Executive Director's Report: One district's road map for closing the gap

Among the guests were a member of the Montgomery County school board, several senior district staff members, and another education association executive director.

In the Washington, D.C., area, most gatherings are all about politics, the news of the day, and the latest scandal (at this time, that would have been easy fodder), so I was struck by the tenor of the talk at this one.

There was genuine enthusiasm about Montgomery County Public Schools’ education data -- all kinds of it. The group had just gotten a report that 53 percent of last year’s seniors scored 1100 or better on the SAT, compared to the national average of 38 percent.

But that was not the main reason for their excitement. In the class of 2005, 20 percent of African American and 22 percent of Hispanic seniors who took the SAT scored above 1100.

That was the highest rate ever in MCPS and far in excess of the national average of 11 percent of African Americans and 18 percent for Hispanics.

One reason for this outcome is the increase in the number of students who are taking Advanced Placement, honors, and International Baccalaureate courses. Among last year’s seniors, 29 percent of African Americans and 38 percent of Hispanics took at least one AP exam in high school, doubling the percentage from just five years ago.

At the same time, 17 percent of African American students and 33 percent of Hispanics scored high enough on an AP test to earn college credit. But one of the district leaders was quick to add, “This is not good enough,” and told me how they were working to increase these numbers this year.

As the evening continued, I heard many stories about risks taken and decisions the board had made to reassign teachers, principals, and resources to poorer schools without neglecting the more affluent schools. I heard stories about mistakes made and how the district moved ahead.

I heard that MCPS had won the state’s much-coveted U.S. Senate Productivity Award for Performance and Excellence. The award is given to a business or organization in Maryland that best exemplifies the Malcolm Baldrige criteria, a management philosophy focused on continuous improvement in the constant pursuit of excellence.

When someone asked a senior staff member how the district celebrated the award, he stopped dead in his tracks and admitted, “we didn’t celebrate. We just went to work the next day to improve on what we did last year.”

But if you think these people do not have fun, you would be wrong. There was much teasing, with the superintendent freely laughing at the jokes told at his expense.

In short, an amazing culture had been created, epitomized by a pursuit of excellence based on data-driven decisions -- involving data of all kinds, not just test scores -- as well as accountability and support for taking risks at all levels.

Has it all been just one rosy ride? Is the board-superintendent team one cozy love fest? I do not think so. Some of the stories told me otherwise. But some of the important steps and choices taken by this district are worth sharing, because all of us can learn from others’ successes and failures.

Bear in mind that what follows is just my perspective based on the discussions during one evening and some research done afterward.

Step one -- In 1998, the MCPS board began the search to replace retiring Superintendent Paul Vance, a man who began the district’s data-driven culture at MCPS.

The board had a clear strategic plan, with data to show what the issues were and a straightforward search process.

Let me share some statistics: MCPS is the largest district in Maryland and the 17th largest in the nation. Over the last 15 years, it has grown 53 percent and now has 139,337 students in its 194 schools.

Over that same period, the district went from being nearly 80 percent white to a district with a minority majority student body comprised of 45 percent white, 22 percent African American, 19 percent Hispanic, 14 percent Asian, and .3 percent American Indian.

There are students from 164 countries, and 36 percent of students have qualified for free or reduced-price meals at some point.

The board and superintendent had identified the achievement gap as the number-one issue. However, at the same time, the fear of white flight and a desire not to lose middle and upper-middle-class students were major concerns.

The board grilled superintendent candidates on several issues: Were they data-driven? Did they have the skill set to drive a sophisticated system? Did they understand the issues around the new (and politically contentious) decision to shift resources within the district? Were they willing and able to articulate subjects like race and poverty? Were they good communicators?

In short, the board had the elements of a clear vision, knew some of the potholes, and knew what kind of leader they were looking for.

Let me be blunt. One of my constant worries about the superintendent search process is that, too often, it is just too loose. I worry that boards hire a search consultant merely for his or her Rolodex of names. Instead, looking for a superintendent should come at the end of a very clear goal-setting, skill-identification process and on and off-the-record reference checking.

This MCPS search was not a personality contest. And it was not just a conversation among the board about whether a candidate “is a good fit” without a clear understanding by both the board and candidate about the district’s goals and priorities.

Step two -- Once Weast was on board, the real work began. District leaders visited schools, analyzed data (aggregated and disaggregated), and came to a clear conclusion: 75 to 80 percent of all the minority students and the same proportions of English-language learners and poor students lived in a well-defined geographic area. And lower student performance abounded there.

To address this situation, Weast and the board have had to make some very tough decisions. And they have had to greatly increase the involvement of the many communities affected by those decisions.

After much work and extensive community input, they developed a new strategic plan.

This plan, “Our Call to Action: Raising the Bar and Closing the Gap,” addresses the hot political issue that had been avoided in the past: There were two systems within MCPS.

One provided an excellent education for high-achieving students who won Intel science awards and all kinds of other honors. But there was another system where test scores were flat and declining, dropout rates were high, and the communities felt underserved.

“There was a great deal of denial before Weast,” said one teacher union official who asked not to be named. “Some of it was believing your own propaganda. We always had a group of kids that you could hang the world-class system on. And you could kind of close your eyes and not see the other school system. After Dr. Weast came in, we said we can’t just not see it any more.”

Among the many components of the new plan was a system to identify “red schools,” those with the neediest and lowest-achieving student populations, and “green schools,” those in wealthier areas with high-achieving students -- and provide differentiated resources and strategies to each group.

Sharon Cox, a board member who was first elected soon after Weast was hired, says, “The concern in the community was people didn’t believe you could both raise the bar and close the gap. People in the ‘green’ areas were afraid that all resources would go to the needier, or ‘red,’ area. People in the ‘red’ area were afraid they wouldn’t get the attention they needed because of the goal of raising the bar in the ‘green’ area.”

While the district hoped “to increase the overall achievement levels and was working to fulfill every child’s potential,” she continues, “we hoped children with more dramatic barriers would improve at a faster rate than other students who were already up there.”

Step three -- Weast began the implementation process by moving principals and teachers and hiring new principals who had demonstrated that they were highly skilled and committed to the new goals of the board.

In Good to Great, Jim Collins calls it getting the right people on the bus and moving the wrong people off the bus. As any board member or superintendent knows, this is not easy.

The plan called for achieving success of every student every day through:

• curricular standards at each grade level (this was in 1999, before No Child Left Behind);

• individual professional development plans for every employee;

• individual school improvement plans;

• school cluster improvement plans for all schools;

• assigning great teachers to help new or less-effective teachers through intensive coaching and mentoring;

• diagnostic formative assessments in elementary and middle schools; and

• greater parent and community outreach.

Is it working? Yes, as you can tell from the most recent SAT data. Has it been easy? No. It has raised contentious issues. Members of the community voiced concerns continuously. Board members have to struggle with these voices and, sometimes, even their own doubts.

Is there joy in Mudville? From one person’s view, on a Saturday evening, hearing and seeing the excitement among 16 people, you bet. I left the evening with a lighter step, bubbling all the way home to my husband (who shares my enthusiasm for this stuff, thank heavens).