Submitted by John Arbeeny.
A drowning man strives mightily expending far more energy than an accomplished swimmer. The result of all that striving? A drowned man.
So too it is with organizations; specifically Clover Park School District striving mightily but drowning academically.
I reviewed the 28 February 2022 Clover Park School Board retreat on YouTube and read the 3 March 2022 Suburban Times article “CP School District February 2022 Board Review” and came away with this impression of CPSD.
Central to the retreat were the briefings on attendance, discipline (more on these in future articles) and Accountability Plan Review which contains the District’s six goals and the basis for assessing the Superintendent’s performance:
- Student Achievement/Growth (3 slides)
- Parent and Community Engagement (4 slides)
- Communication with Stakeholders (3 slides)
- Supportive Learning Environment (3 slides)
- Human Resources (4 slides)
- Fiscal Responsibilities (3 slides)
Cultural Competence, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (CCDEI) was conspicuously absent and should have been Goal #7. CCDEI has become a central theme in the District, affecting Goals 1 – 6. What has been lacking to date are CCDEI definitions, metrics for measurement, and accountability: perhaps they don’t exist in quantifiable terms. Indeed we are paying $250,000 in salary and benefits to two District employees to do just that since 2018.
Goal #1, Student Achievement/Growth is fundamentally different than Goals 2 – 6. Goal #1 is in fact why we have public school systems: student achievement and growth. It is the primary goal. Functions in Goals 2 – 6 can only be rated based upon the extent that they support Goal #1, not in and of themselves. Yet in actual retreat coverage we have but 3 slides for Goal #1 and 17 slides for Goals 2 – 6.
That in itself shows where the District’s emphasis is: expending a lot of energy but to what purpose? It matters little how “successful” the District is in pursuing Goals 2 – 6 if in fact the expenditure of all that energy, like a drowning man, is for naught in achieving Goal #1.
The District’s 3 March article about the 28 February retreat, as well as the retreat briefings themselves, give little insight as to the actual trends in any of the six Goals or their support of Goal #1. So rather than depending upon the “vanilla” recitations I went directly to the sources of how well the District was accomplishing Goal #1.
The following data was taken directly for the “OSPI Report Card” and School Digger and is just a sample of where the District and select schools rank in terms of Goal #1 achievement, statewide between school years 2019 and 2021-2022. It’s not good!
- Clover Park School District ranking: bottom 29%; DOWN 6%.
- Clover Park High School ranking: bottom 6%; DOWN 10%.
- Hudtloff Middle School ranking: bottom 12%; DOWN 21%.
- Lochburn Middle School ranking: bottom 5%; NO IMPROVEMENT (sadly the average ranking unchanged since 2016).
Blame it on COVID? Not so fast! All schools have faced the same challenges but with very different results. There have been other schools such as Lakes High School and General Harrison Prep that have weathered the COVID storm and actually made gains.
- Lakes High School ranking: 56%; UP 12%.
- General Harrison Prep ranking: 83%; UP 17%.
This disparity in performance begs the question: why? How come the District generally and some schools specifically are drowning while others are swimming? If District policies and efforts in Goals 2 – 6 are the same for all schools, then why the stark differences?
I’d suggest that the primary factors for success or failure are the schools’ administrators and not Board policies, Superintendent implementation, District staff activities and or the energy expended in Goals 2 – 6! It’s all about local school leadership focusing their energies with Goal #1 in mind. It’s not about doing lots of “stuff” but rather doing only the right “stuff” to accomplish the primary mission: Goal #1.
Clearly a more focused approach to leadership and mission accomplishment must be forthcoming from the Board in policy and accountability through Superintendent implementation to correct these disparities. Simply expending more energy in Goals 2 – 6 is not the answer to solving the disparities in Goal #1. The key to high performance is changing how you do what you do rather than just piling on more people, “stuff” and money so you can do it poorly faster.
The Board needs to take a serious look at schools that are drowning versus those that can swim upstream. The Board must begin to make changes in policy that creates a “rising tide” that will elevate all schools in their achievement of Goal #1 without flailing in an attempt to do so and hold the Superintendent accountable for the results.
A clear eyed look at the most most important measurement of performance by any school system reveals an educational bureaucracy failing in its primary mission. Students are being failed by the school system leaving them with lower prospects for a successful life.
Many have no idea of the dismal academic ranking of the Clover Park School District in Washington State, including at least one school board director who, after Director Paul Wagemann referred to them in the March 14 board meeting, expressed surprise and a desire to see the source. Thank you, Mr. Arbeeny for performing the public service of creating awareness of these statistics and the objective resources available to all who care.
The Clover Park School Board has a major challenge facing them in addressing the problem of poor academic performance and exploring new ways to overcome deficits. Clearly, the “way things have always been done” is not the answer.
Not to put a too fine point on it but here’s just a sample of more grim facts from the OSPI report card website.
Clover Park High School percent of students meeting grade standards:
English Language Arts (ELA): 20.3%
Mathematics: 5.4%…………can you go any lower????
Science: 21.4%
Graduation rate after 4 years: 87%……..this says volumes about who we are actually graduating.
As JB put it……..”Students are being failed by the school system leaving them with lower prospects for a successful life.”
Every child in the district has a right to show up and try.
That is the very definition of CCDEI.
After listening to “representative” Marilyn Strickland’s town hall meeting over the phone last night, there is little wonder that we are here.
There was very little representation and a whole lot of projection, seeming to stem from a life of disappointment.
Her message was conflicted – speaking of voting rights and national sovereignty, while running rough-shod over other Constitutional rights.
She made the claim of being a “life-long democrat”, clearly excluding conservative members of our 10th district.
It seems clear that “representative” Strickland fancies herself as more of a leader than a representative, as her ideology does not mesh with the many people I know in our district.
Hers is the same ideology that seems hell-bent on change without clear direction or objective.
Going to Washington DC and coming back with bags full of borrowed money to buy favor, is not necessarily good for those who must repay it with interest.
This is the divisive confusion that leads nowhere but to lower standards and resentment.
I tried to call in to the question and answer period but she did not take my call.
I was going to write to her directly with more detail, but what’s the point. Let this statement suffice.
John, I fear your careful analysis falls mostly on deaf ears.
How else could we be scraping bottom in preparing our children for a productive future?
Don’t lose hope. There are those of us out here who do care about the future of our community, State and Nation and are putting ourselves out there for change. The election of David Anderson to the Clover Park School District Board is testament to what hard work can accomplish even against an entrenched incumbent. That same hard work has made a significant impact on the Board itself in just the last 3 months with more positive changes forthcoming. Your posting to the Suburban Times is part of that movement. By all means challenge Rep. Strickland again and again and again! I’ve often done it on articles she has posted to the Suburban Times. It’s one way we get our message out. We can do this! Welcome to the fight!
Mr. Arbenny, please provide citation to what you state is in fact true. I do not challenge the statistics you provide. Although I seem to recall that one of them is for private or voucher schools. What I want to know is why should I believe your conclusions? It is apparent to me that you have no ideas to move the schools forward. Instead you use the republicon idea that “just asking” is somehow beneficial. I have seen the pattern emerge of the right wing trying to impose their ideas and morals into the schools. I am waiting for the first attempt to ban a book located in any school library. The republicon party, the so called christian right, and those who support you and Mr. Trump are on the wrong side of history. Time will show this to be true. So tell me, where are your solutions? Just asking.
Re-read the article: citations are shown. For starters, how about the Board doing its job of developing policy for which they were elected instead of deferring to the staff to do it for them. How about holding the staff accountable for their implementation of Board policy instead of ignoring the danger signs of the District’s systemic failure to achieve its mission statement: “The mission of Clover Park School District is to ensure each child learns what he or she needs to know to succeed and contribute to the community.”
You do your homework: I’ve done mine.
James:
This past year, I was needing to expand my company. And I spoke to about 20 recent graduates of the Clover Park School District. Not one of them would be a good fit for my company. (And I can train just about anyone if they have the desire and willingness to learn.) I work in low voltage AV, computers, and such. All of the skills needed to work in this field I can teach, habits I can help instill, tools I can provide. But if the person does not have a base level understanding of general mathematics or spatial awareness or communication. It hinders my abilities to actual be successful, and all businesses are in business to make their owners money. That is the capitalistic system that we live in.
This systemic failure has been progressively getting worse for years. This has nothing to do with Conservative/Liberal, Right-Wing/Left-Wing, Trump/Anti-Trump. If the district was doing a good job, the OSPI report card would speak for itself as fruits of those labors. Sadly, it is telling an entirely different story. We have become, what Director Wagemann stated, a diploma factory. Just push them out and it shows as a statistical success. However a success where the student is not prepped for the real world is no success at all. If a child that goes through the district must take remedial courses just to catch up in college level academia, then the district has failed that child.