Constituent Coffees

Following the lead of some other local elected officials, I've decided to start holding constituent coffees.   Basically I'll be hanging out at a known place and time, for you to catch me and update me on your concerns for school issues.    Or for you to yell at me, though you need to keep your volume down to the level acceptable at the café.

These will be on the first Saturday of every month, from 10-11 am, at the Human Bean on 10th & Oak in Hillsboro.   (http://www.thehumanbean.com/hillsboro) .   Hope to see you there!

As always, I'm open to contact outside those hours-- just email me (erik@erikseligman.com) if you want to set up a meeting for a different time.

More Choices In Hillsboro?

Hi everyone-- Sorry this blog has been kind of quiet; I'm still recovering from the campaign, and have been travelling for work this week.

Once nice development is that due to my emphasis on school choice during the school board campaign, I've already heard from a potential charter school org that wants to propose a school in Hillsboro.     They have asked for help getting in contact with local parents who might be interested, to discuss your needs & opinions. If you are willing to speak to them, please send me an email (erik@erikseligman.com).   Thanks!

Some General Thoughts On Modern Math Programs

I just posted a new episode of my math podcast, Math Mutation, where I discuss some general thoughts about "discovery-based" math programs.   Click on this link to read the transcript or listen to the podcast.   I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on the topic.  

We Did It! What Happens Now?

Thanks again for all your support!   Looks like we really did it...  Today's update (more-or-less final, only a tiny handful remain uncounted) gives me a solid victory:

 Erik Seligman .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     7,112   55.55
 Rebecca Lantz .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     5,582   43.60
 WRITE-IN.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       109     .85

I won't actually be sworn in until the July meeting, but will start attending the meetings immediately.   I have a lot to learn, naturally, about the many details of this board position.   But I'm still very interested in hearing from any of you who have specific issues with the district that you want me to help look into.

I'll also be continuing to blog at this site, as I promised during the campaign.   Hopefully my reflections as I ramp up on this position will be useful to future board members and others interested in our school district.   Or, at the very least, will provide some entertainment.

"We Don't Have A Communication Problem"

Today all the candidates spoke at the Washington County Public Affairs Forum.   I don't think there were too many surprises-- most of the candidates have made it pretty clear where they stand by now-- but I was amused by my opponent's attempt to refute my point about needing clear and open communication.  [paraphrasing] "We do not have a communication problem, we are great at communicating with the public:  just take a look at our website!"  I think that's a great idea-- please take her up on her challenge, and try to find information about the new Common Core math adoption on the district website, http://hsd.k12.or.us .

To start with, you need to figure out what term to put in the search box.  Actually, before we continue, I should mention that 6 months ago the search box was not there-- it was added as a result of a request from myself and other curriculum committee members.   But OK, it's there now, so I guess we can give the district credit for that.   All our communication problems are now solved, right?   Ummm... maybe not.

I can pretty much guarantee that whatever term you type in, you will get a bunch of apparent matches-- mostly links to powerpoint presentations full of fluff, that happen to mention the math curriculum adoption process in passing.   If you pore through the many useless matches, you may find your way to such exciting documents as the April board packet at http://www.hsd.k12.or.us/Portals/0/District/Board/Boardpacket/2012-2013/Board%20Packet%2004-23-13-rev.pdf , which mentions the curriculum discussion on page 43, or the "listening session" presentation at http://www.hsd.k12.or.us/Portals/0/district/Budget_Matters12-2010/listening%20session%20slides%20041912.pdf , which mentions the adoption in passing.     Will you even get far enough to understand that the issue was discussed in a Curriculum Committee meeting?   Where will you find out what happened in the discussion, or why one committee member abstained from voting?   I don't think there's even enough information there to know who to ask.

The real question is:  where would you find a detailed discussion of what were the key issues surrounding this new curriculum?    It would take a lot of work poring through search results in the current system, and as far as I can tell, nobody has been tasked with clearly explaining this new curriculum and the issues surrounding it to the public.   Maybe the district is planning on something later-- but the changes to the middle school math curriculum are a radical restructuring from top to bottom, fundamentally changing the way middle schoolers learn math, and likely to create a parental uproar that dwarfs last year's "grading reform" fiasco.      If we don't clearly explain what it going on now, it will lead to confusion and anger later.

It looks to me like my blog at http://seligman4schools.blogspot.com/2013/04/reservations-about-new-common-core-math.html is the only attempt to explain the key issues surrounding this new curriculum.   We need to be willing to explain and involve the public in ongoing issues like this, not just wait until the decisions are all made and publish a sanitized summary.    Take another look at my blog posts, and I think you will agree that this is a different type of communication than what we currently get from the school board-- and it's the kind of communication that we need in order to truly involve the community.

Some Campaign Updates

There's an article on last week's school board candidate debate at this link.   If you have a minute, please add a comment supporting me.

I also have another meet & greet event this week-- Thursday 5/9 at the Human Bean at 10th & Oak in Hillsboro.   Come join me & chat about school issues over coffee, or challenge me to a game of Scrabble.

And remember, it's not too late to write a letter to a newspaper, donate, or volunteer for my campaign.  Contact me at erik@erikseligman.com, or call me at 503-312-1665, to help out.

Thanks for your support!

A Nice Media Mention

The popular international math education site Maths Insider just published an article on "8 Fascinating Podcasts to Spark a Love of Math in Your Teen", and my podcast, Math Mutation, was one of the 8 chosen.   Check out the article at http://www.mathsinsider.com/math-podcasts .  

And of course, check out Math Mutation at http://mathmutation.com, if you haven't done that yet!
 

Meet & Greet At Cruise In Thurs 4/25

Hi everyone--  I've scheduled a "meet & greet" event this Thursday, 4/25, 6-8 pm, at Cruise In Country Diner at the corner of River Rd & Farmington.   If you have issues or concerns you want to discuss, or just want to meet me in person before voting for me, come join me on Thursday!

If you're a Facebook user, here is the Facebook event:
https://www.facebook.com/events/325088170951580/?ref=22

(BTW-- admission is free, though you do have to pay for your own food. But if you haven't eaten at Cruise In yet-- these are the best burgers in the Portland area, even if you don't like me you won't regret coming.  :-)  )

Reservations About A New "Common Core" Math Program

To begin with: yes, my last blog post was an April Fools joke! I guess I shouldn't be surprised that some people thought I was serious-- in a district that experiments with "balanced grading"  and "critical race theory", it can sometimes be hard to distinguish spoof from reality.  But rest assured, when I am on the school board, your children will not be deprived of bathrooms.

More seriously, this week's Curriculum Committee meeting consisted of a report-out on the adoption plans for the new middle school math curriculum. This was the product of a 2-year effort by a panel of teachers & administrators, who clearly put a lot of time and effort into reviewing the various choices and choosing a suitable replacement program. The one chosen was called Core Connections College Prep Mathematics (CPM); you can read lots of details at their website, http://cpm.org . The committee was asked to listen to the report and then vote on recommending it to the school board.

Coming into this meeting, I had a lot of concerns. This was the first time HSD middle school math would be compliant with the Common Core, a new national set of standards that has been widely criticized for providing watered-down or fuzzy math, and teaching kids to talk about math problems rather than actually solving them. Some aspects of the common core math program seem somewhat positive: an attention to recognizing structures, using appropriate tools and mathematical models, and looking for alternate solutions to problems. But other aspects are more disturbing, such as emphasis on group work, answering questions with subjective verbose explanations instead of clear answers, and failure to drill traditional math skills.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the teachers had good answers for many of my concerns: I have summarized my recollection of the major Q&As below.

• Are we subjecting our kids to an unproven new educational fad? - No. While the Common Core is quite new, the CPM program actually dates back over 20 years, and has been continually taught and refined over that time.
• Will the students really learn traditional math skills by going through this program, or just learn to BS their way through math discussions? The cpm.org page has an impressive array of studies showing that, based on standardized tests based on traditional math, students in their program equal or exceed similar groups of students who went through traditional programs. And they also show in some cases that students who went through the CPM programs are more likely to go on to higher-level math classes.
• Will the group work mean that my child is graded for other children's work? The teachers clarified that while the classwork will largely consist of students working together to solve problems, 80% of a student's grade will be determined by individual assessments. The remainder of the grade will be based on observed participation and on individual homework.
• Will students not have to do math homework anymore? They will have regular homework exercises, reinforcing the principles learned in class.
• How will parents be able to understand what their child is learning, if they were educated in a traditional math program? There was a very nice answer to this one: the CPM program publishes a "Parents' Guide" to accompany each textbook, to help parents guide their children through that lesson's homework assignment. The CPM website further offers supplementary podcasts with each lesson, so parents can get a full context of what their child was learning in school.
• I heard that under Common Core, 8th graders no longer learn algebra. Will the TAG students be forced to slow down & sync with the group, instead of moving on to advanced math early? No! The CPM classes will have accelerated options, just like current classes do. And many of the concepts formerly in 9th-10th grade algebra are now moved to middle school, so the students will have a solid grounding for higher math.

Most of the committee voted to accept the report and recommend that the school board approve the adoption. However, I abstained from this vote, as I did not believe it appropriate to hold such a vote after solely hearing an advocacy presentation and not having a chance to research other points of view, or further discuss and deliberate out of the presence of the advocates.   After the meeting, I did some online research and found some disturbing information about the CPM program. I think the board should consider the following areas of concern when deciding whether to go forward with this curriculum:

• Will students not have true math tests anymore? Apparently students will be responsible for an individual "closure activity" at the end of each unit. I am a quite worried about this one, as it sounds a bit fuzzy in comparison to a real math test. See examples at this website: http://textbooks.cpm.org/support/a2c_student/Closure.html  . While the closure activities (summarizing what you learned, drawing concept maps, etc) sound like nice reinforcement, I don't think they could possibly substitute for traditional tests in order to ensure that basic skills are mastered.
• Is there real evidence that CPM students do equally well to non-CPM students on objective, nationally standardized tests such as the SAT, ACT, etc? This seems to be missing from the many studies at cpm.org.
• Will there be solid evidence that students are learning standard algorithms: long division, solving quadratic equations, etc? Standard algorithms, discovered historically after centuries of development and reasoning, are a core tool in our mathematical toolkit. If students move on to higher education knowing they can try 'alternative approaches' and don't have to quickly solve problems of known, structured types, they will be at a severe handicap in math, science, and engineering classes.
• What about the strong CPM critiques from math and science professionals? There are some serious critiques of CPM available with a quick web search. These all seem to date from 10-15 years ago, so maybe the program has changed since then to fix the issues described-- but we need a clear statement that the adoption team was aware of these critiques, and has answers to the concerns within.
• The Open Letter to Secretary of Education Richard Riley, signed by over 200 practicing scientists and mathematicians
• Professor Wayne Bishop's detailed 2001 critique
• David Klein's 2000 National School Board Association critique 

So, I would recommend to the school board that if we choose to adopt this new program, it would be with the following provisions:

• The addition of periodic tests that measure individual proficiency in the traditional core algorithms that have theoretically been taught as a 'side effect' of the creative group work. Creative problem-solving and verbal reasoning are great-- but we have to make sure we are not discarding the real math.  
• Detailed tracking of pre-CPM vs post-CPM scores on the PSAT, SAT, and similar objective tests. We need real yardsticks for comparison. Because the Common Core comes with its own assessment types, it will be very difficult to compare students who learned under the old and new curricula.
• Detailed refutations of the CPM critiques linked above. We need solid evidence that these concerns have been addressed in the latest versions of the curriculum.

An Idea Whose Time Has Come

I posted this idea during my last campaign, but somehow the Hillsboro School District has failed to implement it.  So I'm bringing it up again; tell me what you think.

How many times have we seen this situation in a classroom: the teacher is in the middle of a brilliant lesson, the students are all enraptured, education is flowering in the truest sense, and suddenly it is all ruined by an irrelevant interruption.   A hand is raised in the middle of the room, begging, "Can I have a bathroom pass?"

In addition to interrupting class at random times, this is the root of a number of issues in our schools.   The restrooms have been shown to be central locations for time wasting, bullying, rule breaking, and discrimination against transgender students.  Attempts to solve this problem by limiting availability of bathroom passes, or requiring good behavior from students, simply fail to address the core issues.

Let me ask the obvious question: Why are there bathrooms in our schools at all?   They serve no educational purpose, take up space, and are costly in terms of both maintenance and order.  Every bathroom in the Hillsboro school system should have all its toilets and sinks removed, and the rooms should be re-purposed as classrooms. Think about the benefits:

• Schools will gain additional classrooms in what is now wasted space, increasing capacity.
• Custodial costs will go down, as janitors have significantly fewer cleaning tasks.
• Students will learn the valuable techniques of self-control.

It's about time we leave the self-indulgent school designs of the 20th century behind, and fully utilize our schools' spaces for their intended purpose, education.

How Do I Differ From My Opponent?

Hopefully you have been reading my blog, and like what I have had to say.   But one question that a lot of people have been asking is:  "You sound great, but why does that make you a better choice than your opponent?"   So I thought it would be good to highlight a few specific issues voted by the school board in recent years where I would have made different choices than my opponent did.

• I would provide real options to the students of Hillsboro who are not well-served by their current school.     The school board staged a vote in February to participate in the state's Open Enrollment law, which allows students to transfer between districts if the receiving school has space.   But it did nothing to stop the private agreements Hillsboro has with all the major neighboring districts to not poach each others' students-- which effectively negates the Open Enrollment policy.
• I would give individual teachers the freedom to innovate in their classroom, without board-level micromanagement.   You may recall the "balanced grading" and "grading for learning" policies the board tried to impose a few years ago, which after causing chaos in our district's classrooms, led to a parental uprising and were eventually repealed.   While I would allow teachers the chance to try new ideas on a small scale, I would not impose radical educational method changes from the top down.
• I would consistently ensure education funds end up in our classrooms, rather than in non-education uses.   Recently the board voted to exempt low-income housing from some property taxes, under the rationale that the state school fund had promised to reimburse the losses, so the district "would not lose" money.  But this a transparent accounting shell game:  if the state school fund reimburses the losses, then the money is lost to schools in general for the state.  While this may be a worthy cause, the proper place to fund it is the state legislature.   In these financially tight times, the school board is behaving irresponsibly if it moves education funds to other areas.

These are just a few examples, of course.   From my other blog articles I'm sure you can recognize many other areas where my ideas fundamentally differ from the current board majority.  

Top Reasons To Donate To My Campaign

As you have probably seen in the previous blog post, I'm now accepting donations.   As you know, every citizen in Oregon effectively gets $50 for free, through the Oregon Political Tax credit, to donate to a campaign of their choice.  Why shoud you choose to spend this on me?

1. The Hillsboro School Board is a critically important election.   This isn't just the city of Hillsboro- HSD is a "megadistrict", the 4th largest in the state, covering over 20,000 students and over $200 million in budget.   Sitting in one of 7 positions on this board has been said by some to be comparable in influence to a State Representative.   It is unlikely that many other positions elected in this odd year will be of similar importance. 
2. I have a real shot at winning.   In 2009, I lost by only 56 votes, out of over 9000 cast, to a well-connected insider.    With a fully funded campaign, I'm hoping to do much better this time!
3. You have no doubt about where I stand on the issues.    I think you'll agree that in this blog and my newspaper columns, I have stated and documented my views on real school issues more clearly and directly than any other candidate.  

For all these reasons, please follow these instructions and donate to my campaign.   Thanks again for your support!

How To Donate To My Campaign

Yes, after the strong urging of some supporters, I have formed a PAC and am now requesting donations!   If you are in Oregeon, remember that due to the Oregon Political Tax Credit, a donation of $50 per person is effectively free to you.

To donate, you can either:

• Send me a message through email (erik@erikseligman.com ) or call on the phone (503-312-1665) with some way to contact you, and I'll get back to you to arrange a time for me to stop by & pick up a check.
• Send a check to my PAC address.  For legal reasons, please include a letter with your name, address, occupation, and employer with your donation.

Friends of Erik Seligman

89358 Cranberry Lane

Bandon, OR 97411

 

• Alternatively, you can donate with a check or credit card online using this link.   

                 
Thanks for your support!

My Revised Campaign Statement

After a thorough revision with the help of some experts, I've submitted the new statement below for the voters' pamphlet.    Tell me what you think!

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ERIK SELIGMAN: The Parents’ Choice for Hillsboro School District Board:

·     Past experience teaching at college, middle and high school levels

·     Past experience volunteering as English teacher to Hillsboro area immigrants

·     Host of free educational podcast, “Math Mutation”, rated 5 stars on iTunes

·     Intel Engineer

·     Parent and 18-year resident of the Hillsboro area

 

"Erik Seligman has a passion for innovation in public education. As a parent of two girls, I’m supporting Erik because he puts the needs of our children ahead of bureaucracy.” -- Jose Orozco, Cornelius City Councilor, (DEMOCRAT)

 

ERIK SELIGMAN will:

·     Stop the Cuts to Our Classrooms: Board decisions must be based on real data about what is truly working.  Erik will cut administration costs and protect our classrooms. 

·     Support Innovation and Give Parents Choices: Bureaucratic rules often wear down great teachers. Erik supports giving more freedom to successful teachers and school leaders. He also supports giving parents more choices, so they can find the program that best serves their child’s individual needs.

·     Honest And Open Communication: As a contributor to the Hillsboro Argus, Erik has criticized the district for making decisions behind closed doors and treating parents and the public arrogantly. Erik is dedicated to open dialogue and a transparent public process.

 

“Erik Seligman has repeatedly opposed cuts to our public schools and supported reforms that would save teacher jobs and improve educational outcomes. As a CPA and mother, I’m supporting Erik because he has a plan to give parents more choices and stop the cuts.”  –Katie Eyre, former state representative, (REPUBLICAN)

 

Learn more about where Erik stands at http://hillsboroerik.com, or email him at erik@erikseligman.com.

 
JOIN US IN SUPPORTING ERIK SELIGMAN

 

 

How Are Hillsboro Schools Doing?

One question that has come up a few times when I explain my campaign is:  how are Hillsboro schools doing anyway?    "Your ideas sound nice, but I read the district newsletters and it sounds like the schools are doing great.   Why are you trying to fix something that's not broken?"    So I thought it might be nice to look at school ratings from a variety of sources.   Here's a quick summary of what I found:

• State report cards:   Very coarse grained.   HSD looks pretty close to state averages overall in most categories.    Most schools Satisfactory, 9 Outstanding, 2 In Need Of Improvement.
• School rating websites:   At School Digger  HSD ranks 61st best district in the state,  vs Beaverton at 19, Tigard-Tualatin at 26.    At GreatSchools  HSD rates 6/10, vs 7/10 for Beaverton & Tigard-Tualatin.   
• US News High School rankings:  Liberty HS is #15 in OR / #1231 nationally.   Glencoe is 19/1569.   Century & HillHi didn't make top 25.
• 2011 Federal Ratings:  A little more gloomy here.   6 elementary schools on "troubed" list, one other that must offer free transfers or tutoring.  All middle schools & all high school except Century also on troubled list.  Also, "Oregon high schools’ on-time graduation rate remained mired at 68 percent for the class of 2012, the same as the year before, when Oregon ranked fourth worst in the nation."
• Voting with their feet:   How many kids have been removed from their local pubic schools by their parents?   Hard to find how many Hillsboro children attend private schools, but at one website listing this by city, we can see roughly 1000 students in the city of Hillsboro have opted out of HSD altogether to attend private schools.  (HSD is larger than that, but not easy to properly account on this page.)  We also have 140 or so kids on City View Charter's waiting list-- clearly a set of families feeling they are not best served by their local public school.   I also have trouble finding a good estimate of the number of homeschoolers in HSD.
• Real estate agents:   This qualifies as anecdotal, but I've been told pretty universally by Intel new hires that real estate agents direct them to buy homes in the Beaverton district, rather than Hillsboro, if they have kids.

So...  what's the conclusion of all this?   We should qualify the discussion with the fact that ranking a heterogeneous group of schools is not easy.    It's hard to perfectly compare different districts:  in particular, Hillsboro likely has more challenges integrating new immigrants than the other nearby large suburban districts, which can partially explain its much lower rankings at sites based on test scores.   But as the 4th largest district in Oregon, I would really hope to see us doing better than just the 15th best high school.

I think we can say based on these data points that there is certainly room for improvement in Hillsboro's schools.   Personally, I love the city of Hillsboro (I live on Main Street, right in the heart of our downtown), and it pains me to hear new co-workers tell me they must live elsewhere for their children's education.   While there are certainly many successes and positive developments, I'd really like to see Hillsboro become a destination district where people come to live because of its top-quality school system.

    

The School Board Matters to Private/Homeschool Parents Too!

Too many of our neighbors ignore the school board races. In many cases, their rationale is that they don't have children in the public schools-- they are using private schools, homeschooling, etc.-- so the "school board doesn't matter to them". But the school board does matter to everyone, regardless of whether your children are in the public schools! Here are the biggest reasons, in my opinion, why everyone should care how their local public schools are managed:

• Our nation's future is in the hands of all children, not just yours. Even if your own children are in a private or home school, there are many children whose parents don't have the income or free time to choose this option. These children, just like yours, are critically important to the future of our nation-- don't you care that they are properly educated?
• You care about many government services that help people other than you. I'm sure you voted on the recent veterans' benefits initiative without being a veteran, right? And you support laws that help crime victims, without being a victim yourself, don't you? Similarly, we should all strive to offer the best possible public education to the children who need it, even if your family is not directly affected.
• The public school system has some control over homeschoolers, and students may transfer between different types of schooling . The relationship between public schools, private schools, and homeschool can be complex and bureaucratic. It's important to make sure that the public school system is run by people who understand and support all the various options parents may choose for educating their children, and aren't on a crusade to punish citizens who defy the public schools. This is especially true of homeschoolers, who are officially monitored in many ways by the public school system.
• The public school system controls and spends hundreds of millions of dollars of your tax money. It's your money that is being spent, regardless of whether it is spent specifically on your kids. Don't you want it to be spent wisely?
  

Please keep these issues in mind, and think carefully about that May ballot you receive in the mail. It's very important that you put people like me on the school board, who understand the various schooling options you may choose (my daughter is in a private school), and don't punish you for choosing the right alternatives for your family.   And aside from any direct effects on your family, you need to encourage wise stewardship of your tax dollars, and help to ensure that the next generation of children is successfully educated.

Easy Ways To Help

If you like what you've seen on this page and would like to help, here are some simple things you can do (email me at erik@erikseligman.com if planning on any of the following):

• Let me put a sign on your lawn.   Just email me your address.
• Endorse me.  Email me at confirm you're OK with me putting your name up as a supporter.
• Talk to your friends or neighbors about my campaign.   If you don't know your neighbors well, just email me & I can send you a list of likely supporters near your address.
• Volunteer to phone possible supporters.   Again, just email me and I'll get you a list.
• Write a letter to the editor of a local newspaper supporting my campaign.   You can send letters to the Hillsboro Argus at newsclerk@hillsboroargus.com , or the Hillsboro Tribune at this link.

Thanks for your support!

My 2013 Campaign Statement

As a certified teacher, an engineer in Hillsboro's high-tech industry, an 18-year resident of the Hillsboro area, and father of a six-year-old child, I am uniquely qualified to help steer Hillsboro schools in the right direction in these difficult times.

My experience and dedication to education is shown by:

- Local government service on the Hillsboro School District Curriculum Committee and on the Washington County Commission for Children and Families;
- Experience teaching at the college, middle school, and high school levels;
- Experience as chair of an engineering industry subcommittee designing international standards;
- Experience as a volunteer English teacher to immigrants to the Hillsboro area; and
- Host of a free educational podcast, "Math Mutation", rated 5 stars on iTunes.

Our children's education is essential to our future. I feel the priorities of the Hillsboro school district need to be directed towards these critical goals:

1. Results Orientation. Tough choices must be based on real data about what is and is not effective to achieve our educational goals. I will work to find the most cost-effective ways to provide a quality education.
2. Freedom To Innovate. Teachers need the freedom to take advantage of new ideas that may make them more effective. In addition, we must encourage flexible options such as charter/magnet schools and cross-district transfers, creating new opportunities to meet the unique needs of every student.
3. Clear And Open Communication. Through my blog at http://hillsboroerik.com and occasional Argus columns, I have been continually informing the public on important education issues. I will continue this open dialogue with you as a member of the school board.

For all these reasons, please vote for Erik Seligman for the Hillsboro School District Board of Directors. If you have any questions, please email me at erik@erikseligman.com. I deeply appreciate your support.

Improving The Textbook Selection Process

At this week's Hillsboro School District Curriculum Committee meeting, district staff presented the status of the middle school textbook adoptions.   As you may recall from this blog, this topic has been under discussion since last year.   Previously I had been a bit skeptical of the process, because a committee of teachers was being told they would have to make a decision based on looking at the textbooks in the office + hearing a presentation from each vendor... without ever using the texts to teach a class!

But this week we found out that the district had been trying a new piloting process:  each of the candidate textbooks was used for 2 weeks in real classes, and the teachers were asked for impressions afterwards.   It's good to see that there will be some real teaching experiences feeding into the process now.   This helps fill an important gap.   No matter how good a text seems in theory, there's really no substitute for actually using it.

Before we get too excited, I'm sure it's occurred to you that this is still a bit thin.  2 weeks of experience to decide on a text that we may be stuck with for most of the next decade?   However, I am glad to see that at least some classroom experience will be feeding into the decision.   As I see it, the new piloting process in a positive development in the district's textbook adoption procedures, and I hope to see further efforts in this direction.

New Opportunities from Hillsboro's Online Academy

The Hillsboro Argus has published another of my guest editorials, this time talking about the new opportunities the district is giving up by refusing student transfers:   http://www.oregonlive.com/argus/index.ssf/2013/03/hillsboro_online_academy_has_p.html

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Many of us have been excited to hear about the opening of the Hillsboro Online Academy, a new alternative school in Hillsboro.

As a member of the Hillsboro School District's Curriculum Committee, I was recently given a tour of this new school, and was impressed with their organization and level of academic rigor. In its first year, the school attracted twice as many students as expected, and demand is likely to grow rapidly as they demonstrate success.

I was especially happy to see this due to the opportunities opened up by the state legislature in its 2011 education reforms. Under the new laws, a school can choose to accept transfer students from any district in the state, and they will bring most of their tax money with them.
Thus, when a district creates an innovative new program, not only will it help local students, but the district itself can gain a financial reward: a truly innovative school will become a profit center for the district, due to out-of-district transfer students. This is especially true of cost-efficient online schools. So an expanding Online Academy could contribute significantly towards solving HSD's budget woes.
Unfortunately, this is not an opportunity in Hillsboro currently -- because our district has entered into an explicit agreement with all the major nearby districts not to poach each other's students. (Yes, this is still the case, despite the board's deceptive February 2013 vote to "participate" in the state law.)
Why would they do this? Public schools are used to having a geographic monopoly, where each district is guaranteed perpetual control over students in a predetermined area. It provides a nice sense of security and stability to current employees, and they claim they need this guarantee for proper planning.  Yet millions of businesses all over the world -- including private K-12 schools-- live without this guarantee, subjecting themselves to marketplace competition, in order to receive the potential rewards of quality and innovation.

Apparently our district is terrified that the possibility of success also means the possibility of failure. Perhaps Hillsboro's offerings will not be the best, and we will lose students and tax money to neighboring districts. But what kind of message is this sending to our children? Should we always support the comfortable stability of continued mediocrity, over the risks of failure and potential of success that come with competition?

Sure, there is always the possibility that the district will lose money if it fails to deliver on its promises of quality and the students go elsewhere, but in such a case, I would argue that the district deserves its loss.

However, based on what I've seen, I think it's much more likely that the reverse would happen: Hillsboro's Online Academy would be a magnet for students all over northwest Oregon, and bring in a significant infusion of money to offset our budget woes and prevent teacher layoffs.   Entering into agreements that prevent this possibility is a disservice to all students in Hillsboro, as well as those in the surrounding areas that might benefit from our innovation. As we prepare to elect new school board members this May, we need to demand that they repudiate the multi-district agreement and truly carry out the spirit of the state education reforms.

Does Hillsboro Accept Transfer Students?

In the Feburary meeting of the Hillsboro School District Board of Directors, the board voted to "participate" in the state law that allows student transfers between districts. Great news, right? Think of all the choices this opens up for the students!

Except for one minor complication. The district has an agreement with all the major nearby districts-- Forest Grove, Beaverton, Tigard-Tualatin, and Sherwood-- to not accept transfers from each others' schools. Since these districts constitute the vast majority of those students geographically close enough to consider a transfer, this agreement in effect nullifies Hillsboro's participation in the state law.

It's easy to see why they do this-- unions love the security of monopolistically dividing up territory and guaranteeing control and stability. While any other kind of business (including private schools!) must face a competitive marketplace and live or die based on whether the customers choose them, the public schools see themselves as some alternate universe immune from basic economic principles and incentives.

This is why the two most conservative board members (Wayne Clift and Monte Akers) rejected the participation vote: if the district is going to effectively block nearly all transfers, it's an act of deception to stage a public vote to comply with the transfer law. It was especially disgusting that board member Lantz vocally stated that the vote was to comply with "the spirit of the law", when she in fact was doing the exact opposite, complying with the letter of the law at the expense of the spirit.

When you are deciding who to vote for in May's school board elections, be sure to keep this vote in mind. Reward Monte Akers for his stand in favor of honesty, and show members Lantz and Sollman that you will not tolerate these kinds of deceptive tactics.

Phil Knight, Don't Read This!

The Hillsboro Argus just published an article of mine, criticizing the tendency of governments to pass special laws or spend our hard-earned money on private interests.  While it might be said to tangentially relate to schools (in that any money wasted by the state on a baseball stadium could probably be better spent on something related to education), it's a bit off-topic for this blog, so I'll just post the link:

http://www.oregonlive.com/argus/index.ssf/2013/01/hillsboro_hops_public_financin.html  

Hillsboro's Hostages

Recently the Hillsboro School Board denied a request by the residents of South Cooper Mountain to transfer their neighborhood from the Hillsboro to the Beaverton school district. The first step is for Hillsboro to approve-- but our school board refused.      It looks to me like this was clearly a decision that was not in the best interests of the children.

Why would it make sense to transfer this neighborhood into the Beaverton school district?

• Their main argument was simple geography: while they were in the Hillsboro district for historical reasons, they sit on the border of the Beaverton district, and Beaverton schools are much closer. The closest elementary and middle schools in Beaverton are .5 and 3.7 miles away, while the correponding distances for Hillsboro are 3 and 9 miles. And Beaverton is planning a new high school in the area, while the nearest Hillsboro high school is 10 miles away.
• Due to these distances, as part of the Beaverton district, many students would be able to walk or bike to school, while as part of Hillsboro they would depend completely on buses. Aren't we supposed to be encouraging physical activity in students these days?
• Beaverton is generally considered a much better school district overall. Shouldn't every parent have a right to demand the best possible education for their children from among available options?
• Beaverton also offers many opportunities through its "learning options" program that simply aren't available in Hillsboro: magnet schools with Arts, International, and STEM foci, and two charter schools specializing in foreign language immersion.
• Every homeowner in the neigborhood has signed on to this request.

Hillsboro's arguments against this change do not seem very impressive. Reading the Argus article  on the vote, we see the following counter-arguments from the district: ・Hillsboro would lose the $5.7 million in state funding that would move to Beaverton with the students. But board member Monte Akers, one of the few not to vote against the Cooper Mountatin residents, pointed out that each student currently costs the district slightly more than the state funding received, so the net effect on Hillsboro's budget would be negligible.
・Hillsboro is growing and is capable of accomodating the neighborhood. But I don't see why this is an argument against the transfer-- certainly it is also capable of not accomodating the neighborhood, if that's what is best for the students. And if the district population isn't growing, won't the removal of some students help by slowing down the increase?
・This would "hurt" the closest elementary school, Groner, which would have fewer students. Again, why is this a compelling reason to fail to provide the best education possible for each student?
・Worry about the precedent this would set. In the words of board member Carolyn Ortmann, "You don't start whittling away the district".  The last argument is what I find most disturbing. Clearly the board is afraid that if the precedent is set, other boundary regions who are not being well-served by Hillsboro's education system will also look for opportunities to flee the district. My answer to this is: what matters more, the power and money of Hillsboro's school district, or the actual education of children? The board's primary goal should be to provide the best possible education for every child in the district. If this goal is best served for certain students by allowing them to be educated in another district, they should support that. And if they don't, then it is clear that the board and administration consider their personal empire more important than the children they claim to serve. 
If you believe the Hillsboro school board and administration should consider children's education their top priority, call the Hillsboro School District at 503-844-1500 and email schoolboard@hsd.k12.or.us , and demand that board members Ortmann, Canas, Sollman, Strelchun, and Lantz change their votes on the South Cooper Mountain issue. And if they refuse, remember this when board members Ortmann, Sollman, and Lantz come up for re-election this May.

The Courage To Act

I'm glad to see the minutes of the Hillsboro School District Curriculum Committee are now being published. But, as often happens with such things, I think some of the most interesting sub-discussions were not captured, though the details in the minutes are perfectly accurate.

Thinking about the items that led to extended discussion at the meeting, I'm struck by a common theme that seemed to run through a few:

• One of the main duties of the committee is to review in advance any course proposal from an individual school, after review by another layer of internal committees, to ensure that new courses offered can be immediately implemented implemented district-wide.
• There is a need for new texts that implement the common core standards, which will be tested on starting this spring-- but no compliant textbooks have been identified and adopted.
• Many nearby districts have systems that allow parents to view their children's grades online-- but Hillsboro has been delayed for over a year in implementing such a system, with promises that it will come as part of a major upcoming IT overhaul.

It looks to me like in each of these cases, we may be suffering due to the district being of cumbersome size (it is the 4^th largest in Oregon), and too many decisions being controlled from the top level. When a decision must be made for the entire district, it's only natural that there is lots of extra review and fear to avoid the possibility of doing it wrong. This is a common problem in industry as well-- large organizations create an inherent fear of failure in every action, and tend to inhibit the courage needed to proceed with good ideas.

But in the corporate world, many good solutions have been identified for this problem: look, for example, at the “Lean” philosophy being used by many large organizations.   One of the key teachings there is to try new ideas on a small scale, and then spread the learning wider when successful. So, for example, to address the issues discussed above, why can't we do the following?:

• When a new course is proposed, allow an individual school to implement it for one year on a trial basis upon approval by the local dept head & principal. Use the experience and results to decide whether to make it an ongoing offering and spread throughout the district.
• Allow individual schools to provisionally adopt a textbook for a small set of classes, working with the textbook company to provide a small set of its books at low cost on a trial basis.
• Allow individual schools to use secure open-source networking solutions (or low-cost secure messaging software) to implement grade-sharing systems at the individual level.

Does every educational activity in the district really need to be approved through the central administration? Or could HSD become more nimble and successful by viewing itself as a collection of individual schools, and providing more freedom to each one to try new ideas?

New Directions For Hillsboro's Curriculum Committee

Recently I attended the first meeting of the Hillsboro School District Curriculum Committee for this school year.  (Well, actually there was a previous meeting, but it wasn't on the district calendar & they notified me at a bad email address, and less than half the committee attended, so I'm not counting it.)  It looks like there will be some positive changes on the committee.

As you may have gathered from my earlier blog posts, last year the committee's main activities consisted of watching presentations from district officials on various aspects of the curriculum.   While it was educational, there was a slight issue... in that we didn't actually DO anything.   We didn't present to anyone, generate written reports (unless you count this blog), or hold a vote on any issue. 

At this meeting, Kathi Robinson, the district official who runs the committee,  described some areas where we might contribute:

• Reviewing the massive Common Core documents & producing simple explanations for parents
• Investigating technology opportunities such as open source texts & "bring your own device"

At the next meeting, the plan is to divide us into subcommittees and discuss these areas further.   I'm a little nervous about the fact that they are aiming for all work to be done onsite at the 1.5 hour committee meetings (apparently some parents are too busy for homework)... But it seems like a good direction for the committee compared to last year!