Merit Pay – In PWCS?!

Merit pay may be rearing it’s ugly head in PWC schools.

An effort is currently underway in PWCS to revise the manner in which teachers are assessed and compensated.  The committee meeting to develop the revised performance plan will be presenting it’s recommendations to the school board later this Winter.  One widely rumored aspect of that program is implementing a Merit Pay system.

Merit Pay is one of those things that sounds great on paper and can be highly effective if done properly.  But it’s rarely done properly and is so heavily subject to bias that it generally fails.

Pay for Play – In PWC High Schools?

Time to End “Pay-To-Play” in PWCS

Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, Kleenex and poster board – what do these have to do with academic success in high school?

A lot more than you may think for children in PWCS.  To cope with the effects of budget cuts resulting in things like increased class sizes and lack of textbooks for students, our teachers have been forced to beg for basic school supplies.   One rather shocking tactic – earn extra credit if you bring in supplies your teacher needs.  And this isn’t supplies just for your child like a scientific calculator or a T-Square – it’s stuff like copier paper, toilet paper, and paper towels.

So Much For Balance…..

Last year the Prince William County School Board passed a motion calling for “balance” in the county mathematics program. To support their “balance” initiative the school board purchased and provided a copy of the Scott Foresman-Addison Wesley homework master to every county teacher.

In addition to calling for a balanced program of instruction, the school board motion granted teachers the authority to depart from the mandated lesson pacing guides at their own discretion, although funds to purchase alternate instructional materials were not provided.

Teachers and parents looking for a more balanced instructional program waited for the release of the revised lesson pacing guides to see what changes might be reflected in them. Of particular interest were the new Investigations based fifth grade pacing guides as Investigations was not adopted by the state for Grade 5 because it met so few state standards.

The revised pacing guides are out and there are few changes. Computation and number sense, long considered one of Investigations weaknesses, is rarely supplemented beyond the core Investigations program – even in Grade 5. Long division is covered in one 75 minute lesson. Fractions, which had 4th grade students county-wide stumped last year, is unchanged.

The level of discretion afforded to teachers in adapting lesson pacing is summed up with the following statement which appears in the pacing guide for every grade, “Teachers may need to make adjustments based on their specific classroom needs and schedules. However, it is critical that teachers stay as close as possible to the pacing guidelines to ensure that all of the Standards of Learning (SOL) have been taught prior to the Virginia SOL Test, and that, as children move within the Division, their math instruction remains coherent”.

One new document was created over the summer, which bears mentioning. Each unit now has an overview which should have been provided to each teacher and, according to the PWCS web site, will be available online shortly. The unit overviews list the SOL objectives covered in each unit, provide suggested Investigations units for differentiated instruction, and lists the exercises from the SFAW homework master which correlate to the Investigations unit.

Unfortunately, changes to the actual lesson pacing guides are few and far between. Contrary to statements by county officials, the PWCS elementary math program continues to be virtually all Investigations all the time. About the only time balance appears is in promises by administration officials.

Did PWCS Follow the Law?

Did PWCS follow the law when it selected Investigations for K -5 students in county schools?

The answer to that question should be a resounding Yes and easily verified.  But here we are, almost 2 years since that question was first asked, and we still don’t have an answer.

The Virginia Department of Education reviews textbooks submitted to it for content match with the SOLs.  Reviewed textbooks are then listed as either state recommended or non-state recommended, based on that review.   The state allows local school districts to select any textbook they want for their students, whether the textbook is or is not recommended, provided they follow the appropriate regulations.

The state has issued two regulations local school districts are supposed to follow when selecting a textbook –   local adoption of state adopted textbooks and local adoption of non-state adopted textbooks. Investigations, the textbook PWCS adopted for use in grade K – 5 in all county schools, was not adopted by the state for Grade 5 because it didn’t meet enough state standards of learning.  To select Investigations and follow the law, PWCS needed to follow the procedure provided in the regulation governing local adoption of non-state adopted textbooks.

The state regulation governing local adoptions of non-state adopted textbooks is pretty straightforward.  The school district has to convene a committee that’s representative of the district in general, it has to consider the state adopted textbooks, it has to develop a list of evaluation criteria and have those criteria approved by the local school board, and it has to let the state know which textbooks it selected.

Determining whether PWCS did or did not follow these simple steps has been extremely difficult -  particularly determining whether the PWC  school board approved the textbook evaluation criteria – a step which was only necessary because the textbook the school district was considering was not recommended by the state.

Initially PWCS officials claimed that Investigations was approved by the state.  These statements were made by various officials in writing, in testimony before the PWC School Board, and in statements at Math Nights.

Then, after admitting that Investigations was not state adopted for Grade 5, PWCS officials asserted that they didn’t need to follow the state regulation because they’d adopted a subsequent edition of Investigations. Unfortunately, the subsequent edition hasn’t been reviewed by the state which means that the county would still need to follow the state regulation for non-state adopted textbooks.

Then, in written responses to questions submitted under FOIA,  PWCS officials asserted that the textbook evaluation criteria hadn’t been approved by the school board because it wasn’t the school board’s job to approve the textbook evaluation criteria.

Finally, in response to a request that the Attorney General review the applicable regulations to ascertain whether they did or did not apply to PWCS, the attorney for the PWC school board claimed that the textbook evaluation criteria had been approved by the school board when it approved regulation 653-2.

As before, this claim seems to disregard reality in two key areas:

• The textbook evaluation criteria PWCS officials claim are contained in regulation 653-2 in part II D aren’t contained anywhere in the rubric of criteria PWCS officials admit was developed to select a math textbook; and,
• PWC regulation 653-2 was approved by the PWC School Board in September 2004. The VA Board of Education approved the list of recommended and non-state recommended textbooks on January 15, 2005. The regulation PWC officials claim contains the actual textbook evaluation criteria was approved by the PWC School Board four months before the list of state adopted and non-state adopted textbooks was released.

By that logic PWC could select a non-state adopted textbook that teaches that the earth is flat and not obtain school board approval for the criteria used to select that textbook because the actual criteria were contained in a  county regulation passed in 2004.

Determining whether PWCS followed the appropriate state regulation or not shouldn’t be this difficult.

Maybe it’s time for the State Board of Education to investigate.

State Board May Investigate PWCS

Some time ago we posted a article with concerns that the process followed by PWCS in adopting Investigations for elementary students countywide didn’t follow state procedures (see  here and a longer post here).  Officials with PWCS continued to assert that they had followed all applicable state regulations when it seemed quite clear to us that they had not.

The issue became a bit more confusing when employees at the Virginia Department of Education implied that local school districts didn’t need to follow state regulations and that the DOE wouldn’t enforce the regulations anyway.  That prompted one of our parents to contact Delegate Bob Marshall to determine whether state regulations matter.

Delegate Bob Marshall asked the VA Attorney General to look into the issue.  The AG recently issued his opinion (see here) and he concluded that local school districts do need to comply with regulations issued by the State Board of Education. The AG declined to rule on whether PWCS did or did not follow those regulations when it selected Investigations because issuing rulings on facts is not his delegated responsibility. That responsibility, according to the AG, rests with the State Board of Education.

Because concerns still exist regarding whether PWCS violated state regulations when it selected Investigations, Delegate Bob Marshall is considering contacting the State Board of Education and asking them to investigate.

The issue isn’t one of whether you think Investigations is great or terrible – it’s whether you think local school districts ought to follow state regulations or not. If you think it’s important for government agencies to follow the law, then maybe you should contact Delegate Marshall and ask him to push for an investigation. His contact information is below.

Delegate Bob Marshall
Email: DelBMarshall@house.virginia.gov
District phone: (703) 361-5416
Richmond phone: (804) 698-1013

11th High School Boundary Decision

On Wednesday May 20th, the school board voted to approve boundary Plan B1 for the 11th High School. You can find this plan on the PWCS web site.

The public hearing on the boundary recommendation was long. About 50 people spoke, with groups supporting plan C, C1, or B1.

Gil Trenum, the Brentsville District Board Member, proposed that the board adopt a revised version of Plan C1 which would have sent the Ashley’s Ridge community to the 11th High School and Great Oaks Community to Brentsville. Chairman Johns seconded the motion and added that he believed the Governor’s school students should be hosted at SJHS. The other board members commented that while they understood the parent’s concerns,  they believed that opening a school at 106% capacity and allowing that school to rise to 115% capacity in just a few years was not advisable, especially when a nearby school would be below capacity. Chairman Johns noted that in the past board members have deferred to the board member from the affected district in boundary decisions, and that that trend was apparently changing.

Mr Trenum’s motion was voted down 6 votes to 2, with Chariman Johns and Mr Trenum providing the Yea votes.

Plan B1 was then proposed by Mr Trenum, and, after some discussion, approved by the entire school board.

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If you would like to comment about the board’s decision, please feel free to do so here.  Comments on all other boundary threads are now closed.

The latest on bringing real math back to PWC

The latest is that as far as the school board is concerned, their 7 points to a highly ineffective math program are the end of it and nothing more will be considered until test results are available in August, if they even consider it then.   While the school board has given up and gone with it’s all too typical do nothing while faking action approach, we have not stopped our efforts, and nor should you.

First, the school board tossed the issue onto each school’s laps.  Feedback we’re getting from parents indicates that most schools are doing nothing and will be continuing forward with whatever the math department tells them to do.  A handful of schools have convened committees to look into the issue, but feedback from parents on those committees indicates that they are nothing more than window dressing and covering up that the school will do whatever the math department tells it to do.  Schools have no autonomy to adapt the pacing or content of lessons and no budget to purchase alternate materials even if they wanted to.

So you can’t depend on your local school to make any sort of substantive changes without the math department’s approval and the math department is all about Investigations.

Each teacher should have been provided a black line master from the old SFAW series.  The black line master is a booklet of black lined worksheets that teachers can easily Xerox and give to students.  While I applaud the school board’s decision to purchase these for all teachers, I’d hope that the teachers wouldn’t just hand them to their students without actually teaching them the processes necessary to solve the problems. Since textbooks and alternate instructional materials didn’t accompany the black line masters, while providing the black line masters is a step in the right direction, it’s not going to change anything because the teacher have neither the time nor the materials available to actually teach the topics our children desperately need.

That means that if you want you child to be taught a semblance of real math in school, then you’ll need to engage your child’s teacher directly.

The schools are required to provide a differentiated instructional program that meets every child’s needs.  If you believe the program of instruction your child is receiving is inadequate, then you need to speak up and discuss your concerns with your child’s teacher.   You need to ask what your child’s teacher will do to challenge your child and what alternate materials he / she uses to provide your child with differentiated instruction. You’ll need to ask to see those materials and review them yourself to determine whether they’re adequate.

Second, and most important, is that the school system can’t supplement it’s way out of the Investigations hole. Short of yanking the entire section on Computation and Number Reasoning and replacing it with alternate materials, the instructional program in Prince William County schools will not be sufficient to prepare your child for higher math and college level courses.

In short, the Prince William County School system had given up teaching your child math.  That responsibility now rests with you.  That means you will have to purchase instructional materials and teach your child yourself or hire a tutor.  There are lots of programs available – many county parents use the Singapore Math program while other go to Kumon, Sylvan or other private tutoring programs.

The third, and final thing, is that you need to stay involved. This experiment won’t end with Investigations in Elementary School. It will extend to Connected Math in Middle School and a similarly horrible program in High School. Our only chance of getting real math for our children is to demand instructional choice.

In the Fall we need to make sure that our support for instructional choice is heard loud and clear by the school board and if they fail to act, again, then we need to take that concern and vote in school board members who support instructional choice.

Citizen Plan for 11th High School – Plan C1

Concerned citizens have drawn up an alternate boundary plan for the school board to consider.  The plan, called C1, can be found here.

The plan is the same a plan C except the boundary along Devlin Road is extended to Wellington Road, thereby encompassing Sheffield Manor and the other “Devlin Road” communities within the boundary of the 11th high school.  The net effect of this change is that, based on PWCS enrollment estimates, the 11th HS will be overcapacity by 100 – 200 students each year.

What does this plan mean to Bristow Area neighborhoods in the Route 28 corridor (from Devlin Road to Route 28)?

The following communities will remain at Brentsville HS:

• Bristow Village
• Ashely’s Ridge

The following communities will be assigned to the 11th HS:

• Saybrooke
• Braemar
• Victory Lakes
• Sheffield Manor
• Crossman’s Creek
• Lanier Farms

11th High School – new thread

Editors Comment – this article was corrected due to inaccurate demographic data.  Plan B1 provides the most balanced enrollment of the 4 “active” plans, not the most balanced demographics.

Because the comments have gotten rather long, the issue is changing rapidly, and emotions are running high, the moderators thought a new thread dedicated to the 11th High School Boundary issue might be in order.  We have closed comments on the other articles – which are linked below so that you can review them.

To recap, there are currently 3 “active” plans on the PWCS web site:
Plan A1
Plan B1
Plan C

There is also a new, citizen developed plan listed as active on the PWCS web site, Plan C1

Plan B1 was recommended by the planning office to the school board.

Commentary received at this site indicate that most of the debate is focused on the following issues:

• demographic balance / inbalance at SJHS
• keeping Victory Lakes / Sheffield Manor together
• keeping Great Oaks / Mayfield Trace together
• ensuring that Marsteller feeds the fewest HS’s possible
• keeping Marsteller students together

Plan B1 results in overcrowding at 1 of the 5 west end schools by 2014, feeds Marsteller students to three different high schools, keeps VL & SM together at SJHS, and keeps the Great Oaks / Mayfield Trace communities together by reassigning them from SJHS to Brentsville.  Under this plan SJHS is below 90% capacity in 2011 but returns to 90% capcaity by 2012.

Plan C  results in slight overcrowding at the 11th HS school by 2014, sends Marsteller students to two different high schools instead of three, breaks VL & SM children apart by sending SM children to SJHS and VL children to the 11th high school, sends Ashley’s Ridge children to Brentsville instead of the 11th High School, and breaks the Great Oaks / Mayfield Trace communities apart by sending the communities on the Godwin Road side of 234 to SJHS  and the communities on the Lucasville Road side of 234 to Brentsville.  Under this plan SJHS never drops below 90% capacity, but Brentsville is below 90% capacity until 2014.

Plan C1 is almost the same as plan C, but it sends both SM & VL to the 11th High School.  As a result, overcrowding at the 11th high school under plan C1 is an issue from the day the school opens while SJ and Brentsville remain under capacity.  Under plan C1 both SJHS and Brentsville are below 90% capacity until 2014.

Several other articles have been posted to this blog regarding the 11th high school boundaries.

For the article summarizing the PWCS proposed plans and the more than 100 comments, please click here.

For the email send from the Committee to Keep Marsteller Together regarding their support for plan C, click here.

11th High School Proposed Boundary Plan

The PWCS Office of Planning and Construction formally proposed boundary plan B1 to the school board for the 11th high school.  Under this plan Victory Lakes, Sheffield Manor, Independence and the communities along that portion of Devlin and Sudley Manor Drive will remain at Stonewall.  Communities along Glenkirk up to and slightly across 29 – which include Virginia Oaks, Glenkirk, and Brookside – will be reassigned from Battlefield to the 11th High School.

The plan will be voted on in 2 weeks. Having been through this sort of thing in the past, generally whatever school staff propose to the school board is approved.  That means plan B1 is likely to be the final boundary plan for the western end high schools.

The plan will take effect in the Fall of 2011 when the school opens and calls for 9th and 10th grade students to move to their new school, gives 11th grade students a choice to move to their new school or remain at their old school, and allows 12th grade students to graduate from their current school.

That means the children in 10th grade today will be allowed to graduate from the school they currently attend, children in 9th grade today will be given a choice as to the school they’ll attend, and children in 7th and 8th grade will attend whatever school they’re assigned to under the new plan.

Don Richardson, the School Board representative from Gainesville District, suggested that the plan be enacted in the Fall for students who will move from Battlefield to Stonewall or from Brentsville to Stonewall when the 11th high school is completed.  That means that if  you live in Victory Lakes or   Sheffield Manor and you have a child in 8th grade who expects to attend Brentsville next year, your child may be compelled to attend Stonewall instead.  Parents who live in those communities may want to let the school board know what they think of that proposal ASAP.

There seems to be quite a bit of concern regarding  Stonewall High School from parents in communities along the Linton Hall corridor.  While this will come as no consolation to parents in those communities, officials from Stonewall and PWCS really need to reach out to those communities and attempt to address their concerns.

Whether it’s true of not, Stonewall has become known as the gang school in the county and many parents are worried about sending their children into that environment.  Ignoring the problem, or brushing the concerned parents off as elitists, fixes nothing.