Executive Director of the Missouri Alliance for Arts Education

Report from Ben Martin

Executive Director of the Missouri Alliance for Arts Education

April State Board of Education Meeting.

First, my apologies for missing the February and March reports.I hope to get them out in belated fashion in a few days. I also want to let you know of some other conferences and meetings I've attended recently. Expect a flurry of reports from me soon.

Although this month's meeting was Tuesday only, I went ahead and came into Jeff City on Monday. I had lunch with Lonnie Schneider of the Missouri Council of School Administrators. We talked about possible collaborative efforts to advance arts education and the goals that MCSA has as well, in that area. We had a good exchange of ideas and he ended with a request that I write up a white paper that might clarify what such an effort might look like. I'll submit that to him later this week. I would like MAAE Board members to also look that over before I send it. Quick turn around time though. This could be an important move.

I spent the afternoon with Kyna Iman going over arts and arts education bills and visiting offices tracking down the sunset extension legislation so that it could be heard in the house. Oh it is a tangled web at times. Remember the Schoolhouse Rock version of I'm Just a Bill? Yeah, forget that. But be aware of important pieces of legislation that are moving right now.

1. The extension of the sunset on the Non-Resident Athlete and Entertainer tax that is supposed to provide the basic funding for the Missouri Arts Council.

2. The basic increase in the appropriation for the Missouri Arts Council. It may still get closer to the governor's original ask.

3. An increase in the funding for the Fine Arts and Scholars academy funding is being proposed in the Senate. This could go a long way toward making the academies more affordable for all students.

State Board Of Education Meeting, April 15

Meeting called to order.

Attendance: Shields, Still, Jones, Herschend, Martin, Lenz, Driskill

Herschend notes that Artwork in the meeting room is from Kirkwood

Board member reports on Educational Activity

Shields, yes but none worth reporting.Nothing like starting the meeting off with a laugh.

Still, Columbia awarded outstanding teachers, the Lewis Awards, which includes a financial award too from the local education foundation. He asks, do other schools do this as well. Others note that many school districts in the state have an educational foundation that awards small grants to teachers for special projects.

Jones--in one of the more staged moments, he re nominates Herschend for President. Herschend says some meaningful, heartfelt words and Jones says “Don't jinx this, you don't know many arms I had to twist to get this done.”Nothing like a laugh partway into a meeting to break the ice, even if some of the laughs were a bit nervous.The motion is seconded and passed

Driskill--Gives his thanks for the orientation and thanks to the people in the field for their comments and questions.

Lenz-- talks about his experience at the Citizen Awards at Mo Bar Association. He was also impressed with the Normandy Citizens group and hopes they continue their interest and commitment.

Martin--reports on a meeting with KC NAACP and looking forward to a panel he is a part of along with Nicastro

NOTE to self--invite Board and DESE to the Nelson event

Herschend--also talks about Citizens Award and then talks briefly about testifying before the senate committee on Higher Ed. And what a good day it was because of all the interest.

Still does the motions on closed meetings, they pass

Consent Agenda--passes

Agenda D--Mo Lead report by Dennis Cooper, Pam Hedgespeth,

Refer to agenda for details of presentation.

The word pedagogy is getting lots of play. Does anyone else realize that comes from Greek word for the slaves that were assigned to accompany the sons of rich Athenians to school.Not a very flattering word to use then, huh? As she talks about the work on bringing in administrators I keep thinking, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him think. She describes the plan and then talks about the Cadres and Cohorts--what is with this old Roman military terminology? That soon becomes apparent. So much for my editorializing. This actually is important work.

So, Mo Lead is a program of intense, focused training for administrators to prepare them for the rigors of leading a school in the new education paradigm.

Two cadres have gone through the process so far. Cadre 1 had-217 participants of which 45 are trainer candidates, Cadre 2--79 participants. The first two cadres had concentrated on administrators in at-risk districts.Cadre 3 will be open to all principals, Asst principals and lead teachers. Hedgespeth recognizes a graduate of the program during the presentation.

Questions--

Still--do we know how long it will take to see results. How are you doing in high need schools? Answer—Too early to tell here. PA and MA are the most relevant state data. They show around a 7% gain! Still--not very impressive if already very low. Still asks lots of questions about logistics, especially how it is to be paid for. Answer--combo of Fed $ and school district money

Jones--He is interested in the military model, saying we seem to think everyone can be trained to be a leader. He says the military does not assume that. They take a long time to train a leader. He notes that he likes a plan but in the military they say no plan ever survives first contact with the enemy. Yes, the plan as presented seemed so organized that it seems almost too good to be true. He worries about getting the right people in the courses and then in the schools

Nicastro says fed $ somewhat tied their hands on who was initially chosen but that this was not a remediation plan. It is for proven or very promising leaders. When asked about funding, Cooper notes that money is in budget request from House but not Senate,as we'll see later.

Driskill--commends people involved from the field. The question he has is what are the biggest concerns those school leaders have about being able to do their job. Hedgespeth answers that kids are tough these days, early childhood is very important, high stakes testing takes its toll especially with limited budgets, Cooper says shift to be instructional leaders not just managers is a big deal. Driskill follows up with military model, not only tests but alsobeing judged by peers is part of that model. Do we provide for that. No clear answer.

Lenz--Any follow up plans in the works? Katnik talks about the plan of surveys and results, looking for impact, Lenz asks when you picked the participants,was there resistance? Cooper--yes some but everyone eventually came around.

Martin—Shouldn’t this be a part of regular masters level administrator training rather than a separate program. GOOD QUESTION. Nicastro notes she has been asking that as well. They are looking at that now.

Jones-- follows up on Martin. How far away are the graduate programs in colleges from having this training program.Hedgespeth answers that they did an alignment. NISL supports what colleges are doing, Jones says you were diplomatic in saying lots of differences. Cooper--yes, but best thing about NISL is the requirement to report back on how they have applied answers to these kinds of questions

Herschend--So important that you get the right people, strong emphasis to RECRUIT the best. (This is a recurring theme in Herschend’s statements each meeting—recruit good people, raise the level of the profession) He mentions ongoing training in his company is required. You can never stop doing training programs. Urges MoLead to require continuing training

For a copy of the complete report presented to the board go to:

Agenda E. Assessment Field Tests

Sharon Helwig & Mike ? (I didn’t catch the name)

Purpose of the tests is to test the test, not the students. The detailed report is in the agenda power point. He notes that checking for bias (urban-rural and male-female are most common) is pretty much accomplished. Now we check out the three kinds of tests that are used--performance and class activity are important components.

Training issues have been noted, but mostly because trainers and teachers didn't know where to find things. The students seem to have little or no problem.

Still--asks is this all computer based. The answer is some but also performance activity. He asks about issues on supervision of students. The answer much of the variation in that is age related. And cheating? Answer-- people will cheat but we catch them. Nicastro says quite often districts self report and so the problem solves itself.

Martin--How do you determine bias? What is the process? Answer explains the process

Still follows up why are questions considered biased? Ans. quite often can't determine the reasons, Nicastro and Martin give examples about the use of the words silo and banisters in questions when the students in urban areas have never seen silos and KC area students use the term handrail instead of banister, which to them is the name of a failed shopping mall. Actually a very good example of how question wording can confuse a student.

Herschend-- keep moving forward, because although we'll never get a perfect version, this is an ongoing process.

Lenz--he asks about capacity, are there still some problems? Answer, yes, wireless access seems to be most problematic, Lenz says you are hoping then that the problems work out? Nicastro says all schools can do it but they need to accommodate for bandwidth limitations. Some money in legislation to accomplish new technology capabilities for struggling schools.

Driskill--brings up common core and opposition and that includes some teachers and principals. What do you hear? Ans--most districts already on board. They are looking at content and see no problems. Not focusing on the philosophical. Most also like the online system because data gets back so much faster,.Ten days instead 3 months. The main problem is getting teachers ready, the kids are ready, Nicastro anecdote about third graders who were insulted when some expert said they were not ready to handle a computerized test.

Mike notes that DESE is moving everything online so current tests are being adapted to that system,

Oh, oh, Still is nodding off! Make it more interesting guy!

What we learned segment. Precodingstudents by DESE, rather than at the individual school level is important, especially for finding subgroups. That was repeatedly emphasized.

For a copy of the complete report presented to the Board go to:

Break

Agenda F Budget update. Sherry ?and Lankford

See agenda item for specific details

Parsons amendment--anything statewide that is Professional Services is reduced by 2%. Impacts state board honorariums. A number of jokes about $25 per meeting.Nothing like a joke in the middle of a meeting . . . But as the report goes on it becomes apparent that the amendment could be very costly, basically because of it s impact on federal matching funds in a couple of areas.

VERY important to US--is the senate increase in the Fine Arts and ScholoarsAcademies but there is no corresponding increase in the House. Contact your rep and Senator!

Questions--

Still--How did the mo history item get there, answ-required by legislation, if a bill made something mandatory it must have a separate line item.

Driskill-- Is there money available for upkeep and improvement of state schools? Ans-- Bond money must be specific to that project. None right now. Lankford notes problems with school for the blind.

For a copy of the complete report presented to the Board go to:

Agenda G. Legislative Report Van Zandt

SB 1490. New Common core legislation mandates work groups that would advise, not ban, on common core. He notes there are lots of efforts to support common core and emphasizes the problems banning would cause. NOTE to self should arts be in the mix of these work groups?

SB 493 Unaccredited schools bill passed senate now in house, but no word on it there. He is expecting a house substitute.

Time is becoming crucial. Budget will go down to wire, other bills as well.

HB 1689. Early childhood education is doing better than ever before, which is encouraging, however passage may still be a ways off. Most popular option seems to be funding it through the foundation formula.

For the complete report presented to the Board go to:

Agenda H Missouri Advisory Board for Educator Preparation

See agenda item for details. Essentially getting DESE and Higher Ed to work together on teacher prep.Motion passes to put this into effect.

For the complete report presented to the Board, go to:

Agenda Item I. KCAI teacher prep program.Katnik and Hairston

See item for details

Herschend asks how many candidates they intend to have? The answer is they'd like to start at 10 and gradually build up to around 25 annually. They currently have 700 students total and a large number of them express interest in the education certification. Motion to certify the KCAI program passes

I wonder about their ability to get teacher candidates into schools prior to that one year educator training post-bacc program they are implementing. Also, there is a certain irony that Mizzou is shutting their BSE program down just as we are adding another educator training program. Which, by the way, is the same as what Mizzou proposes as an alternative to the BSE.

Important personal note—I spoke to the representatives of KCAI and we will keep in touch about their program and how we may be of assistance.

For the complete proposal presented to the Board go to:

Agenda J. Transitional School District for St L

See item for details. Essentially, the St. Louis district is being run by a special Board of Ed right now. A failure to act today moves St. Louis back to an elected board,

Martin asks if assessment of success has been made. Very mixed results are noted. DESE will still recommend continuance. Martin continues to question. Nicastro notes a shorter period this time around—only two years instead of three. Martin asks if prep for transition back to an elected board exists once the Transitional board is discontinued. She says yes, essentially one year to check for results and then one year to transition, hence the reason for the two year approval.Jones asks about public perception. Nicastro says MSIP 5 gives us tools, but Jones says wait, this is a public perception problem, and once she realizes what he was actually asking, she agrees there is a challenge with that.

Driskill asks about financial situation, which was one of the major problems in the past. Nicastro says there was improvement and they have received lots of deseg money. Lankford comes forward to explain saying they are no longer in debt but still in a very tight budget situation. Nicastro says we are watching but St L is not on the financially stressed list any more.

Shields asks about public attitudes, a citizen of St L blurts out that the community is opposed to the continuation. The Board basically ignores her. The motion Passes.

A side note--I had made the mistake of saying hi to the Concerned Citizen before the meeting and was treated to a 5 minute diatribe about what this transitional board is doing. I kept getting the question would you want a realtor telling you how to run a school district. I tried to reply that actually a very good realtor had just been elected to our school board. I don't think my point was acknowledged . . . Or heard.

For the complete report submitted to the Board go to:

Lunch—I had lunch with Anna Funkhouser and Brent Fullington, the MNEA representatives who attend the board meetings. Lots of Right to Work and retirement system legislation discussion.

Agenda K through R. Amendments to vocational education programs.

The rule had been put out for comment and no comments had been received. Herschend asked, None? None was confirmed by the presenter. They looked at each other and quickly crafted a motion to combine all items K through R. It passed. Herschend commended the DESE staff member for her approximately 30 word report. Jones noted it was probably best report he had heard in all his years on the board. Nothing like a laugh at the end of a meeting to send a Board into closed session.

For complete copies of the reports submitted to the Board to to

and click on Agenda items K through R.