Updated 4:30 p.m.. with cost details:
If the new superintendent wants to take a page from the Pete Gorman leadership book, he or she will literally be able to do so.
CMS has quietly released "Within Reach: Leadership Lessons in School Reform from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools," focusing on the Gorman years. It's co-authored by Tim Quinn and Michelle Keith, who helped create the Broad Superintendents Academy that trained Gorman, with the former superintendent listed as a contributor. The book costs $13.50, and proceeds will go to the CMS Foundation.
"We have not witnessed a sustained reform story any more successful than that of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools from 2006-2011," the introduction says. "As Dr. Peter Gorman assumed the district superintendency in July 2006, the 'stars were aligned' for significant strides in district transformation and subsequent leaps in student achievement."
In his forward, Gorman writes that he was "in the right place at the right time" to experience "the most outstanding professional experience an educational leader could have."
From the samples available on Amazon, the tone is pretty much what you'd expect from a leadership guide: Upbeat and a bit dry. My copy hasn't arrived yet, but I'm guessing this won't be a candid tale of Gorman's encounters with the city's politicians, pundits and activists, nor will it offer details about challenges that ranged from a gay penguin book-ban controversy to a teacher caught shooting heroin in a classroom. People who see Gorman in a less rosy light, thanks to such things as school closings, teacher layoffs and a controversial rollout of performance pay, may take issue with the official view of the Gorman era.
County Commissioner Bill James and others quickly began raising questions about whether CMS labor or money was spent on the publication. Tahira Stalberte with the public information office says all costs were covered by a grant Gorman received from the C.D. Spangler Foundation. That includes $57,778 to the authors, $1,740 to the CMS print shop for layout and design and about $30 to the self-publishing site that created 100 copies of the book. So far, Stalberte says, the CMS Foundation has gotten about $25 from sales.
Showing posts with label Peter Gorman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Peter Gorman. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Monday, April 9, 2012
Gorman speaking in Charlotte: Shh!
This morning, Christa Robaina from the Queens McColl School of Business emailed to say she'd noticed my registration, and I won't be allowed in.
"We have always worked with our media partners to offer an interview prior to the lecture if the guest speaker was willing, but have never allowed the media to attend the lecture events so our speakers may have a candid forum with our students, alumni and invited guests of the University," she wrote. However, Gorman also said no to interviews.
So the question arises: What is Gorman going to say about his leadership experience in CMS that he's not willing to say to the general public? And how confidential can a lecture to an auditorium full of people be?
If you're going to be there, please let me know what he says -- and consider tweeting with the hashtag #gormanspeaks. As a superintendent, Gorman prided himself on transparency, which included regular communication with the media. As a former superintendent, we'll see how he does with citizen journalists.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Gorman: Close schools, pack your bags
Former Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Peter Gorman isn't talking to the Charlotte media anymore, but he certainly has some interesting things to say as he makes the national rounds.
Lew Powell, a former Observer colleague, forwarded this recent item from City Beat, a Memphis, Tenn., blog. It reports on a confab between Memphis officials and Gorman (who now works for the education division of News Corp.), then-board Chair Eric Davis, former board Chair Arthur Griffin and an unnamed former CMS principal.
"The system won a national award this year for excellence in urban education, but this was not a butt-patting session," reports John Branston, a senior editor for The Memphis Flyer. Branston's report continues:
“Progress has been painfully slow, and at the rate we are moving in Charlotte it will still be 15 years before the achievement gap is closed,” said former superintendent Pete Gorman.
He urged the committee to “build a bench” of future principals and assistant principals from among promising young teachers; move good principals and five teachers as a group to the toughest schools but not against their will; give new leadership three years to turn around a school; give good schools more autonomy; measure improvement , not raw scores, so that even college-prep schools must show improvement year over year; pick a superintendent for the consolidated district sooner rather than later; give the schools with the poorest students the most money, and give the wealthiest schools the least money; and expect to move on if you are the superintendent that has to close schools.
“You can’t close schools well,” he said, adding that "to do the job well, I sometimes question if it's physically possible."
Gorman, as most Charlotte readers know, launched a push in fall 2010 to close about a dozen schools in 2011-12. He announced his resignation in June, just after the board approved a 2011-12 budget. Many of the newly-merged schools are now dealing with discipline problems, although the staff that remains to deal with aftermath still voices hope that there will be academic benefits.
Lew Powell, a former Observer colleague, forwarded this recent item from City Beat, a Memphis, Tenn., blog. It reports on a confab between Memphis officials and Gorman (who now works for the education division of News Corp.), then-board Chair Eric Davis, former board Chair Arthur Griffin and an unnamed former CMS principal.
"The system won a national award this year for excellence in urban education, but this was not a butt-patting session," reports John Branston, a senior editor for The Memphis Flyer. Branston's report continues:
“Progress has been painfully slow, and at the rate we are moving in Charlotte it will still be 15 years before the achievement gap is closed,” said former superintendent Pete Gorman.
He urged the committee to “build a bench” of future principals and assistant principals from among promising young teachers; move good principals and five teachers as a group to the toughest schools but not against their will; give new leadership three years to turn around a school; give good schools more autonomy; measure improvement , not raw scores, so that even college-prep schools must show improvement year over year; pick a superintendent for the consolidated district sooner rather than later; give the schools with the poorest students the most money, and give the wealthiest schools the least money; and expect to move on if you are the superintendent that has to close schools.
“You can’t close schools well,” he said, adding that "to do the job well, I sometimes question if it's physically possible."
Gorman, as most Charlotte readers know, launched a push in fall 2010 to close about a dozen schools in 2011-12. He announced his resignation in June, just after the board approved a 2011-12 budget. Many of the newly-merged schools are now dealing with discipline problems, although the staff that remains to deal with aftermath still voices hope that there will be academic benefits.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Follow-up on Cochrane turnaround
I got an email today from David Markus, the writer of the Edutopia package on Cochrane's "turnaround" that I wrote about yesterday.
I had re-messaged Markus, the publication's editorial director, to let him know former Cochrane Principal Terry Brown was challenging his account of then-Superintendent Peter Gorman visiting the east Charlotte middle school in 2006 and proclaiming, "This may be the worst school I have ever seen." Brown, who ended a three-year stint as Cochrane's principal at the end of the 2006-07 school year, says Gorman never visited the school while he was there. Brown said he and Gorman had several conversations during the year that the two of them shared in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, and Gorman never gave him any indication that he held such dim views of Cochrane's academic performance.
Markus stands by his reporting: "In an email to me on November 2nd, Pete Gorman corroborated the 'worst' school quote and added that his visit to Cochrane was the most disheartening school visit of his career." No word from Gorman; I haven't been able to reach him since he announced his resignation in June.
I still don't know who pitched the Cochrane turnaround story, which has gotten national and local attention, or whether Markus realized that part of the proficiency gains he cited came from a change in N.C. testing rules that bumped up most low-scoring schools. But on the general topic, Markus said:
"We believe it is a 'turnaround' for the statistics we cite. As a student of school turnarounds I am sure you know that when a school has fallen as low as Cochrane had, it will take several years to dig out. Cochrane is well on its way after only a few, but as we make plain in our package, their rise to excellence is not nearly complete. Nor is it guaranteed. That said I am very impressed with (Principal) Josh Bishop's team and the results they are achieving."
We're certainly in agreement that turnarounds are complex and slow. This got me curious enough to do my own walk down memory lane ... actually, the N.C. school report cards. Here's what the numbers show, with some context.
At the end of 2006-07, the year Gorman may or may not have proclaimed Cochrane the worst, 67 percent of its students passed the reading exam and 37 percent passed math. The school fell short of the state target for growth, generally described as an average of one year's academic gain per student.
In 2007-08, after Brown's retirement, Valarie Williams was hired to lead Cochrane. State officials also introduced an eighth-grade science exam, and bumped up the number of correct answers needed to pass the reading test. Most educators agreed the old cut-off was too low, but the change brought a plunge in pass rates across the state, especially for minority and low-income students and the schools (such as Cochrane) that served them. In 2008, Cochrane's pass rates were 32 percent in reading, 34 percent in math and 14 percent in science. Cochrane again failed to make the growth target.
In 2008-09, North Carolina started requiring students who failed state exams to try again, boosting pass rates across the state. That year Cochrane hit 47 percent in reading, 54 percent in math and 35 percent in science, and it met the "expected growth" target.
In February 2010, Gorman reassigned Williams to Vance High School as part of his "strategic staffing" plan to improve that school. Josh Bishop became interim principal (he got the permanent job at the start of 2010-11). That year ended with Cochrane at 52 percent passing reading, 67 percent passing math and 61 percent passing science. The school made "high growth."
Last year Cochrane held steady at 52 percent passing reading, declined to 59 percent passing math and rose to 63 percent passing science, with an "expected growth" rating. It was a year when many CMS schools saw some slump in scores.
The gains in math and science are impressive, even with the retesting boost. Still, it's worth noting that Cochrane continues to hover around 50 percent proficiency on reading. In 2011, only 43 percent of students passed both reading and math exams, a mark that signals readiness to move on to the tougher high school courses. And the black, Hispanic and low-income students who make up the majority of Cochrane's students had pass rates about 10 percentage points lower than the average for those same groups in CMS and statewide.
I had re-messaged Markus, the publication's editorial director, to let him know former Cochrane Principal Terry Brown was challenging his account of then-Superintendent Peter Gorman visiting the east Charlotte middle school in 2006 and proclaiming, "This may be the worst school I have ever seen." Brown, who ended a three-year stint as Cochrane's principal at the end of the 2006-07 school year, says Gorman never visited the school while he was there. Brown said he and Gorman had several conversations during the year that the two of them shared in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, and Gorman never gave him any indication that he held such dim views of Cochrane's academic performance.
Markus stands by his reporting: "In an email to me on November 2nd, Pete Gorman corroborated the 'worst' school quote and added that his visit to Cochrane was the most disheartening school visit of his career." No word from Gorman; I haven't been able to reach him since he announced his resignation in June.
I still don't know who pitched the Cochrane turnaround story, which has gotten national and local attention, or whether Markus realized that part of the proficiency gains he cited came from a change in N.C. testing rules that bumped up most low-scoring schools. But on the general topic, Markus said:
"We believe it is a 'turnaround' for the statistics we cite. As a student of school turnarounds I am sure you know that when a school has fallen as low as Cochrane had, it will take several years to dig out. Cochrane is well on its way after only a few, but as we make plain in our package, their rise to excellence is not nearly complete. Nor is it guaranteed. That said I am very impressed with (Principal) Josh Bishop's team and the results they are achieving."
We're certainly in agreement that turnarounds are complex and slow. This got me curious enough to do my own walk down memory lane ... actually, the N.C. school report cards. Here's what the numbers show, with some context.
At the end of 2006-07, the year Gorman may or may not have proclaimed Cochrane the worst, 67 percent of its students passed the reading exam and 37 percent passed math. The school fell short of the state target for growth, generally described as an average of one year's academic gain per student.
In 2007-08, after Brown's retirement, Valarie Williams was hired to lead Cochrane. State officials also introduced an eighth-grade science exam, and bumped up the number of correct answers needed to pass the reading test. Most educators agreed the old cut-off was too low, but the change brought a plunge in pass rates across the state, especially for minority and low-income students and the schools (such as Cochrane) that served them. In 2008, Cochrane's pass rates were 32 percent in reading, 34 percent in math and 14 percent in science. Cochrane again failed to make the growth target.
In 2008-09, North Carolina started requiring students who failed state exams to try again, boosting pass rates across the state. That year Cochrane hit 47 percent in reading, 54 percent in math and 35 percent in science, and it met the "expected growth" target.
In February 2010, Gorman reassigned Williams to Vance High School as part of his "strategic staffing" plan to improve that school. Josh Bishop became interim principal (he got the permanent job at the start of 2010-11). That year ended with Cochrane at 52 percent passing reading, 67 percent passing math and 61 percent passing science. The school made "high growth."
Last year Cochrane held steady at 52 percent passing reading, declined to 59 percent passing math and rose to 63 percent passing science, with an "expected growth" rating. It was a year when many CMS schools saw some slump in scores.
The gains in math and science are impressive, even with the retesting boost. Still, it's worth noting that Cochrane continues to hover around 50 percent proficiency on reading. In 2011, only 43 percent of students passed both reading and math exams, a mark that signals readiness to move on to the tougher high school courses. And the black, Hispanic and low-income students who make up the majority of Cochrane's students had pass rates about 10 percentage points lower than the average for those same groups in CMS and statewide.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Cochrane turnaround tale ... really?
The contrast between Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools' glowing national image and the controversy that surrounds it at home is a source of much discussion.
I suspect those of us in the thick of things do tend to fixate on problems. Up close, bumps in the road can look like mountains.
But if problems get exaggerated locally, I've also seen success exaggerated nationally. Most recent case in point: The Edutopia package on Cochrane's "turnaround" that's been widely circulated. I first saw it on the ASCD Smartbrief, a national roundup of education reporting, early this month. CMS officials played the video portion at the conclusion of a Dec. 13 report on schools in transition.
My first reaction was confusion. Cochrane, an east Charlotte middle school that's starting to add high school grades this year, hasn't been on my "success story" radar. Had I missed something?
A look at my data sheets said no. Cochrane ended 2011 with a composite pass rate of 58 percent on state exams. Of 35 CMS middle schools, only four scored lower -- and two of those, Spaugh and Williams, closed this year. More telling, only two middle schools earned a lower growth rating, a measure designed to make sure schools are judged on how much their students gain, not just how well prepared they are when they arrive.
So why is one of the district's weakest middle schools being highlighted as a school that "beats the odds every day"? David Markus, Edutopia's editorial director and the writer of the main article, hasn't responded to my message asking who suggested the story. In another part of the package, an endnote thanks The Broad Foundation for sharing research about top urban districts.
The package focuses mostly on Cochrane's significant gains in pass rates from 2008 to 2011. What's not mentioned is that the same can be said for most struggling schools in North Carolina, thanks to a change in testing that took effect in 2009. In 2008, students took the test once. Starting in 2009, those who fell below the "passing" line were required to try again, and be counted as passing if they met the mark on the second test. Generally, the more failing students a school had, the bigger the "retest" bump it showed. As CMS superintendent, Peter Gorman frequently blasted the retesting system as giving schools an artificial inflation in pass rates.
Gorman, who left CMS in June to work with education technology for Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., is featured in a dramatic opening to Markus' story. It describes Gorman visiting Cochrane in 2006, the year he started as superintendent: "Known for his no-nonsense determination to turn around the district's failing schools, Gorman minces no words in describing Cochrane: 'This may be the worst school I have ever seen.' " Gorman is later quoted as saying, five years later, "There was no instructional focus. It was the most disheartening school visit of my career."
Terry Brown, Cochrane's principal in 2006-07, called me after reading the first version of this post. While I had noted that Gorman certainly wasn't saying such things publicly at that time, and that administrators tend to give their most vivid "bad schools" accounts in hindsight, Brown, who retired in 2007, says this goes beyond dramatic reconstruction.
"Gorman never visited Cochrane the first year he was there. Not one time," Brown said. "He was scheduled and canceled. I'm appalled. None of this is true."
Bottom line: Edutopia, a publication of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, is dedicated to highlighting academic solutions that include technology, teacher development and "comprehensive assessment." CMS is well known for those approaches, and Cochrane, as noted prominently in the story, is working with Texas Instruments to use technology in math instruction. One sign that it's helping, from my spreadsheets: CMS reported that last year only 49 percent of Cochrane sixth-graders were proficient on math exams, while 65 percent of eighth-graders were. One troubling signal: That's down from 75 percent of Cochrane eighth-graders proficient in math the previous year.
I don't want to detract from the hard work and high aspirations of the faculty and students at Cochrane. I'd love to write their turnaround story sometime down the road, when I see solid evidence that it's justified. All this is just to say that improving education is complicated business, and it's wise to scrutinize naysayers and cheerleaders alike.
I suspect those of us in the thick of things do tend to fixate on problems. Up close, bumps in the road can look like mountains.
But if problems get exaggerated locally, I've also seen success exaggerated nationally. Most recent case in point: The Edutopia package on Cochrane's "turnaround" that's been widely circulated. I first saw it on the ASCD Smartbrief, a national roundup of education reporting, early this month. CMS officials played the video portion at the conclusion of a Dec. 13 report on schools in transition.
My first reaction was confusion. Cochrane, an east Charlotte middle school that's starting to add high school grades this year, hasn't been on my "success story" radar. Had I missed something?
A look at my data sheets said no. Cochrane ended 2011 with a composite pass rate of 58 percent on state exams. Of 35 CMS middle schools, only four scored lower -- and two of those, Spaugh and Williams, closed this year. More telling, only two middle schools earned a lower growth rating, a measure designed to make sure schools are judged on how much their students gain, not just how well prepared they are when they arrive.
So why is one of the district's weakest middle schools being highlighted as a school that "beats the odds every day"? David Markus, Edutopia's editorial director and the writer of the main article, hasn't responded to my message asking who suggested the story. In another part of the package, an endnote thanks The Broad Foundation for sharing research about top urban districts.
The package focuses mostly on Cochrane's significant gains in pass rates from 2008 to 2011. What's not mentioned is that the same can be said for most struggling schools in North Carolina, thanks to a change in testing that took effect in 2009. In 2008, students took the test once. Starting in 2009, those who fell below the "passing" line were required to try again, and be counted as passing if they met the mark on the second test. Generally, the more failing students a school had, the bigger the "retest" bump it showed. As CMS superintendent, Peter Gorman frequently blasted the retesting system as giving schools an artificial inflation in pass rates.
Gorman, who left CMS in June to work with education technology for Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., is featured in a dramatic opening to Markus' story. It describes Gorman visiting Cochrane in 2006, the year he started as superintendent: "Known for his no-nonsense determination to turn around the district's failing schools, Gorman minces no words in describing Cochrane: 'This may be the worst school I have ever seen.' " Gorman is later quoted as saying, five years later, "There was no instructional focus. It was the most disheartening school visit of my career."
Terry Brown, Cochrane's principal in 2006-07, called me after reading the first version of this post. While I had noted that Gorman certainly wasn't saying such things publicly at that time, and that administrators tend to give their most vivid "bad schools" accounts in hindsight, Brown, who retired in 2007, says this goes beyond dramatic reconstruction.
"Gorman never visited Cochrane the first year he was there. Not one time," Brown said. "He was scheduled and canceled. I'm appalled. None of this is true."
Bottom line: Edutopia, a publication of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, is dedicated to highlighting academic solutions that include technology, teacher development and "comprehensive assessment." CMS is well known for those approaches, and Cochrane, as noted prominently in the story, is working with Texas Instruments to use technology in math instruction. One sign that it's helping, from my spreadsheets: CMS reported that last year only 49 percent of Cochrane sixth-graders were proficient on math exams, while 65 percent of eighth-graders were. One troubling signal: That's down from 75 percent of Cochrane eighth-graders proficient in math the previous year.
I don't want to detract from the hard work and high aspirations of the faculty and students at Cochrane. I'd love to write their turnaround story sometime down the road, when I see solid evidence that it's justified. All this is just to say that improving education is complicated business, and it's wise to scrutinize naysayers and cheerleaders alike.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)