vote. We have worked hard to keep the taxpayers in mind balancing the maintenance of our facilities and grounds for the future with our needs to improve programs for students. That balance means that many of the items that would be nice to have but not necessary won’t advance at this time. Talk of building condition surveys, easements, shared services with the Town of Randolph (Hamlet?), reserve funds, gap elimination adjustments, general municipal laws, condemned bus lifts, inadequate parking and traffic flow have filled my work days.

And so I cannot wait for our students and teachers to return! On any given day I would much rather talk about curriculum, instruction, data analysis, scheduling, the needs of individual students and families, program enhancements, heck—just about anything to do with our students and teachers—than parking lots and boilers and room configurations. As with any job, there are parts to love and parts that are work–looking forward to the return of the parts I love most.  

Could there be a better way to spend my life than in the presence of our students? If there is, it’s for someone besides me. We said goodbye to the class of 2014 on Friday night at graduation, a goodbye I’ve been saying since the Pine Valley Class of 1992 graduated. I gain so much from working with our students—a sense of hope and optimism and fun–and their joy keeps me young. And when I’m very lucky, they keep in touch in some way.  As with every class who’s gone before them, I wish each faith, hope and love.

Please remember our Budget vote is this coming Tuesday, May 20, 2014 from 2:00 pm to 8:00 pm. We are presenting for taxpayer approval a budget with a 0% increase to the tax levy for the sixth year in a row. We also have three candidates running for two BOE seats: Incumbent Louise Boutwell, Tom Deacon and Marshall Johnson.

Please note that we cannot legally, nor would we, endorse any candidate. Political signs are the property of the candidate or owner, not the school district. Political campaign signs placed between the sidewalk and the curb are under the rules of the town and are not on school property.

Cross Posted in the Salamanca Press, March 26, 2014

I find government and politicians to be extremely frustrating. It sometimes seems they spin everything to meet their purposes and rely on the fact that the general public has little understanding of the details of any given proposal. And yes, I realize that many readers are now thinking, “Well yeah, how did it take her this long to figure that out?”

School finance is a great example. The governor, senate and assembly all play politics with their budget proposals for education. Politicians and their comparisons of each other’s budget proposals don’t help us. Foundation aid to our schools hasn’t changed since the school year in which I became a superintendent, 2008-2009. Consider the increases to the costs of everything from fuel to electric to food in the years since then! Our contractual salary increases and benefits have increased, even with the cost savings measures our unions have agreed to in every contract we’ve negotiated during that time.

I understand that we have well intended, caring and dedicated representatives in Albany. How those people ever get anything done within what seems to be a convoluted system is what I don’t understand.

At Randolph, we WERE a district who weathered the storm of funding freezes better than many districts due to our Board of Education’s decades long and fiscally responsible, yet State disapproved, method of maintaining reserves beyond the 4%. That’s changed for us after five years of maintaining budgets with little to no increase in state aid. After all, in Randolph we can raise less than $50,000 with a 1% increase to the tax levy. We are a district with many poor children who need us and the education, programs and meals that we provide to them. In an $18 million budget, we heavily rely on state aid. We have reached the breaking point. This means that my colleagues in other districts who were following the ridiculously low 4% unappropriated reserve rule have got to be believed  when they say they cannot continue as they are or cut anything more.

Simply put, we cannot continue as things are at 2008-09 foundation aid levels. We need a total elimination of the Gap Elimination Adjustment. That’s the only solution that will help our schools. School districts have managed as well as they could but there is nothing left for many to cut as Governor Cuomo touts a state surplus of millions. The gap elimination adjustment was started to help the State eliminate its budget gap—that gap has clearly been eliminated in the State budget now. Programs to school children must be restored.

Our governor continues to publicize “increases” to aid for schools. What he doesn’t make clear is that communities like Randolph will likely never see much of those monies. I cannot move to full day PreK, as much as I know our Randolph children would benefit, without a guarantee of full reimbursement. We cannot afford it. I have neither the time nor the staffing to go after these “grant” based monies that keep being offered by our governor–genius really, as then it’s a promise of money that most of us can’t obtain. There’s also an education tax credit which is absurd for a district like ours, who on earth do they think we have in Randolph who’s going to be able to afford to give us private donations

The state officials who we elect must restore education funding. That should be the goal of every elected official in NYS. We cannot raise the money on the backs of our taxpayers. We will not. Our students deserve a quality education—just as those in the wealthy districts of NYS continue to provide to their students. We need the representatives of our rural WNY region to continue to fight for full restoration of the GEA.

As the New York State Teacher’s Union (NYSUT) takes a firm stance against the implementation of common core and Commissioner King, I’m more aware than ever of the need for our students to learn a curriculum aligned to the common core standards. Why? Because I want our students to be active learners and citizens who read the overwhelming amount of information coming at them carefully—learners who are able to discern evidence based facts from hype and opinion and just plain old lies. We need our young people to be students who are engaged and open-minded—but discerning—readers and listeners. The very issue at hand–implementation of the common core standards–has become so convoluted, confused and misused that those very skills are critical.

Every change in education is often labeled “common core”. Just this morning on the radio I heard a report that the “governor is calling for an end to standardized testing of students in grades K-2”. That’s wonderful considering NYS doesn’t have standardized testing of students in grades K-2. In our school district, we extend our iReady diagnostic and interim testing to grade levels K-2 because those grades are critical, integral parts of our K-12 system and that local assessment choice keeps all grade levels focused on a continual K-8 pathway that better prepares our students for grades 9-12 math and ELA. The story is almost always much more complex than the simplicity at which it’s reduced to in a sound bite.

To demonstrate that complexity, consider that as a district leader I support our implementation of the common core standards in our school system and I agree with NYSUT’s stance too. If ALL state and federal involvement disappeared from our schools tomorrow, under the direction of the Randolph Board of Education and the Administrative Team, along WITH our teachers, we would continue to implement the common core standards and to use iReady diagnostic testing, computer based instructional modules and materials to align our curriculum. We would continue to have a focus on continuous school improvement and increasing our academic expectations. We would continue to use the Danielson rubric for teacher evaluation and the MPPR for evaluation of our principals. We would continue to support teacher collaboration in developing curriculum at grade levels, aligned to the common core standards. Our curriculum coordinator and principals would continue to listen to our teachers, to study the common core and materials available, and to use all of the data and information at hand to make good instructional decisions for our students.

And we’d support these requests of the state teachers union:

* completion of all modules, or lessons, aligned with the Common Core and time for educators to review them to ensure they are grade-level appropriate and aligned with classroom practice;

* better engagement with parents, including listening to their concerns about their children’s needs;

* additional tools, professional development and resources for teachers to address the needs of diverse learners, including students with disabilities and English language learners;

* full transparency in state testing, including the release of all test questions, so teachers can use them in improving instruction;

* postponement of Common Core Regents exams as a graduation requirement;

* the funding necessary to ensure all students have an equal opportunity to achieve the Common Core standards. The proposed Executive Budget would leave nearly 70 percent of the state’s school districts with less state aid in 2014-15 than they had in 2009-10; and

*a moratorium, or delay, in the high-stakes consequences for students and teachers from standardized testing to give the State Education Department – and school districts – more time to correctly implement the Common Core.

Support for common core standards is NOT sinking here–every parent I talk to wants as much for his or her child as possible. Our teachers are working hard to figure it all out, modifying curriculum to meet the standards AND to teach the students in front of them, who come with a mix of prior year common core standards attainment and skills. It has been difficult for everyone–especially with the poor timing and sometimes poor ELA module development and delivery. Would we be better off with a slower implementation? In my 25 years in education, I’ve never seen this kind of cooperation in implementing a K-12 curriculum so I’m not so sure. It’s been hard, messy, stressful—just like every other major change I’ve ever experienced in life. And as I’ve said often these last couple of years, we’re figuring it out together–teachers, parents, administrators and BOE members.

Maybe not smooth sailing yet, but certainly not sinking.

Extremely excited about this new opportunity for our students.  Watch this video and tell me our Randolph students wouldn’t benefit in a BIG WAY from our own RCS after school TED-Ed Club. If anyone’s interesting in this, let me know. If no one else wants to start the club here, I’m going to!

On October 10, 2013, NYS Education Commissioner John King met with parents and teachers in Poughkeepsie, NY to talk with them through a PTA Forum about the Common Core. In watching that session online, I was struck by the comments of one of the parents who spoke about her three young sons and said, “Change is not easy but childhood should not be this difficult.”

I can’t stop thinking about her. She’s right. Childhood isn’t supposed to be difficult. School should be challenging and inspiring and creative and thought provoking. Children should go home tired from a hard day’s work. Then they should play and talk to their friends and have dinner with their families, not spend another one to two hours doing homework.

If you, as parents of K-8 children, are continually frustrated with the homework you see coming home, talk to your child’s teacher. We should not be sending homework that we know will just frustrate our students (and parents). Homework should be a reinforcement of the topics learned and it should be brief. There is NO reason for our K-8 children to spend more than 15-30 minutes on homework. The homework should be reasonable. Please also realize that we may be teaching Math in ways different from the ways in which you learned Math. That doesn’t mean your way was right and this way is wrong. Please don’t tell your child, “I don’t know how to do any of this–it’s ridiculously hard!” as that isn’t going to help your child gain confidence with the material.

So what do you do? Encourage your child to try all of the problems–without the cell phone or TV or iPod on–without distraction. If you’re telling us that it takes your child 60 minutes to do homework but 50 minutes are wasted on distracted thinking, then it’s really not 60 minutes of work. I’ve heard the building principals tell teachers repeatedly that homework cannot be graded punitively. Some of our children have no one to help them at home either, we know this. Homework is about practice, just like getting better at a sport takes practice. But we can’t kick kids off the team with bad grades for poor performance in practice. This doesn’t mean our students don’t need to do homework, just that it needs to be intentional, meaningful, and brief–and our students need to complete it then. On their own. Don’t let your kids train you to do their homework. If your kids are asking you for help without attempting it first themselves, then you’re working harder than they are and it’s not YOU who needs the practice.

And if there’s stress on you and your family because of what you’re reading on Twitter or Facebook or in the news? PLEASE do not let what you read about other districts color your perception of how we’re handling change here. We are listening. To our teachers, our students, and our parents. No one performs better under stress, least of all our children. I’m exhausted at the end of the work day as I’m sure many of you are too. It’s our job as parents to expect the best of our children, to demand that they work hard and be the best little people that they can be. It’s not necessary to turn every night at the dinner table into a battle over school and homework. It’s not good for you and it’s not good for your kids. Enjoy them. Talk about something other than what they’re working on in class. Listen to them and instill confidence in them that they can do it. Read a story to them for fun or go for a walk outside or whatever else helps you find joy at the end of a long day.

And for our teachers and administrators–this message is for you too: I’m an adult who needs time to STOP THINKING when I’m home in the evenings. I need to read magazines and think about fashion and home decorating and how I want to rearrange my furniture. I need to talk with my mom and my daughter, hope my son will call from college (even though he never does, but hey, I hope), make dinner for my husband (most days), get a pedicure with my friends, exercise and RELAX. If I have an evening that requires a couple of hours of work, I do NOT return to school the next day my best self.

For your mental health and well being, we need you to have that same time in the evening, with your families. Many of you aren’t getting it right now because you’re cramming to learn module lessons but remember that what you did last year worked well. We showed strong gains. Fall back on those things that you know you’ve done well, study the modules and do the best you can. All of the change doesn’t have to happen at once. We’ve got this–our very best teachers are the same teachers who are running themselves ragged to improve. I appreciate your hard work AND I want you to have a balance in your life too, just like our students.