How's The "High School Transformation Initiative" Going?

Last year, as you may recall, CPS came up with a $21 million Gates-funded effort to transform low to middle performing high schools by -- I think I have this right -- giving them a smaller set of curriculum options than in the past but more money for materials and PD -- and contracting with the providers to provide support rather than trying to do it out of the central office or the areas. 

Anyone at those schools or familiar with those providers know what's going on this fall -- have new materials appeared, and new/better PD to go along with it?  Are the teachers and principals feeling any difference at all from previous years?  If so, please comment, or email me directly (I'll keep you anonymous).

Comments

The Board Report dated August 23, 2006 states that Allan Alson (formerly of Evanston - Sup) has been appointed to provide consulting services to the Office of High School Programs for $133,000.

He will perform duties associated with high school transfprmation. "Consultant was selected on a non-competitive basis due to his unique experience in addressing the achievement gap at the high school level and his relationship with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation"

The white/black gap in reading in 2003 was 54 points in 2005 it was 57 points. Math results are the same. Source of information, state report card. Where is his unique experience?

Ouch. That is a very big gap, and going the wrong way when the spread is not a good sign.

My question, like Alexander's, is how is the reform landing in schools? Is it adding value? Is anything being taken off the plate of the high schools engaged? Is the vendor theory of reform working? How is the coaching?

Also, is HST a different dept. from say, CHSRI? Don Pittman's office of high school? The Small Schools office, which runs the Smaller Learning Communities initiative in the high schools? Do these depts. ever meet? Do they share $$$. Or is this just another bureaucratic mess with schools and teachers being pulled in 10 different directions?

I do not think that the redesign project will add up to much. But I think that CHSRI and the Gates Foundation are getting a real smack in the face of the real problems of CPS non-selective high schools and the CPS's centeral office's role in not making anything any better.

I do think that Gates may at some point declare the project hopeless and move on to the next great reform project.

science is also Northwestern/BSCS.

If gates thinks they are buying a core curriculum for chicago public high schools, they should look a little deeper. This is an epicly fragmented reform strategy being pitched by people who have spent hours convincing themselves the pieces fit together neatly. Who is ensuring the vendors will deliver? What metrics are they using for success? Market based reforms where the marketers are in charge of providing the evidence of effectiveness is a recipe for disaster. And when there are multiple offices responsible for high schools (add to the list above - the curriculum offices, the aios, office of post secondary education, the new schools office) it seems safe to say we won't have to wait long before the next plan for reinventing high schools lands in our laps.

I think it is not correct to suggest, as a previous respondent did, that the HST Initiative might be "just another bureaucratic mess with schools and teachers being pulled in 10 different directions." By that logic, this would seem to be the 11th direction. Maybe I'm misunderstanding the person, however. In the Jewish Passover readings, there is an story about a learned discussion of whether each plague sent by God upon the Egyptians is sent by the finger or by the hand, or by both hands. If by both hands, then each plague is really 10 plagues (because there are 10 fingers). In that sense, perhaps the respondent meant that HSTI (if it manifests) might be pulling teachers not in one more, 11th, direction, but in ten more NEW directions.

What is better about the HSTP is that teachers had to have "buy-in" before a school was accepted to participate. This is vastly different than what typically happens in CPS where programs are thrust upon teachers.
Much better process, this.

interesting about the buy in -- how does that work -- do they vote, or participate on a committee that decides?

and what curricula and providers have they been choosing?

reminds me of SFA which requies a faculty vote, i think

[ChunkyLover53]

HST is a multi-year endeavor. While we may know how the process is working three months in (are books in the classrooms, are there any bugs with the curriculum, etc.), we won't see long-term results until, well, the long term. Effecting positive change (or any change, for that matter) at CPS isn't going to happen overnight...it's like turning a battleship. Because it's a long commitment, however, there is plenty of time to work out any kinks. At least that's the way I understand it; if you have better info than I do feel free to share.

A number of schools took representatives to meet the representatives from the different programs. They heard the sales pitch from each vendor. Then faculty members voted which, if any, of the proposals to accept.
Finally, there was an interview with heads of English, math, & science within the school to make certain people were on board.
Then fifteen were selected from that group.

I wish Russo or someone would begin reflecting upon why the most important "lever" of the HST was sand-bagged and stillborn.

Most of the money is going to curriculum and instruction, but the folks who know anything about that have left. It's being run by consultants and non-school folks, which will make it problematic. I also hear that Alson is leaving...

Missing post?

Look. Gates doesn't know what to do with his money. He had a bad experience as a HS student. He is clueless and his money is wasted on the bureaucrats at CPS. Oh well.

[Prince]

Remember folks, this is a Boston Consulting Group project, so you know it's well reasoned and will work like a finely-tuned Swiss watch.
Seriously, Alston is not leaving. The major event is setting transparent interim objectives (the battleship analogy is accurate) and not changing those objectives mid-way through the year.

Alson won't leave, despite his lack of input or import. He's getting a nice check and it's making the sting from getting kicked out of Evanston less painful. Nice to have friends like Arne.

Did you notice, Alexander- Hosanna and Tim King are in Crain's 40 under 40? Nice press for CPS and new schools.

Alson wasn't kicked out of Evanston. He retired after a very successful 16 years there. The achievement gap in a town like Evanston where the income and parental education disparity is so wide is no simple problem to solve. He worked successfully with his faculty and community to get everyone to acknowledge and start to work on the problem. No silver bullets there, as with any other problem in education.

(He could have made plenty more money in a much easier job than running the HST program.)

For all its possible flaws, High School Transformation has shown itself to not be business as usual in CPS.

They got books, computers, and other materials ordered and delivered in time for the start of school. When has that ever happened before?

They've also already provided the teachers with at least 36 hours of PD on the new programs.

Good thing they still have Klunk around at 125 clark. Most would be lost.

What's wrong with Al making a mint if he put in the man hours and did his homework. There are alot of negative people in CPS. I'm new and on board with the changes.

[Martin K. Brown]

Okay, so we're 2 years into the "transformation". Are there any noticeable improvements? Are there still issues that aren't being addressed?

[George Schmidt]

Anyone have a list of the high schools facing "transformation"?

[Transformations Teacher]

Between the nasty defensive mud-slinging of the bureaucrats on this blog, and the tedious knee-jerk negativity of the Schmidtians, I don't see much in this thread that reflects my own and most of my colleagues generally positive experience with Transformations.

Transformations--I am in my first year using the Kaplan materials for English--is a supportive program for opening up options for teachers. The curriculum is what you make of it. Some teachers in the program do not have the background training to make really good use of the curriculum guide, but most of the teachers I know are excited about it and feel empowered to do more of what they really believe their students need.

I was lucky enough to come into Transformations from a superb summer training provided by an Advanced Placement teacher from New Trier High School. The Kaplan curriculum works with the same skills and even the same elements as the AP program at New Trier, and I could see instantly how to pick and choose among the options in my course, how to adapt and tweak, and so on to bring the same level of expectations you'd find at New trier to my inner city students.

I find that having the Kaplan material keeps me from losing momentum with the vicissitudes of the school year, and it allows me to keep working on what I already viewed as essential skills.

I have also found that Kaplan helps me to help my students focus very clearly on really worthwhile skills. We all know exactly what we are working on, they love the class, and I feel like I am not alone, even though my colleagues in the department don't use the materials in exactly the same way. We have more flexibility because we use a provided curriculum than we would if we tried to create our own department curriculum.

It may be because I am getting old and senile--or because I finally moved out of cursed Area 25--that I am enjoying my work more than ever. Most importantly, for the first time in my CPS career, I feel that it is entirely up to me whether or not I succeed in meeting my goals for my self and my students.

The irony is that Kaplan has helped me to see my way to a level of teaching of which I had never thought myself capable. And that, in turn, is making me able to pull my head out of my ass and realize that I can expect more out of my surroundings. Right now, I am blessed to teach in one of a small number of CPS schools which offers students a truly transformative environment in which they can focus on developing themselves in positive ways. But I don't expect the Central Office or the Area to let that continue for much longer.

And then there are those killer Central Office initiatives like IMPACT (which zapped all of my grades and classes, leaving no trace of my existence on the most recent progress reports). These things can make even the most effective school staff grind to a sputtering halt. So the long-term effect of Transformations, from my point of view, is exactly what the ad says: it helps to improve the quality of instruction. But it does not make the improved instructors any more likely to stay in CPS.