Last week SD Rostra published Part One of a recent presentation by Citizens for Quality Education made during the April 22 Poway Unified School District Board meeting on the implementation of Common Core State Standards in schools.
Below is Part Two of that four-part presentation.
The concerns expressed by the group are of impact to all schools, not only those in the Poway area.
Guest Commentary
by Mary Baker, Jeannie Foulkrod and Steve Sarviel, Citizens for Quality Education
Common Core State Standards for Education
All Californians should be very aware of the new education standards that the State adopted under Governor Schwarzenegger for Math and English. This is supposed to be integrated by all districts by 2015, whether the districts have funding or not. Please read the series of articles taken from a recent Citizens for Quality Education presentation to the Poway Unified School District (PUSD) that address real concerns about the new standards.
Obviously, PUSD has its well publicized financial issues, but no one would disagree that the district has an excellent reputation statewide. It would not be beneficial to change a curriculum that is NOT broken, either for parents, business owners, homeowners or students in the district. Please do your own research and comment on the issues. This cuts across party lines as it is about education and privacy for our children and their families.
Poway Unified School District Board Meeting – Presentation on Common Core State Standards, Part 2 of 4
Financial impact of implementing and maintaining Common Core Standards
There are several expenses that need to be analyzed to determine whether these additional costs for CCS will have the return on the investment that is expected. In addition, the time period required to implement the standards must be evaluated to stay within projected costs. The question has been asked to provide the public the PUSD analysis and we expect the public will have the ability to review the analysis soon, but until then, this is the result of our analysis with limited available information. The question marks will be expected from PUSD. Please note the sources are primarily ca.gov, PUSD and The Pioneer Institute.
There are three significant costs associated with implementation:
1. Assessment (testing) with sufficient technology infrastructure enhancements
- $10 per student for testing, per year (33,054 students from PUSD Budget), total cost $330.5K annually
- Given the tests are online; there will be requirements for schools to have adequate number of computers with online access. There is an estimate of $418.5 million for the entire state of California, or a per student cost of $67.50, totaling $2.2M for PUSD
2. Professional Development (teacher/staff training)
- Initial estimates are $2,000 per teacher (1,638 teachers in Poway in 2005), total cost $3.3M
- The Annual costs estimated $350 per year for specialized training (i.e. English learners)
3. Textbooks and instructional material
- $77 per student initially, (33,054 students), total cost $2.5M
In short, please see the table below (2012 PUSD Budget Revenues $250,888,323):
|
Initial Costs |
Annual Expenses |
Other expenses |
|
|
1. Testing |
2,231,145.00 |
330,540.00 |
??? |
|
2. Prof’l Development |
3,276,000.00 |
620,122.37 |
??? |
|
3. Textbooks/Mat’l |
2,545,264.63 |
??? |
??? |
|
Total |
8,052,409.63 |
950,662.37 |
??? |
|
As a % of 2012 Budget |
3.2% |
.4% |
We believe that it will be very important for the PUSD to provide the specific cost amounts, where the funding is coming from, high and low estimates, how long implementation will take and the expected increase in test scores/academic achievement. Over three percent of the budget is significant so it will be very important that the incremental increase in PUSD student scores should be evaluated closely for the return on investment and the board’s accountability to the voters.
# # #
Comments 6
How can something be implemented with no cost or time estimates? People should pay attention to this change.
Here are the four requests that the PUSD was asked to respond to:
•Request #1: Provide an initial study on the impact of CCSS on the quality of education.
•Request #2: Provide a budget analysis to forecast the costs of implementing CCSS and their impact on the current budget.
•Request #3: Investigate changes in the education privacy laws, make the changes known to the public, and establish clear policies to secure privacy for teachers, students, and parents.
•Request #4: Explore and provide an exit strategy to potentially withdraw from CCSS if it is not effective or is detrimental to students and their learning environment.
The head administrator of the PUSD, John Collins, said at the 4/22 meeting that the PUSD might not be able to deliver timely answers to those requests. However, they are REQUIRED to provide that information to PUSD residents when asked for it.
It would appear this Poway school board and/or superintendent are inept when it comes to financial matters. First they turn an unnecessary expenditure of $105 million into a BILLION dollar liability to taxpayers. Now they plan on rolling over and implementing something they don’t even know the cost of? If this is not criminal, it is a textbook (pun intended) example of incompetence.
Voters in the Poway Unified School District need to demand some accountability of the board, have them do some serious evaluation of the competence of their superintendent and take necessary action. If the board doesn’t, they need to be voted out office and get some people in there who will.
I don’t have the reference in front of me but I do recall reading that the scores of the students have declined since this superintendent got his job. Poway used to have stellar schools. Voters wake up.
The most relevant question whenever dealing with change is; how does this make it better? In what way does a government program designed by definition as anything but mediocre improve a school system already rated as one of the best? Outside of some unexplained agenda, the implementation of CCSS in the PUSD makes no sense.
Maybe if it proves out to be an improvement it can not only be affirmed, but become a positive role model elsewhere. This is a product of export, not import.
A reminder: Watch this space (sdrostra.com) for more in this series.
Wayne has outlined the four requests of the PUSD board which have yet to be answered by them. The next board meeting is May 20, 2013 at 6PM. All concerned parents are encouraged to attend. If you are a resident of the PUSD district, please fill out a speakers slip and make your concerns known to the board. It is VERY easy to do and you have a maximum of 3 minutes. People from outside the district are encouraged to attend to learn more about what is happening with CCSS and how you might take action in your own district.
Lastly, Jack F is right on in his comments. It is all of you who are paying attention and voting which can and will make a difference. It would be wonderful if you can get a few of your friends to join you in that effort.
This is a letter from a Teacher Union President in Poway asking for a delay in the CCSS because of funding: http://www.powayusd.com/pusdpres/pdfs/pictograph/commoncorestandards.pdf