Why We Need Data

The single most frustrating thing to me (and you might think this would be a hard call) about my experience with the Amherst schools is what I see as a total reluctance, and indeed almost opposition, to looking at DATA. If you even mention wanting data, you get accused of all sorts of evil things -- being elitist, having a PhD, working at a wealthy institution, living in Amherst Woods, caring only about numbers, and teacher-bashing. But in all seriousness, we can see many, many examples of times in which relying on anecdote and intuition is really problematic.


One of my favorite examples comes from of the hallmarks of the Bush presidency -- a focus on abstinence-based sex education as the best approach to preventing teenage pregnancy (here is a case in which most people agree that unwanted teenage pregnancy is a good thing to prevent, but people disagree with how we go about this prevention). Under Bush's leadership, the federal government provided states with considerable sums in order to teach youth about abstinence from sexual activity outside of marriage (many states ended up turning down the funds because they prohibited comprehensive sex education). But when research examined the effectiveness of abstinence-only programs, it revealed that participants had just as many sexual partners as nonparticipants and had sex at the same median age as nonparticipants (http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/abstinencereport.asp). As stated by Dr. Ned Calonge, Colorado's chief medical officer, "To show no benefit compared to nothing. That was striking. These are tax dollars that are going for no useful purpose, and it would not be responsible for us to take those dollars."


Here's another example from a book called Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-Based Management (by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton). (And for those who are watching for my elitism, let me be upfront -- these authors teach at Stanford University, where I went to college).


"Almost any decision you make about any sort of intervention can be evidence-based in the sense that you can try to access what research literature and evaluation literature demonstrate about this. It’s a way of thinking more scientifically and systematically. An individual doctor can’t tell if Vioxx causes heart problems because one person’s practice isn’t big enough to determine that evidence. It’s similar if you’re one manager thinking about making a merger decision, or implementing ERP [enterprise resource planning], or putting in incentive-based pay; a good manager will look at larger evidence in terms of informing the decision.


The way a good doctor or a good manager works—we call it the attitude of wisdom—is to act with knowledge while doubting what you know. So if a patient goes to a doctor, you hope the doctor would do two things: first look at the literature and make the best decision given what’s available. Then actually track the progress of the treatment and see what unexpected side effects you’re having and what things are working."


OK, so I think we can pretty easily imagine the parallels to what we do in the Amherst schools here. First, asking one intervention teacher how effective he/she is at improving outcomes is just not a large enough sample to provide evidence of such effectiveness, nor is spending a day at the middle school observing classes, nor is visiting a small school for a day to see the beneficial outcomes. You get evidence by gathering data from multiple sources as reported in the literature (and there is a lot of literature on issues in education, although some of it is flawed in various ways), not through personal anecdote and intuition on the part of a very small number of people in one school system, and then you make the best decision you can based on that evidence. Second, you actually track the progress of the treatment and see what things are working and what things aren't (e.g., how is the new 9th grade science program working; what is the impact of having a trimester versus a semester system; how well is the "extensions" model of differentiating math instruction in 7th grade working; how well do our programs for underperforming kids help them ). Then, you either drop things that aren't working (and you can have clear and public criteria for what "working" means) or you modify them to see if they do work (and again, you are clear and transparent about what is and is not working and what will be done to improve outcomes).


OK, the key question for me is how do you get organizations (or, in this case, a school district) to start using evidence-based decision-making? This is what Pfeffer and Sutton say: "Encourage people to be noisy and nosy—it promotes wisdom." Here's a real world example described in their book: "Researchers in one study examined 194 patient care failures by nurses, everything from problems caused by broken equipment to drug treatment errors. This work revealed that those nurses whom doctors and administrators saw as most talented unwittingly caused the same mistakes to happen over and over. These “ideal” nurses quietly adjust to inadequate materials without complaint, silently correct others’ mistakes without confronting error-makers, create the impression that they never fail, and find ways to quietly do the job without questioning flawed practices. These nurses get sterling evaluations, but their silence and ability to disguise and work around problems undermine organizational learning."


This finding, and hundreds of others from research studies, led to the development of a model they describe as "The talents of wisdom: People who sustain organizational learning". Here are the types of people they believe are most beneficial to such a process:

• Noisy complainers - Repair problems right away and then let every relevant person know that the system failed
• Noisy troublemakers - Always point out others' mistakes, but do so to help them and the system learn, not to point fingers
• Mindful error-makers - Tell managers and peers about their own mistakes, so that others can avoid making them too. When others spot their errors, they communicate that learning—not making the best impression—is their goal
• Disruptive questioners - Won't leave well enough alone. They constantly ask why things are done the way they are done. Is there a better way of doing things?

"All of these characteristics help people act on what they know, and keep improving their own skills, peers’ skills, and organizational practices and procedures. The crux is, if you want better performance instead of the illusion of it, you and your people must tell everyone about problems you’ve fixed, point out others’ errors so all can learn, admit your own errors, and never stop questioning what is done and how to do it better. These actions can annoy doctors and administrators—or any other authority figure—who prefer quiet and compliant underlings, but if we want organizations that do as much good and as little harm as possible, these talents are essential."


I think this book (which I strongly recommend to those interested in thinking more about evidence-based decision-making in general) makes two key points that are relevant to the current state of our schools. First, it is really important to examine what people are doing and the outcomes of their behavior (meaning, it is not "nurse-bashing" to examine causes of patient care errors). Second, disruptive questioners (and I think I fit the bill pretty well here) are actually beneficial in terms of leading to better performance, instead of just the illusion of it (and I bet a lot of these disruptive questioners are seen as bullies). For a long time, people who raised any questions or concerns about the Amherst schools were seen as disruptive, divisive, only caring about their kids, elitist, and so on. But the reality is, our schools, like other organizations, really benefit from this type of an open dialogue, in which we are carefully considering what we are doing, and communicating this careful consideration broadly, not simply assuring everyone that the schools are great and that their kids will be OK.

Amherst preparing for worst

Springfield Republican article
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
By DIANE LEDERMAN

AMHERST - Unless there's some kind of money magic between now and Thursday, the Finance Committee will likely have to recommend that Town Meeting approve "a worst case" scenario fiscal 2010 budget, bearing nearly $4 million in cuts from a town-wide, level-services budget of $66.6 million.

With reductions in state aid, it looks as if the committee has no choice but to vote on the worse-case budget, said Brian D. Morton, chairman of the Finance Committee. He called it a "a sickening vote." The committee is slated to meet Thursday night in Town Hall at 7 p.m.

While the Statehouse voted to use $205 million from a sales tax increase for unrestricted local aid, the Senate last week restored only $35 million in local aid. Finance Director/Treasurer John P. Musante said the difference is huge for the town. The House budget restored $2 million for Amherst. The Senate version of the budget would restore just $257,000.

The Senate did approve a local option for municipalities to tax restaurant meals and motel rooms. But even if Town Meeting voted to adopt the local tax, it could take months for the town to be able to put in play, Morton said.

The town could, however, use reserves to cover some of that, Morton said.

The Finance Committee does not want to use reserves to fill a structural deficit but could recommend the use to cover high costs that would be addressed in future years such as the closing of the Marks Meadow Elementary School which the School Committee agreed to do last week.

There are initial moving costs that would cut the savings.

The Finance Committee has told school officials it would allow the use of reserves for upcoming fiscal year with the school closing, which eventually is expected to save more than $600,000.

Morton said the Finance Committee is expected to discuss using about $1.2 million in reserves toward the $3.8 million cut town-wide. The rest would have to come from drastic cuts, Morton said. He said there is no proposal to ask voters for a Proposition 2½ override this year. That could come next year.

"This is the year for cutting and restructuring," Musante said.

Musante said there's an 83 percent reduction in tax support for the Amherst Leisure Services and Supplemental Education.

The budget includes three fewer positions in the Police Department with the town looking for grant funding to cover those salaries instead.

Select Board members have also said they would not propose restoring money for the closing of the War Memorial Pool this summer among the many cuts in services and programs.

Town Meeting will begin deliberating on the budget June 15.

Town, UMass at stalemate over elementary school payments

Hampshire Gazette article
By NICK GRABBEStaff Writer

Tuesday, May 26, 2009
AMHERST - The agreement to close Mark's Meadow Elementary School in 2010 has raised a thorny financial issue between Amherst and the University of Massachusetts. The question is: Who should pay the costs when the children of graduate students who live in UMass-owned, tax-exempt housing attend Amherst's public schools? There are 52 such children, and the total cost of educating them is estimated at $675,000 to $725,000 a year. Town officials have maintained for many years that UMass should pay some of these costs instead of taxpayers. UMass has countered that it provides the Mark's Meadow building at no cost to the Amherst public schools. Now that Mark's Meadow is going to close, some town officials say it's time for UMass to reimburse these costs, while campus officials say this is not a standard practice around the country.

The town-gown "strategic partnership agreement" signed in 2007 links the two issues. It says that Amherst "will continue to provide, as required by statute, educational services to all K- through 12-aged children residing in tax-exempt university housing." In the next sentence, it says that UMass will allow one of its buildings to be used as an elementary school. Then it says that if Mark's Meadow closes, all parties "will negotiate a new agreement in which the university may reimburse the town for a portion of the net costs of educating students living in university tax-exempt housing."

Town Manager Larry Shaffer said last week that UMass should start reimbursing the town for some of these costs when Mark's Meadow closes at the end of the 2009-2010 school year and not wait for the scheduled renewal of the agreement in 2012. The net costs would be less than $675,000 to $725,000 because a portion of those expenses already comes from state aid, he said.

"The town and the university are each other's best friends," Shaffer said. "We will have a conversation with them about this."

Amherst School Committee members Andrew Churchill and Irv Rhodes, along with Interim Superintendent Maria Geryk, had a conversation with UMass Chancellor Robert Holub May 19. They sought to learn whether UMass was willing to either help with the costs of educating the graduate students' children or to make the Mark's Meadow building available to the schools for other purposes.

"My sense was that he didn't know any other university where there's a precedent for taxing graduate students, as he put it," Churchill said. "His sense was if the town wants to get revenue from these students, it should build taxable housing. It sounds to me like the agreement would have to be revisited."

School Committee member Catherine Sanderson said that because of budget cuts, "this is a crucial time for the university to step up." UMass benefits from having good public schools in Amherst to attract graduate student-parents, who in turn help the campus thrive by teaching courses and helping to bring in grant-funded research, she said.

"It is patently unfair for UMass to not let us use the Mark's Meadow building for another purpose and to refuse to pay us," she said. "I really hope the chancellor will decide to do the right thing and work out an alternative that benefits both the schools/town and the university." Top-quality public schools are "very, very hard to create, given the dismal fiscal realities we are facing," she said.

There is a lawsuit in New Jersey over whether Rutgers is required to pay to educate children who live in tax-free housing owned by the university, Sanderson said. "It suggests that UMass could face a lawsuit for refusing to assist with any aid," she said.

The economic and cultural benefits to Amherst and the Pioneer Valley from the presence of the university are substantial, said campus spokesman Ed Blaguszewski.

"A 2006 study shows the economic impact of UMass Amherst on the Pioneer Valley at $1.2 billion annually," he said. "In Amherst itself, the economic impact of the university is conservatively estimated at more than $172 million each year."

Amherst benefits from private housing developments such as Puffton Village, where 80 percent of the residents are UMass students but most don't have children in the public schools, he said. Puffton Village pays more than $200,000 annually in property taxes, he said.

UMass will consider renovating the Mark's Meadow building and using it for School of Education programs, Blaguszewski said.

Rhodes, the other School Committee member who met with the chancellor, said he was impressed by Holub's arguments. He said the "squishy" language of the agreement does not obligate UMass to pay anything if Mark's Meadow closes.

"I find it hard to support the position that we're going to tax kids from subsidized housing," he said. He added that after he read the text of the agreement, he concluded that "this thing doesn't hold water."

Shaffer admitted that UMass is also under financial pressure, adding that he doesn't expect any quick agreement.

"The university is not immune to budget shock," he said. "It would be foolish to think their budget issues wouldn't cast a shadow over their abilities in this arena."

Blaguszewski said, "There are no easy choices, as we move ahead to eliminate $10 million from next year's budget."

What Should U Mass Pay?

There has been a lot of discussion this week, which I'm sure will continue, about what the appropriate contribution should be from U Mass to the town/schools once Marks Meadow is no longer used as an elementary school (because U Mass has always said that they don't need to pay the per pupil costs for the 50ish children who attend Amherst schools but live in tax-free housing since they are providing a "free" building). So, I did some looking for what the precedent is for other universities in terms of payment for educating children who live in tax-free housing, and found a very recent article from New Jersey. It seems like Rutgers worked out a very interesting approach with their local school district, which perhaps could be a model for the type of negotiating Larry Shaffer and the superintendent should do with U Mass.

Piscataway school district, Rutgers reach lawsuit settlement agreement

By JARED KALTWASSER • Staff Writer • April 30, 2009

PISCATAWAY — The township school district will receive an $80,000 credit and preferential treatment from Rutgers University under the terms of a settlement agreement reached between the two entities.

The deal resolves a lawsuit in which the school district challenged the tax-exempt status of Rutgers' graduate student housing in the township. The school district contended that it was unfair for the Rutgers buildings to be tax exempt because many of the Rutgers graduate students who live in the apartments have school-age children who attend the public school district. About 65 children living in the Rutgers graduate housing currently attend Piscataway public schools.

A state tax court upheld the tax-exempt status of the buildings in a ruling last August. The school district, with board member Russell Stoddard acting as the plaintiff, appealed that ruling.

The appeal is now resolved with the agreement, which became effective April 1 and was formally approved April 16 by the Board of Education.

"I think it is a real positive thing for the school community, and to be honest with you I think it's one of the proudest accomplishments of the Board of Education," Superintendent of Schools Robert Copeland said.

Under the one-year deal, which runs through March 31, 2010, the school district can use $80,000 worth of services and facility rentals at Rutgers free of charge. The district anticipates it will use those credits on a variety of items, including holding graduation ceremonies at the Rutgers Athletic Center, using a Rutgers pool for the district's summer camp program and swimming team, and sending staff to professional development activities at Rutgers.

In addition, the agreement sets up a work-study site in the school district, which will allow Rutgers students who qualify for the Federal Work-Study program to work in the school district and be paid by the federal government.

The agreement also calls for the township district to receive what school district officials are calling "most-favored district" status. Essentially, that means the Piscataway School District will get first choice when Rutgers programs or facilities are made available to public or private schools. The agreement does not, however, negate existing contracts between Rutgers and other school districts.

The agreement states that Rutgers will advocate before the governor and state legislature for financial relief for the school district to help cover the cost of the children living in graduate housing.

The agreement also called for Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick to issue a public statement acknowledging the Board of Education's role in the community and ask residents to vote in the April 21 school board election. McCormick did so in a letter to the editor published April 21 in the Home News Tribune.

The agreement calls for Rutgers to supply, free of charge, a head football or basketball coach to speak at a Piscataway Township Education Foundation Event.

"We are pleased that the matter has been resolved amicably without further litigation," said Sandra Lanman, director of public relations at Rutgers.

Attorney David B. Rubin, who represented the school district, said the one-year agreement is an experiment, but it was one with great potential.

"Sometimes you are adversaries with somebody, but then you shake hands and make a deal and an agreement and you move on," he said.

Amherst School Committee Approves Motion to Redistrict

On Tuesday, May 19th, the Amherst School Committee voted unanimously to approve the motion made in March to close Marks Meadow Elementary School at the end of the 2009-2010 school year, and redistrict to create three elementary schools with proportionate numbers of children on free/reduced lunch for the start of the 2010-2011 school year. This difficult decision was made after months of budget planning during the ever-worsening state and national fiscal crisis, as well as a two month period spent considering input from the community.

Understandably, this is a challenging and potentially emotional time for our students, staff, families and community. Now that the decision has been made, we must work together to develop a transition plan that best supports our students during the process of closing a school and redistricting. This process must be comprehensive, taking into account a multitude of details, and must be clearly articulated in an action plan.

The District will immediately begin developing this detailed plan to support the process of major restructuring. This includes formation of an oversight committee to oversee the work as a whole, as well as establishing multiple, single-purpose teams to address the following:

• Redistricting—This team will work with consultants to establish new school zones within the next few months. The consultant(s) will analyze and finalize our preliminary work on redistricting to ensure it is educationally sound and equitable.
• Student Support—This team of district and school leaders will create a plan to support the educational and emotional needs of all students who are making school transitions.
• Staff Support—This team will develop a district plan to redesign building staffing to minimize disruption to transitioning students and to thoughtfully reassign Mark’s Meadow staff.
• Moving—This team will develop and implement a staged, year-long plan for relocating educational materials, furniture and fixtures to other district locations.
• Communication—This team will ensure that students, families and the broader community are kept up-to-date on progress throughout the redistricting process.

Community members are needed in many capacities to assist the district with this work. Those who are interested in helping with this process should contact Debbie Westmoreland, Assistant to the Superintendent, at westmorelandd@arps.org or by phone at 362-1823.

Budget woes force closure of Amherst's Mark's Meadow Elementary School

Budget woes force closure of Amherst's Mark's Meadow Elementary School
by The Republican Newsroom
Tuesday May 19, 2009, 10:56 PM
By DIANE LEDERMAN dlederman@repub.com

AMHERST - Mark's Meadow Elementary School will close at the end of the 2009-2010 school year, a victim of the state's budget crisis.

In an emotional vote before more than 70 parents, teachers, school and town officials the school committee voted 5 to 0 to close the school Tuesday night.The closing was proposed by committee member Catherine A. Sanderson in March. Since then the committee has held five public forums to receive comments and questions, heard from parents and others at committee meetings and received dozens and dozens of e-mails.

Because of a reduction in state aid, the committee needs to trim $1.5 million from its budget, with the closing expected to save a net amount $532,000 after accounting for initial costs to move and pack; and $673,000 after that. The Finance Committee has told school officials it will allow the use of reserves for fiscal 2010 to help cover the gap until the school is closed.

Chairman Andrew M. Churchill his voice breaking said, "my kids went to Mark's Meadow, which makes this difficult." But he said "we need to get this under control."

State aid is 30 percent of the budget, but it hasn't kept pace with budget needs. Every year, the committee has to cut more and more from the schools. Committee members believed that if they didn't close this school, more difficult cuts would happen at all four elementary schools.

"We need to make structural changes to save money," he said.

"Any way you look at (it) schools are going to be different," he said.

Churchill pointed out that enrollment has dropped from 1,800 to 1,300 over the past 15 years and there is an unconscionable concentration of poverty in one school. Students from the four schools will be redistricted in such a way that there will be a similar proportion of children on free and reduced lunch in each of the schools.

"This is patently unfair to Mark's Meadow. It's a wonderful school. It's a successful school." But it is the smallest school and logically he said it's easier for the other three schools to absorb the students from the school.

The committee did not take comments on the closing at Tuesday's meeting because it held so many public forums. But resident James B. Oldham shouted that he wanted to be heard and complained the public forums were opportunities to sell the change and not real forums.

Sanderson said earlier Tuesday that closing the school is the best option. People don't want an override, they don't want to give up art or music and don't want class sizes to increase.

"It's not like a tooth fairy is going to drop a bunch of money. We have to live within our means."

Churchill said that incoming superintendent Alberto Rodriguez has been in the district the last four days and was part of the discussion. "He sees this as a piece of a broader strategic discussion."

During a three-minute break after the vote, people huddled in small groups talking. Principal Nicholas W. Yaffe said the closing is sad. "I'm not convinced they are going to save as much money (as they think.)"

The school, he said, provides "a sense of community" to a vulnerable population.

"It's not something that can be replaced easily." Many students at the school are children of the University of Massachusetts international students.

Unanimous Vote to Close Marks Meadow

The School Committee voted tonight 5 to 0 on my motion of March 17 to close Marks Meadow at the end of NEXT school year and to redistrict into three elementary schools with proportionate numbers of kids on free and reduced lunch. I'll post the longer version of the meeting summary tomorrow -- but I know people will check my blog to find out the outcome of the vote, so I'm posting this quick note now.

It's been a long few days, but I just want to add three quick things:

First, I want to say that I'm really sorry to those who feel the closing of Marks Meadow will be detrimental for their child/family. I know that closing a school is always emotional, and I know that Marks Meadow has been a high performing and very successful school. I am sorry that the combination of a very tough budget time (this year and for the foreseeable future) and declining/stable enrollments have led this to seem like the best of many bad options that we faced. I do feel this was the right decision for maintaining education in Amherst for all kids, but I know this decision will negatively impact some kids/families, and for that, I am really sorry.

Second, I want to let any families (at Marks Meadow and elsewhere) know that I want to do everything in my power to make the move to three schools work as well as possible. I want to take time and care to redistrict well, I want to make sure kids move with friends, and I want to make sure we focus on creating three truly excellent schools. If there are things I should know about how your school works well, what you like, what your kid needs, etc., I'd like to hear them anytime. I hope we can spend the next few months working on creating three schools that work for all kids, and I hope the community can rally around building a truly excellent school system -- one in which we recognize that the core of our schools is the caring and dedicated staff, and not a particular building. I hope Marks Meadow families in particular will reach out to me to let me know what worked so well about their school, and what we need to do to bring this feeling and strength and success to all of our schools.

Finally, I want to thank all of those who have supported me over the last few months -- despite how it may appear to some who don't know me, receiving pretty unrelenting criticism at meetings and in the press and on my blog has been really, really tough. This is not an easy decision for me, and it was far harder in the face of the highly personal attacks I received, and continue to receive. I received a lot of support from friends, of course, but I also received a lot of support from people who don't know me at all -- and contacted me privately to thank me for having the courage to take this stance. I appreciated that a lot. I also want to really thank the Marks Meadow families who have sought me out and have supported me in this decision, and/or have accepted that I needed to make this decision even when they wished I had not made it, and/or have introduced yourselves and just made friendly connections (even after tonight's meeting!). Thanks to you all especially -- these gestures were and are tremendously meaningful to me, and I appreciate them more than you know.