I had joked that the previous post should have been illustrated with a picture of sausage being made, but that I didn’t want to alienate vegans and vegetarians. The amendment is now finished, and the sausage pictured here is vegan.

“Step by Step” — The Boyer Brothers (click to listen/watch)

Yesterday afternoon I submitted the final version of an amendment on class sizes to the Madison Metropolitan School District 2017-18 Preliminary Budget.  The Board of Education will consider and vote on this (and other amendments), as well as the Budget at our meeting on June 26, 2017 (6:00 PM, Doyle Building Auditorium).  In my previous post I presented my then current thinking about the amendment and asked for feedback.  This post is a brief walk-through of the final version, highlighting (and to some extent explaining) changes.

In general, the legislative process requires compromise, and tempering idealism with realism.  I have tried to keep that in mind throughout the budget work, but at this penultimate step compromise and realism become more prominent.

From top to bottom, excerpts followed by comments.

Amend the 2017-18 MMSD Preliminary Budget by immediately allocating an additional $500,000 to expand the number of budgeted unallocated classroom teacher positions, and

Dependent on the per pupil categorical aid provisions of the biennial Wisconsin State budget allocating up to an additional $1,000,000 to expand the number of budgeted unallocated classroom positions proportionately with no additional allocation if the categorical aid increase is $100 or less, up to $1,000,000 if it is $200 or more, and

Both compromise and realism are present here.  Reviewing the Budget, previous and pending actions; talking and listening to budget staff, Board Members, community members, I have concluded that the present Budget can support targeted class size allocations of $500,000, and that a favorable State Budget would justify an increase to that amount of $1,000,000.  I am sure we will hear more on this from all parties prior to and at the June 26 meeting.

I try to be forthcoming and transparent, so I want to acknowledge that the best projections indicate that spending the $1,000,000 which is dependent on the State Budget will push the property tax levy increase beyond the 3.97% projected in relation to the November 2016 referendum, to approximately 4.3% (there won’t be final numbers till October).  I should also note that my proposed increase in levy is only one half of the projected $2,000,000 that would be available.

One other thing of importance here is the shift from talking about the number of positions to talking about dollars.  Being a budget amendment, that is necessary.  Translating dollars to FTE is an inexact calculation.  MMSD makes wide use of a figure of about $80,000 to budget full time teachers, inclusive of benefits, payroll taxes and everything else.  However, teachers hired late tend to be less experienced, have lower levels of post-graduate education, and are less likely to enroll in “family” insurance plans, making them somewhat cheaper.  If I had to guess, I would say that the probable cost per FTE hired under this amendment would be about $60,000, so $1,500,000 would yield 25 FTE, but it could be higher and the yield could be fewer than 20.

Establishing the following guidelines for the prioritizing the allocation of these new positions to schools: setting standards, but allowing for flexibility based on unique circumstances, local knowledge, and professional judgment, with primary consideration to be given to allocating positions to meet the standards in the order listed below:

1. High Poverty, K-3 not to exceed 18 students.
2. High Poverty, 4-5, not to exceed 23 students.
3. Other Schools, K, not to exceed 20 students.
4. Other Schools, 1-3, not to exceed 22 students.
5. Other Schools, 4-5, not to exceed 25 students.
6. High Poverty, 6th Grade, Core Academic Classes (Reading, Math, Science, Social Studies), not to exceed 25 students.
7. Other Schools 6th Grade, Core Academic Classes (Reading, Math, Science, Social Studies), not to exceed 27 students.
8. High Poverty, 7-8, Core Academic Classes (Reading, Math, Science, Social Studies), not to exceed 27 students.
9. Other Schools, 7-8, Core Academic Classes (Reading, Math, Science, Social Studies), not to exceed 29 students.
10. 9th Grade Core Academic Classes (Reading/English, Math, Science, Social Studies), not to exceed 28 students.
11. 10-12 Grade Core Academic Classes (Reading/English, Math, Science, Social Studies), not to exceed 30 students.

For the purposes of this amendment designating the following schools as High Poverty:

K-5 (non-AGR schools marked with *; non-Title I schools marked with #)

Allis Elementary Emerson Elementary Falk Elementary Glendale Elementary Gompers Elementary Hawthorne Elementary Huegel Elementary# Kennedy Elementary* Lake View Elementary Lapham Elementary*# Leopold Elementary Lincoln Elementary*

Lindbergh Elementary Lowell Elementary Mendota Elementary Midvale Elementary Muir Elementary# Nuestro Mundo Elementary Orchard Ridge Elementary Sandburg Elementary Schenk Elementary Stephens Elementary*# Thoreau Elementary#

6-8 (non-Title I schools marked with #)

Badger Rock Middle Black Hawk Middle Cherokee Middle Jefferson Middle# O’Keeffe Middle

Sennett Middle Sherman Middle Toki Middle# Whitehorse Middle# Wright Middle

There are two significant changes here.  The first is in the composition and ordering of the priorities. The second is moving from “hard caps” to “guidelines” or “standards.”

On the presentation of the priorities, the feedback I received was crucial.  Overwhelmingly, people were most concerned about the early grades in high poverty schools, and advocated a “the smaller the better” policy for these grades.  My personal preference for something more nuanced (read complicated) and giving more attention to (what I consider) extremely large classes in some of our lower poverty schools remains, but these are compromises I can endorse.

Budgeting hard caps is difficult, amending a budget that wasn’t built on hard caps is even more difficult (especially when proposed hard caps are smaller than the numbers used to make initial allocations).  Going forward, revising the current (weak) MMSD Class Size Policy, and giving more attention to class size at every stage of the budget process may create a more favorable environment for hard caps in future budgets, but not this one.

While understanding that (almost) any absolute rule will on occasion lead to less than optimal choices, I am wary of calls for flexibility.  Some years ago I wrote about the introduction of “flexibility” in SAGE and other policies:

Remember warnings about your face getting stuck in some ugly expression? I think the champions of “flexibility” in Wisconsin and elsewhere need loud and repeated warnings that their “flexibility” in educational policy (along with privatization, cuts in funding, destruction of local control…) in fact constitutes a possibly permanent acceptance of declining educational quality and is an ugly betrayal of our traditions and our responsibility to our children. They are bending our schools out of shape and our children will be stuck with it.

The events of the last six years have only reinforced my wariness.

My ideal method for balancing mandates and flexibility is to mandate default choices, but simultaneously create a process by which deviations from the default are justified and approved.  Although the amendment doesn’t go that far, I do think the reporting requirements (below) embody some of this concept and will create opportunities for accountability.

Requiring that public reports be made to the Board of Education, which include the amount of funds remaining from this allocation, the number of sections or classrooms added to date from this allocation for each of the listed priorities, the number of sections or classrooms remaining that exceed the guidelines for each listed priority based on then current enrollments.

At minimum three public reports be made,

1. A Baseline Report to be issued as soon as possible after the passage of the Preliminary 2017-18 Budget, but no later than July 14, 2017.
2. A Start of School Report, to be issued no earlier than the completion of registrations (August 21, 2017) and no later than the end of the second week of school (September 15, 2017).
3. A Report, to be issued with the October/November Enrollment Reports.

I hope these reports accomplish two additional things.  First is increased transparency in school and classroom staffing.  I think these are the most important part of our Budget, and MMSD has been more translucent than transparent with them.  Second, I think the reports will contribute to the ongoing discussion of the costs and impacts of spending on class size reduction.

Before closing I want to note that I left out any mandate tying the allocation of the new positions to specific dates.  The main purpose of that was to give greater weight to the highest priorities, but the process was awkward, and the reconfiguration of the priorities accomplished some of this.

In closing I am going to cut-and-paste the closing of my previous post, once again urging participation in this process:

If you think I did more right than wrong, please let the Board (and the world) know about your support for the amendment.  As usual, you can email us [board@madison.k12.wi.us], or testify at the June 26th meeting where we will be voting on this and the entire preliminary budget.  Talk to your neighbors, co-workers, and friends, write a letter to the editor, post on Facebook. Instagram, or tweet something, draw something, dance…be creative.

Thanks in advance for the feedback and support.

Thomas J. Mertz

Pigbag — Papa’s Got a Brand New Pigbag (click to listen and watch).

Update: Yesterday evening the Board was provided with a number of new documents related to IMA. Among these is a different (or clarified) plan for 3K and 4K which renders moot much (or all) of the section below on Tuition.

I have not looked at all of the rest yet, but am posting them here, now: Memo, Budget, Cost Per Pupil, Enrollment Model, Attendance Area.

I will probably be posting on these — especially the attendance area transportation issues — within the next week.

Monday July 31, 2017, The Madison Metropolitan School District Board of Education will consider and vote on a contact for an Isthmus Montessori Academy Charter School (IMACS).  This will be the third time the Board has voted on a version of this proposal.  The previous two times the Board and the Administration agreed that the proposal did not meet the requirements of the MMSD Charter School policy (related concerns about state statutes were also expressed by some Board Members).  Each time, a majority of the Board voted to advance the proposal in order to provide opportunities to address the shortcomings (I voted no each time).  Among the questions before the Board on July 31 is whether this has been accomplished; whether a sow’s ear has been transformed into a silk purse.  I think it is still a sow’s ear.

In this post I detail how I reached that conclusion by looking at three big areas: charging tuition to place students in public school classrooms; a staffing plan that does not meet Association Montessori International standards (and perhaps violates state Administrative Rules; and most importantly, will not serve students well), and a budget that is not sustainable.   These overlap with, but are not identical to the areas where the Administration and the Board previously concluded that the proposal did not meet expectations.  It should also be noted that it is my understanding, and according to MMSD policy, all proposals must meet the terms of our policy and statutes. They are minimum requirements, and are not the basis for an automatic approval. There are other aspects of the proposal that I find wanting. But these are not the focus of this post.  Before proceeding, some background is in order.

Where We Are, and How We Got Here

The first time the Board voted on IMACS was on September 26, 2016 (minutes here, Initial Proposal here, memo here, reviewers’ rubric here, budget key factors here, video here;  related September 19, 2016 Operations Work Group minutes here, video here). Contrary to the Administrative recommendation, by a 5-2 vote (Anna Moffit and I voted no) the Board requested that IMA develop a “Detailed Proposal” to be submitted by November 1, 2016.  According to the MMSD policy, the detailed proposal is to be analyzed by a (staff) Charter Application Review Committee, and forwarded to the Board, along with a recommendation, for a January vote.  Many of the areas of concern identified in September — finances, staffing, attendance area,  transportation, inclusion of 3K and secondary students, services for students with special needs, services for English Language Learners, enrollment…  — remained areas of concern in January, and — for me — those concerns have yet to be satisfied.

IMA was given two opportunities on the detailed proposal, an initial version due at the deadline set by policy, and a revised or final version due three weeks later. There is nothing in the MMSD Policy either allowing for two detailed proposal submissions, nor explicitly disallowing. But this seems to be contrary to the intent of the policy (“Detailed Proposals must be filed in the Office of the Secretary to the BOARD by 3:00 pm on the due date set forth in Section II.A, above. No exceptions shall be made to the timeline. Late submissions will be returned unopened to the applicant”).   Memos on IMA refer and link to a “revised charter school process,” and that document does include an opportunity to revise, but it has not been approved by the Board.

A version was submitted on November 1 (at the time, my requests to district staff and IMA for a copy of this version were refused; it was only provided to the Board after I made an open records request).  This version was found to not meet expectations in 9 categories: Vision, Mission Goals; Values and Instructional Theory; Student Body/Demographics; Academic Achievement Data and Analysis; Student Access to Opportunities; Curriculum; Instructional Design;  Financial Operations; and Facility Plan (rubric here, letter here).  The subsequent version is the one the Board considered and voted on in January.

Confusingly, the subsequent and “final” version of the proposal also bears the date “November 1, 2017.”  This proposal also did not meet the established criteria ( (memo here, rubric here, rubric including both the November 1 and the “final” version here).  In 5 of the areas the reviewer found the changes made to be sufficient, in the areas of Student Body/Demographics, Academic Achievement Data and Analysis, Instructional Design, and Financial Operations, the rating remained “Fails to Meet Expectations.”  Based on this, the Administration memo from Superintendent Jennifer Cheatham stated that she “cannot recommend that the Board of Education approve the IMA application for school year 2017/18.”  However, the memo continued:

This is the what a majority of the Board chose to do (see below, I was the lone no vote).  It should be noted that as with a second detailed proposal, the MMSD policy neither explicitly allows nor disallows contingent or delayed approvals, and this action took us into uncharted territory outside of our policy.  Because of this, it is essential to look closely at all the documents and records, and what actions the Board has taken so far.

There were two votes related to IMA on January 30, 2017.  Here is the wording for first (from the minutes):

[A]pprove(d) the proposal for the Isthmus Montessori Academy Charter School and that the District enter into a contract, consistent with applicable Board policy and state law, to establish the Isthmus Montessori Academy Charter School as an instrumentality charter school for a period of five (5) years from July 1, 2018 until June 30, 2023. Such approval shall be contingent on the Isthmus Montessori Academy Charter School supplementing their current proposal to address the following areas of concern by no later than May 31,2017:

● Student Body and Demographics

● School Data

● Curriculum, Assessment and Instruction

● Financial Operations

and the second:

It was moved by Ed Hughes and seconded by James Howard that, consistent with BOE Policy 10,000, the Board of Education approve the following actions:

1) upon the successful satisfaction of all outstanding contingencies, the

District will notify the State Superintendent of Public Instruction of its

intention to establish the Isthmus Montessori Academy Charter School

as an instrumentality charter school on or before March 1, 2018;

2) by no later than July 1, 2017, the Board will approve a contract with

Isthmus Montessori Academy Charter School to operate the charter

school for a five-year period beginning with the 2018-2019 school

year;

3) the District will collaborate with Isthmus Montessori Academy Charter

School to minimize expenditure impacts on the District’ budget and to

maximize revenue-generating opportunities including grants, state

aids, and other sources resulting from the implementation and operation

of the charter school; and

4) the District will collaborate with Isthmus Montessori Academy Charter

School to assist the school with its planning and preparations in order

to ensure the successful implementation and operation of the school

consistent with the terms of the charter (contract).

(13) PREKINDERGARTEN CLASSES. Establish and maintain classes for children less than 4 years of age under such regulations as it prescribes. The school board may accept and receive federal funds for such purpose and expend such funds in conformity with the purposes and requirements thereof. The school board may charge a reasonable fee for attendance at such classes but may waive the fee or any portion thereof to any person who is unable to make payment.

In making its decision, the BOARD shall, at a minimum, consider the information included in the detailed proposal, the information provided by the SUPERINTENDENT, whether or not the requirements of BOARD Policy have been met, the level of employee and parental support for the establishment of the charter school, and the fiscal impact of the establishment of the charter school on the DISTRICT. [from MMSD Policy 1000]

Junior Wells — “Messin’ with the Kid”(click to listen/watch).

This is an almost everything, including the kitchen sink, post on updates for the Monday, July 31, 2017 Madison Metropolitan School District vote (agenda and materials here) on the Isthmus Montessori Academy Charter School Contract (previous post here provides essential background, I am not going to re-cover most of that material).   I am not making an attempt to link this all together or make it flow, only identifying some topics and providing information and opinions for each.  Here goes:

New Materials

There were some new materials provided to the Board after the last meeting and those have been posted as an update to my previous post.  This week we were given a new version of the contract; a draft version of the contract with IMA Inc (the private school); a memo/email from DPI on the 3K arrangements, lottery, attendance area and more; and a summary of contract changes.  Most of what follows is in reference to these materials, and is no real order (as I draft, I keep thinking of the Bob Dylan line — “I need a dump truck baby to unload my head“).

A New Budget?

The memo from DPI required a change in the language related to 3K payments from IMA Inc.  The contract now reads ” IMA, Inc. shall provide reimbursement to the District for one-third of the cost of the 3K-5K classroom including staffing costs, space rental costs and instructional supplies,” and there is a note that reads “Impacts the wording in the budget document.” I have asked three times since Thursday evening for a new budget, but less than 24 hours before the meeting I don’t have one [12:22 PM, 7/31/17, a budget has now been posted with the meeting materials, but both the language and the finances are unchanged).

The note indicates that they are only contemplating a language change, but this also necessitates financial changes.  The $53,901.33 in year one, and the amounts in later years, do not come close to covering the total costs for the 3K students.  My rough and conservative calculation for year one is as follows:

Count 3K and 4K students at the state count for 4K of  .6 FTE (although you could make a case that because the 3K and 4K students at IMACS will be in class about 40% more time than our other 4K students, that should be much higher, say .6 *1.4 or .84).  Using the .6 IMACS will have 174 FTE students in year one (150 K-9, 12 3K, and 12 4K).  Total budget for year one is $1,391,501.08, which produces a cost per student of $7997.13.  Multiply that by 12 (3K FTE) and you get $95,965.59, or $42,064.26 more than IMA has promised for year one reimbursement.

My guess is that any change will simply involve a shift from the “Financial Support from the parent organization, IMA, Inc” lines, but I would at least like that level of honesty and transparency.

What’s with the 3K Tuition Arrangements?

Even with DPI saying the arrangements are “OK” (in a memo that also says “DISCLAIMER: The content of this email is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice. You should contact your attorney to obtain legal advice, including compliance with state and federal laws and regulations.”), major issues remain.  As before, for me the biggest one is a matter of principle — I don’t think MMSD should allow a third party to charge tuition to place children in our classrooms.  However, I also think the legal matters are still not clear.

I asked that the Board be given a draft contract with IMA Inc in order to understand what MMSD is selling them.  Strangely, the draft contract doesn’t really say.  It says somethings about what IMA will do (and therefore what MMSD will not be responsible for):

IMA, Inc. agrees to govern and oversee all financial aspects of the IMA educational facility and three – year – old kindergarten programs and afternoon four – y ear – old kindergarten wrap around care and programming . IMA, Inc. further agrees to incur all financial liabilities and costs associated with the IMA educational facility , three – year – old kindergarten program and afternoon four – year – old kindergarten wraparound care and programming.

And it says this about (part of) what MMSD is agreeing to do:

Three – year – old kindergarten: As set forth in Exhibit A (IMACS Five – Year Expenditure Budget Model) , IMA, Inc. shall provide reimbursement to the District for one – third of the cos t of the 3K – 5K classroom, including staffing costs, space rental costs and instructional supplies . The District does not provide three – year – old kindergarten and will not take on any financial responsibility for providing such programming. However, the practical considerations regarding hiring, evaluation and pay roll for this position have resulted in the District agreeing to perform the HR functions on behalf of IMACS. The amount set forth in Exhibit A in the row identified as “3 K Tuition/IMA reimbursement (cover 3K classroom %),” which shall be directly payable to the District, includes a two and one – half percent (2.5%) annual administrative fee. If at any point during the term of this Agreement, IMA, Inc. ceases offering three – year – old kindergarten programming, the Parties shall meet to identify budgetary and programmatic impact.

What is missing is anything about providing educational services, putting kids in classrooms, …how many kids? …how many hours? …what services?…what classrooms? …do teachers do conferences?…are the students enrolled in MMSD? …who will provide transportation? …do they have access to MMSD social workers? ..are they subject to MMSD rules? ….MMSD student and family rights? …who keeps their educational records?…who has access to those records?…what about liabilities other than financial?…I could keep going…

Leaving aside the bearing some of these questions have on the legality of the arrangements, as a Board Member, I want to know what we are agreeing to.  I would think IMA Inc. would also want to know what they are paying for.

I would not  find a reference to the detailed proposal satisfactory on this.  As a general rule, this is the contract and it should say what MMSD is accepting responsibility for.  More specifically, the detailed proposal was — in vague terms — found wanting, and has been (at least partially) superseded.  The detailed proposal says many things about 3K, but I don’t know which are meant to be implied by the contract.

I also think that if some version of an arrangement allowing IMA Inc to buy spaces in  MMSD classrooms and resell these spaces goes forward, MMSD should include in the contract some limit on how much of a markup they can take for this activity.

Why is the Charter School Policy Funding Formula Being Ignored?

I don’t know, but it is a bad practice and precedent.

The current IMACS 5 year budget projects expenditures $516,157.01 greater than the amount set by policy.

MMSD Policy 1000 reads in part

Charter School Funding Formula. All charter schools developed and initially chartered after July 1, 2013 shall receive annual funding pursuant to the following funding formula: The number of students (based on projected enrollment set forth in the charter contract) multiplied by the Department of Instruction’s open enrollment per student transfer amount.

There is no ambiguity, yet the MMSD administration found that a budget which included MMSD funding in excess of the open enrollment amount met expectations and satisfied the contingencies required by the January vote.

I went back and looked at the minutes and documents from the drafting and passage of the policy (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here) to see if there was any hint that this was intended to be advisory or optional.  There was not.

In fact, the “Charter School Original Proposal Application Applicant’s Guide” says “In order to ensure sustainability and feasibility, budget proposals may not exceed the per pupil cost allocation unless accounted for by fundraising. ”  IMACS has not met this requirement.

This policy was passed by a 7-0 vote at the last meeting before I took office.  In the time I have been on the Board, I can recall no effort to change, or even a discussion of changing the Charter School Funding Formula.

A Board may change our policies, I guess we could waive a policy (but doing so in the middle of a process is a really bad idea), but I don’t think we can just ignore them or violate them.  Like I said, I don’t know what is going on with this.  I plan to try to find out at the meeting.

What about the Staffing?

There are two major, related issues with the staffing.  One is the waivers from Statutes and the MMSD Employee Handbook that are in the contract (this is new); the other is the mater of adequacy (which is continuing).  Here are the waivers:

20.01 Statutory Waivers: Pursuant to Wisconsin State Stat. sec 188.40(7)(b), “[e] xcept as otherwise explicitly provided, chs. 115 to 121 do not apply to charter schools. ” IMACS shall exercise the flexibility afforded by this statutory provision to offer special programming, including physical education, art and music, in an integrated, student – led manner. Additionally, such programming will be guided by Montessori certified staff. Such staff may or may not also hold additional DPI licenses and /or supplementary licenses.

20.02 MMSD Handbook Waivers : IMACS will provide a standard school day , except for early release days, and abide by the established District calendar. IMACS will not implement early release days at any instructional level as set forth in sections 4.01 (Middle and Senior) and 4.02 (Monday Professional Collaboration Time (Early Release)) – Elementary) of Addendum A of the District ’s Employee Handbook. This information shall be included in any postings for IMACS teacher positions.

Elementary – level teachers will have the amount of planning time set forth in section 4.02 (Planning Time) of Addendum A of the District’s Employee Handbook; however, the time may be divided into units smaller than thirty minute blocks.

The pedagogical orientation of the Montessori model does not rely on or use tradition al Carnegie units of instruction. The model relies on sustained work blocks. IMACS will not implement the teacher contact time limitations for middle school and high schools teachers as set forth in section 4.01 (Middle and Senior) of Addendum A of the District’s Employee Handbook. This information shall be included in any posting for IMACS teacher positions.

Parent engagement and parent – staff relationships are an important aspect of the IMACS school design. The eight (8) hour limit on evening parent – teacher conference time set forth in section 4.03 of Addendum A of the Employee Handbook shall not apply to IMACS. Information related to parent – conference participation shall be included in IMACS teacher position postings.

The first issue here is how this is being done.  In this post Act 10 world, the Handbook process is an essential part of the effort to create trust with our staff, and both the process and trust are very fragile.  With this contract that process is sidestepped, and trust is strained.

The second concerns the quality of education.  In general, teaching conditions are learning conditions, and things like planning time and some limit on workload are essential (the waiver eliminates the “the teacher contact time limitations for middle school and high schools teachers,” but does not establish new ones).

More specifically, the statutory waiver has great potential to marginalize Art, Music, and Physical Education by placing the burden for these on non-specialist classroom teachers.  As I noted in my previous post, my broad but unsystematic survey of staffing at Public Montessori schools found that almost all included Art and Physical Education teachers.  A 2012 Evaluation of Montessori schools in Milwaukee said this:

Which brings us to other major staffing issue, which is the lack of Assistants in the budget.  In a move reminiscent of Kellyanne Conway citing alternative facts, the contract simply eliminates the Assistants from the AMI Standards (the budget still includes the minimal and likely insufficient BRS and SEA allocations).

Wow.

Attendance Zones, Transportation Zone, and Demographics

When IMA was being considered in January, multiple Board Members stressed the importance of the potential to serve a diverse population, with an emphasis on our low income students and students of color.  With a Charter School it is impossible to absolutely control who applies and enrolls, but there are ways that we can influence this.  The most effective way is by creating an attendance zone that is dominated by the target populations.  Instead the contract for IMA declares the entire school district as the attendance zone (this was done in part in response to a new understanding of lottery rules, but it is not required by that understanding).  Another, less effective way is to only provide transportation within an area dominated by the targeted population.  The IMA contract makes a half-hearted attempt at this.  If this is to go forward I think we should try to do better.  My first move in that attempt would be to eliminate Maple Bluff from the transportation zone.

How Will the Success (or Failure) of IMA Be Judged?

As I detailed in my previous post, the IMA contract does not meet the requirements in this. I have also pointed out that I don’t particularly like this requirement.  I have been thinking more about this, and have a little more to say.  I still don’t like it, but have come to understand that the need for “Performance Based Contracting” is intrinsic to Charter Schools.

…[C]harter contracts that plainly:

• Establish the performance standards under which schools will be evaluated, using objective and verifiable measures of student achievement as the primary measure of school quality;

• Define clear, measurable, and attainable academic, financial, and organizational performance standards and targets that the school must meet as a condition of renewal, including but not limited to state and federal measures;

What Now? What Next?

Note:  I began this post in January 2017, and then set it aside.  As a result, some of the introductory material has been superseded.  For better coverage of events since January (and some prior to January), see this post and this one. More recently I finished the sections on footnotes 5 & 7, added the section on footnote 27, and wrote the conclusion.  I like the conclusion, so I am going to quote it here: “ If the people behind IMA can’t do better with their proposal, how can we trust them with our children and our money?“

Update (8/13/17):  This week, the MMSD Board of Education will have at least one, and maybe two important meetings on Charter Schools.  On Monday 8/14 the Operations Work Group will be discussing a new, much more “Charter-friendly” policy.  It is being recommended that the Board approve this at the end of the month.  The last time the Board revised the Charter policy, it took six months and many meeting.  We may not want to take that long, but there are too many things  — involving both what is there and what isn’t —  that need examination and (Board and community) discussion to cover in two meetings, with a vote at the second.

The second meeting, for a vote on the IMACS proposal on Wednesday 8/16/17  does not appear on the legal notice (despite my request to add it).  Board Members are now being told this may be rescheduled (to my knowledge no Board Members were asked about their availability before this meeting was scheduled by the Board President, and none have been asked about their availability in relation to a possible rescheduling).  At this time we the Board do not have any update on a revised contract in response to the votes in July (the language of those votes is here).  We have been told “The goal is to get a draft document out prior to the meeting,” but there is no guarantee that will happen (we have also been told by the President that no public comment will be scheduled).  I am not clear why there is a rush.  Our policy calls for contracts to be concluded about five months prior to the school opening, IMA will have about twelve months if approved.  I do know that it would be a huge mistake to approve any contract without sufficient time for the Board and community to review.  Stay tuned.

Foot(note) Stompin’ Post

Foot Stompin’ by the Flares (click to watch/listen)

During public discussions of the Isthmus Montessori Academy (IMA) proposal to open a charter school with the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD), I repeatedly stated that the matter before the Board of Education was a the proposal submitted, not the role of charter schools, the value of Montessori education, or a host of other things.  Other issues may contribute to our thinking, but as a Board we have an obligation to follow our policy (possible revisions of the MMSD Charter School Policy are scheduled for discussion and vote in May — Note: Now August, see update at the top) and state statutes, which means considering each proposal on its own strengths and weaknesses, according to set criteria (the required National Association of Charter School Authorizers Guidelines here).  The majority of this post concerns weaknesses of the IMA proposal in the area of citation and footnotes, but first some background.

It is undisputed that the IMA proposal did not meet the established criteria (nor did the initial proposal meet the criteria to go to the next step). On this basis MMSD staff did not recommend approval (memo here, rubric here, minutes here).  However by a vote of 6-1 (I dissented) the Board (emphasis added)

[A]pprove(d) the proposal for the Isthmus Montessori Academy Charter

School and that the District enter into a contract, consistent with applicable Board policy and state law, to establish the Isthmus Montessori Academy Charter School as an instrumentality charter school for a period of five (5) years from July 1, 2018 until June 30, 2023. Such approval shall be contingent on the Isthmus Montessori Academy Charter School supplementing their current proposal to address the following areas of concern by no later than May 31,2017:

● Student Body and Demographics

● School Data

● Curriculum, Assessment and Instruction

● Financial Operations

With a second vote (6-1 also, I dissented again), the Board took care of some housekeeping requirements, and set July 1, 2017 as the contract deadline.

[See the update and the linked posts at the top for more accurate information on how events have unfolded] This is where things stand now, by May 31, 2017 MMSD staff — without a formal role for the Board — will decide whether the requested supplementary materials are sufficient to meet the requirements, if they are deemed sufficient, contract talks will begin and prior to July 1, 2017 that contract will come to the Board for approval (not amendment, this is a yes or no vote).  Among my objections to this process was that many (perhaps all) of the criteria are subjective, and although I respect the professional opinions of our staff, with subjective criteria I believe the Board should decide.

The Board and the public have also been provided with only minimal information related to the staff analysis of the proposal (this is something I think we need to address in the looming policy revision).  In addition to the memo and rubric linked above, a three-page “Financial Analysis” and a one-page (financial) “Key Factors” document were distributed.  All total this comes to nine pages of analysis for a 121 page proposal (and given that the financials and rubric have much white space, that is a generous count).

The use of citations or footnotes is among the things not referenced in any of the materials provided.  As a college instructor and (recovering) academic, I can’t help but look at and consider the references and how they are employed (part of subjectivity is that different things are important to different people).   For me, footnotes serve two important purposes.  First, they allow the reader to verify the information provided in the main text.  Second, they provide some clues to the intellectual journey of the author(s).

On my second read of the final IMA proposal, I began making notes for myself on this topic.  What follows is revised version of those notes.

The general format is a cut & paste of the passage from the proposal that contains the footnote (because of formatting issues, these are mostly images, not text), the footnote with a link to the source material, followed by a brief discussion of the source material and how it does or does not support or shed light the passage (there is also a digression on Lumin Education included for reasons that should be clear).  Here we go.

Passage and Footnote #1

1 Efimova, V., and F. Ratner. “Integrating the educational principles of Maria Montessori in the process of pedagogical support for pupils with learning disabilities.” International Review of Management and Marketing. (2016).

Discussion

For many reasons, the small study — 30 students, 80 minutes a week, for three months —  is not impressive.

The authors are Russian academics, and the journal appears on this list of “[p]otential, possible, or probable predatory scholarly open-access publishers” (see also the Calling Bullshit project). Although the Journal title indicates a marketing and management focus, they appear to publish in a wide array unrelated of fields.

In relation to the passage the footnote is applied to, there is nothing at all in the paper about “differentiated curriculum,” “well-rounded education,” “achievement gaps,” “socioeconomic status,” and very little about “self-initiated exploration,” or even “ability backgrounds” (the classification/definition of “learning disabilities” is limited to those without “any evident deviations in functioning of the nervous system, … no marked motor, sensory impairments or intellectual impairment”).

The “educational principles of Maria Montessori” used in the study are described here:

One section of the objective environment in Montessori approach to education was described as the exercises of practical life. The work of the child under the exercises of practical life program entails the fulfillment of various “household” affairs: Sweeping, washing hands, washing a table, shoe-polish and so forth. Any of these exercises mean the solution of direct and indirect tasks. Even if direct tasks (to learn to wash a table, to clasp buttons, to sweep away garbage from a table, to wash dishes, etc.) aren’t connected directly with educational activity, then indirect tasks solved in the course of a child’s activity, are important to the preparation for writing, reading and the development of other learning skills.

Among the conclusions of this “study” is that students with disabilities should be educated in “special centers.”:

The educational principles of Maria Montessori, in our view, fully meet the requirements of the new standards of education adopted in our country. However, the presence of the class-lesson system limits the possibilities for the application of the educational principles of Maria Montessori in a regular school. It seems to us that the process of pedagogical support for children with learning disabilities can be managed in a more flexible manner on the basis of special centers.

IMA has explicitly presented their version of Montesori education as inclusive for students with disabilities, (however it appears that some public Montessori schools in Milwaukee  employ staff for “More Restrictive Placements,”examples here and here).

I can discern no good reason why IMA included a citation to this article.

Passage and Footnotes #2 and #6

2“[The Montessori] child-centered classrooms provide for a greater level of student engagement possibly due to more positive teacher-student relationships. It is also possible that students at child-centered classrooms participate at a greater proportion, complexity, and intensity in class work than students in more traditional educational settings do because alternative curricula provides more opportunities to develop higher levels of competency.” Franczak, 2016.

The full cite for Franczak appears elsewhere (the first use should include the full cite): Franczak, Iwona. “Comparative Analysis of Behavioral Engagement and Transferable Skills in Conventional and Montessori Schools.” 2016 NCUR (2016). The passage from the IMA proposal that cite annotates reads:

Discussion

At the time of the study Ms Franczak was an undergraduate student at Eastern Illinois University, Charleston (the journal publishes the proceedings of an undergraduate research conference held annually in Asheville, NC). As far as undergraduate research goes, it is fine work. There are, however, a number of issues.

First, the study says nothing directly about “test scores,”or “achievement gaps,” or even “achievement” (it does make a case – based on other work – that engagement and transferable skills increase academic achievement), very little about “opportunities to follow their own interest and develop deep understanding,” but much on “transferable skills.”

With the second passage, the biggest problem is that this is not a “longitudinal study,” but rather for three non-randomly selected schools, “[o]bservations were conducted at site in three thirty minute intervals during the first three hours of a school day for five days.” Referencing observations that took place over five days as “longitudinal” is a big problem.

It should be noted that the statements on “self control, team work, and problem solving” in the study were not based on anything “measured,” (the word used in the IMA proposal) in the research, but rather are presented as “additional qualitative data” (teacher surveys – no survey instrument is provided – are said to “confirm” these observations, but elsewhere it is noted that there were no differences found among the schools in the parent survey). These are also big problems.

The quality of the research is questionable and IMA mischaracterizes the findings.

Passage and Footnote #3

3 “[The] benefits of parental involvement in school… include: improved parent–teacher relationships, teacher morale and school climate; improved school attendance, attitudes, behavior and mental health of children; and, increased parental confidence, satisfaction and interest in their own education.” Hornby, Garry, and Rayleen Lafaele. “Barriers to parental involvement in education: An explanatory model.” Educational Review 63.1 (2011): 37-52.

Discussion

This is generally fine. The authors are recognized scholars, the journal is respectable, and the information being annotated is generally related to the source cited. The article itself says nothing about Montessori, so it is a little off,  but there isn’t anything egregious with this citation.

Passage and Footnote #4

4  Abigail Jordan, Bailey Fern, Chelsea Morris, Rebecca Cross, and Smita Mathur,“Critical Thinking in the Elementary Classroom: Exploring Student Engagement in Elementary Science Classrooms through Case-Study Approach” Journal of Emerging Trends in Educational Research and Policy Studies 5(2014) 6: 673-678, 665.

Discussion

Undergraduate research once more, this time published by an organization on the ““[p]otential, possible, or probable predatory scholarly open-access publishers” list linked above.

Again it is a fine as undergraduate research, but overall not very impressive, and it has little or no relationship to the passage it supposedly supports. The words/phrases “Montessori,” “customized learning plans,” or “systems of support” do not appear. The article does endorse “Constructivist” education, and the relationship between Constructivism and Montessori is complicated and controversial (see here). Here is the conclusion

Through our research, we have found that male students in the elementary classroom often need multiple forms of engagement to learn. Specific examples of engagement include physically stimulating opportunities and moments that involve emotional engagement such as personal connections to material. It is important for teachers to remember that behavioral engagement does not always relate to cognitive success. For students to truly understand and connect to science material, a layered engagement approach must be administered.

I can discern no good reason to cite this article here.

Passage and Footnote # 5 and Uncited Statistics

5 See: www.public-montessori.org/sites/default/files/resources/EDCS%20Outcomes%20Charts%20and%20Graphs.pdf (note: The link from the application no longer works, the document has been archived here).

The “increasing research base” turns out to be two pages of a 2010 newsletter from an organization now called Lumin Education.   There is a “research base” on Montessori (parts of which appear elsewhere in the IMA application), but that’s not what this is.

The same organization and statistics from the same two pages appear elsewhere (without a citation) in the IMA application  to support of IMA’s projections for student achievement. Here is that passage:

For the last thirty years a public Montessori Charter in East Dallas, where the area has a 50% high school drop out rate, has boasted third grade student math and reading scores in the top 36% nationwide, graduation rates of 94% of high schoolers, with 88% going on to college. The school has a higher than district-average percentage of ELL students and economically disadvantaged students, and  a per-pupil expenditure 14% less than the district level. IMA believes in the power of the method to produce similar results for Madison. For these reasons, our academic achievement goals are ambitious.

Lumin began 38 years ago as a small private (Montessori) school; in 1999 they opened a pre-K to grade 3 charter school. There was no Charter School 30 years ago.  They also operate two pre-natal to age three programs, one of which now has toddler and primary classrooms, and is slated to add elementary (as far as I can tell these are private, not charter or public).

Many more problems here. The first is that there is no source given for this data, no footnote, although it appears all of the figures are from the same 2010 newsletter cited above.. Next is the comparison of drop out rates with graduation rates, without defining either. There are many ways to calculate drop out rates and graduation rates, but only rarely do they lend themselves to simple comparisons between the two. This mistake appears to be the work of the IMA team, because the newsletter states both in terms of “graduation rates.” It isn’t clear from the source which schools or students are included (does this combine the private school with the charter, are any students who attended for any length of time included or only those who attended for a certain number of years), nor how data was obtained and for what percentage of students (neither school goes past 4th grade and it can be difficult to track outcomes for mobile students over time). All these things matter. One thing that distinguishes quality research from promotional materials is that quality research provides these sorts of details.

Whatever the sources or quality of data behind the assertion about graduation rates, the numbers involved appear to be very small. The private school currently has a total pre-K to 3d grade enrollment of 72, with only 9 3d graders. The public charter has 272 students with the vast majority in pre-K and Kindergarten and only 32 in grade 3 (the single tested grade).

The achievement statistics from the newsletter  — which form the basis for IMA’s aspirational projections —  come in two forms.

One is characterized as being based on “a ten-year study of standardized test scores (1993 – 2003),” with no further information given.  Since the Charter school opened in 1999, at most 3 years of this unavailable study could include that school.  Again, IMA misrepresents the figures they are citing.

The other statistics are clearly from the state TAKS tests, however there is also some confusion and misrepresentation with these.  This graph from the newsletter does not indicate whether the data is from the Charter or the Private school, or a combination of the two:

Further investigation appears to show it is from from the Charter.  In 2008-9 there were 20 students from the Charter tested in reading, so the number was very small.  Further investigation also reveals how this graph is misleading.  Note that the Charter students are all in grade 3, but the comparisons are to the “Sum of all grades tested.” If you only include 3d grade, in Region 10 for 2008-9, the percent meeting standard was 94%, or within 1% of the Charter school.  This fits with a 2011 study by NWEA which showed that the TAKS cut scores were generally very low, and that 3d grade had some of the lowest.  It is also worth noting that the newsletter says nothing about math scores, probably because only 76% of their students met the standard in 2008-9 (compared to 84% in Region 10).  Add to this well-reported findings that “suggests they [the TAKS tests] are virtually useless at measuring the effects of classroom instruction,” and problems present become even greater.

It should be noted that those who “analyzed” the IMA materials  for the Board displayed little or no awareness of any these issues with the single newsletter IMA referenced as an “increasing research base” (nor any of the issues raised here with any of the other citations)  That’s a problem too.

Passage and Footnote #7

7. Sara Rimm-Kaufman and Lia Sandilos,“Improving Students’ Relationship with Teachers to Provide Essential Supports for Learning” American Psychological Association, (2011).

Discussion

This is another case of a perfectly fine presentation, by respected researchers, published on a respected forum, being presented by IMA as supporting assertions about Montessori, when the article says nothing about Montessori.  Nothing.

As far as attribution and “increased achievement” goes, here is what the authors have to say “Solely improving students’ relationships with their teachers will not produce gains in achievement. However, those students who have close, positive and supportive relationships with their teachers will attain higher levels of achievement than those students with more conflict in their relationships.”

It would be fine if the authors of the IMA proposal took Rimm-Kaufman and Sandilos’ work and in a systematic way drew parallels between their findings and Montessori practices.  Failing this, it would be acceptable to simply include something in the footnote like “for more on relationships and child-centered environments in general, and outside of Montessori, see:…).  To imply that these authors “attributed” “increased achievement” to the “Montessori method,” is dishonest.  See also the section on footnotes #2 & #6 above.

One More, Passage and Footnote #27

Note:  When I was first drafting this post back in January, this is where I intended to stop (at some point you hit diminishing returns, and it becomes increasingly clear that you have put more work into critiquing the research cited than went into doing the cites in the first place).  However, in recent weeks I found one more instance I would like to include.

27 Diamond, A., “The Evidence Base for Improving School Outcomes by Addressing the Whole Child and by Addressing Skills and Attitudes, Not Just Content.” Early Education and Development, 2: 780-793. (2010)

Discussion

On the surface this is simply (yet) another case of IMA placing a citation to a perfectly fine article as supporting evidence for assertions about Montessori that the article does not make (there are no mentions of Montessori in Dr. Diamond’s article).  Certainly misleading, and to me dishonest.  What makes this one special is that in the IMA proposal it comes with a “hot link,” that doesn’t take you to the article, but rather sends you to this (Walton funded) Public Montessori advocacy organization.  That’s a whole new level of misleading.

Conclusion

As Mark Twain wrote, “Let us draw the curtain of charity over the rest.”  After the citations examined here, I stopped my systematic researches.  With the others I did look at, I found some that were fine, and many that were problematic.  Regardless of what the scorecard for the entire proposal might be, the clear failings revealed in those covered here are beyond troubling.  If the people behind IMA can’t do better with their proposal, how can we trust them with our children and our money?

Owen Gray — Give a Helping Hand (click to listen/watch).

On Monday, October 30, 2017 (6:00 PM, Doyle Bldg. Auditorium), the Madison Metropolitan School District Board of Education will finalize our 2017-18 budget.  Late information received from the state shows that based on the expenditures from the Preliminary budget passed in June, our district will have about $3.7 Million in unused revenue authority, and significantly lower property tax increases than anticipated (2.96% vs 3.97%).  At the October 23, 2017 Operations Work Group meeting, this information was discussed, and there is interest among some of the Board in using some of this authority to increase Special Education expenditures, specifically to add Special Education Assistants, or SEAs  (video here).  I intend to support (or propose) a budget amendment to do this.

It is probably worth noting that prior to passing the June budget, the Board passed an amendment devoting up to an extra $1 million to class size reduction, but because the terms of that amendment, the delay in passing a state budget meant that this money was not spent.

At the October 23 meeting I said I was comfortable using about half of the authority, or about $1.8 Million total (there was also some support for collecting and “banking” some of the revenue for future use, and for applying to physical plant maintenance).  We are still waiting for some more information on current special education staffing and recent trends; based on the information I have now, I am thinking in the $750,000 to $1,000,000 range for special education staffing, which would mean about 15 to 20 FTE SEAs.

In posting a news story related to this on Facebook, I wrote that I “have been hearing from both staff and families that the unmet needs are greater than they have been in the past.,” since that posting I have heard much more.

I am not under the illusion that this increase will allow all needs to be met (we are far from that), but I do think it will help in multiple ways.

I also fully understand that these kind of last minute budget fixes are not a good practice, and that real help (and good budgeting) involves deliberate analysis, redesign, and implementation.  This is in the works, with a Special Education Delivery redesign process (including money for those — often correctly — dreaded consultants) in the budget.  I hope that process brings improvement, but right now we know there are needs, and have the means to address some of those needs.  I think we would be remiss if we did not do this.  What follows is some background and more detail on why I believe this, why I support using some of this revenue authority for special education staffing.

Staffing Trends

Data taken from October Budget Update,  April Budget Book, and MMSD (internal) DataDashboard.  The school based teacher staffing is an estimate, no data is readily available for 2014, and 2015.

The most obvious trend is a shift from SEAs to teachers, resulting in fewer total school based staff, despite generally increasing numbers of special education students (FY 2017 to 2018 doesn’t fully fit this trend, if my estimate is correct, with a total staffing increase of 1.37, for an increase of students of 38).  This appears to be deliberate, and also appears to be based on (among other things) a misapplication of the work of Special Education Scholar Michael Ginagreco (more on that below).

The April Budget included an increase of 7.7 EAs, the June budget had a net cut of 13 EAs (this includes all categories of EAs, not just SEAs), this is a reduction of 57 from 2015-16.  As of the 2017-18 third Friday count there were 82 more special education students than there had been in January of 2016,  and 38 more than in January of 2017. 

This, from a 2011 Wisconsin State Journal article (discussed in this AMPS post) provides some longer term context:

Graph from the Wisconsin State Journal, click image for accompanying story.

Why SEAs Matter and Why this Can Help

Probably best to start here with a disclosure: my spouse is a SEA in MMSD.  Chris Rickert and others of his ilk may think that because of this I should not involve myself in this area as a Board Member.  I disagree.  If this amendment passes, the odds are it will have little or no direct impact on my spouse’s working conditions (the program she works with is extremely unlikely to see any staffing changes), and even if it does have a small direct or indirect impact, it would not be anything that could be considered special treatment based on our relationship.  There would be no monetary impact for our family.

The staff in our schools and the families of students in special education can do a much better job explaining why this matters than I can (please do let the Board hear your stories); their direct experiences are much more powerful than my observations and interpretations.  That said, I would like to try.

Safety: All students; all staff.  Whether it is students who “run” from classes, buildings and playgrounds, or students who express their frustrations in physical ways,  experienced SEAs who know their students can be a key factor in keeping students and staff safe.

Well-being: All students; all staff.  With students, some of this comes down to having basic needs (feeding, toileting….) consistently attended to.  This is not happening with some students now.  With all — students and staff — the stress factors related to understaffing are huge.  It is no accident that we had an approximately 20% turnover of CC teachers last year.  I don’t have a figure on SEA turnover, but I know more than a handful of good, experienced SEAs who burned out and left.  Additionally, about 40% of Cross Categorical (CC, Special Education) teachers hired last year lacked full certification (they were working on emergency permits), and over 25% of those hired did not have general education certification either (emergency licenses). The presence of unqualified and inexperienced CC teachers increases the workload and stress of our experienced staff, making other supports more necessary.  SEAs can help.

Student learning. Unless safety and well-being are taken care of, learning is going to be minimal.  One of the criticisms of SEA staffing is that they end up doing teaching work that should be done by highly trained and qualified teachers; I know in some of our classrooms we have highly qualified teachers doing support work that should be done by support staff.  This is not a good use of our resources, either human or fiscal, and it is not good for our students’ progress.

Relationships:  Relationships are a point of emphasis this year in MMSD, and this could be a good thing.  Common sense and solid research shows that strong relationships between staff and students, and among staff can contribute student and staff well-being, staff retention, and most important student academic progress.  I anticipate hearing from our administration that there is already enough staffing/money in the budget, and the current system of plugging in emergency and short term staff to address crises is working.  Even if by deploying in this manner we do have enough staff, it goes against everything we know about the importance of relationships.  It isn’t a good idea to move staff in and out of schools and classroom, and this is especially true in relation to students with complex needs, that often include great unease with change.   Adding staff will allow more of the late allocations to be permanent, and subject fewer students and staff teams to instability.

The Misuse of Research

It is no secret that much of the consulting class and the professoriate  are hostile to Educational Assistants (what they tend to call paraprofessionals).  Bottom line minded budget-cutting hacks, find Special Education in general, and EAs in particular easy targets.  Others appear to be out of touch with the realities in our schools, and/or over reacting to past or isolated mis and overuse of Educational Assistants.  Michael Giangreco, who was one of the keynotes for the MMSD Summer Teaching & Learning Institute, appears to be very well-intentioned, but somewhat out of touch and in the over reaction mode.  Unfortunately, it also appears that MMSD staff have not realized the aspects of his work that make it problematic when applied to our district and have been using it to justify cuts to SEAs (accompanied by reallocations to Cross Categorical teachers).

I have been digging into his work, and there is much to like.  Generously he links to many of his articles and materials on his website (see the link with his name); I have also explored some things that are behind firewalls.

One of the big lessons from his work is that staffing for inclusion should be done with a whole school approach (General Education and Special Education), and that it should be done by design, not through piecemeal tweaks.  I know that the special education budget amendment will be a tweak, but I also believe the shifts that contributed to the need for this amendment were done piecemeal.

For what follows I am going to (mostly) rely on the article that was linked in the Summer Learning Institute materials, “Precarious or Purposeful? Proactively Building Inclusive Special Education Service Delivery on Solid Ground” by Michael F. Giangreco and Jesse C. Suter.

Here and elsewhere, Giangreco does a fine job identifying (what I would call) preconditions for successful inclusion models; delineating the interactions of various factors tied to creating positive school cultures and successful student learning; offering multiple measures useful in assessing staffing allocations, and much more; in this article he includes these measures for what he calls “the exemplar model.”  I am confident that a school that both met his preconditions and followed his model would be a wonderful school for both students and staff.  Unfortunately, MMSD is very different than the exemplars.

At the October 23 meeting (and previously in private conversation) Anna Moffit alerted me to one issue, that of class size.  Giangreco’s exemplar (K-8) has class sizes of 17-21.  MMSD has some very small classes, but many, many well over 21.  Elsewhere — in an article titled “Constructively Responding to Requests for Paraprofessionals: We Keep Asking the Wrong Questions” (behind a firewall) Giangreco and his co-authors write about Middle and High School teaching loads:

Research in middle and high schools suggests understanding total student load (TSL, i.e., the total number of students with whom a teacher interacts) is a service delivery variable of importance related to teacher–student interactions and achievement (Ouchi, 2009). TSL levels about 80 allow teachers opportunities to know their students, respond to student work, and have sufficient time out of the classroom to make themselves available to students for individual assistance. This allows students to know their teachers understand and care about them—a key foundation of the learning process and ultimately to student achievement. Exploring general and special education service delivery variables allows schools to establish a baseline and provides a wealth of information in considering how they might contribute to school system health.

All good and true.  I believe MMSD High School TSLs are generally over 120, or half again as large as Giangreco recommends.

Also of note are the demographics for his Exemplar.  Here is a comparison with MMSD (September 2017,  third Friday count):

MMSD is significantly higher in all but one measure.

Leaving aside these other factors, the kicker is that the exemplar model calls for huge increases in SEA, Cross Categorical, and General Education Assistants.  Huge.

Date Notes: MMSD date from (internal) Datadashboard (I used current instead of third Friday here), October Budget Update, June Budget, CC = “Cross Categorical.” MMSD school based CC estimated, and this estimate was used for caseloads, ratios, and density.  Caveat, the Exemplar model should be compared at the school level, it was done here at the district level because time and data access limitations did not allow for a school by school analysis.

So to meet the exemplar model, MMSD should add 267.97 school based Cross Categorical teachers, and 359.64 SEAs (along with 144.2 other EAs).  OK, let’s do it!

The one thing MMSD should not do based on this model is to cut small numbers of SEAs to allocate even smaller numbers of Cross Categorical teachers, but that is exactly what has been done.   We are and were relatively more understaffed with SEAs and EAs than we are and were with Cross categorical teachers (according to this model).  Adding some SEAs for the short term seems like a reasonable correction.

Conclusion

The Board has an opportunity to make investments NOW that will improve the experiences, safety and well being of our students and staff.  The scholarship that has been used as one of the justifications for decreases in SEA staffing was misapplied.  Allowing things to continue to deteriorate will only make implementing systematic changes more difficult.  For these (and other) reasons, I will by supporting a special education staffing budget amendment.  When you can give a helping hand, you should.

Thomas J. (TJ) Mertz

On April 30th and May 7th, 2018, the Madison Metropolitan School District Board of Education met to consider “negotiations strategy regarding collectively bargaining base wages for all MMSD bargaining units. ”  Because I have what may be considered a conflict of interest related to my spouse’s membership in one of the bargaining units, and strategies related to contracts with all units were agendaed together, I recused myself and did not participate.

TJ Mertz

Wilbert Harrison, “Let’s Work Together, parts 1&2” (click to listen/watch)

The statutory duties and powers of school boards shall be broadly construed to authorize any school board action that is within the comprehensive meaning of the terms of the duties and powers, if the action is not prohibited by the laws of the federal government or of this state.

Wisconsin Statutes, 118

On Monday May 14, 2018, among other things (including the 2018-19 Budget, the Wellness Policy, and some statutorily required changes to college course access policies), the Madison Metropolitan School District Board of Education Operations Work Group will be discussing changes to how the Board operates, the “1000s” Board Policies  which may be up for a vote on May 21 (this meeting follows a closed session with “1) deliberating or negotiating the purchase of public property; 2) conferring with legal counsel concerning strategy to be adopted by the Board of Education with respect to litigation in which it is involved; and 3) considering negotiations strategy regarding collectively bargaining base wages for all MMSD Bargaining Units” on the agenda; I anticipate recusing from the last item).

At all levels of MMSD, the rhetoric of shared decision-making/governance is often not manifested in reality.  You can see this in the recent Madison Teachers Incorporated (MTI) Platform on School Climate, and in the frustrations parents at Leopold (and elsewhere) have expressed about the principal selection process.   In my experience, this has often also been true for the Board of Education (I realize that each Board Member has their own experiences and opinions).

However, there is one crucial difference, and that is that unlike parents, staff, (and students), the Board has the power and means to change things, not only for the Board itself, but for everyone.

I think it is telling that the City of Madison spent months deliberating and then appointed a Task Force on the Structure of City Government (including Citizen Members) that will carefully consider many ideas prior to making recommendations, while the Board of Education may vote on changes one week after the first public discussion.  Some may find that “efficiency” admirable; I don’t (see here and here for some of my old thoughts on the tensions between democracy and efficiency).

One part of creating change involves the Board governance policies under consideration this month.  Changing the structures and rules doesn’t guarantee changes in practice, but  it may create conditions where positive changes are possible (or may make things worse).

The possibilities are almost endless.  We could move from having 7 Members to 9.  We could return to having more than 2 Work Groups (there have been as many as 5-6 at some points), and again have citizen members on some Board committees (in the past, I have pushed for separating budget work from Operations, and the ERO Ad Hoc is in part an attempt to bring citizen members back).  We could have interactive dialogue as a regular part of meetings (making this possible at some meeting is mentioned here — 1221 –, but not included in the draft).  Some of these may be discussed on Monday.  If people (Board Members, parents, students, staff, community members) bring forth other ideas in the limited time allowed, they may be considered also.

I don’t fully know yet what in the drafts I will support or oppose on Monday, nor what I might propose that is not in the drafts, but there are two things I am sure of.  One is that I will present a new proposal to increase transparency and participation; the other is that I will oppose an attempt to make it harder for the Board and the public to get information about the school district.

Here is the proposed language for the first:

Any Committee, Task Force, Collaborative, Coalition, Advisory or other group convened by MMSD staff or administration that has an identifiable membership which includes more than two (2) people who are not appointed  as MMSD students, employees, or as employees of MMSD partners (as defined by the Partnership Policy) or contractors, will be treated as governmental bodies and required to follow open meetings statutes, with notices, agendas, and meeting materials posted in the manner of MMSD Board Committees and Work Groups.  Additionally, these bodies must include opportunities for public comment on their agendas (as with Work Groups, comment may be limited to items before the body at that meeting).

You may wonder what this is about.  One of the reasons you would be justified in wondering is that because the groups covered by this proposal don’t currently fall under open meetings processes (bodies appointed by staff are a gray area in Wisconsin law), and therefore almost nobody knows they exist.  Behind closed  doors,  on a regular basis,  privileged and select  people are given opportunities to shape district policies and practices through interactions with administration and staff.

Here is a list of the groups (that I know of) which would be opened up (I may not have all the names exactly right, and some may no longer exist):

• The Superintendent’s Human Relations Committee (this group had previously been under open meetings)
• The (BEP) Guiding Coalition
• The High School Collaborative
• The Parent Advisory Group
• Community Leaders Advisory
• Tech Plan Advisory
• Special Education Parent Advisory Council
• Community School Advisory Committee (and the bodies at individual schools?)
• Strategic Framework Planning Team (and sub groups)

Shouldn’t everyone know who these groups are, and what these groups are doing?  It seems basic to me.

One proposal I am definitely opposing makes it more difficult for Board Members (and the therefore the public) to get information.  This adds the clause — “The BOARD President may deny or alter any request for information” — to the current policy (which already allows  requests  which “create an unusual burden” to be brought to the attention of the entire Board.

I find it difficult to believe that anyone thinks governance would be improved by creating barriers to informed decision-making, or giving one of seven a veto on requests, but apparently that is the case.

Among the things which have been brought to light via Board requests for information in recent years are changes in Special Education staffing,; the large increase in less-than -fully- qualified teachers in Special Education and Bilingual Education, the great variations in class sizes, including many “outliers” at the high and low ends.  In each of these cases, it took persistent requests for information to establish the basis for actions (or proposals for action).

Even if the veto isn’t exercised, this could create a significant delay in receiving information.   Timeliness is already an issue.  An example from last week illustrates this.

On Monday the Board discussed the Forward Madison Partnership, and we will be voting on a renewal on 5/21.  Part of the partnership is the T.E.E.M. Scholar program.  On Tuesday I sent this email:

Subject: TEEM Scholar/Immigration Status Question (and more)?

Apologies, I forgot this last night.

I can’t find a current application, but two previous TEEM Scholar applications (here and here), indicate that undocumented students may not participate.  Is this still the case?

More generally, can we get a list of our programs and partnerships that require legal residency (I recall at least, one other, maybe with MATC or DWD)?

Thank you

TJM

TJ Mertz

Madison Metropolitan School District Board of Education, Seat Five
“Educate in order that your children may be free” –Irish Proverb

I am pleased to announce today that I am seeking another term on the Madison Metropolitan School District Board of Education (Seat #5).

I look forward to talking about my record – whether it is the work on reforming the role of police in our schools, changing middle school start times, assuring that our undocumented students have access to all of our partnerships, advocating for our students with special needs, placing the arts and safety in our Strategic Framework – but I believe the most important issues are the erosion of trust and accountability.

I stand second to none in celebrating the great work of our students and staff, but believe continued improvement requires more. Too often concerns about public relations take precedence over forthrightly facing our failures. Too often discussions and even decisions take place behind closed doors. Too often the knowledge, experiences, and insights of many of our staff, our students, our families, and our community are marginalized.

Accountability begins at the ballot box, by electing a Board that is willing and able to insist upon transparency, public processes, and a responsive administration. I have continually demonstrated my commitment to these.

In order for us to provide our students the education they deserve, we need to work to repair the breakdowns of trust we see manifested in the divisions within our schools, within our community, and between too many of our families and our schools. We need to respect each other, assume the best intentions, and work together with honesty and hope.

In the coming years MMSD will be facing more difficult financial circumstances, with hard decisions about priorities and programs. In order to continue improvement in student achievement, racial and other gaps, the physical, mental, and emotional safety and health or our students, and so much more; trust, openness, responsiveness, and a knowledgeable Board will be essential. I bring the necessary skills, experience and knowledge; and pledge to openness and accountability.

I hope I have your support. To help with campaign, beginning by circulating nomination papers, please message or email mertzformadison@gmail.com. You may make a donation by clicking here — DONATE.

TJ Mertz

The Flaming Groovies — Slow Death, live (click to listen/watch)

The 2019-20 Madison Metropolitan School District budget has — to this point — been built in such a way that employee spending power (wages adjusted for inflation) will remain flat (except for those who advance via educational or credential changes).  MTI has an action alert on this, for the Monday May 20th meeting, and beyond.  At a time when the challenges are great, the morale low, the related difficulties in attracting and retaining staff well-documented, this adds injury to insults.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the budget narrative includes misdirections, in  attempts to confuse the issues.  The key passages are here (on page 16 under “Budget Goals and Guiding Principles” — Goals and Principles the Board never voted on, because the MMSD Board rarely votes on anything involving the budget until 90%+ has been decided by the administration, with easily ignored “feedback” but not decision-making from Board):

Provide total compensation (steps + base wage) to employees equal to or greater than final CPI-U/COLA @ 2.44%

And here, on page 25:

In total with what is reserved in the budget, the average employee with a 2.5% total compensation increase will receive total take home pay slightly above the CPI-u index.

A little background and explanation.  Scott Walker’s Act 10, among other things limited public sector collective bargaining agreements (CBAs or union contracts) to maximum base wage increases equal to the consumer price index changes (CPI, inflation), and how any increase would be distributed among the members of a bargaining unit.  Act 10 also allowed for salary/wage schedules to continue (or be changed) outside of CBAs (in MMSD these are in the Handbook).  Salary/Wage schedules include “steps” (increases based on longevity) and “lanes” (increases based on educational attainment or credentials — such as Board Certification).  CPI for this round is 2.44%.*

When you equate “steps + base” to CPI, what you are doing is saying employees will never gain spending power, that a teacher hired at $44,000/year or an EA at $15/hour will have the equivalent spending power for their entire career (unless they move lanes); no reward for experience or longevity.  Flat-line.  Slow death.

This has been the plan since at least January.  Now there will be a back-and-forth between collective bargaining negotiations (starting May 28, 2019) and budget adjustments, as there was last year.  In my opinion (and I said so at the time), it should have been addressed then.  Neither the majority of the Board nor MTI were inclined to hash it out then.  Building a reasonable base wage increase into the budget from the start (maybe not the full 2.44, but 2.0%?), would have made budget adjustments easier, and more importantly would have sent signals to staff that they were valued, and minimized the confrontational process that is about to begin.  Even if the budget ends up at the full 2.44%, and steps and lanes intact, the negative impact on morale is real.

There are more details in the presentation from January.

It looks like the difference between the .5% and the 2.44% comes to a bit over $4.6 million.  Finding that won’t be easy, but it is possible.

Unfortunately, as the slide above indicates, and the one the follows

further demonstrates, the MMSD administrative presentation falsely depicts choices as primarily limited to compensation, staffing reductions, priority actions, and class sizes.  These are big items (and reductions or reallocation of some staff would almost certainly be involved), but they aren’t the only things that could be on the table.

A little more context.  As far as districts in Wisconsin go, MMSD is in good financial shape.  Due to successful referenda in 2008 and 2016, MMSD may exceed the revenue caps by $39 million annually (including $8 million new for 2019-20 year).  MMSD has a healthy fund balance (healthier before the $6 million 2017-18 surplus was mostly spend on security infrastructure upgrades).  There will be no new referendum money next year (unless there is — as there should be — another recurring operating referendum on the ballot in 2020), and that will put a serious squeeze on the 2020-21 budget, but this year things aren’t that tight.  Difficult, but not impossible.

So where do you find $4.6 million?  A little here, a little there, with everything on the table.  Do we want to continue to invest in 1-to-1 Chromebooks? Have “School Improvement Partners” improved schools (about $800,000)? Is adding seven Assistant Principals over two years a good idea (about $800,000)? How about adding thirty Non Union Professionals since 2014-15? Would more mixed grade classes be a good idea (over $800,000 was spent moving t straight grades from 2014-16, with the Common Core given as the primary reason)? Are the tens of millions being spent on past “Priority Actions” making a difference (is the $3.6 million in new spending and reallocation to priority actions in the 2019-20 budget all necessary)?  If compensation is a priority, and (barring significant state budget changes, see below) something close to a 2.44% base wage is to be incorporated, these are just a few examples of the kind of questions that need to be asked, and analyzed.

There is a good chance the state budget will help.  The MMSD budget was built on conservative assumptions for revenue cap increases and state funding.  It seems clear now that most of what Governor Evers proposed will not go through, but I hold out some hope a few things, especially an increase in state funding for special education (which would free up some general funds for MMSD).  Stay up-to-date and get involved via the Wisconsin Public Education Network.

On the local stuff, I no longer have a seat at the table, but I’ll still be watching, and on occasion speaking my piece (or as is the case here, writing it).  There will be more posts here as the spirit moves me, and time allows; I have taken to doing most of my education-related social media on this Facebook page (like and follow if you are interested).  You should speak your piece too.  Let those who are making the decisions (or avoiding them) know how you feel.

Thomas J (TJ) Mertz

*Milwaukee Public Schools recently has frozen step movements, providing only base wage increases (kind of the mirror image of what the MMSD proposed budget does). The Milwaukee Teachers’s Education Association is now fighting for  “all salary schedules are adjusted equivalent to COLA,” in addition to class size, staffing, and other issues  More here.

From “The Glass Ballot Box and Political Transparency,” by Ellery Foutch

Television — “See No Evil” (click to listen/watch)

Transparency and accountability for government bodies depend on the public knowing the positions and actions of their elected officials, and at base that means knowing how they voted.  When decisions to act, to not act, or how to act are made without votes whether in open or private (and here) meetings, transparency and accountability are diminished.  The Madison Metropolitan School District Board of Education too often refrains from exercising their collective power via votes, instead only voicing individual opinions and giving feedback, like a focus group not a governing body.  This creates confusion, and limits transparency and the potential for accountability.  This is one manifestation of a district culture that seeks to control the flow of information, and only do the minimum in relation to transparency.  The recent meetings on the process for selecting an Interim Superintendent serve as examples of this.

There have been (at least) two meetings on the Interim selection process, no votes have been taken, yet decisions have been made (there are many reports that the Board illegally discussed an Interim selection in closed session on May 6).

The first noticed meeting was on May 13 where the initial legal notice included as a closed session item “Consideration of employment of a district administrator, pursuant to Wis. Stat. Sec. 19.85(1)(c),” but an amended notice changed it to an open session item on the “Interim Superintendent Hiring Process,” as a “discussion” (not an “action” or voting item), and with no materials attached.   A small step toward transparency.

The Board met again on May 20, 2019 in a Special “Workshop” (which generally means no public testimony, more on that below) open session for (according to the notice):

Finalization of Process and Timeline for Hiring Interim Superintendent

This also appears on the agenda as a “discussion item,” (not an action item, no vote).  This timeline was attached to the agenda.

Minutes will eventually be posted for both these meetings, but there is no video for either.  MMSD meeting minutes tend to be very cursory, and rarely are positions, questions, or concerns attributed to an individual Board member (on a few occasions I asked that the minutes include something I said).  This is OK when there is video, but otherwise you have to be there to have much sense of what went on, and the positions of individual Board members.  I don’t know why there was no video for the May 13th meeting, the link on BoardDocs skips the open session and goes straight to an in progress Operations Work Group.  The May 20th meeting was held in a room at East High School, and not streamed or recorded.  You had to be here (there was also apparently some confusion about what room, and accessibility).

Reports from Negassi Tesfamichael in the Cap Times, Logan Wroge in the State Journal, and on WMTV give some details of the May 13th meeting, and illustrate some of the problems caused by the lack of voting.

Let’s start with the Cap Times and the headline: “Madison School Board pushes back timeline for hiring interim superintendent to June” (all italics to quotes added).  Whatever discussions had taken place in private, there was no timeline to be pushed back (or at least none that had been approved by the Board, this story references an earlier statement by Mary Burke, but unless a timeline had been agreed upon in private, there was no timeline).  And there was no push-back because the Board only acts when it votes, and it did not vote.  The problem continues in the lede: “The Madison School Board agreed during a special session on Monday to aim to hire an interim superintendent sometime between June 1 and July 1.”  “Agreed” is not the same as voting (but to those who don’t understand how MMSD operates, it gives the misimpression there was a vote).  The story indicates a 4 to 3 split, or disagreement, on the timeline (Burke, Toews, and Muldrow favoring a shorter process).  Since no vote was taken, it is very doubtful there will be any official record of that disagreement (and if you only read other news sources you would not have been aware of who favored what).

There was also discussion of internal vs external candidates, but again no vote or decision made.  The State Journal uses the phrase “signaled its preference Monday for hiring an internal candidate,” on this (similar imprecise language in the article on the timeline: “…the board settled on naming an interim superintendent sometime between June 1 and July 1″).  WMTV reported “Four of the board members voiced strong support that the interim superintendent should be an internal candidate coming from within MMSD.  Other board members said they were open to the idea of both internal and external candidates.” The Cap Times said “School Board members emphasized a desire to hire someone internally from MMSD.” Without votes, more precision isn’t possible.  I feel bad for the reporters who have to report on the actions taken without votes, as if votes had been taken.  I feel worse for a community that is represented in this manner.

WMTV also reported that “At the conclusion of the meeting, Mary Burke, board president, said she would take the notes from the meeting and draft a timeline for what is next. ”  It is more typical that MMSD staff take the feedback from Board members and interpret it in drafting or revising documents or policies.  Whether the interpretation is done by a Board member or staff, this way of doing business is fraught with problems of confusion and bias in ways that voting avoids.

A timeline is attached to the May 20th agenda.  I assume this is the timeline Mary Burke drafted.  Interestingly this is labeled “v1.2” but there is no public record of a v1.1, nor of a revision process to get from v1.1 to v1.2.  Perhaps that was discussed at one of the meetings.

For this meeting, I am only going to look briefly at Negassi Tesfamichael‘s Cap Times article and Logan Wroge’s in the State Journal.

The Cap Times headline says the Board “finalizes interim superintendent hiring timeline,” and the body of the story says “board members approved a timeline that would lead to an interim superintendent hire at its monthly June meeting.”  I believe the timeline has been finalized, but the Board did not vote and therefore did not “approve” anything.  The phrasing in the State Journal is more accurate.  That headline reads “Madison School Board lays out timeline for hiring interim superintendent,” and the body of the story says “laid out.”  However, the article also flirts with confusion in a reference to the May 13th meeting by saying “The board has already stated a preference for an internal hire. ” “Stated” is stronger than the previous “signaled,” and although an apparent majority of Board members has signaled or stated, the Board only acts, or states, when they take a vote.  No vote means no statement.  The lack of clarity which results from the reluctance to vote is hard for reporters.

I want to note, that despite the statements from some Board members in favor of public input on and in the process, neither of the two meetings discussed here, nor the May 30th closed session (which may be about the Interim hire, more on that below), have had public testimony on the agenda (people did speak to the issue at the May 13th Operations meeting and the May 20th Regular meeting).  According to the timeline, May 31 is the last day for “Community Input.” I don’t see any special link on the Board or district web pages, so I guess that if you are not among the targeted groups listed on the timeline (the Superintendent’s Human Relations Advisory Committee — a group whose meetings were open and noticed before Cheatham came to town –, the Black Educators’ Network, MTI President and Director, and those “Advocates and community groups” Board members reach out to, and schools they visit between May 20th and 31st), but have input to give you should email the Board at board@madison.k12.wi.us.

There is one more thing on the timeline that involves “community input” and also seems to end May 31st: “Finalize list of selection considerations which includes (sic) community input.”  There is no indication if this list will be made public (although, unless it is (mis)classified as a “working document,” an enterprising reporter or interested member of the public should be able to get it via an open records request.

This is probably a good place to state that despite my objections to how it was arrived at,  given the time limitations, the process “finalized” seems generally fine.  I would have preferred that there were more general opportunities for public input, hope the “selection considerations” are made public, but don’t think the final Interim candidates need to be vetted in open meetings (their names should be made public prior to the selection).

However, that does not mean that I don’t think the lack of votes, and the transparency and accountability they allow, are not big deals.  This is a relatively small and rare matter, and in this case little harm was done.   If this were isolated, and atypical, I would not be concerned.  It isn’t; and I am.  You should be too.  The budget process is probably the best (but not the only) example of why.

The Board began discussing (I hesitate to use the phrase “working on”) the 2019-20 budget in December of 2018.  There have been numerous meeting, much feedback, and the only votes thus far have been on “Early Approvals” totaling $646,000 in a budget totaling over $460 million.  Staffing allocations to schools were decided without the Board even knowing what they are, much less voting on them.  The process has been guided by ““Budget Goals and Guiding Principles” the Board never approved.  There was no Board vote on using a base wage increase of .5% — about 20% of what is allowed under Walker era law — as the basis for building the budget.  These things do matter, they are big deals.

Having your elected officials on record on these, via their votes, is also a big deal.  Don’t you want to know whether  they favor smaller class sizes, more SEAs, higher wages… (all of these may be changed via amendments, but significant changes become extremely difficult once the initial — un voted on — numbers are built into the budget, and if there are no amendments, there is simply an up or down vote on the entire budget).  If you don’t know this, how will you know who to vote for when they are up for re-election (“accountability begins at the ballot box….”)?

In my time on the Board, I raised this repeatedly, tried to get the Board to vote more, but a majority did not want to have more votes than absolutely necessary (I would argue that the on the Interim process the votes not taken were necessary from a legal standpoint); nor did the administration.  I could understand why the administration did not want the Broad voting, every exercise of Board power limits the power and freedom of the administration.  I never understood why Board members did not want to vote.   You can ask them (and please, pass on the answers).

Wisconsin statutes only allow governing bodies to make decisions by secret ballot when electing officers (even votes in closed sessions are public records).  The statutes are silent on the MMSD practice of making decisions without any votes at all.  You don’t have to be silent.

Thomas J. (TJ) Mertz

Addendum (added a couple hours after posting)

There is a closed session meeting listed for this week, May 30, 2019 that may be about the Interim hire (it fits the timeline).  The agenda reads “Consideration of employment of a district administrator, pursuant to Wis. Stat. Sec. 19.85(1)(c).” That may satisfy the minimum requirements of open meetings law, but it isn’t very helpful.  In contrast, when the Milwaukee Board of Education was in a similar situation a year ago, their notices included language like this:

This tells public what is going on.  It also flags that “action” will be done in public session.  MMSD should do the same.  I would consider the item on the timeline to “Finalize list of selection considerations which includes (sic) community input,” to be an action, requiring a vote, and a vote that should be done in open session.