- Posted by David on March 25, 2010
chicagotribune.com
Illinois school budgets at the breaking point
Many, like Wheaton Warrenville School District 200, have been spending more than they take in
By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah, Tribune reporter
9:25 PM CDT, March 24, 2010
Long before the state's budget crisis led to predictions of dire cuts in education, Wheaton Warrenville School District 200 was spending beyond its means.
The K-12 district, based in the affluent western suburb of Wheaton, consistently ranks among the state's top performers. But that performance has come at a cost. Like a surging number of districts around the state, it is spending more than it brings in, forcing a reckoning.
District 200 has been spending into a deficit every year since 2002. It has taken out millions of dollars in loans and dipped into reserves to pay the bills. Last year the district cut nearly $7 million out of its budget, and this year it plans to cut up to 73 teachers and reduce spending by another $7 million.
District officials blame the tax cap, which brought only $106,000 more in local property taxes this year. They blame the state for being late on $6.4 million in aid payments. And to some extent, they blame themselves and the educational arms race that pressures districts to keep up with their neighbors.
The district recently had the state's highest-paid superintendent. Faced with staff predictions in 2006 of a "problematic" financial outlook, the district agreed to a teachers' contract that raised average salaries 17 percent from 2006 to 2009, more than double the state average of 8 percent.
"It's frankly unsustainable" said Mark Stern, a Wheaton resident who took District 200 to court in 2006 after it refused to make that superintendent's contract public. "The average teacher makes $72,000, which is a pretty good salary even for a full-time job, and (the former superintendent's) contract had everything and the kitchen sink in it."
The Wheaton district is a snapshot of the troubles facing many school districts today. Shackled by teachers' contracts, generous administrative salaries and benefits, increasing special education needs and parents' expectations, many have been overspending. State officials say 41 percent of school districts — 355 out of 869 — were spending into a deficit in 2009. The number is expected to go up to 44 percent in 2010.
As in every budget mismatch, this one is partly about the amount of money coming in — revenue — and partly about the amount of money going out.
On the revenue side, the recession has kept a lid on local tax caps at the same time that the state fell behind on aid payments, said William Phillips, an associate professor of educational leadership at the University of Illinois at Springfield. The governor has proposed big cuts for next year.
"So now they're getting hit with three different major funding sources being reduced and they are doing what they never wanted to do, which is drastically cutting their programs and staff," he said. "The bottom line is, districts are spending more than they're taking in."
Like many school districts, the growth of District 200's tax levy is limited by a cap of 5 percent or the consumer price index, whichever is less. This year's index fell to 0.1 percent, and next year's is 2.7 percent. Had the economy not nosedived and the CPI stayed static at 4 percent, the district would have received an extra $4 million in revenue this year, estimates Bill Farley, assistant superintendent of business operations.
Despite the rough economy, the district did not foresee that state funding, which pays 15 percent of the bills, would dry up. This year, the state has made only its first-quarter payments, and is behind on the rest.
Meanwhile, spending in the district, which draws 13,640 students from Wheaton, Warrenville and parts of Carol Stream, Winfield and West Chicago, has been steadily rising. Since 2005, the gap between revenues and expenses has more than tripled, to $8.6 million for the next school year.
District 200 officials say the salary and benefits they offer teachers and administrators allow it to remain competitive with other high-performing districts, such as those in Naperville and on the North Shore. If there are more teachers or administrators per student and the district is spending 22.5 percent more for each student in the past five years, they say, it's because that's what parents want.
"We react to the needs and desires of the people we serve," said District 200 spokesman Robert Rammer. "People say they want smaller class sizes, good educational programs, and we respond to what our community wants."
Eighty percent of District 200's $151 million budget goes to salaries and benefits — including 100 percent of administrators' health and dental insurance premiums until five years after retirement. In 2006, then-Superintendent Gary Catalani earned $380,000, thanks to end-of-contract bonuses, giving him the dubious distinction of being the state's highest-paid superintendent.
When the school board decided last fall to let go of Catalani's replacement, they not only had to pay his $208,000 salary, but a $60,000 severance payment. The new superintendent, scheduled to start in July, has a lower salary of $195,000, but parents are upset over his $600-a-month travel allowance.
"What were they thinking?" questions parent Julie Georgiou, who has four children in the school district. "He's making $195,000 a year. He can more than afford his car. You couldn't see (that contract) would be an issue, where you're telling people we're going to increase class sizes?"
The ever-expanding staff rolls have contributed too. Enrollment fell by 621 students between 2005 and 2009, without corresponding decreases in staff. The student-to-administrator ratio went from 267.8 to 249.7 during that time, and the district added 31 more teachers.
Officials say initiatives like the federal No Child Left Behind law require more staff to mine assessment data and help struggling students achieve state standards. Plus, a growing population of students who are poor, require special education or English as a Second Language services has put a financial strain on the district.
"All of that costs money," says board member Barbara Intihar. "There's more students coming in without the basics, and we need to give them more attention."
Officials have frozen administrative salaries and are negotiating the next teachers' contract. But, they say, they've got to stay competitive to attract and retain the best teachers and administrators.
"The (teachers' union) says, ‘We feel we should have this because the guy down the street is getting this,'" Intihar said. "Our staff says, ‘Here's what other districts are agreeing to,' and we have to be competitive. Let's say there's an administrator from Naperville. If all I can offer is a 50 percent pay cut, then what are the odds of him coming here?"
District 200 interim superintendent Charles Baker said the education system as a whole needs to re-evaluate teacher raises, currently based on longevity and education. Those raises need to be tied to performance, he said.
Bryce Cann, president of the Wheaton Warrenville Education Association, which represents 1,082 members, including teachers and counselors, said teachers are being responsive to the district's financial crunch.
"I think what we're looking at is that whatever we put together is done with a careful look to making sure that the district is on a solid financial footing," Cann said.
But, he added: "We believe that it is reasonable to have professional pay for a job that requires a professional."
Expenses aren't just about salaries. Even as the district has tried to cut other expenses over the years, parents have offered resistance.
Case in point: Baker, a former high school principal, remembers a time in the early 1990s when parents expected Wheaton Warrenville South High School to have a swim team even though it had no pool.
"Instead of saying, ‘No, we can't have swimming; there's no pool,' we said, ‘Yes. We'll figure out a way to have swimming.' It's people like me that created that gap," Baker conceded.
Proposed budget cuts drew 400 parents to a board meeting this month. Everyone from parents of gifted students, to those needing extra reading help, to those whose children are involved in middle school sports argued for their programs to remain intact. No one wanted class sizes increased, not even if it meant one extra student per class.
The gifted reading program was put back in. Thirteen elementary classroom aides were kept. High school competitive swimming stayed too.
District officials say the only solution may be a tax hike to pay for it all. They plan to approach voters for a rate referendum question. If that fails, expect more cuts ahead.
"Communities have to think differently and districts have to think differently" given today's budget realities, Rammer said. "But will (the community) accept a six-period day at the high school? Will our parents accept an additional student per grade level? That's the conundrum."
nahmed@tribune.com
Copyright © 2010, Chicago Tribune
- Posted by David on March 10, 2010
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-03-10-ravitchbook10_st_N.htm
NOTE: The comments to the article are very interesting.
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
Education historian Diane Ravitch can pinpoint the day when she realized public schools in the USA were racing down a perilous road, one that promised long-sought reforms but would never deliver — and probably make things worse.
It was Nov. 30, 2006.
That's the day, nearly five years after Congress passed the No Child Left Behind education reform law, when Ravitch found herself in the downtown Washington, D.C., conference room of the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute, listening to a series of presenters weigh in on the measure's "remedies" for low-performing schools. Many of the presenters that Thursday were ideological allies of President George W. Bush, who had pushed for more standardized testing and free-market competition among public schools.
A well-known contrarian and a life-long
Democrat, Ravitch had long derided the national infatuation with education "fads, movements and reforms," which she says distract Americans from "the steadiness of purpose needed to improve our schools."
So it was significant that she supported No Child Left Behind, the sweeping reform law at the center of Bush's domestic agenda. But each of the scholars said essentially the same thing: None of the prescribed remedies was making a difference.
Thus began a "wrenching transformation" for Ravitch, a New York University scholar who has long been a fixture in Washington education circles. She advised the first President Bush as an assistant secretary and served both Bill Clinton and the younger Bush on the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees annual testing.
In her new book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System, Ravitch blasts No Child Left Behind, which she says promotes "a cramped, mechanistic, profoundly anti-intellectual definition of education" — as well as virtually every other recent reform effort that has sought to inject more free-market competition and accountability into education. She finds much to dislike: charter schools, high-stakes tests, corporate-style school management teams and the rising influence of foundation-funded reforms.
Over several decades, Ravitch says, American schools have essentially lost their way, forgetting to focus on giving students a solid curriculum and strong teachers. Instead, she says, we've bumbled through a series of crises that have left us with "vague and meaningless standards," an odd, antagonistic public-private competition and an "obsession" with test scores.
"If the goal of schooling is to produce educated people, we've lost sight of that goal," she says in an interview.
Ravitch says charter schools, privately run but publicly funded, cherry-pick a neighborhood's best students and kick out under-performers, forcing surrounding public schools to teach a depleted talent pool.
It's a far cry from the vision of Albert Shanker, the late American Federation of Teachers leader who championed charter schools in the late 1980s. Shanker, she says, envisioned charters as small "laboratories of innovation" within existing public schools. What they've become, she says, is a privatized sector that competes with the public school and in some cases wants to "kill" it.
As charters expand — and President Obama is rewarding states that lift their charter school caps — neighborhood schools will be left with larger shares of new immigrants, unmotivated students and those with disabilities, Ravitch says.
But Nelson Smith of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools says charter schools have enrolled nearly the same percentage of disabled students as public schools (11.9% vs. 12.4%) and a greater percentage of English-language learners (16.5% vs. 11.2%).
He notes that a RAND study of Texas and California charter schools found that students there enter charters academically behind their peers. Ravitch, he says, views traditional neighborhood schools "in a rose-tinged rearview mirror." Some schools, he says, "are still quite wonderful, but too many simply fail to educate some or all of their students — the fact Al Shanker decried 22 years ago in proposing charters."
Looking ahead, Ravitch says, Obama hasn't learned from the mistakes of the younger Bush, the first president to explicitly tie school ratings to test scores. If anything, he has accelerated that effort: Obama's major education initiative rewards states that tie teacher evaluations to student test scores.
Rick Hess, the American Enterprise Institute scholar who organized the 2006 conference, says he and Ravitch actually agree on a few basic ideas — that Obama and Arne Duncan, his Education secretary, are making the same mistakes as Bush on charter schools and increasing federal control over local education decisions.
"But she concludes, I think wrongly, that if we dial back to neighborhood schools, we're going to find a way to recruit 3.4 million super-talented teachers, we're going to find a way to devise broad, rigorous, enticing curricula," Hess says. "And I have to say, 'Wait a minute — we have never done that!' "
- Posted by David on March 1, 2010
Dr. Vicky Schreiber Dill and Delia Stafford-Johnson - Knowledge workers, mid-career teachers know from firsthand experience, will come from schools where mathematics and science content is well taught. Alternative teacher certification programs smooth the way for high tech workers rich in this knowledge to move from work to school.
THE DATA IS IN: WHAT WORKS IN ALTERNATIVE TEACHER CERTIFICATION PROGRAM DESIGN
By Dr. Vicky Schreiber Dill and Delia Stafford-Johnson
Knowledge workers, mid-career teachers know from firsthand experience, will come from schools where mathematics and science content is well taught. Alternative teacher certification programs smooth the way for high tech workers rich in this knowledge to move from work to school. Because alternative teacher certification programs are vacancy-driven, ie., they require that a school have a vacancy before an individual can apply. Many schools have vacancies in mathematics and science, and a higher proportion of the alternatively certified interns are in shortage areas such as mathematics, science, and special education (. Researchers Feistritzer and Chester note, "People from all walks of life are stepping forward to meet the projected demand for teachers. Many of these individuals already have at least a bachelor's degree, so the old model of training teachers in undergraduate education programs does not work. . ." (ibid).
In most of the programs, individuals wishing to move from business or industry into the classroom begin the process in the early spring, usually February, March, or April. They often garner the support of their employer to visit classrooms while still employed, or they take several vacation days to do so. Early visits are "guided observations" in which candidates are queried about what they observe and their reaction to it. These early field experiences remind potential candidates of the context of school, the nature of children and their concerns, the actual teaching task, and work conditions for teachers. Some candidates may choose, even very early on, to transition to a different midcareer job. However, those who remain interested and committed to the process proceed on several parallel tracks through the interview and selection process. Candidates gather a variety of documents: official transcripts, perhaps portfolios of previous work experience, application documents, course descriptions, grade point average analysis, and other paperwork the program requires. Many candidates go through rigorous screening, interviewing, assessment, performance, and testing procedures, often held on Saturdays for the convenience of those who are fulltime employed. All receive background criminal record checks. More will be said about these important upfront screening processes in a later column. In short, alternative teacher certification program background and screening procedures are as rigorous as if not more rigorous than many undergraduate or traditional programs. Having cleared this process, candidates then start looking for employment.
After the candidate has secured employment and is officially admitted, s/he attends many evening and Saturday classes throughout the summer. Observations increase and intensify, often using summer school settings. "Super Saturdays" are common, focusing on curriculum and management, teaching specific subjects such as mathematics, reading, or science, legal and ethical issues are covered, diversity discussed, how to modify teaching for special education students, and more are all covered as simultaneous observations occur. Students may or may not receive credit at a local college for this work, depending on the nature of the program. In many cases, by the middle or end of July, the candidate terminates employment with the former employer, studies fulltime with the program, joins other new faculty for intern as well as general orientation sessions, and begins teaching fulltime.
Throughout the year, several levels of supervisors cooperate to supervise the intern. The mentor supports and does not evaluate. Throughout the novice year, the intern gathers teaching products, test scores, videos, portfolios, and other evidence of teaching competency. Principal observations are key. Peer review and support are also critical. Self-reflection, written and discussed, helps build the expectation that teaching is a lifelong challenge learned over many years. The intern experience, because it is highly structured and the task of learning to teach is in process and not even the illusion of being "complete" or "ready" is entertained, revolves around discussion of pedagogy and student learning. Interns are less likely to be isolated than are already certified novices; it is "okay" for them not to know everything. Making mistakes is, for the intern, a platform from which to jump to new learning.
What could be better for the children and youth of America? Long-term subs? Emergency certified teachers? Post-baccalaureate patched together programs? Certificates by exam? Subs with high school diplomas? Immature teachers whose knowledge base is so weak, it endangers the economic future of our country? Surely new programs, now evidencing greater diversity, superior retention, and systemic advantages over the old approach, will help solve the national problem of placing in front of every child - especially children at risk - an adequate supply of high quality teachers. The children now in kindergarten are tomorrow’s inventors, bankers, and technology workers; they and every child in the public schools deserve nothing less.
For further information about how your school or university can develop Alternative Teacher Certification programs, please contact The National Center for Alternative Teacher Certification Information at http://web.archive.org/web/20010419233356/http://www.altcert.org/ or call 713-667-6185.
For many years Dr. Dill worked at The Texas Education Agency reviewing traditional teacher education programs and building alternative program and has many years of experience in teacher education in colleges and university. Dr. Dill authored A Peaceable School: Creating a Culture of Non-Violence published by Phi Delta Kappa (1999). Dr. Dill is currently Associate Director of Special Programs for Round Rock ISD (Round Rock, TX) and Senior Researcher for The Haberman Foundation/NCATCI. Delia Stafford-Johnson is President and CEO of The Haberman Educational Foundation/National Center for Alternative Teacher Certification Information (NCATCI). For ten years, she was Director of the first alternative teacher certification program in Texas started in the Houston Independent School District and has twice been honored by President Bush at the White House for her work in teacher education.
Next Time: Why alternative teacher certification is systemically designed to find teachers for gifted, at-risk, and special needs students.
Accountability Complete.
Because certification is with-held until the intern year is complete and all performance data is in, principals and hiring teams have a whole year to watch a new teacher perform before awarding a contract. It is much easier to "deselect" an uncertified intern or novice than an already certified hire. Principals appreciate this flexibility while remaining invested in the hiring decisions they have already made. Clearly, when the sending teaching institution is systemically related to the receiving institution, accountability dramatically increases. Feedback is also facilitated. Principals and program directors have every incentive in the world to constantly improve their certification program; they have to live with the product! If all goes well, by the end of the year, the principal recommends the intern be certified and rehired. Many programs last more than one year or have multiple extensions available for added endorsements, to improve aspects of performance, or receive certification in multiple subjects.
Support a Critical Component.
All alternative teacher certification programs provide some type of mentoring for interns. The presence of a trained mentor, usually paid and held accountable, is built into the hands-on learning environment. The mentor and the intern set up the room for the first time, go over details of grade or subject-level building work, and share the start of the new year. The mentor is usually matched by the principal to the intern by free period, subject-alike, proximity, or grade-alike. Current public awareness and media attention to the national teacher shortage has focused much attention on mentoring in the last decade; however, few structured mentoring programs have longevity in schools nationwide. In alternative teacher certification programs, however, this aspect is systemically built in. Mentors join the principals, perhaps a college or program level supervisor, and district administrators in providing the intern "another pair of eyes" to reflect and support throughout the crucial first year. Interns progress through the program in cohorts, providing one another support and encouragement. Mentors also train in cohorts and help one another learn how to care for novices to the profession. Mentoring new teachers, when well learned and rewarded, can be one of the most coveted perks in the teaching profession.
Driven by and Responding to the Neediest.
By late April, May or June, many principals know approximately how many teachers they will need. At that point, program candidates can begin conversations with the potential employing principal. Site-based committees meet and hiring decisions are made. In most cases, a candidate cannot be admitted into a program if s/he has no position because the programs require that an candidate (when fully employed usually called an "intern") be the official or "teacher of record" serving in a classroom which would be, without that person, vacant. As noted in the first column, this vacancy-basing ensures 1) that intern teachers will be hired for specific classrooms, often classrooms that would otherwise be served by long-term substitutes or novices just out of college; 2) that resources are being poured into individuals who will be teaching in actual vacancies such as special education, mathematics, or science, and not into certifications in which there is little or no need; 3) that the neediest students are more likely to experience a more mature, diverse, work-experienced adult.
Not Teach for America.
Alternative teacher certification is not Teach for America or Troops to Teachers or certification on-line or any one particular program, although these niche programs may fill a need. Rather, the forty states which have programs have developed a variety of models that are client-friendly for degreed individuals wishing to enter the classroom. Over a hundred such programs exist (ibid), most of them demonstrating the same basic design. That design is flexible, builds on candidates’ strengths, is vacancy-driven, and client-centered. How do these highly successful new programs work?
We Have Charts and Graphs.
The data is unequivocal: in 1998-1999, 24,000 new teachers have entered teaching through alternative certification routes; in total, nationwide, since about 1985, about 125,000 individuals have been added alternatively. Unlike graduates of traditional routes, these individuals share characteristics that make them a superior choice to teach all children, especially children at risk. They already have degrees, are more likely to have work experience outside professional education; they tend to be older than traditional graduates, they are more likely to be people of color and more are likely to be male (NCEI-Feistritzer, http: www.ncei.com/NR020300.htm, 2/3/00). This research is not new; findings like these have held consistent for the last fifteen years and can be verified in scholarly journals and refereed articles from many sources (see Dill, "Alternative Teacher Certification, Handbook of Research on Teacher Education-Ed Sikula, John. Chapter 43, pp. 932ff, 1996).
School to Work; Work to School.
As older adults with work experience, many alternatively certified teachers are better equipped than traditional graduates to help students prepare for the world of work. Their recent experience in the work place provides a relevant background for the many students who regularly cant, "What do we have to know this for?" More important, their increasingly powerful presence in the public schools creates a voice of accountability to the business community, so eager to find excellent teachers of mathematics and science. As recent public events verify, finding good teachers of mathematics and science is a national mandate high on the agenda of leaders like incumbent President Bush who, January 3, 2000 convened business leaders behind closed doors in Austin (TX) to listen to their workforce needs. These leaders made it clear that the ongoing crisis in the teaching force continues to play a role in the national economy. Bush heard these leaders say, "Business will go anywhere in the world where good workers can be found." (CNN broadcast 1/4/01).