Leading the Change: Performance-Based Thinking, Now!

The following transcripts were made from presentations from(1) Janelle Kubinec of WestEd, and (2) Chris Steinhauser, Superintendent of Long Beach USD,at the CAASFEP conference on October 15, 2013.

  1. ?: (Each symbol in the row on slide one flashed singularly on the screen and she described each symbol one at a time). We ask questions about LCAP.
  2. !: (Slide 1): When we generally think about money we get excited – we get more money or we don’t have enough.
  3. %: Because it’s money, we think about it in an incremental manner not differently– we generally do more or do less, but maybe not something different.
  4. &: Hard to manage money by yourself. It’s an “and” proposition. She told a story about working with a county office group with county office leaders. A group of fiscal employees said “We work all year.” The program managers said “We worked all year and extra days.” It got snarky. We have to model the “and.” The program and fiscal people don’t speak the same language. They talked for a couple of hours about how to get to an “and.”
  5. #: People need to start feeling comfortable with this.
  6. If you put them all together you have ?!%&#.
  7. Slide 2: We’re being challenged with being a good pioneer. We know the landscape, but not the roads. The state has given you the box, but you have to assemble it and you need to get batteries. Our box says that CA has moved to a student weighted funding formula and that we have 8 years to fully implement. If you don’t feel some anxiety, it’s because you haven’t started yet. Ann Hearn is working with Jannelle. So is this revolutionary idea something you want to do on your own or you want someone else tell you how to do it?
  8. Slide 3: By making things less complicated, we may be making the job harder. What does it mean to make bold statements about how you will spend your money? This is a lot about equity. We are the only state that has tied performance to funding. Although other states have weighted student funding formula.
  9. Slide 4:
  10. Slide 5: You can replicate what you’ve done before. That’s true for adults, but what about the kids?
  11. Slide 6: This is about transparency, and local control but not about adequacy. If you want to make the case of adequacy, be productive with this formula. It’s dependent on state revenue and the state economy. Debt repayment is helping us get past the deadline of prop 30. It gives us a chance to plan long-term. She used the analogy that when water arrives at a parched landscape, first the water rubs off. Then, next, drops start to soak in. Then nothing grows right away. It takes time.
  12. Slide 7: We are working on the planning templates. WestEd, CDE, SBE. In January we are bringing the templates and regulations together. The rubrics need to validate what is good about LCFF. We need to see good examples first, before we design the rubrics. They will help refine what you’ve started – not define it. What is “increase more improved services proportional to the LI or EL pupils.” How do we define that? Local Options Framework LOF is something they are working on to help show. What if we give you local options to demonstrate how you’ve assisted the kids that you need to assist (LI and EL). “Tell your story.” Tell what you want to accomplish. It resembles a strategic plan. Option 1: Spend more and show that it went to the right students. Show it with your budgets. Close the gap on the supplemental and base over 8 years. Option 2: Output option. Provide more – for example, we need to add extra learning time for LI or ELs. Option 3: Achieve more: Demonstrate improvement or growth in some or many of the priorities for closing the gap for LI, EL, foster youth as in safe harbor. The options are not fantasy options – they are “do them” options. Spend more doesn’t mean budget more. It means spend more. If you say achieve more, then you demo that you achieve more when you write your plan. Then you have to own the result. If you like this (Local Options) framework or not, tell people. We must engage parents, not invite them. One priority is implementing CCSS. You might start with that. You could use it as your organizer. You could start with student attendance. Don’t write 8 separate goals. We are not thinking about having eight boxes for eight goals.
  13. Slide 8:
  14. Slide 9: Inform and communicate. Training and exploration. Goal setting and alignment. What makes a difference in how our students perform, or how our teachers feel about CCSS? What gets kids to get to school? Deal with staffing your plan in January.
  15. Slide 10: Have to educate sites about the priorities so they can decide more effectively what they need. There’s nothing compelling a change in the LEAP until we find out how effective the LCAP is.
  16. Slide 11: This is not about sanctions, it’s about helping performance.
  17. Slide 13: Talking points must be positive, firm, and confident. Don’t ask what goes in the plan. Ask what is good for kids.
  18. Slide 16: What do the data say we need to do, or what we’re good at? You may have to beg parents to come to the first meeting. After that, if you’ve engaged them, they’ll come because it’s good.
  19. Last slide. Check the web site as WestEd adds new videos to lcff.wested.org.

Chris Steinhauser: These notes do not follow the slide sequence.

  1. Long Beach has all its CCSS units on line. (See the link on the agenda.)“Non-profits in Long Beach have come together to serve the needs of all kids. PTAs are very active in the district. Parent University has been crucial. Four cities and police departments work well together. The non-profits work well together. LBUSD had to pull those groups together. The district needed the support of the non-profits or they could not do their jobs nor could we. The hospitals in town have run clinics in the schools.”
  2. They designed new formative assessment for K-2. LBUSD suspended 85 percent of their assessments. They embedded the basal alignment project. They assess writing 4x yearly. Text dependent questions are embedded in their social studies and science assessments. He was happy to have no accountability during this year of transition.
  3. Systemic alignment: “We have to be patient and give people a chance to fail. We need to remember that. There is a quiet revolution going on right now.”