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SR board votes on plan to help lagging students; instructors fear standardized curriculum By Kerry Benefield Santa Rosa City Schools teachers raised concerns Wednesday that the district's newly adopted strategy for improving test scores may eventually limit instructors' freedom in choosing texts and crafting lesson plans. The district is required to submit a plan for exiting No Child Left Behind "program improvement" status by raising test performance among specific groups of students. But teachers at Wednesday's school board meeting worried that the plan for uniform assessment and instructional pacing for struggling students may end up affecting the classrooms of pupils who perform well. "Don't disrupt the success that we currently have in order to help the subgroups who need help," said Dan Evans, teachers union president. Board members acknowledged the concerns, but said the threat of "common curriculum" will be off the table if the district immediately improves test scores among the struggling subgroups. "We only have about 35-40 days before the (high school exit exam) comes," said Superintendent Sharon Liddell. "This sense of urgency is that we have to have a freeze and get out of program improvement, beginning (today)." The board voted unanimously to adopt the plan, which allows schools to "have divergent approaches, but the same accountability." Assessments would occur every quarter, and all students would undergo the same evaluations to determine if they are achieving the desired results. The plan also calls on the use of teaching coaches, as well as department chairs and administrators, to audit classes and ensure quality teaching. Despite making overall gains on test scores, the 16,600-student district fell into the first year of "program improvement" under the federal No Child Left Behind law because four of 38 student subgroups failed to meet required standards. Latino students, students learning English and lower-income students missed targets for English, and English-learners also missed the mark in math. Disabled students will also be the focus of targeted instruction. Under program improvement, the district is required to submit a strategy to the California Department of Education for improving performance. If scores from testing next spring don't improve sufficiently, the state could impose a greater level of scrutiny and eventually take control of the district. Teachers said that while the district refocuses efforts on struggling students, a uniform instructional plan could hamper what goes on in the classrooms of the vast majority of students. "One size fits few, and what we are being presented with is a one-size-fits-all approach," said Pam Devlin, an English teacher at Maria Carrillo High School, adding that teachers were not consulted for the plan. "There is absolutely a concern that they are going to come back and say, 'You have to have standardized curriculum,' " said Brenda Rodriguez, co-chair of Carrillo's math department. Forcing English and math teachers at all of the secondary schools to teach the same texts and concepts at the same pace will only hurt students, Evans said. Board members sought to assure a crowd of teachers that common curriculum is not on the immediate horizon. "The board isn't interested in common adoption. The focus here is to one, get it past (the California Department of Education) and second, get it in a freeze pattern," trustee Bill Carle said. "I think the board is very sensitive to (concerns) but at the same time, we don't have a lot of control here," he said. |
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