Oskaloosa School Board Tackles SINA
The Oskaloosa School Board met in session on Monday, November 25th.
Oskaloosa, Iowa – The Oskaloosa School Board held its second meeting last Monday, where it heard about the SINA (School In Need of Assistance) and DINA (District In Need of Assistance).
Oskaloosa Elementary Counselor Greg McCulley took the opportunity to speak to the board during the public comment portion of the evening. “We are a DINA school, a district in need of assistance. If you take a step back and think about it, there are only 41 school districts in the state of Iowa who carry that unfortunate distinction,” McCulley said in his prepared statement.
“According to the Department of Education, Oskaloosa is now among the bottom 12% in the state of 348 school districts,” McCulley went on to say. “At a recent board meeting, you were told we were on the list because of our SPED and low social economic populations, which we are.”
McCulley continued, “Prior to 2008, we were notably above the state average. I have been told by some above me that all schools will eventually arrive at that DINA designation, since no one community can realistically achieve 100% proficiency, and I get that. However of this I am sure, it is no great comfort to the parents of a struggling reader to hear all schools in the state will eventually be on this list of non-proficient schools. The children of Oskaloosa continue to be the recipients of that misguided enthusiasm for being the school district on the cutting edge.”
“A few weeks back I was pretty engaged in the debate of what our scores are telling us. Trying to show you the data. But really that discussion is irrelevant, because the Department of Education crunched the numbers for us and I don’t like what it says, and neither should you. The bottom 12% in the State of Iowa,” McCulley added. “I didn’t fully realize how serious our problem was until I had a long talk with my brother, the retired Superintendent of Perry Schools. He tells me that most likely we are where we are due to educational practices which sound good, were sold to people who should know better. But in the end, students reap few rewards.”
“You see, in his district many children come to Perry not speaking English and there is no place for risk taking, or abandoning tried and true practices like we have,” McCulley continued.
“There are school districts surrounding us doing pretty ordinary things with proficiencies considerably above ours, and they are not among the 12% on the DINA list. We’ve been told we’re in the middle of second order change. Sounds kind of final doesn’t it,” McCulley said.
“We can reverse this trend of non-proficiency. Our teachers know how to teach, but they are required to follow initiatives which imply that students just absorb skills without direct instruction. I wish it was that simple, but, the reality is, a foundation needs to be built for every child in this district,” said McCulley.
Oskaloosa School Board Member Neal Hadden spoke about his experience at the recent school board convention. Newly elected member Shawn Moyer also agreed that the time spent at the convention helped better prepare him for his time on the board. “Being creative” was something Moyer took away from the two days of meetings.
Shelly Herr, also a newly elected board member, attended a meeting on the common core. She said the experience gave her a good knowledge on the subject, and that “it was well worth the time,” Herr said.
On the subject of common core, Oskaloosa Superintendent Russ Reiter spoke to the board about common core.
“I’m giving an overview, not getting too specific,” said Reiter to the board as he began his presentation. “I think that it’s important with new board members and with the past and the history. Where have we gone?”
Reiter then lead the conversation towards what the Iowa Core is. Reiter said that before ‘No Child Left Behind’, Iowa had been the last state to adopt standards. “Because we did not adopt standards, we really were local control.”
Reiter explained that after ‘No Child Left Behind” was initiated, “We started to see some pressures from the Federal Government.”
With the pressure from the Federal Government back in 2004, and the challenges it was presenting to the local school districts, the State of Iowa then looked to adopt its own set of standards. By 2005, the State had developed the Iowa Core Curriculum.
“About the same time Iowa was working on the Iowa Core Curriculum though, 40 other states were kind of working on something else,” Reiter said. But by 2009 he said, once again with pressure from the Federal Government, the other states came together to compare notes to see where each differed and were similar.
That spawned a conversation at a Governors conference that looked to develop “a core that is common to all states”, Reiter said. “Today, 46 states are part of this common core.”
The common core came about the same time as Iowa finished developing its own core program. Iowa decided to go its own route, eventually adding additional material to the Iowa core.
Reiter also gave a summary and status of the status of Oskaloosa’s School/District in Need of Assistance.
The standards by which schools are measured, down to each individual grade level, which can be broken down by subject as well, were discussed. “They use a different metric now to say what is proficient,” said Dr. Mary Cooksley, Director of Curriculum and Instruction for the Oskaloosa School District.
“It is important to know what your testing and how you’re going to define proficiency,” said Reiter to the board, after explaining how scores and proficiency is measured.
“Our district is on the SINA list,” Reiter said. “It’s not something we’re proud of.”
“No excuses,” Reiter said. “We’ve got to do a better job.”
“The process on how you get to the point where students are comprehending, students are learning. There’s been some dramatic changes in the last 5 to 10 years on what is being taught, how it’s being taught and how it needs to be assessed,” Reiter said.
Lastly, the Board then decided to develop goals they hope to attain in the coming years. They also agreed to a regular review of those goals once decided upon.
