Education

In just over two weeks, the Davis Vanguard will host its first ever official candidate’s forum at Harper Junior High Multipurpose room.  The doors open at 6:30 and the forum begins at 7.

In advance of that we sent out written questions to the candidates, that we will publish early next week.  We say this every year, and perhaps it is the truth, but this is a crucial election for education in Davis – not only do we have five candidates with a broad range of ideas of how to improve our education system, particularly in the wake of consistent and persistent budget crises, but also we have a parcel tax measure on the ballot which means the voters will decide how much in the way of resources the members get to work with.

The school board elections, at least based on initial discussion, will be one that figures to take on some of the more meaty issues and not just the budget which, as an ongoing concern, has dwarfed most other issues for some time.

To that end, Jann Murray-Garcia’s column today under the provocative title “Will GATE be Davis’ Watergate?” is worth reading in its entirety and not just in the chunky morsels I am about to feed you.

Bob Dunning a frequent critic of both the school district’s parcel tax efforts last year as well as the all-mail ballot, came out in noted defense this week, at least of the integrity of the process.

In a sharply-worded letter to US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, California State Superintendent of Public Education Tom Torlakson said he would consider abandoning compliance with federal performance mandates unless Mr. Duncan is willing to “provide state schools with immediate relief from the flawed policies of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act.”

I posed the question rather casually, but perhaps I should formalize it.  I have read the arguments against Measure A, in fact I am sympathetic to some of them.  The fact of the matter is that homeowners in Davis will be asked to pay more money to support local schools.

Times are tough, I agree.  I have fought tooth and nail against other increases to people’s tax burden.  A lot of people need to understand that we have a very limited pot of money right now.  And so I am sympathetic to the argument that these are tough times.

My initial view on the firing of Davis High’s basketball coach was formed watching dozens of parents, community members, and former players of the coach speak on his behalf.  It was an emotional and moving appeal from a lot of people who clearly have a huge amount of passion and even love for the coach.

At the same time, I am viewing this as an outsider.  I have never watched a girl’s basketball game at Davis High.  I could not have told you the name of Jeff Christian – nor do I think most people in this community could.  I was at the meeting for another issue and stumbled upon this cauldron.

In a statement not likely to quell any of the rising chorus of dissent over the handling of the firing of girl’s basketball coach Jeff Christian in early January, the district issued its most direct comment on the situation.

The Coach, his attorney, and the school district finally met this week, a month after the firing, with the school district announcing that it stands behind its decisions to release Mr. Jeff Christian from his duties as basketball coach.

It does not happen all that often, but when I agree with Davis Enterprise Columnist Bob Dunning, you know it is something to pay attention to.  Last night, the venerable columnist called for the fired coach Jeff Christian to get a fair hearing.

Did he deserve to be fired?  I do not know.  Mr. Dunning writes, “I’ve never met Jeff Christian or the two players on his team who apparently were unhappy with him. And I don’t care who ultimately ‘wins’ this thing. I’m not one of those who automatically assumes the coach is always right and the player is always wrong. In short, I don’t have a dog in this fight.”

On Thursday night, the Vanguard attended the DJUSD School Board meeting, expecting to hear about the current budget conditions and the parcel tax.  However, we got a lot more than we bargained for, as dozens of members of the public came forward to speak during public comment about the firing of Jeff Christian, the head basketball coach for the girls’ varsity team for six years until he was terminated on January 3.

Mr. Christian, who spoke first, suggested that he had no idea as to why he was fired.  He believed that the administration, school board, superintendent and athletic director all made serious mistakes and failed to seek out the facts from all parties.

Last week Jeff Hudson from the Davis Enterprise had an excellent piece that was generally about the persistent achievement gap, but also looked specifically at Patwin Elementary school.

As my regular readers are well aware, I have long been very concerned about the achievement gap.  One of the most concerning aspects is that, even among high socioeconomic families – that means families that are college-educated, families that make a decent income – there is still a gap, indeed perhaps a wider gap, between the achievements of Asians and Whites and those of Hispanics and African Americans.

Last night the Davis Joint Unified Board of Education discussed the achievement gap, along with newly-released data from the Academic Performance Index.  There was good news and bad news to report. The good news is that overall, the district remains in good shape with a strong showing.  There seem to be very small but real gains made by some of the subgroups that have performed at a lower level in the past.  However, there are a lot of findings to be concerned about.  The district remains concerned about the achievement gap, and while they cited small progress and the implementation of programs to assist, the progress was not near enough.

For the district, overall, there was a good deal of good news to report.  Korematsu became the latest school to join the 900 club, which is an elite level where 1000 is the maximum score.  APIs of all of the Junior Highs are scoring around 890.  The district overall has an 877 score, which was up six points from last year.

The good news is that most schools in the region are improving their test scores, according to API measures released on Monday.  According to the Sacramento Bee, 45 of 59 school districts in the region (Sacramento, Placer, El Dorado, Yolo, and Yuba) improved their Academic Performance Index Scores.

However, at the same time there is a 27 percent increase in the number of local schools that are failing academically, based on the federal standards Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). 40 such schools fell into the category of program improvement, a designation that means that Title 1 schools failed to meet federal test score goals for two consecutive years.  However, five schools that were in that category last year were able to show improvement and thus shed the PI status.

When the STAR testing results came out in August, it showed that for the most part, the Achievement Gap still remained strong, as Asians and Whites scored dramatically better than their black and Hispanic counterparts.  The Vanguard has obtained more specified data from the school district which actually show the gap wider among students who are not economically disadvantaged.  The data also show an achievement gap, particularly in math, opening between Asian Students and white students.

The one area where the gap is closing is only for blacks and only in math.  Assistant Superintendent Clark Bryant, who oversees curriculum and instruction for the Davis school district could not explain why that was the case.

A number of recent studies show that testing students is not a good way to evaluate the performance of their teachers.  According to an article in the New York Times earlier this week, an increasing number of school districts are adopting a system known as “value-added” modeling in order to compare one teacher to another and increase teacher accountability.

The article says that the system will calculate “the value teachers add to their students’ achievement, based on changes in test scores from year to year, and how the students perform compared with others in their grade.”

It did not take long for the school board to find their replacement for James Hammond, it was a guy that they had just hired a year ago to help change the direction at Davis High School.  And while he only spent a year at Davis High School, the results were encouraging.  Now they will have to go back to the drawing board and find another Principal because late on Monday night, the Davis School Board named Winfred Roberson, the new Superintendent.

It was just over a year ago, June 18, 2009 when the Davis School Board introduced Mr. Roberson as the new Principal of Davis High.  Now just 43, he is just four years older than the departing James Hammond, and the district hopes it struck gold again.

Last night at a special Davis School Board Meeting, the Board formally voted to accept the resignation of Superintendent James Hammond, in what is most likely his final board meeting as Superintendent.  While the board jokingly threatened to vote no on the resignation, and the community lamented the loss of their superintendent, everyone involved understood and appreciated that this was something that Dr. Hammond had to do for his family and himself.

We will have to wait until June 21, 2010 to find out who the interim Superintendent will be, but the smart money right now would be on Kevin French, Associate Superintendent of Human Resources and Secondary Education.  In a Vanguard interview with Ingrid Salim, that will be published later on, she told the Vanguard that the teachers had mixed feelings on a move only because Kevin French has been such an outstanding advocate for teachers and from what we have heard has an excellent relationship with the classified staff, which has not always been the case.

The Vanguard learned late last night following a closed session meeting, that James Hammond will take the position of Superintendent in the Ontario-Montclair School District in Southern California as rumored on Saturday.

In the end James Hammond loved the Davis Join Unified School District, the personnel and the community.  Unfortunately the strain of his family living away from him was too much for him to bear and therefore working closer to where his family is living was the obvious move for him personally, even if it was a hard decision professionally.

The Vanguard has learned that DJUSD Superintendent James Hammond has been offered the position of Superintendent in the Ontario-Montclair School District in Souther California.  At this time it is not known whether he will at accept that position.  On Monday evening, the Board will have a special meeting to discuss this matter further and the Vanguard has learned that they will at least attempt to convince him to stay at that point.

Dr. Hammond was hired in the fall of 2007, and has presided over nearly three years of continual budget battles.  And while the district was fighting hard to stay afloat, they also managed at the same time, thanks to the leadership of James Hammond and CBO Bruce Colby to put the district on much better fiscal footing than when they entered.