Superintendent Evaluation
June 2012
Donna Colorio
* Student Academic Achievement - strategies resulting in high levels of student achievement.
Curriculum: This goal focuses on high levels of student achievement through the implementation of the Common Core Curriculum. While it is important and necessary to incorporate stakeholders from different focus group, I do not believe this goal has been meet. Parts of the community were not included or notified about the need for community or parental involvement in the process of the curriculum. A majority of meetings were set for afternoon and day times catering only to teachers hours, alienating parents or business leaders who hold a full time job.
In a number of schools the Instructional Coach is already working on aligning the curriculum to the Common Core which I feel is a proactive positive step from the leadership team. The monthly reports to the School Committee have been thorough and are essential as we move towards the adoption of the Common Core process. AP courses should remain challenging and with the goal to pass as many students with test scores of 3 and above. While access to AP courses is admirable I would be careful not to dilute the curriculum of the AP courses.
Innovation Schools: The Innovation Schools are a new concept for the Worcester Public Schools. Most innovation schools choose more autonomy as an option to implement their plan. Time will tell if the Innovation Plan will be successful in elevating the student’s educational status.
Career / Vocational Technical/ STEM: I believe that the STEM aspect of the goal has been thoroughly meet through the expansion of Doherty’s Engineering Program, Worcester East Middle’s STEM Academy, North High’s Health/ Science Academy and Worcester Tech’s High School . My concern is the Vocational-Technical development part of this goal. The superintendent’s goal has been college ready courses with a weakness on the development of new career ready programs. I may be missing the boat but to me vocational education is being career ready the minute students graduate from High School.
Educator Evaluation: The Administration has distributed to the School Committee the Massachusetts Model System for Educator Evaluation, which is helpful in aligning the State’s Evaluation and the District’s.
Dropout and Graduation Rates: Time will tell if the Vision Project and the Gateway to College Initiative through Quinsigamond Community College are successful at lowering the dropout rate and improving graduation rates among the “at risk” students. The early indicator data is a positive step in being proactive in dropout rate prevention.
Gifted Students: This item has not been addressed sufficiently. Many students leave the Worcester Public Schools after 8th grade because of the lack of academically advanced courses or programs. The AP courses are not the answer for the Gifted Student. The Committee established under the leadership of Mayor Petty deserves the administration’s support as it explores the possibility of an exam School and International Baccalaureate Program. Worcester deserves more that a watered down version of a gifted program.
Welcoming, Safe and Secure Schools - strategies to develop and maintain welcoming, safe and secure schools.
Challenge and Reach Academy: I look forward to seeing the data associated with the success of the program.
Enforcement of Conduct Policy: The safety of our school population is extremely important and should be a high priority. I am concerned about the chain of responsibility; it seems that the designee for conducting such hearings should be the responsibility of the School Safety Liaison, not the Chief Academic Officer. The fact that only two conduct hearings have come before the School Committee is, while initially a great number, concerning to me as it makes me wonder if we are paying too little attention to the important concern of safety.
Language Supports: While the administration has expanded the language needs by adding ESL classes for parents and adults in the community, I think there are other languages that need to be considered. The Implementation of Spanish language requirement for certain office and clerical positions should not be mandatory, a complete comprehensive understanding of the needs of the individual schools should be assessed first before any bilingual position is posted.
* Family and Community Engagement, Commitment and Partnership
Parent Portal: The parent portal is a positive.
Wraparound Zones: The Wraparound Project Manager and the Wraparound Coordinates needs to be monitored to see how many students have greatly improved in the areas it set out to accomplish. This area is too gray for me, no data to support actual academic growth in the students who are offered these services. The Instructional Aid or Tutors who are in the classroom would have a better understanding and tools to deal with the academic growth of a student.
My concern is when the grant monies run out for the Wraparound Project Manager and Coordinators the administration will try to work these positions into the general budget.
Focused Partnerships: This is a area I feel need to be explored and cultivated more. Although the partnerships with Worcester Education Collaborative and Oak Hill CDC have been positive, I believe other areas of collaborative need to be explored. Various area businesses need to be brought on board in areas of targeted wraparound efforts.
CPPAC: The CCPAC group is an important arm of the Worcester Schools. The continually monthly meetings are vital in fostering communication between the parents and the Administration. More involvement and 100% representation of all the schools should be the goal for the next school year. The CPPAC 2012 Parent Exposition was a success and should be repeated in 2013.
Periodic updates on successful efforts by schools to improve the welcoming climate for parents and Community:
The Parent Perception Survey is an important tool in gaining insight and data. This survey should be conducted once a year. Online access to this survey should be an option in the future.
· Communication to Share and Promote Practices and Results
Communication with School Committee Members: It is important and imperative that the communication between administration and School Committee be as transparent and consistent as possible. Meeting with School Committee members on a regular basis is important. I have meet with the Superintendent twice in the last 6 months, it would be beneficial to meet more often. I would strongly recommend the Superintendent supply the School Committee in advance documents that are needed for Executive Session. It has been my experience that on a few occasions the School Committee Members are asked to make a decision within minutes of receiving sometimes very scant back up information. One clear example is in the Claremont controversy. The level of transparency on executive issues need to be better. My suggestions are as follows: 1. Provide School Committee the documents needed as soon as available before executive session so we can made a decision based on the facts of the case which we will have had the time to digest and not because we feel pressured into making a split second decision, 2. Allow more time to weigh out the pros and cons of the agenda item in executive, even if it means we go back into executive session after regular session.
District Marketing/ Communication Plan: The sited accomplishments are a good start but focus needs to be ramped up a bit. The Worcester Schools provide programs that are not offered anywhere else in the district, these programs need to be highlighted and marketed to students inside and outside of the district in order to offset and potentially retain the numbers of students who currently opt to go to the suburbs for their education.
Annual State of the School Message: This initiative is very well received by the segment of the community who were invited. My suggestion would be to expand the invitation to other parts of the community that are interested in public education. This could include some of the Worcester businesses.
· Fiscal and Operations Management
Capital Improvement
The Superintendent has worked with the City Council, School Committee, City Manager and the Massachusetts School Building Authority to secure funding for the replacement of the Nelson Place School and five accelerated repair projects.
Building Cleanliness and Supervision of First and Second Shift
After visiting all 44 schools, I feel I can comment on the conditions of the schools. The majority of buildings were kept up well. I observed a small portion of each building. Only one school stands out for being disorderly and messy. I have also received calls from parents from another school complaining about the its dirty conditions, but when I visited after the complaint the issues may have been corrected.
Funding beyond the Minimum
The Superintendent has also worked to increase revenues by $350,000 beyond the minimum. This restored teachers jobs.
Continue to engage the local legislative delegation: The legislative breakfast was beneficial. It would be also beneficial to have other elected official present Our Congressman, US Senators and Sheriff.