Submitted by John Arbeeny.
CPSD “Inside Schools”: Academic achievement and parental involvement. A change of emphasis?
I received the latest issue of CPSD Inside Schools, September 2022 and was mildly surprised to see the emphasis on academic achievement and parental involvement in their children’s education.
Superintendent Banner writes:
“We are steadfast in our support of your student’s academic achievement through enhanced curriculum, programs and resources.”
This is welcomed emphasis and the primary focus espoused by Directors Anderson and Wagemann. It’s the reason we have schools! Indeed, it was Director Wagemann who nominated academics recently as the Board’s emphasis for 2022-2023 among the four proposed by the Board which included sports, COVID recovery and sex trafficking. In the past, the Board majority has been somewhat reticent in addressing the District’s falling academic standing which is now in the lowest 28th percentile statewide (176 out of 245 Districts). Too often academic achievement has been dismissed as “not the only measure of success” when in fact it is one of the few objective metrics that can be used to measure success.
Ultimately it is what students learn academically that is a prime determinant in future success beyond their school years. If I have one contention with Superintendent Banner’s Inside Schools article is his statement “…the theme of our 2022-2023 school year…imagine”. I’d suggest that the scope of your imagination is largely dependent upon the scope of your academic achievement. So perhaps a better theme would be “achieve” academically!
The other theme of this Inside Schools issue is the repeated emphasis on parental involvement in their children’s education. This again has been an issue that Directors Anderson and Wagemann have championed on the Board. Two quotes from the Inside Schools article “Tips for Supporting Students this School Year” are below:
“Communication between parents and teachers ensures parents are in the know during the school year. The best way to keep tabs on your student’s grades, behavior and classroom habits is to go right to the source.”
“Being informed about what your child is learning can help you stay on top of their homework and help them with their learning. Parents can ask their child’s teacher to provide them with curriculum and textbooks at any time during the school year.”
This emphasis on parental involvement is a welcome shift from the past when parents were routinely, either intentionally or unintentionally, marginalized when it came to the formation of District policy that directly impacts their children’s academic achievement. As an example, the CPSD Equity, Diversity, Inclusion (EDI) “stakeholders” group was comprised of nearly 50% CPSD staff, 30% community members with a stake in EDI and less than 10% parents. You only have to read the news to see that the education establishment nationally has tried to distance parents from their children’s education, which they claim is the purview of educational professionals.
It is important to remember that merely espousing academic achievement and parental involvement is not enough. The systems developed and employed by the District must be designed for the actual accomplishment of these two objectives. If they are not so designed, the District will not be able to accomplish these objectives despite their best intentions.
If a system is flawed then all the money, people and equipment poured into that system will not change the results. Cadillac may make great cars, but you can’t drive one from Seattle to Honolulu: the wrong system to achieve the desired goal! Given the current level of District academic achievement and parental involvement some systemic changes are in order.
But at least this emphasis could be the start of something good.
Mr. Arbeeny, I can assure you that a focus on academic achievement is nothing new to the Clover Park School District. Is there no end to your ego and need to promote Anderson and Wagemann? You became involved only when your political interests in our schools suddenly became a focus of your CARES group. Your efforts to pretend no one else on our school board cares about academic achievement except for your CARES sponsored school board members are obvious.
If they care about academic achievement, please explain why Wagemann and Anderson were clueless about the multiple pathways to graduation? That is basic information. Explain why they did not seem to comprehend that State testing is NOT the only measure of academic achievement. As far as I know, Wagemann and Anderson are still very confused because they continue to focus on only test scores. Why is that? They were unprepared at board meetings as they tried to claim they are the only ones interested in academic excellence. Both clearly had a pre-planned agenda of claiming they alone cared about academics. Were you involved in that plan?
It is shocking for Wagemann to have been on the board for over a decade and be so out of touch with graduation requirements when he called our district a “diploma mill”! One of your fellow CARE members repeated that exact same claim at the last board meeting; just spewed the same baseless accusations used by Wagemann. This is no accident. Is your entire group clueless about how students earn diplomas and ways to demonstrate academic achievement?
Everything you and CARES puts out needs to be checked; too many mistakes and/or intentional misinformation given to the public to ever trust what comes from your political group.
Your constant PR campaign for Anderson and Wagemann is obvious and has grown old. It seems to be a weakness if these two men depend on you to build them up to the public. Those who attend board meetings have witnessed their behavior and heard their rehearsed talking points. The truth is they are dependent on a political “think tank” known as LakewoodCARES. Are Directors Pearson, Jacobs and Veliz dependent on a political group to carry out their oaths of office?
My job was all about academic achievement. My administrator was all about it. My school was all about it. The teachers were all about it. They still are! What makes you so egotistical to think our school board members, superintendent, administrators, and teachers have not focused on academic achievement? There are people who actually do the job and those, like you, who just complain, talk and write about it as if you know. And, there are those who also like to take credit for the work others do. We see you.
Well the apparent becomes obvious: you are/were part of the educational establishment. That establishment at national level includes the National School Board Association (NSBA) which sent an infamous letter to the White House comparing concerned parents to domestic terrorist; the National Education Association (NEA) which followed up with a similar letter to social media companies urging them to censure “propaganda” about critical race theory: and the American Federation of Teachers which opposed the free exchange of ideas on campus as per the Academic Bill of Rights (ABOR). Your vehemence and vitriol in plain view has now been explained.
But I digress. The issue at hand in your response is academic achievement.
FACT: It took Wagemann to nominate academic achievement as a 2022-2023 area of emphasis.
FACT: It took Wagemann and Anderson to request that the Academic Improvement Committee begin briefing the Board which has never happened in the past.
FACT: It took Wagemann and Anderson to request that school Principals begin briefing the Board on academic progress, one per month over the next 2 years.
FACT: It took Wagemann and Anderson to request copies of school annual action plans 2018-2022 for preview.
FACT: It took Wagemann and Anderson to request early release of 2022-2023 school annual action plans in order to conduct proper analysis of those plans and put them in the context of the 5 year academic improvement plan.
Are Directors Pearson, Jacobs and Veliz dependent on a political group to carry out their oaths of office? Who knows since they followed the lead of Wagemann and Anderson in these issues. Wagemann and Anderson, if nothing else, come prepared.
As far as a “diploma mill” do you think that a diploma from Clover Park High School (ELA 37.6%; math 7.7%, science 16.4%, attendance 50.7%) equates with that of Harrison Prep (ELA 56.8%, math 32.8%, science 43.4%, attendance 89.8%)? Who exactly “benefits” from the disjointed comparison and who is harmed? I guess it’s equity at work: everyone gets the same diploma regardless of qualifications.
You echo the claim that test scores aren’t the only “focus” yet you have not provided any other objective metric by which academic achievement is measured. Indeed OSPI thinks test scores are important enough to post on their site as the objective measure of achievement or do you disagree with them? Give me some alternative if you can.
Just like the border crisis and the current administration’s recent reversal of policy,
at some point even the liberals realize that failure is no longer an option.
Hopefully it’s not too late for the kids who still have a chance at a reality-based academic foundation.
Mr.Arbeeny,
I was confused by your remarks concerning the CPSD Inside Schools Newsletter? First there was the blanket statement that you were “mildly surprised to see the emphasis on academic achievement and parental involvement in their children’s education.” Second was the inference that until Mr. Anderson and Mr. Wagemann were on the school-board there was no focus on academics. That is a type of fallacy which creates inductive conclusions with insufficient evidence.
How long has it been since you had a child in a CP school? Is this your first time reading the CPSD Newsletter? Do you regularly receive the packets, notices, attempts and invitations to the school as CPSD parents do? Your statement regarding parental involvement is not only a slap to the face parents actively involved, but belittles the work of the CPSD staff and teachers.
If you had ever taught school you would understand the frustration at engaging some parents active participation. Unlike the 50’s many more families have two working parents, there are more single parents and frankly there will always be a subset of parents that cannot or do not want involvement. Let’s not forget that our district has a mobile enrollment that involves greater challenges than many districts.
Relying on the same repeated and out of context data numbers without looking at all challenges is information in a vacuum. Of course the goal has always been to have parental involvement with our children. That this is a sudden new move by the district is simply a faulty generalization with flimsy data.
Take a look at the Board meeting minutes from 2017 to present: over 123 of them. I have. Academics is seldom mentioned and there was a near total absence of discussion about the alarming OSPI dash board CPSD decline academically into the bottom 28 percentile. It’s the 800 pound gorilla in the room no one wants to talk about. See my response to Cheri above for more information.
I have kept abreast of what’s happening in CPSD since my three sons attended 18 years ago and see the same problems going unsolved and getting worse since. As Deputy Mayor, City of Lakewood, I attended perhaps the first joint meeting of the Council with Board and was flabbergasted to hear the then Superintendent Dr. Doris McEwen state that the primary purpose of CPSD was “social justice” followed up with “not to blame anyone”. I knew then that the District was in trouble.
Lakewood CARES has several members with children and grandchildren attending the District schools as well and it’s not a pretty picture. These are long term systemic issues that must be solved. Until that happens, teachers can strive mightily to overcome but are doomed for disappointment. Systems can only achieve what they’re designed to achieve and when they don’t it’s because they can’t.
Community/parental involvement is key to getting students motivated: agreed. That they are not involved is as much a reflection of the current system to get them involved as any discussion of what the challenges might be. It is a poor workman that blames his tools. Put your thinking cap on and give me just one thing the District could do, that it isn’t doing, that would increase community/parental involvement.