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[beanqueen]

Brizard's Plan to Include Charter School
WXXI  1370 am  Rachel Ward (2010-03-04)

ROCHESTER, NY (WXXI) - When New York State's Department of Education listed nine Rochester schools as "persistently low achieving" back in January, it wasn't a surprise to superintendent Jean Claude Brizard. He'd already been working on a project to revamp education in Rochester.

Brizard calls the plan a "portfolio" of schools, and it'll be unveiled next week. And as WXXI's Rachel Ward reports, one of the items in that portfolio represents an unusual move for a school district.

It's pretty rare for a school district to create a charter school - that would mean footing the bill, but also giving up the reins. And yet that's exactly what Rochester Superintendent Jean Claude Brizard wants to do.

The superintendent won't say which school he's thinking of closing and replacing with a charter, but he says the target would be "older kids," and will cost about the same to run as a standard district school. If the school board approves the idea, the earliest it'd open would be fall 2011.

Brizard says the idea of a charter is about independence, "If you're looking to spur innovation, you want to create that kind of autonomy, you want to create that kind of a school that can perhaps teach the rest of us what can be done if you were to really unshackle a leader and a school team and see what they can actually produce."

What the superintendent wants from a charter school is more flexibility about the length of the school day and year, about how teachers are hired and fired, and about how much they're paid.

Brizard says charter schools were initially created to be laboratories: to find out what works best on a small scale, and then apply it more broadly. But so far, that second step -- sharing good ideas -- hasn't happened as much as the superintendent would like. He says, to offer parents a full menu of choices, charter schools need to be an option, in addition to regular district schools, and schools that are slated to operate "autonomously," like Freddie Thomas High School. "I want to see perhaps a continuum of autonomies so we can learn what can work really well if you remove the handcuffs from people."

Brizard is quick to say that the "handcuffs" are slapped on by multiple layers of bureaucracy -- not just the union. He says state and federal government also bind schools, with conflicting regulations and arcane rules. And when it comes to the Rochester Teacher's Association, Brizard says he's pretty confident that president Adam Urbanski will be on board, when the portfolio is presented to union leaders next week.

"I don't believe Adam will balk at this because these are the kinds of things that he's talked about, and he's written about, over the past 20 25 years so I believe philosophically we would agree on the need to do this."

"Well I'm not automatically opposed to it," Urbanski says. He agrees with the superintendent on at least one count -- charter schools haven't lived up to their promise.

"Charter schools were originally intended to be sort of safe havens and laboratories for new practices and for innovation in education. Didn't end up yielding that effect. And instead these charter schools isolated themselves from the rest of the system and the system did not benefit from the learning."

But Urbanski says that isolation that marked early charter schools could carry over if the district creates its own charter, "The trick is not to just create a few more exceptions for some kids, the trick here is to make the exception into the norm, and to make available to all kids, that which only is being made available to some kids by charters."

Urbanski says the district already has the tools it needs to make all schools more autonomous and flexible -- but that those changes have to made WITH teachers and their union -- not TO teachers. And Urbanski says right now, he's worried that's not what's happening, "The superintendent seems to be inclined to support opting out, as if the system were so beyond repair, and so inflexible, that we couldn't bring the very same features of charter schools and private schools -- that currently attract families -- that we couldn't import them into our public schools. I think that that would be the real solution."

If Brizard's charter school becomes a reality, the union will likely still be involved. Urbanski says state law gives charter school teachers the right to join a union if they want one, and the right to negotiate a customized contract that applies just to their school.

But that could actually work in the superintendent's favor, if he were able to negotiate the flexibility he wants, like a longer school day and year, and performance based pay.

Brizard says he hasn't polled the school board to gauge whether or not the idea would pass, if put to a vote. But he says he has talked to individual members -- some say they're definitely in favor of a charter school, and other say they're "willing to hear more."

Soon everyone will get a chance to hear the details of the superintendent's portfolio - including which school will be replaced by the charter. Brizard is releasing the plan at the next school board meeting, Thursday, March 11.

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wxxi/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1619576/WXXI.Top.Stories/Brizard%27s.Plan.to.Include.Charter.School

[Hilary]

Thursday, March 11
5:30 p.m.
RCSD Central Office, Room 3A
131 West Broad St.

Meeting of the School Board's Excellence in Student Achievement Committee;
this will be a meeting of the whole, which includes all of the Board members. 

[Hilary]

NEWS RELEASE – ROCHESTER CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT

Date: March 4, 2010

Superintendent Brizard To Present Portfolio Plan for School Improvement on March 11
 
Plan Will Address Persistently Low-Performing Schools, New-School Creation, Grade Reconfiguration
 
Superintendent of Schools Jean-Claude Brizard will present his portfolio plan for improving Rochester’s schools to the Board of Education on Thursday, March 11 at 5:30 p.m. at the City School District’s central office, 131 West Broad Street.

“Our Strategic Plan calls for the creation of a portfolio of high-performing schools to meet the needs and demands of students and families,” Brizard said. “The portfolio plan outlines our continued work of creating a system of high-quality schools that parents want their children to attend. We are very excited to present it to the Board of Education and the community on March 11.”

          Developed through the RCSD Office of School Innovation, the plan details how the district will create a portfolio of high-performing schools that meet the needs of students and families. It outlines how the district will:
 
〈         Address its persistently low-performing high schools through actions such as school redesign and school closure through phase out.
〈         Open new schools that share the common characteristics of academic rigor, personalization, and partnerships that have proven successful in supporting student achievement.
〈         Change the grade configuration of some schools to provide more nurturing environments for middle-grades students.
 
The portfolio plan presentation will take place at a meeting of the Board of Education’s Excellence in Student Achievement Committee of the Whole.

[Hilary]

D&C story:

Rochester School District Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard will ask the school board to close eight city high schools starting next school year — including some Brizard has sought to close before.

The eight schools are housed in just three buildings — all four Edison schools, three inside Franklin High School and John Marshall High School. Many of the schools that officials said will be targeted are among the district's lowestperforming, and all eight were named Persistently Lowest Achieving by the state in January.

If approved by the school board, the schools would be closed one year at a time, so that students are not displaced. This year, enrollment at the eight schools accounts for about 4,000 of the district's roughly 15,000 students in grades seven through 12.

At a meeting Thursday, Brizard will describe these and other changes to the district's schools that have been dubbed the "portfolio plan."

The reshaping — principally at the high school level — comes as Mayor Robert Duffy is pushing state lawmakers to give him control of the district. It also follows the release of graduation rate data that shows the district's performance dropped after two years of improvement.

Reviewing a list of schools' graduation rates Tuesday, Brizard singled out Franklin's International Finance high school, which has a district-low 33 percent graduation rate among students who started ninth grade in 2005-06.

"If I had my way, it wouldn't exist right now," he said. "I'm going to close the school."

A receptionist at the school said Principal Ali Abdulmateen would not comment.

Before the district can begin phasing out the schools, the Rochester school board must approve the plan. A year ago, Brizard proposed closing two Franklin schools — the Bioscience and Health Career High School and the International Finance — but resistance on the board and in the community kept them open.

This year, board members effectively guaranteed that at least two schools would close by approving the opening of two new schools: Early College High School and Integrated Arts and Technology High School. A district spokesperson said Tuesday that Integrated Arts would be located in the Franklin building.

"The Board's Excellence in Student Achievement Committee will receive a presentation from the Superintendent detailing his plan to improve the District's persistently low-performing high schools," School board president Malik Evans said in a statement Thursday.

"The creation of a portfolio of high-performing schools designed to meet needs of our students, is one of many reform efforts that the Board champions in order to close the District's achievement gap," Evans said.

Top state and national education officials in recent years have been pushing hard for struggling urban districts to quickly close and remake failing schools.

"Reform can work. Innovation can be bold," Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch said Tuesday in discussing state graduation rates and the federal Race to the Top program. That program dangles hundreds of millions of federal dollars in front of school districts that meet several conditions; creation of the state list on which all eight targeted schools appear was one such example.

One school — East High School — appeared on that list but will not be named for closure. Brizard has indicated several times in recent weeks that East would be spared because it has shown positive trends in academics and safety, and early data suggests the school is clearly headed in the right direction. East High School's graduation rate, released Tuesday, is 39 percent.

Franklin and Edison have been restructured before — Franklin's current smaller-school plan dates back about a decade — but current trends in public education dictate that closing and reopening happen faster.

For students and parents, the changes can be discouraging.

"It's been a good school — not much drama," said Cedric Blake, a 17-year-old senior at School of Business, Finance and Entrepreneurship at Edison.

"I'd be sad to see it go, but if it's for the best, I would accept it," Blake said. He plans to go to college next year, and said he believes the school has prepared him.

"My daughter will be graduating this year, but it was a great school," said Barbara Andino, whose daughter Devone Martin is a senior at Edison's School of Imaging and Information Technology. She said another daughter graduated from the school earlier, and she visited many times for basketball games.

"That fit with their job and career goals," she said of the school's specialized focus.

At John Marshall High School, Principal Richard Smith sent a letter to staff Tuesday following a meeting with district officials.

"At this time, RCSD would like to move towards the creation of K-8 buildings and Upper/High School buildings (grades 9 - 12)," he wrote.

That means Marshall would phase out grades 7 and 8 one year at a time. Further details, he wrote, will come at a later date.

NRAMOS@DemocratandChronicle.com

[Hilary]

From City Newspaper:

Rochester Schools Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard will unveil a sweeping plan this week that would close eight of the city's lowest performing schools, and open three new schools.

Brizard also wants to reconfigure the district's high schools by taking out the middle grades - seventh and eighth - and moving them into elementary schools.

The proposed changes would improve student performance, provide students and parents with better schools, and eliminate bad schools, says Mary Doyle, the district's senior director of school innovation.

Franklin's three high schools: Bioscience and Health Careers, Global Media Arts, and International Finance High Schools would close. Edison's four schools: Applied Technology, Business Finance and Entrepreneurship, Imaging and Information Technology, and Engineering and Manufacturing would also close.

John Marshall High School would close, too.

All of the schools would be phased out over four years beginning in September 2010, except John Marshall. Marshall's phasing out would begin in 2011.

New schools would be created under the plan. The Rochester Early College High School, an accelerated 9-12 high-school-to-college program, would be a partnership with Monroe Community College and St. John Fisher. And it would open in the fall at Wilson with 100 ninth graders.

The Integrated Arts and Technology High School would be an Expeditionary Learning School like School 58, where students learn through long-term investigations, field studies, and working in the community. It would open in the fall.

Vanguard Collegiate High School would become the district's third Advanced Placement school. The 9-12 high school would open in the fall with 125 ninth graders.

Integrated Arts and Technology and Vanguard would be phased-in on the Franklin campus. And the district is submitting a proposal to the state to open its first charter school on the Franklin campus.

Edison would be reconfigured from four high schools to two. One of the new schools would focus on the design and construction trades. The other - STEM - would focus on science, technology, engineering, and math. The district plans to add a medical billing and coding program, as well as a licensed practical nurse program to Edison. But a date for launching those programs has not been set.

The Joseph C. Wilson Foundation Academy would be reconfigured from grades 7-9 to K-8. School 19 and School 3 would become pre-K to grade 8 and K-8 elementary schools respectively.

Past structural changes to the district have been controversial. Franklin, for example, has undergone multiple changes, with limited success. Recommendations from Brizard last year to close Franklin's schools were challenged by some School Board members, and have become one of Mayor Bob Duffy's talking points in his bid for mayoral control. Duffy argues that Brizard isn't being supported by the School Board in trying to make innovative changes to the district.

Doyle says, however, that the proposed changes would have better results than past restructuring. Principals, for instance, would be able to staff their schools with fresh new talent. RCSD teachers interested in teaching in the new schools, Doyle said, would have to apply for those positions just like other new teachers.

Brizard will present the proposed changes to School Board members at the Excellence in Student Achievement Committee meeting at 5 p.m. on Thursday, March 11, at 131 West Broad Street. The plan requires the Board's approval.

[Hilary]

From WHAM:
Rochester, NY - A new proposal could mean one Rochester high school may soon become the city's third college prep school.

Peaches Ross is a senior at Northwest College Prep School in Rochester. She doesn't have a dream college. Her dream has been just to go to college.

"I'm looking at a lot of colleges. I have offers from all over, like Alfred, Xavier, Maryland, Howard. So I'm choosing between those," says Peaches.

Her dream is now a reality. She was accepted to all of the colleges she applied to, and she attributes that to Northwest College Prep School, one of the two advanced placement schools already in the city school district.

"It showed me that the courses I'll have are very rigorous, so I'll be ready for that. Like, knowing it's a lot of hard work and studying," she said.
 
The Rochester City School District is proposing that the high schools on Franklin campus be transitioned into a collegiate high school. If the vote passes, the hope is that classes will begin by next school year.

Mary Doyle, Sr. Director of School Initiative explains, "the new school is called Vanguard Collegiate High School - that's the name we're proposing. It will be partnered with the College Board. It's a national organization that's proven very successful in getting students interested in, entering in, and completing college."

It's all part of a plan to reorganize Rochester's Schools to improve performance.

"[At] Franklin we have seen persistenty low achievement over the years, and we have also seen low demand for the school... Students and families aren't selecting the school," says Doyle.

Students at Northeast and Northwest Prep Schools say they are more prepared for college than friends who attend other schools in the district.

Ross says, "I feel like they're not as aware as we are about stuff. A couple of my friends haven't even taken the SATs or applied, and I said 'you should have done that'. This is our second or third time taking it, so they're kind of behind."

The first class of freshmen to enter the two prep schools will be graduating this year with a projected graduation rate of 88%. Compare that to the latest numbers released yesterday showing a 46% graduation rate in 2009 for city schools.

The City School District is meeting Thursday to propose the plan for the collegiate high school. The school board will then vote on it later this month.

[beanqueen]

So now we need to know more about College Board and Expeditionary Learning - who they are and how much they cost, since it looks like they are becoming embedded in our school district.

High School parents are slightly familiar with one aspect of the College Board, since they administer the PSAT & SAT, plus the AP courses.

And certainly School Without Walls is a testament to the expeditionary learning philosophy, but Expeditionary Learning is also a company, as far as I can tell.

As an aside, I am beginning to have a problem with these 'College Prep Academies' - are not ALL high schools supposed to be 'college prep'?
 
We don't have true trade schools in the old fashioned sense - some Edison programs feed directly into apprenticeships, but a significant part of MCC's offerings in the Engineering and Technologies program are what classically would be considered 'the trades'.

Thoughts?

[beanqueen]

The RCSD website says the meeting starts at 5:30 pm.

"Brizard will present the proposed changes to School Board members at the Excellence in Student Achievement Committee meeting at 5 p.m. on Thursday, March 11, at 131 West Broad Street. The plan requires the Board's approval."[/]

[lbryce]

While I'm not opposed to opening new schools in the fall and phasing out new schools beginning in September, I'm wondering the plan to roll this out given that the secondary school selection process for this year is well under way.  The applications were due in January and my guess is there were plenty of students  slated to go to the schools destined to be phased out.  Obviously no one chose the schools that were yet to be announced.......

Lori

[Hilary]

NEWS RELEASE – ROCHESTER CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT
Date: March 11, 2010
 
Superintendent To Present Portfolio Plan for
School Improvement to Board of Education Tonight
 
Presentation Will Be Streamed Live and Available Online
 
Superintendent of Schools Jean-Claude Brizard will present his portfolio plan for improving Rochester’s schools to the Board of Education tonight at 5:30 p.m. at the Rochester City School District’s central office, 131 West Broad Street.
The presentation can be viewed live online at http://www.rcsdk12.org/rcsdtv
Beginning on Friday, it will be available for viewing on demand at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/rochester-city-school-district-broadcast-channel.

“Our Strategic Plan calls for the creation of a portfolio of high-performing schools to meet the needs and demands of students and families,” Brizard said.
“The portfolio plan outlines our continued work of creating a system of high-quality schools that parents want their children to attend.”
          The plan details how the district will create a portfolio of high-performing schools that meet the needs of students and families. It outlines how the district will:
 
〈         Address its persistently low-performing high schools through actions such as school redesign and school closure through phase out.
〈         Open new schools that share the common characteristics of academic rigor, personalization, and partnerships that have proven successful in supporting student achievement.
〈         Change the grade configuration of some schools to provide more nurturing environments for middle-grades students.
 
The portfolio plan presentation will take place at a meeting of the Board of Education’s Excellence in Student Achievement Committee of the Whole.
Highlights of the presentation will also be shown on the district’s Students First TV show:
Friday
4:00–6:00 pm           RCTV 15
 
Saturday
10:00–11:00 a.m.       City 12
           WBGT Cable 18
           Non-cable 40 and 26, available throughout Monroe County
 
Monday
1:00-2:00 p.m.        City 12
4:00–6:00 pm             RCTV 15
 
Tuesday
2:00–4:00 p.m.           RCTV 15
 
 

[Hilary]

I wonder about the increasing involvement of private companies with public schools -- do they have a record of success?

How about that projected 88 percent graduation rate at Northeast and Northwest Prep, though? Why aren't we hearing about them as district success stories?

[PamintheWedge]

just some quick adds to this thread.

my daughter is a 6th grade student, son 8th.

the 6th grade application included a new school called "arts and technology integrated HS".

the 8th grade application (allowing kids to transfer to a different high school) included the "early college high school" being run by school 23's principal, marlene blocker. my current 8th grader also received a separate mailing about this school with an enclosed application process 2-3 weeks ago.

that only leaves vanguard as being unmentioned in the application process that was due in jan/feb.

regarding expeditionary learning, i know of three city schools employing those techniques, but i think there may be more at the elementary level. SWW, WOI, and GCCS.

the same expeditionary learning  school designer is shared by at least WOI and GCCS - steven levy. he is a top notch out of state consultant and one example of sharing what works in "experimental charter school laboratories" with the district at large.