The Education Mayor: The EdWeek Chat on the Book: THE EDUCATION MAYOR: Improving America's Schools

smf: The authors of the book have some copies to sell along with their unfortunate cheerleading conclusion: "Mayoral control is linked to a small, significant change in standardized reading and math achievement in the period 1999-2003. Mayoral control is still the exception, but increasing numbers of big city mayors are looking to it as a possible reform option because they are concerned that traditional governance arrangements are not producing the level of district performance city residents desire."

In that same period LAUSD had fairly impressive significant change in standardized reading and math achievement in the period 1999-2003 absent mayoral control. Accused of advocacy the authors protesteth a bit too much: "We are not communicating a monolithic message about mayoral control. I've tried to stress in this chat, and we repeatedly say in the book, that mayoral control is neither for all cities nor for all mayors."

Like sailors to ladies under streetlamps and mayors to schools, the temptation of the foregone conclusion dooms the most well intentioned scholar.

Thursday, December 13, 2007 1-2 PM PST

Mary-Ellen Deily (Moderator):

Welcome to today's chat with Kenneth K. Wong and Francis X. Shen, two of the four authors of the new book The Education Mayor: Improving America's Schools from Georgetown University Press. We've already received a lot of questions for the authors so we'll get things started right now.

Question from Nancy Poore School Board member/parent of 4 MSD Pike Township:

From my perspective, while a Superintendent is a manager s/he is far more than a person running a business. A mayor is elected as a community leader with multiple responsibilities to things as divergent as stadium construction, pothole repair, and small business promotion. S/he may not have had ANY education in the arena of student instructional methods, curriculum research and selection, student counseling and discipline, how to inspire and guide principals and teachers, etc. etc. S/he also has made no commitment to the profession of education, and may lack any true vision or passion for the topic, beyond trying to run it "more like a business" to placate constituents who want exclusive private schools and lower taxes on their real estate and businesses. My question is: WHY is putting a mayor in the top position over schools preferable to a superintendent selected by an elected school board, often made up of parents, whose FIRST concern is high quality education for the children of their community?

Kenneth K. Wong:

In large urban districts, the challenge is to clarify who is in charge in improving schools. Big-city mayors who appoint school board members are ready to be held accountable for schooling quality and outcomes. This push for accountability is particularly important in the urban context, given its fragmentary politics among competing interests. Further, when mayors exercise control over education, they are willing to allocate their political and financial resources to create and sustain "enabling conditions" so that principals and teachers can do their job better. School safety, physical facilities, and labor relations are examples where urban mayors can make a difference.

Question from Kay Kirkpatrick, University of Chicago Laboratory Schools:

How has Chicago's mayoral takeover informed other large cities?

Kenneth K. Wong:

Dear Kay, Mayor Daley took over the Chicago Public Schools in 1995, following several years of extensive decentralization at the school site. The 12-year experience indicates the importance of "integrated governance," where the voting and taxpayiing public throughout the city can hold the mayor accountable for improvement in Chicago schools. Mayor Daley has the electoral incentives to use his political and financial resources to support and sanction public schools. For example, the mayor and his appointees, unlike an independent school board, can be effective in lobbying for more state and federal dollars and in negotiating union contracts. Because of mayoral involvement, public education is a priority in city hall and other agencies. In this regard, mayoral leadership can enhance what Clarence Stone and others called "civic capacity." Finally, the Chicago experience is unique in that it maintains the Local School Councils within the framework of integrated governance. System-wide coordination and site-based decisions can co-exist to make public schools better.

Question from Jim Folsom, Principal, Rocket City High School:

Do you find mayors are more successful in turning around school districts when they have the political and financial support of state authorities?

Francix X. Shen:

Jim -- This is a great question because it brings up the issue of partnerships between city and state (and between mayor and state legislators). We argue in the book that strong partnerships are critical for success. Thinking first about state legislatures, state legislators are responsible for crafting (and then reviewing, possibly amending) the state law that will enable the new governance arrangements. A mayor needs support from the state legislature to make mayoral leadership a reality. In New York, for instance, mayoral control will be considered again in 2009 when the current law sunshines. You be Mayor Bloomberg will need state support then! Thinking next about state authorities such as the state board of education or state accountability/assessment teams, partnerships and understanding are once again very important. If the mayor is looking, for instance, for more flexibility in operations or additional resources she/he will often need to turn to the state. Similarly, state authorities can provide political and public support to provide legitimacy to the new governance arrangement.

Question from Peter Phelps, Teacher, MathTeacher, Jefferson Middle School:

DC would seem to be the latest of the big cities to move toward Mayoral control of the schools. It seems apparent that the mayor's office can control the infrastructure (manage it and improve it) better than the school system can; but, the question is "do they recognize the importance of curriculum development and professional development to the point where they actually make it a priority?"

Kenneth K. Wong:

Our book found that mayors and their school board appointees are well aware of the importance of human capital investment as a way to sustain improvement. Mayoral control systems are keen on leveraging partnerships with university and other professional organizations, including New Leaders for New Schools and Teach for America, for all kinds of in- and pre-service professional development activities. Further, mayors push for core curriculum across the districts. In Philadelphia, the core curriculum includes periodic student assessment so that teachers can make use of the data to fine-tune their instructional strategies on an ongoing basis. As we know, student mobility is a severe challenge in many urban districts. Having a core curriculum with instructional support will ensure student have equal learning opportunities.

Question from Scott Folsom, Parent, Parent Leader Los Angeles Unified:

I will listen attentively - or will review the transcript if I can't rearrange my schedule. I haven't read the book and look forward to that. As a plaintiff representing the parents, teachers and students of Los Angeles Tenth District PTA in LAUSD v. Villaraigosa -- which overturned the mayor of LA's illegal attempt to take over the Los Angeles Unified School District I am a bit of authority -- albeit an opinionated one. The mayor of LA continues to attempt to run the school district, by successfully running a slate of school board candidates at the cost of a couple of million dollars in election with 7% turnout - and most recently by carving off a part of the school district as a "demonstration project" on how well he can do raising money to help schools.

This is bake sale reform. And our children are not guinea pigs in civic reform.

I have yet to meet anyone in this discussion who champions or defends the status quo - or even seriously believes that the good old days was a golden age. It's not good out there.

Real education reform cannot be accomplished by a politician on a white horse, bemoaning failure and riding in to save the day. Mayors, whether billionaires with a checkbook or ambitious with a bully pulpit are not the answer. The same goes for teacher's unions trying to drive reform though collective bargaining. Those "solutions" are not even AN answer!

Only the engagement of the community: parents, educators, students, elected officials, business and all the rest - committed to work hard and invest the wherewithal, fiscal and intellectual - and the elbow grease-sweat equity - can make the difference. I invite the authors' and the EdWeek panels' response.

Kenneth K. Wong:

Dear Scott, Your perspective reminds me of one of the works that we cited in our book, Albert Hirschman's "Exit, Voice, and Loyalty." Parents and community actors can influence the decision making process through various means. While city and school leaders may respond to "competition" from charter and private schools (namely, the exit option), they most likely will pay attention to the voting public (including parental voices and demands). At issue is the extent to which parental involvement can be institutionalized and routinized for a sustained period of time. This is particularly important as mayors try to mobilize the larger community to support schools as part their agenda to improve quality of life in the city. What we found is that mayors are well-positioned to convene stakeholders at the system-wide level. In the LA context, because of Mayor Villaraigosa's involvement, public education has drawn city-wide (and nation-wide) attention, a first step toward deeper parental and community engagement.

Question from Diane Ravitch, New York University:

Hi, fellows, we have had 5 years of mayoral control in NYC--no school boards, all decisions made at City Hall. The budget has gone up by 50%--from $12.5 Billion to nearly $20 Billion, and according to the latest NAEP TUDA, achievement has not budged. We have a system of corporate management where the only strategy is punish and reward (students, teachers, principals, schools) based on test scores. It doesn't seem to be working. Does your research explain this? Diane Ravitch

Kenneth K. Wong:

Hi Diane, In examining student achievement data from 1999 to 2003, our sample of 12 mayoral control districts (including NYC)as a group was making greater academic gains that their urban counterparts. We have just received two additional years of achievement data and we plan to extend the analysis to 2005 or 2006. While many researchers use case study approach, our study aims at looking at mayoral control as a big-city reform strategy across the nation. Combining comparative and longitudinal analyses enable us to draw inferences on the effects of mayoral control. With regard to your other concern on corporate management, you may be interested to learn that a key finding of our study is the importance of checks and balances. Mayoral appointive power, when coupled with proper institutional checks (such as nomination commission), shows the most promise in sustaining the achievement gains. In NYC, perhaps political and civic leaders need to revisit the institutional checks.

Question from Patrick Mattimore, Teacher, Saint Ignatius Colllege Preparatory School:

Can you provide a few specific examples which indicate that diffusing responsibility to members of a school board is a superior administrative plan than holding a single individual accountable?

Francix X. Shen:

Diffuse responsibility for school district governance makes sense in a number of institutional contexts. For instance, if a city has a weak-mayor form of government to begin with (e.g. Dallas), the mayor is not likely to be an effective leader of school district reform. We include in all of our statistical models a variable that measures what type of city government the district is operating in (e.g. strong/weak mayor). Second, there are many large school districts for which no city provides more than 75% of the students (e.g. Charleston County School District gets only about 38% of its students from Charleston). Here, diffuse government of the school system is required to allow many different municipalities a voice in governance. Third, there are many cities who send their students to multiple districts (e.g. Houston, El Paso, Sacramento, Oklahoma City, and others). In these cases, again because of cross-cutting political and school district boundaries, diffuse governance is more practical and better reflects pre-existing local governance arrangements. In our analysis, we talk about this in chapter 3.

Question from Don Langenberg, Chancellor Emeritus, University System of Maryland:

For those who may be called upon to articulate an "elevator summary" of your findings, how would you characterize your findings about mayoral control of schools? What would the "grade distribution" for those >100 school districts look like?

Francix X. Shen:

A three line summary of the findings is that the move from an elected to a mayoral-appointed school board is associated with a significant, if small, improvement in standardized achievement in reading and math. Mayors have the potential to provide a political shield for professional educators as they implement reforms. Mayoral appointed boards are not by themselves enough to turn around struggling urban school districts, but if successfully implemented they can be an important starting point for collaboration with many stakeholders. A point of clarification is probably in order, however, on the methods we used. In this book we asked generally about the effects of mayoral control, and therefore included in our data analysis every school district that in this first wave of modern mayoral control might have gone to mayoral control, i.e. every large, urban school district co-terminus with its major city. The vast majority of the 104 school districts in our sample, just as the vast majority of districts in the country, have traditional school board governance. We wanted to see how these traditional school board districts were performing, as compared to the mayoral control districts. In doing so, our analysis predicts the general trend without necessarily recommending for or against mayoral control in specific situations. We stress in the book that policy prescriptions must be sensitive to local conditions.

Question from Mark Alberstein, Teacher, Woodlake CA Public Schools:

How would an typical child's learning experience change in an typical classroom, after the mayor takes the lead of the school district? What would teacher's be doing differently?

Kenneth K. Wong:

Chapter 6 of our book discusses the effects of mayoral control on teaching and learning. Drawing on extensive field-based evidence in Chicago, including 62 hours of classroom observation in three high schools, we found both system-wide and school/classroom specific changes. The district-wide curriculum and assessment framework would mean that students who move from one school to another will be exposed to the same curriculum within the same grade. Further, academic promotion policy raises the stakes in teaching and learning. Teachers have benefited from mayoral control in terms of the resources they receive. We found that mayoral control districts are moving more resources for instructional purposes while not growing the central office staff. Finally, mayors are particularly skillful in leveraging public attention and engagement in education reform issues. In their interviews, teachers in Chicago told us that their work are better appreciated by the parents and the public following mayoral control. To be sure, mayoral control is work in progress in enhancing the quality of teaching. Our classroom analysis shows that high school teachers continued to focus on lower-level academic tasks. Teachers whom we observed seldom engaged students with classroom texts beyond the level of identifying basic information or making simple inferences. These instructional challenges need to be addressed as mayoral control systems mature.

Question from M Gunter - teacher - Ron Jackson (Brownwood ):

My concern is the lack of training. Anyone who is going to evaluate the classroom and its outcome needs to have been in the classroom. How will this be addressed in the office of the mayor?

Francix X. Shen:

This is a great question, and a question that many educators have about mayoral control. One of the points we make in the book is that, although they are often characterized as such, mayoral control is not really about a single person (the mayor) wielding power over the school district. In practice, mayoral control is about a partnership between the mayor and the district superintendent. It is the superintendent, along with her/his staff of professional educators, who is there to make the classroom evaluations you ask about. The mayor's role is to provide institutional and political support for the district's central office. The question we look at in this book is how the institutional and political support provided by a mayor compares to the management climate created by traditional school boards. Also, on the issue of classroom level effects, I'm happy to note that our co-authors, Dorothea Anagnostopoulos and Stacey Rutledge, consider the effects of mayoral control on classroom instructional practices in high schools (Chapter 6).

Question from Dan Cherry, Consultant:

Are there core themes emerging? Is accountability at the root of successful 'take overs'?

Francix X. Shen:

Accountability is certainly an emerging theme, but in several distinct ways. First, mayoral control has emerged in a state and federal climate of increased accountability that focuses increasingly on student achievement as the measure of success/progress. A focus on improving student achievement has clearly been a focus of mayoral-led reforms. Second, mayoral control forces mayors to deal with a new type of accountability -- *electoral* accountability for the schools. Under a system of integrated governance, where school management is integrated with broader city management, voters are more likely to hold the mayor accountable for the schools' performance. The presence of electoral accountability is very important in distinguishing mayoral control from a state "takeover". In a takeover, a state appointed leadership team runs the district and city residents have no electoral option to have their voices heard. Under mayoral control, however, city residents have an option if they don't like the new system: they can vote the mayor out of office. In addition, mayoral governance regimes can be set up to have a specific referendum on the question. In Boston and Cleveland, residents voted to keep mayoral control; in Detroit, residents voted to return to the traditional system. This democratic mechanism enables accountability through electoral means.

Question from Michael Novick, teacher/union rep, Abram Friedman Occupational Center (LAUSD):

In L.A., the mayor has been fairly open about his interest in the schools being connected to "upgrading" neighborhoods (gentrification). LA is already losing students as neighborhoods get too pricy. Doesn't mayoral control subordinate sound educational approaches to economic and political priorities of financial, real estate and corporate interests?

Kenneth K. Wong:

Our study suggests that mayors have taken a strategic approach to these broader economic and structural challenges. Learning from their predecessors during a fiscally stressful period of the 1970s and 1980s, mayors maintain fiscal discipline to make sure that taxpayers continue to support public schools and that the district does not run huge deficits. We found that mayoral control districts tend to improve their bond ratings, thereby reducing the cost of borrowing for capital improvement projects. Further, mayors look at schools as part of their overall strategy to improve quality of life in the city. From the mayor's perspective, middle class presence in the city's schools is a key part of their overall effort to revitalize the city's neighborhood. Interestingly, we found that in mayoral control districts, both the higher performing and the lowest performing schools are making academic gains. The mayor's interest is to keep the middle class families as well as improving inner-city low performing schools.

Question from Rashid Johnson, Race, Gender Educational Equity Specialist, Mid-Atlantic Equity Center:

What do you think about Mayor Adrian Fenty's most recent school reform efforts in the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS)? Keep in mind that his initial plan was plagiarized.

Kenneth K. Wong:

Washington DC has gone through several phases in its school governance system since 1995. Mayor Anthony Williams, for example, exercised partial control with appointment of four of the nine members in the school board. He brought in Paul Vance as the CEO, who made serious attempts to change the culture of the central office. The latest reform under Mayor Fenty is a bold strategy. The differentiation of the State Office of Education and the district office will clarify the functions and responsibilities of these offices both internally as well as from an intergovernmental perspective. Clearly, Mayor Fenty has the passion and the will to address the challenge of DC schools. He has gained the support of the teachers' union and seems to be willing to work with the advisory school board. At the same time, the current reform allows for City Council involvement in the operation of the district since the Council controls the purse strings. There is a potential for logrolling and for slowing down the mayor's accountability agenda. What is clear is that the voting public of DC can decide if the mayor and his appointees are doing a good job in public education at the next mayoral election.

Question from JuanitaHollingsworth-Johnson, ECE Consultant:

1. Why didn't just mayors sit down with school board members and other stakeholders to weigh the value of their service before making assumptions relative to boards' ineffectiveness, and the least valued support for families. 2. If there were studies completed on school boards, what would the outcome. Some cities have endeavored to abolish school boards under mayor's takeovers.

Kenneth K. Wong:

Your question gets at an issue we address in the final chapter of the book -- the importance of partnerships and timing. Mayoral control should not be based on assumptions about district performance, but rather on credible evaluation of the current and historical performance of the school system. It is important, as you note, to include traditional school board governance in the analysis. The question for evaluation is not simply "How is mayoral control performing?" but "How is mayoral control performing RELATIVE TO what would be there in its place?" Put another way, if a traditionally elected school board had been running Boston and Chicago over this past decade, what differences would we have seen? The social sciences run into this problem all the time -- how can we compare two policies when in reality only one was actually enacted? Our approach, the standard in empirical social science, is to look across districts to see how Chicago and Boston compared to other large, urban school districts that also might have turned to mayoral control. 80-90% of these other districts stuck with traditional school board governance, and our goal is to see (using rigorous statistical methods to control for lots of other differences across the districts) if the choice to go with mayoral leadership produced different achievement and financial outcomes.

Question from Kerry Brown, teacher in the Indianapolis Public Schools:

Why do mayors think they know how to improve schools?

Kenneth K. Wong:

Our book suggests two driving force behind mayoral involvement in public schools. First, mayors are responding to public demands for better schooling quality and better student outcomes. These demands are heightened by the federal NCLB and the associated climate of accountability. Second, mayors are motivated by their sense of institutional mission. Mayors see public schools as a neighborhood "anchor" (to use Mayor Daley's term) upon which they can build and revitalize the community. Providence Mayor, David Cicilline, for example, champions afterschool programs in inner-city neighborhoods, while Boston's Mayor Menino is keen on engaging the community in making key decisions in public education. These leadership efforts constitute a new culture of school governance, one which broaden the engagement of the public on what works and why in public schools.

Question from Sofia Bahena, Research Asst, Alliance for Excellent Education:

What are the implications of mayoral takeover on federal policy, if any? In instances when mayoral takeover has the potential to be successful, what are the federal, state and local government roles to support such a system?

Kenneth K. Wong:

Since a central feature of mayoral control is to improve outcome-based accountability, federal policy will play an important role in this reform strategy. First, NCLB creates the demand for local districts to align their agenda and leverage their resources to focus on academic achievement for all schools and all children. City mayor, being an elected office system-wide, is in a unique position to lead and convene the stakeholding process. Second, NCLB has identified city takeover as a restructuring option. It should be noted that mayoral control predated NCLB (for example, Boston in 1992, Chicago 1995, Cleveland 1999 etc). Now that our book offers hard evidence to show that mayoral control works in big-city systems, urban reformers may give this option a more serious look in the NCLB context.

Question from Joe Petrosino, EdD, Vo Tech:

How will the stakeholders learn to trust mayoral control and all decisions?

Francix X. Shen:

Another great question. Trust may be affected at different levels. At the institutional level, stakeholders may be more willing to initially trust mayoral control if there are built-in safeguards to the governance arrangement. The state legislature has a lot of flexibility in how they craft the law. Two safeguards that have been used are (1) to simply have the legislation run out in a certain year (forcing re-authorization debate); and (2) requiring a citywide referendum on the arrangement after an initial period of years. At the personal level, the individual mayor her/himself can do much to help/harm their cause. If the move for control comes suddenly, or doesn't seem genuine, more suspicions will be raised. If the plan comes after years of planning, or with the pre-negotiated support of at least some key constituencies, then others may be more likely to offer their support. At both levels, trust will generally be built with successful performance over time.

Question from Kun Shi, Director of K-12 Chinese Flagship Program, The Ohio State University:

"The Education Mayor" can be an innovative (but temporary) idea for some large city school districts where the mayor is strong and school boards are disfunctional. Mayoral control should be the exception, not the norm. The key is to improve the school boards. Without changing the school funding system and the democratic decision-making system, can you encourage other mayors to take over their school districts? Do they have the time and wisdom to make schools better?

Francix X. Shen:

There are a lot of great questions here. First, as we stress in the book, to be an "Education Mayor" can mean many things. The specific policy we talk about -- appointing the school board -- is, as you say, the exception and not the norm. We talk in the book of "big city" mayors. If we define “big” to mean 40,000+ students (128 districts as of 2005-06 data), less than 1 percent of all school districts are big. Even if big is defined as 20,000+ students (approximately 375 districts), only 2.7 percent of all districts qualify. But if we look at the number of students being educated in these big school districts, we're talking about over 40% in the top 375 districts, and over 25% of all students in the country in just the top 129 largest districts. The question we ask is whether in these exceptional situations -- where the budgets are huge, city politics is messy, and stakeholders are numerous and powerful -- can mayoral control be an institutional solution? We think it can.

Question from Rhodell Fields, Professor retired, St. Petersburg College:

What is it about mayoral control of public school systems that makes this office (and officer) better able to improve the condition of public schools in large metropolitan areas given their complete faliure at cleaning up the "bad parts of town?"

Kenneth K. Wong:

We have about 14,000 school districts across the country and mayoral control is not going to work in all cases. Our study only focus on the largest 100 urban districts. These districts have encountered structural challenges (such as concentrated poverty) and political problems (such as teachers' strikes). Mayoral control in these large systems, when compared with their non-mayoral control counterparts, have provided leadership stability and labor peace. While urban superintendents, on the average, last for less than 3 years, superintendents in Chicago, Boston, NYC and other mayoral control systems, have much longer tenure. The key here is that mayoral performance in education is subject for public scrutiny in the electoral process.

Question from Linda Leddick, independent researcher:

Some individuals state that the loss of city population is caused by poor school systems. Others state that declines in city services, population shifts, job availability, etc. causes a declline in city populations which is then reflected in the schools. Do you have any evidence or opinions about this "which came first" issue?

Francix X. Shen:

Hi Linda -- what a great "chicken and egg" question. In the book, our analysis is designed to isolate the effects of mayoral control (given all of these factors floating around). So while we can't speak to the big question of causation, we can say with confidence that the effects we see for mayors on achievement aren't just the result of those cities having rising income, more stable populations, etc. Also, we saw that the education mayors themselves see schools as anchors. Mayor Daley in 2005 said this: "So how does government help build stronger neighborhoods? … You start by building what I call community anchors: schools, libraries, parks and police and fire stations. The most important anchor, by far, is the school”.

Question from M.L. Education Specialist, D.C.:

I've heard many education experts say that it takes 5 years for long-lasting systemic change to take hold... given that the political cycle is shorter than 5 years, will a mayor ever have the political patience necessary to allow education reform initiatives to take root? As we have seen in Washington DC, the pressure to have quick and tangible results often undermines long term strategy.

Kenneth K. Wong:

You raise an important question. We see mayoral control as an effort toward institutional redesign, so that the urban school policy system clearly shows who is in charge. In this regard, the enabling legislation for mayoral control often sets a start and an end date. This duration often goes beyond the tenure of a particular mayor. In other words, state lawmakers who write the law and citizens who approve changes in the city charter ought to think about the current governance reform as an institutional response to the accountability challenge. We also think that mayors are seeing their leadership role as sustaining the educational institution (leaving behind a legacy) and not simply as winning re-election.

Question from Scott Folsom, Parent, Parent Leader Los Angeles Unified:

Scott Folsom again. You guys are essentially saying that Mayoral Control is the greatest thing since sliced bread - and your responses to me and to Diane Ravitch (whom I'm honored to be on the same chat with) is: Mayoral Control is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. It's the same for hogwash as shampoo. I've been to NYC, parents and differing opinions are kicked to the curb. Bloomberg's famous retort to criticism from parents is: "If they don't like it they can boo me at parades". Boo.

Kenneth K. Wong:

Hi Scott -- I hope we are not communicating a monolithic message about mayoral control. I've tried to stress in this chat, and we repeatedly say in the book, that mayoral control is neither for all cities nor for all mayors. We hope that debates and conversation will be vigorous, grounded in evidence, and articulating the principles on which evaluations should be judged.

Question from Jo Ann Yee, Senior Director, Urban Affairs, California School Boards Association:

How did your study control for student mobility in these districts? (i.e. Were you measuring the achievement of the same students over time?) How did your study measure the achievement gaps in these districts? Were the districts successful in narrowing the gaps? What were the direct relationships between mayoral control and the district's ability to close the achievement gaps?

Francix X. Shen:

Hi Jo Ann -- these are very good questions. First, our analysis is built up from school-level data to get to district averages. We are covering 100+ districts over 5 years (1999-2003), and didn't have individual student level data across all those years/districts. We always control in our models for previous year achievement, and also looked at year-to-year change. We were also concerned with the achievement gap, and spend an entire chapter (chapter 5) addressing it. We traced the performance of the lowest performing schools over our time period to see how they fared. We also looked at the distribution of achievement across schools within each district, and asked if the gap between high- and low-achieving schools was related to mayoral control. We find that while all schools improved, schools at the top saw even greater gains. We discuss in more detail in the book some reasons for why we see these results.

Question from Lori Finch, NYC Public School Parent:

The Children First reforms under NYC Mayor Bloomberg place great emphasis on Accountability. Repeated large scale systemic reoganizations, however, have failed to produce significqant advances in student achievement as the recent NAEP scores undicate. In the case of NYC, how do parents and taxpayers who are not pedagogues or psychometricians best understand the scope of this stagnation and the consequences for our 1,1 million students when a new mayor/chancellor team takes office in January 2010?

Kenneth K. Wong:

Mayoral involvement in education has broadened city-wide attention to the challenge of school improvement. Mayor Bloomberg's role, for example, has often made headlines in the New York Times. Mayors, albeit powerful offices, are not going to be able to turn around schools by themselves. Mayoral leadership is a necessary, enabling, but not sufficient, condition for academic improvement. Public awareness, from our perspective, constitutes an important basis for community mobilization and engagement. In NYC, in particular, there are civic, business, and foundation resources being channeled into all kinds of school reform initiatives. These investment and commitment from diverse sources will play a key role in keeping the public focus on student learning.

Question from Rhonda K., CS, Rochester School District:

Is a mayoral control successful for students, or is this another way for cities to cut finance or to have more control of funds given to schools?

Francix X. Shen:

Hi Rhonda -- We find that mayoral control is positively associated with gains in student achievement. At the same time, we find evidence on the finance side that mayoral control is not associated with greater revenues flowing into the district, and may even be linked to fewer per-pupil resources. In short, mayors may be doing more for the same, or even fewer resources.

Question from Jo Ann Yee, Senior Director Urban Affairs, California School Boards Association:

While school boards do not directly cause student learning, their actions and decisions do make an impact. What specific actions and decisions do mayors make that can be DIRECTLY related to improved student achievement? How are these actions and decisions different from those of school boards? Could these decisions be made without the mayor's direct control of the district? Why or why not?

Francix X. Shen:

Another great question, which goes back to an earlier question about comparing traditionally elected school board governance to mayoral-appointed school board governance. The benefits of integrating school and city services primarily rest on the potential ability of the mayor to engage more in system-wide and citywide policymaking, which may be hampered by many local interests that prevent reform from moving forward. In big city school systems, where there are many strong and diverse political interests, mayors may have more institutional capacity to overcome these challenges. The link to teaching and learning then happens through the professional educator (and professional education leadership team) that is brought in. Mayors may have the potential to prevent the superintendent turnover that is so common in many large school districts, and provide smooth transitions from one superintendent to the next.

Question from J. Swain : Law Enforcement/ engaged citizen:

Is there a list of the cities covered in the book/working under this model. If a City is not in the Mayor controlled model; and if it has definite benefits, are strategies discussed for bringing it into play in places where contol currently lies elsewhere.

Kenneth K. Wong:

Our book looks at a dozen districts that are under mayoral control, including Boston, Chicago, Baltimore, Cleveland, Washington DC, Philadelphia, New York, Providence, New Haven, among others. Technically speaking, Philadelphia and Baltimore are "hybrid," since the school board is jointly appointed by the mayor and the governor. From our perspective, these are the first wave of mayoral control districts. We see an emerging mayoral interest in a second wave of districts, including LA, St. Louis etc. The second wave will have the benefit of hard evidence on what works and what doesn't work (namely our book) on student performance, management, teaching practices, and public opinions.

Question from Greta Pruitt, Retired Educator and Professor:

Has mayoral control actually resulted in coordination of city/social services at inner-city schools? The concept of a powerful "resource coordinating council" at these schools that includes housing, police, fire, libraries seems promising, but has it happened in these cities?

Kenneth K. Wong:

Mayoral control is keen on building partnership between school department and other municipal agencies. Mayor Daley, for example, issues executive order to make sure that the snow is removed by the department of street and sanitation so that parents can walk their children to schools. Providence Mayor Cicilline makes sure that the school department coordinates with libraries and cultural centers to promote reading. In many of these districts, schools are used as a "hub" for GED classes, health clinics, and other social and sports activities for the neighborhood. In large urban districts, the building engineers used to have the only key to the building. Those days are gone. The princpals are now in charge and are expected to work with other partners to promote community engagement.

Question from Kent Osborne Union rep- salary negotiation:

How can I get info to compare cost of living changes to teacher salaries for Denver. Plus is there any where to compare average teacher salaries for more experienced teachers in various cities i.e. 15 years experience, 20 years, 25 years... etc

Francix X. Shen:

Hi Kent -- For comparing cost of living across cities, we used the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Constant Dollar Employment Cost Index. I don't know the URL from memory, but www.bls.gov or an internet search should get you started. They have series specifically for State and Local Governments' Educational Services. For your second question, I don't know of a single place where that data is published, as it is the product of specifically negotiated employment contracts between districts and their unions.

Question from Rhodell Fields, Professor retired, St. Petersburg College:

Professor Ravitch stole some of my thunder. Nevertheless, we all know that mayors are politicos in the first degere. What is it that will prevent an elected mayor in an urban situation such as NYC, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. or Los Angeles from catering to wealthier interests when it comes to the distribution of resources across the city schools?

Francix X. Shen:

Hi Rhodell -- This is a great question which identifies a concern about electoral accountability. If mayors want to get re-elected, and certain segments (i.e. richer, more educated parts of the city) are more likely to vote and donate to the re-election campaign, you're pointing out that a mayor's incentives would be to distribute benefits disproportionately to those wealthier segments. We tried to get at this in the book in chapter 5 -- one of the inferences we make is that mayors may be making strategic investments in education based on concerns about brain drain of high-achievement students / middle class families to competing suburban school districts. We don't find that the lower-performing schools, however, are getting worse. In sum, it leads us to a question of trade-offs and by what measuring stick we will evaluate mayoral control.

Question from Barb Bolson, Director, Kodiak College, Univ of Alaska Anchorage:

1. Are already overburdened urban mayors able to give troubled school districts the time they require and deserve? 2.Does it create a conflict of interest to stand for regular reelections and have to make often unpopular decisions for school districts?

Kenneth K. Wong:

Good questions on mayoral priority. Our study found that mayoral commitment to education reform is translated into organizational structures for policy change. For example, in several of the mayoral control districts, the central office is restructured so that a new office accountability is established for more rapid intervention in schools that are not making progress. It is not uncommon to see that the mayoral appointed board has diverse expertise to address the multi-faceted challenges of the district. These board members may come from higher education, non profit, for profit, and non-education governmental backgrounds. Within the central office, we also found a more diverse pool of staff to manage programs and units. The analytic and evaluative capacity of these districts will form a solid basis for taking improvement strategies to the next phase. Finally, the conflict of interest is always a challenge. We found that mayoral control can promote greater transparency as more parents and community actors engage in school affairs.

Question from E. C. Hayes, Educator, St. Louis, MO:

I applaud your academic research and am intrigued with the impact of the mayoral-led school systems. As an educator what stares at me daily are the children in the classroom coming from very chaotic, impoverished homes where often the parents are not a voice in their school community. Regarding the poverty level of the families attending our urban schools, are you maintaining that mayoral-led schools could possibly improve the poverty level of the students and their parents?

Kenneth K. Wong:

Dear E.C. -- Thank you for your comment. We discuss in the book that we are in agreement with many others (and many of those who have offered comments here today) that it does "take a city" to ultimately produce successful education reform. We know that student performance is linked to so much beyond the schoolhouse, and mayors may be able to lead the coalition to integrate educational improvements with other city progress -- better jobs, less crime, greater civic capacity. While this is beyond the specific scope of the book, the Education Mayors most often cited (Daley, Menino, Bloomberg) have clearly too tried to be "Economic Development Mayors" -- the two may go hand-in-hand.

Question from Athanase Gahungu, Associate Professor, Chicago State University:

1. What are the benefits and challenges of such large cities as Chicago being constituted in only one school district? Should there be more districts? 2. Can we predict the end of the movement of mayoral control of public schools in the near future?

Kenneth K. Wong:

Your question suggests a need to think about efficiency in large urban districts such as Chicago. Mayoral control, while galvanizes public attention on education across the entire city, does not preclude site-based autonomy or diverse service providers. Chicago's Renaissance 2010 is an example where mayoral-appointed school board works closely with diverse service providers and Local School Councils. Regarding the future of mayoral control, we believe that there will be another wave of urban districts that are ready for mayoral leadership. We hope to return to do another book in a few years on these new mayoral control districts.

Question from Ibrahim Duyar, Assistant Professor, University of Arkansas-Little Rock:

Traditionally the governance of public education is assumed and carried by the school district. 1. Would you discuss some of main reasons that created an environment for the involvement of city/mayor in the governance of public education? 2. How do school districts react to the involvement of this new actor in the governance of public schooling? The dynamics and interaction between these two actors -school districts and city/mayors? 3. What has changed under the new actor's (mayor) governance? Would you offer a comparison of governance by school districts and city/mayors? 4. What does the early research say on the implications of mayoral involvement in the governance of public schools? Any positive impact on student learning and achievement? Thank you.

Francix X. Shen:

Good questions, and we try to address them all in the book. We're running out of time, but a few quick summary points are that mayoral control is linked to a small, significant change in standardized reading and math achievement in the period 1999-2003. Mayoral control is still the exception, but increasing numbers of big city mayors are looking to it as a possible reform option because they are concerned that traditional governance arrangements are not producing the level of district performance city residents desire.

Question from Karen G. Cohen-Former NYC Teacher:

After seeing what has been going on inside the NYC since the mayoral take over, how can outsiders say a business man and a lawyer are more capable of running a school system than one who has been trained to be an educational leader?

Kenneth K. Wong:

Our study suggests the importance of partnership. Given the challenge in New York and other large cities, it will take the whole community to work together to turn around the schools. Mayors are in a unique position to leverage community and civic resources toward that goal. Our study also show that mayors know that they are not educational expert. But they can support educational experts (principals and teachers) to do their job.

Mary-Ellen Deily (Moderator):

That's all the time we have for our chat today. Thanks to everyone who submitted a question. Thanks especially to our two authors, Kenneth K. Wong and Francis X. Shen, for their thoughtful responses regarding The Education Mayor and their findings. The transcript of this chat will be posted shortly on edweek.org.

The news that didn't fit for Dec 9

• The Payroll Crisis: LAUSD EXTENDS PAYROLL REPAYMENT TIME

• The New Charter Schools Czar ...or maybe Tsar?.: LAUSD TAPS LOCAL CHARTER SCHOOL LEADER TO HEAD DISTRICT'S CHARTER SCHOOLS DIVISION

• Bad Phys Ed Scores: LAUSD STUDENT FITNESS TRAILS PEERS IN STATE

• CURBING GLOBAL WARMING BY UNLEASHING STUDENT ENERGY

LAUSD EXTENDS PAYROLL REPAYMENT TIME

by Joel Rubin, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

December 5, 2007 - Los Angeles Unified School District officials have pushed back a deadline to recoup most of the $53 million that is believed to have been overpaid to about 32,000 employees because of its faulty payroll system.

In addition, teachers and other employees are flooding the district with requests for meetings to resolve payroll discrepancies.

Since the new payroll project launched in January, technical glitches and human errors have wreaked havoc on the district, leaving tens of thousands of teachers and other employees with errors on their paychecks. David Holmquist, the district's interim chief operating officer, said he was "cautiously optimistic" that no new problems would surface this month.

In letters sent last month, the district alerted employees to how much the troubled, computerized system had allegedly overpaid them. The district set a Nov. 26 deadline for workers to decide whether to repay the entire amount they had reportedly received, repay only the amount they believe they were overpaid, or refuse to pay anything. Employees were also warned that if repayments were not made by Dec. 10, they would also have to repay additional money withheld by the district for state and federal taxes.

But district officials have decided they can push back the deadlines and still have enough time to issue end-of-year tax forms. Employees must now decide by Friday how to proceed, and they have until Dec. 17 to make any repayments.

In an effort to lower the number of contested overpayments, the district forgave those of $250 or less and credited $250 to all other employees who pay by the deadline. They also struck an agreement with unions to automatically recoup any remaining overpayments of $200 or less from this month's paycheck.

That left about 15,750 employees with unresolved cases. So far, slightly more than 10,000 of those people have responded to the district, with about 60% of them deciding to pay the amount the district had calculated, Holmquist said. About 2,400 others are contesting the district claims and refusing to pay some or all of the amounts demanded, he said.

Those disagreements won't be discussed until next year, when district and union officials can set up a resolution process. But by then the district will have paid taxes on overpayments, and employees will be faced with the prospect of seeking refunds for themselves from tax agencies.

(emphasis added)

LAUSD TAPS LOCAL CHARTER SCHOOL LEADER TO HEAD DISTRICT'S CHARTER SCHOOLS DIVISION

- from Ad Hoc News - a German Internet News Service

06. Dezember 2007 - The Los Angeles Unified School District recently appointed José Cole-Gutiérrez, General Manager in Los Angeles for the California Charter Schools Association, to serve as the District's Executive Director of Charter Schools. The appointment reflects Los Angeles Unified's growing commitment to partner and work collaboratively with the District's charter schools.

In his new role, Cole-Gutiérrez will lead the division responsible for the district's authorization of new charter schools and the oversight of existing charter schools, currently 125, the largest in the nation. He will also help share best practices of charter schools with the broader district.

"I am honored to serve the children and families in Los Angeles Unified and to help advance the District's mission to provide all students with a high quality education," said Cole-Gutiérrez. "It's my vision to lead a world-class charter schools division that is a national model for quality authorizing and district oversight. It's also my goal to stand for all public school students. I hope to leverage what's working in charter schools system-wide, so that all kids benefit."

"José's natural leadership, knowledge of charter schools and talent for relationship-building have been tremendous assets for the Los Angeles charter school community and make him uniquely qualified for this position," said Caprice Young, president and CEO of the California Charter Schools Association. "José will be a vital addition to the District as it continues to partner with its charter schools to improve public education."

Throughout his tenure as Los Angeles General Manager, Cole-Gutiérrez successfully led the Association's efforts to help new charter schools open, improve the quality of existing charter schools and foster positive relationships between charter schools and school districts, including Los Angeles Unified.

Cole-Gutiérrez played an integral role in increasing local charter schools' focus on quality. Today, over 90 percent of Los Angeles Unified's charter schools are participating in the Certified Charter Schools Program, which recognizes charter schools that are committed to high quality and accountability.

Cole-Gutiérrez served for nearly seven years as Academic Programs Director at PUENTE Learning Center in Los Angeles before his tenure with the California Charter Schools Association. He earned his bachelor's degree in history from Stanford University, and a master's degree in education from Harvard University, and focused on administration, planning, and social policy with a secondary concentration on human development and psychology. Cole-Gutiérrez and his wife live in La Mirada with their three young daughters.

About the California Charter Schools Association

The California Charter Schools Association is the membership and professional organization serving 687 charter public schools that serve an estimated 240,000 charter school students in the state of California. The Association's mission is to improve student achievement by supporting and expanding California's quality charter public school movement.

LAUSD STUDENT FITNESS TRAILS PEERS IN STATE

By Harrison Sheppard, Sacramento Bureau | Daily News

December 7 - SACRAMENTO - Youths in Los Angeles schools are less physically fit than their peers statewide, although they have improved a bit over last year, according to California fitness data released Thursday.

Less than 21percent of students in the Los Angeles Unified School District met all the criteria considered to comprise a healthy lifestyle, while the statewide average was 27-31percent.

But while kids in the LAUSD and across California improved by several points over last year's results, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell said most children still have far to go before they can be considered in shape.

"It's a step in the right direction, but we need to do better," O'Connell said. "I attribute the improvement to increased awareness of the importance of our health. And our emphasis on appropriate physical activity in schools and good nutrition in schools."

In recent years, the state has banned soda and foods with a lot of calories from campuses and developed new standards for physical education, he said.

The annual statewide fitness test measured how well students in the fifth, seventh and ninth grades performed in a series of six fitness areas: aerobic capacity, body composition, abdominal strength, trunk extensor strength, upper body strength and flexibility.

In the LAUSD, 20-21percent of kids met the criteria in all six areas; 25-26percent met five of the criteria.

The specific tests within the six areas included a one-mile run, a measurement of body fat, push-ups, pull-ups and stretching.

State officials said there is no specific target for the percentage of kids who should be meeting all six goals, primarily because they are basic criteria that all children should ideally be able to meet.

LAUSD officials said they are pleased that district students showed improvement, which they attributed to new efforts and funding over the past three or four years.

"Considering where we are, we have had some really remarkable improvement," said Jeanie Leighton, the district's director of middle school programs and K-12 physical education.

"When we started four years ago we realized we needed to work with our physical education programs because of the childhood-obesity situation and the tendency to have overweight children (developing) diabetes."

The district hired a physical-education adviser, which it had not had for many years, and held a massive professional development conference for some 3,000 physical-education teachers.

The district also has received more money under a new state grant program - about $26million to be spent in the next three years on professional development and physical-education equipment.

The results come amid renewed nationwide attention on a growing epidemic of childhood obesity. About 15percent of the country's children are considered obese, which is attributed to increased consumption of fast food and decreased physical activity.

Childhood obesity can lead to a range of health problems, including diabetes and high blood pressure.

Dr. Wendy Slusser, assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA, said the latest fitness results reinforce the idea that society has far to go to address the problem.

"When I read these results, I say we're failing our children," Slusser said. "One of the greatest things that we can give them as they go through school is a robust physical-education program."

She noted the results were slightly worse for elementary school students than for middle and high school students. And she said that is likely because fewer elementary schools have dedicated physical-education teachers.

Slusser has worked with the LAUSD on programs to increase the supply of fruits and vegetables in school cafeterias, and praised the district for its renewed efforts to tackle the obesity problem in recent years.

"L.A. Unified has been incredibly open to changes in a positive way for the health and wellness of the children that they serve," Slusser said.

4LAKids NOTES: The fitness of children is abysmal. However the folks who created the FitnessGram - the test used to assess California schoolchildren's physical fitness - contend that the test is being misused by the state and the results misinterpreted. The FitnessGram was never intended to be a "pass" or "fail" assessment. The kids aren't failing, the system is failing!

LINK: 2007 Physical Fitness Test "results"

High Performance Schools: THE NEW JEWELS OF LOS ANGELES

by Racquel Palmese, Managing Editor | Green Technology MagazineSlideshow:

Under Construction
LAUSD's High Performance Schools
Click here

The Los Angeles Unified School District spreads across 710 square miles of inner cities, deserts, rolling hills and suburbs. Running from the endless vistas of tract homes to the northern horizon of the San Fernando Valley, then south and east through the ethnic enclaves of East LA, Boyle Heights, Chinatown, Koreatown, Leimert Park Village, Little Tokyo, Filipinotown, Koreatown, Little Armenia, Little Ethiopia, Little Persia, Little India and Thai Town to the Towers of Watts, it finally it ends at the canals and harbors of Long Beach, California.

The second largest school district in the United States, it has been called a behemoth, top heavy and inefficient, controversial and downright impossible to manage. Maligned and magnificent, its numbers alone evoke both wonder and disbelief. Of the District’s 708,000 students, 73 percent are Hispanic, 11.4 percent are Black, 3.8 percent are Asian and 8.8 percent are Caucasian. It teaches the English language to almost half - 315,400 students - who speak 88 different languages. Many of its 13,000 buildings (1,059 schools) are in disrepair. Most of them, built over a half century ago, have had little or no renovation.

Almost daily, news stories recount the District’s travails, but its achievements are rarely noted. Perhaps the most unanticipated and impactful of its activities – one which only a school district of the size of LAUSD could undertake – is its school construction and renovation program. This multi-year endeavor, valued at almost $20 billion, is by far the largest ever undertaken by a school district. By 2012 it will deliver approximately 180,000 new seats in 145 new schools. Some 20,000 renovation projects will be completed.

The program came to life in 1997, when voters allocated $2.4 billion for modernization of facilities and addition of classroom space. New bond measures were passed in 1998 ($4 billion), 2002 ($3.5 billion from the city and a portion of a $13.05 billion statewide bond), 2004 ($9.2 billion), 2005 ($3.985 billion).

Adding to that, in November 2006, a statewide K-12 and university facilities bond act was passed providing an additional $10.41 billion (see related article on Proposition 1D), which includes $100 million for high performance (green) school construction statewide.

So far, 186 projects have been completed, including 65 new schools that provide 2,650 classrooms; 64 schools are being designed or in approval processes.

Let Them be Green!

To appreciate what Joseph “Guy” Mehula, LAUSD’s chief facilities executive, and the 5,000 people who work at the Facilities Support Division, are trying to accomplish is to not only embrace the enormity of the construction project, but to grasp that in the midst of this building boom LAUSD decided that all its new schools must be high performance schools. The District mandated that every school designed after the year 2003, about 64 schools, will be designed to meet the tough sustainability standards set forth by the Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS). [Click here for related story.] LAUSD was the first district to make such a declaration, to set such a mandate for its new school construction. Since then a host of others have followed its lead.

At this writing, two CHPS “demonstration” schools have opened in Los Angeles: Charles H. Kim Elementary School in Los Angeles and Maywood Academy High School in Maywood. Most new projects are in the design stages, with about 10 nearing construction. “Every one of these schools,” Mehula told an audience at a recent Global Green schools conference, “is built to represent its community, both by its unique design and by creating indoor and outdoor spaces that are open to the community.” This includes meeting rooms, theaters, athletic fields, swimming pools.

“We call this joint use,” he said, “and it’s a central part of our planning for all the new schools. To create such healthy and beautiful schools has had the effect of raising up the neighborhoods they’re located in. People take pride in them and know they are special.

“It’s funny,” he quips, “when you mention the school building program to most people, they can only think of the Belmont Learning Center (whose toxic problems cost taxpayers millions in cost overruns). But even that school, now called Vista Hermosa, will be opening in September of ’08.

“The biggest problem we have is getting the word out about all these terrific new schools that are each a jewel in their communities.”

Designing a Green School

Ying Wang heads up the high performance schools program at LAUSD, reporting to Mehula. An architect who is passionate about green schools, she helped structure the CHPS point system that leads to school certification. “The best part of CHPS,” she says, “is that if you integrate it very early (in the design phase) it won’t necessarily cost extra money.”

As an example she cites Central Region Elementary School (CRES) #18, which has been approved by the Division of State Architect and is going out to bid with completion expected in about 15 months. The design architect was able to meet the school’s budget without requiring any additional funding to meet the CHPS requirements. On a typical project, the architect will be able to reach at least 28 CHPS points, which was the minimum required to be certified as a CHPS school since 2002 out of a maximum of 81. A new points system raises the minimum to 32 and maximum to 85. Most projects currently average at least 33 points.

This particular school got 45 points. Wang explains that this was accomplished not only by complying with all the points the District required, but by adding extras right from the beginning. The building was oriented for optimal sun exposure, achieving energy efficiency that was 37 percent greater than California Energy Commission standards. Recycled materials were used as much as possible and construction waste was recycled – again adding points to their score.

“The building is well located and uses the site,” Wang says. “They designed it with an overhang which becomes a covered walkway. With a lot of our buildings that are not built to sustainable standards, the architect will design it the way he or she likes and then we’ll have to add on features for energy efficiency or other sustainable things, and those become additional costs.”

“These high performance schools provide a great opportunity for the school itself to be an instructional tool,” says Kevin Tyrrell, principal of Quatro, the architectural firm that designed CRES #18. “As an example, all the classrooms have cross ventilation; they all have lots of natural light. There are things that are incorporated into the building that show students how to work with the natural environment to do things that are much more beneficial. These are all things that can be taught for science and other classes.”

CRES #18 is a 575 seat neighborhood elementary school that includes 23 classrooms, a library, administration, food services and a multi-purpose room. Says Tyrrell, “Building it green not only didn’t cost anything extra, it probably saved money. For example, there are several ways you can handle site drainage. You can have different areas collecting water that are connected to a drain connected to a storm system. That’s pretty expensive. We have our site configured so we’re using a combination of a natural and created slope, so all water drains to our turf area on our site which is used as a retention area. If there’s a major rain event, the water percolates down to the aquifer. We’re reducing runoff, and we’re not adding to the storm water runoff demand. Gravity is doing the work instead of pipes. So we saved a considerable amount of money by using natural forces to work in our favor.”

Overall, use of abundant natural light reduced the energy load for lighting considerably and natural ventilation reduces the amount and size of mechanical equipment needed for air conditioning. In traditional schools, interior hallways have classrooms on each side, limiting air flow and light. CRES 18 has an exterior walkway which eliminates almost all the need for light or ventilation during the day and also reduces the volume (hallway) that needs to be ventilated. This reduces energy consumption and provides a more healthful air supply. Tyrrell says the building interacts with the environment. Because the design group worked hard to integrate all the sustainable functions into the overall design, “you don’t really know that the features are working at all the different levels.”

The Visual and Performing Arts Center on Grand Avenue will be a $100 million high performance high school that contains four small learning academies. Gary Gidcumb, of HMC Architects, is the lead architect on the project. He has been working on green buildings for the past 17 years. Since 2002, he’s been designing green schools and says that green building is a “growing emphasis of the firm.” “Growing” is the operative word; Gidcumb acknowledges that once you start designing green, “what it comes down to is you can always do more.”

At Grand Avenue, Gidcumb and his staff faced enormous challenges when it came to energy efficiency. The theatrical academy, for example, has an 11,0000 square foot lobby and a 950 seat theater, plus a black box experimental theater in the round. “These are large, open spaces,” he says, “difficult to air condition. There are also a lot of large classroom spaces, like dance studios and the library. But we feel good about meeting the challenges. We succeeded within a difficult arrangement.”

As with CRES #18, the architect and the District accomplished the 45 point CHPS score by incorporating many sustainability features directly into the original design plan. The library, for example, with a 50 foot high ceiling, utilizes glazed windows to stop solar heat gain.

The challenges that Gidcumb and his staff faced included working through the many levels of such a large school district. “You’re always going to have folks that think the right way to do things is different from the way you want to do it,” he says. “What we’ve been able to do is work with all of those camps to build consensus on what the right approach is.” The architect now gives talks to LAUSD design staff so they can communicate with architects and emphasize the importance of initiating green design from the earliest stages.

“For most of architects we hire, it’s their first time encountering a CHPS school,” says Ying Wang. “They may have experience with sustainable design, so we join the pre-design meetings and present written documents with our requirements for things like energy, water and sound. We provide the architects with a scorecard that has rating requirements they must meet for these high performance schools.”

“Go through the score sheet with the District,” Gidcumb advises. “Take the issues seriously, look at each point and ask yourself how can we make this happen in this school? Sometimes it’s not cost effective or not possible for an individual school, but if you don’t go through the exercise, you’re selling the project short.”

Gidcumb feels that when it comes to building green schools, architects are not getting up to speed as quickly as they should. “It’s extremely important,” he says. “There’s so much at stake and so much that architects can do to make an impact. And that’s on every project, no matter what the budget is. The Visual and Performing Arts Center is on budget. It’s not a “showcase” project where grants or special funds have been allocated specifically to get a high CHPS score, and we still managed it. Every project should be a showcase project, and you shouldn’t have to sacrifice design quality or break the bank to do it. It’s a real challenge to the profession.”

He says that the ultimate goal is to build schools that are carbon neutral (emitting no net carbon dioxide into the atmosphere) and net zero (producing as much energy as they consume). “That would be a fantastic step forward for communities to see that. When I see the school as a center of community and the things that happen there and kids who can grow up in that sort of environment and then go home to their families who see that they are part of the solution – that’s a terrific thing.”

Building a Green School

The process of building a new school can take as much as five years, sometimes more. It begins with LAUSD’s Real Estate Department. “The biggest problem we have with LAUSD is we don’t have that much land available, so we have to use eminent domain to buy properties,” says Wang, “The nice thing is the newer schools cause real estate values to go up for the local community.”

Selecting a location for a new school takes into account district needs including relieving overcrowding in existing schools, eliminating the need for year-around schools and involuntary busing. The Real Estate Department assesses where a new school needs to be situated based on these factors and then acquires the necessary properties. It relocates private and commercial residents when necessary. The more families that need to be relocated, the more time the project can take. Thus far, over 1,200 parcels of land have been acquired, and 2,200 households and businesses have been relocated to make way for school construction.

After a site has been selected, the Community Outreach Department is activated. Visits are made with residents and business owners, and community meetings are held. (See sidebar: Warming a Neighborhood to a New School). Site selection also includes an assessment by the Office of Environmental and Health Services (OEHS) and the production of an Environmental Impact Report before the site is claimed. That starts the funding and approval stage.

The California Department of Education decides how much state funding will go to the District. “Not everything can qualify for funds,” says Vincent Coffeen, LAUSD director of design management . “The rest is paid for by local bonds. The state, in theory, is supposed to fund 50 percent of construction, but now it’s really more like 35 percent because of escalation of construction costs.”

Construction costs escalated 20 percent in 2006, causing some projects to trim their budgets. The state is encouraging the building of CHPS schools by the creation of a special unit within the Division of State Architect (DSA) to handle high performance schools projects.

“We work with DSA on a plan check,” explains Coffeen. “It can take a very long time to work through that. It’s always about 12-15 months for architects to finish their drawings before we even get to the DSA, and then we can have a project sitting there for another 10 months. But we have an agreement with them now that is shortening the process. Our goal is a six-month review at DSA.”

Since the LAUSD loses $1 million for each month delay on a $60 million high school, this new partnership agreement with DSA means significant savings. The accelerated review period saved the LAUSD $6 million in 2006. The staff shortfall at the DSA created by the explosion of LAUSD building plan approvals is being addressed by a partnership agreement. The PA, as it’s called, created a team of mostly outside consultant reviewers for LAUSD projects. LA now issues “look ahead” reports that include project profiles sent to the DSA in advance, so the agency can be ready with review teams waiting the submissions arrive. As of January, 2007, a new law allows for “concurrent review,” which means that DSA reviewers can work throughout the design process, instead of waiting until plans are drawn up and submitted. This is expected to shorten the process even more, setting a efficient system in place for other districts as well.

“DSA is in major collaborating mode right now,” says Mahendra Mehta, transition manager at the DSA. “We are partnering with LAUSD. The key to it is managing the timeline in planning and communications, getting started early in the process and staying in communication all the way through to approval.” Wang agrees, “We can save five percent of regular costs for a CHPS school by starting early with the state agencies. That’s very exciting, because after about five years of payback, these schools start making money with energy savings.”

During the DSA approval process, final drawings are also sent to CDE one last time to verify square footage for a determination of state funding for the project. Then the bidding process begins. Unlike many commercial buildings that utilize design teams made up of architects and construction contractors who work together from the onset of the design process, LAUSD calls for a separation of the design and building processes. The award goes to the contractor who submits the lowest bid.

Right now there are 16 green school projects in the pipeline, all of them almost through the DSA process. In two years, says Wang, there will be 40. What does all this mean for other districts? “It means their standards will change,” says Wang. “Other districts can use our experience.” The inexhaustible Wang also spends time giving presentations at conferences and districts considering building green schools.

“We have all our information on our (LAUSD) website,” she says. “I would say to those districts, ‘go grab it as much as you can. You are always welcome to call me. There are a lot of paybacks in building green schools.”

MAGNET YENTAS REDUX: SOOTHING THE MAGNET PANIC

by Mary MacVean, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Dec. 5 - It's December, and the pressure is mounting. Not from the presents or the cooking or the relatives. Those are a piece of cake -- a fruitcake, perhaps. It's the agony of choice. Or, more accurately, CHOICES.

For L.A. parents who want their children to go to a magnet school or want a permit to send them to a school other than their home school, December can be full of angst: visiting campuses, deciding which one suits best, then playing the odds in a system that has many more students than places for them.

The worry season officially begins when the L.A. Unified CHOICES booklet arrives in the mail. Right there on the cover it says, "Please open at once." Why wait to ramp up the anxiety?

The booklet, much improved in the last several years, explains the possibilities clearly. It includes an application (no copies accepted), due by 5 p.m. Jan. 11, and an envelope to mail it – though plenty of faithless parents carry it by hand downtown to the district offices. Anyone who needs a booklet can get one at any LAUSD school.

Last year, The Times played host to the Magnet Yentas, writer Sandra Tsing Loh and other moms who answered readers' questions about the system. In the links [following], we're repeating excerpts of their advice. Information also is available at www.lausd.net.

smf's 2¢ - This article marks the debut of a new byline in 4LATimes, welcome Mary MacVean. I wrote my very first piece for publication about the Choices brochure process. Last year Sandra Tsing Loh and Co. - under the guise of The Magnet Yentas wrote some very good, funny and informative stuff for the late, lamented School Me! blog in LATimes. The Times in their infinite wisdom - demonstrating the viability of reruns on the Internet to prove the Writers' Guild point - has republished online.

Links to that "all that 'right stuff'" is presented below. One piece of advice to "'ye of little' faithless parents" from my original advice: DON'T hand carry your application downtown! You will get neither satisfaction nor a receipt!

1. Make and save a copy.

2. Mail your application and all correspondence in, certified mail, return receipt requested.

THE MAGNET YENTAS REDUX …Return …Rerun …Recycled …Resurrected

THE MAGNET YENTAS REDUX ...Return ...Rerun ...Recycled ...Resurrected

(see Soothing the Magnet Panic)

Gifted vs. magnet

...perspective on why it is so confusing: We Magnet Yentas are sometimes asked why there aren...ourselves could build them.) "Hey Magnet Yentas!" parents will accost us, as we struggle...exciting new letters!) xxxooo's, Magnet Yentas / Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

The race factor

...joining forces to make their local NON-magnet schools "the good schools," in neighborhoods...killer chocolate Bundt cake--with nary a magnet in sight. As middle-class families return...for writing, Michael. xxxooo's, Magnet Yentas / Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Coveted orange folders

From Dec. 13, 2006 Dear Magnet Yentas, We are lucky that our neighborhood...coursework, here's what we Magnet Yentas recommend. If not daily, at...mother either. xxxooo's, Magnet Yentas Update at 9:53 AM: School... / Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Testing for gifted programs

...Reader Ellen writes: Dear Magnet Yentas, My oldest four children attended... ---------- Dear Magnet Yentas, I have a son who will be...skim through all the old "Ask A Magnet Yentas." And yes, there will be a... / Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Veni, vidi, vici

...instructor at the Hamilton High Humanities Magnet, whose cover profile in The Los...classical texts. In the Humanities Magnet, our 9th Grade curriculum is a study...Veni, vidi, vici. xxxooo's, Magnet Yentas PS. To keep up with the latest... / Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Getting and losing points

... ---------- THE MAGNET YENTAS WRITE: P.S., we too love... ---------- THE MAGNET YENTAS WRITE: Well, you will lose your...Subject: LACES Legacy? Dear Magnet Yentas, Is there such a thing as Magnet... / Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Which year to apply

...is for each group getting into the magnet. Sometimes it's the same number... ---------- Dear Magnet Yentas: According to my child's teacher, he was eligible for the magnet program from the first grade, he... / Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Choosing a bubble

...suspect, truly crazed parents drive the magnet application directly downtown to the LAUSD...deistic universe, we have never heard of a magnet application "lost" in the mail. At the...packages for everyone! xxxooo's, Magnet Yentas / Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Helpful (to whom?) volunteering

...changed to protect the intimidated) THE MAGNET YENTAS WRITE: Dear Ms. Doe, Nyet...happening, the eyebrows of one of our Magnet Yentas did rise during a recent parent tour... Ba Da Bing! xxxooo's, Your Magnet Yentas / Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Construction considerations

...be seven. Do the G/HA magnet schools have a maximum age...either regular or G/HA magnets. Anecdotal evidence suggests...school. FOTY (Friend of The Yentas) Bill Ring pursued the question...you, Ed! xxxooo's, Magnet Yentas / Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Checking out the neighborhood school

Dear Magnet Yentas, My daughter with autism will be attending...IEP's earn or lose any secret points in the magnet selection system? And are magnet schools necessarily...The Red Lion (roar!). . . xxxooo's, Magnet Yentas / Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

smf's Magnet Information From The Last Century - mostly still true! Hosted inexplicably on the USC website!

CURBING GLOBAL WARMING BY UNLEASHING STUDENT ENERGY

by Timothy A. Simon | Commissioner, California Public Utilities Commission
to the Green California Leadership Awards on October 2
from Green Technology Magazine | Fall '07

T

he possibility that human activities could change Earth’s climate, with disastrous social and economic consequences, has emerged as the greatest challenge of this new century.

Under the leadership of Governor Schwarzenegger, California is setting the pace for our nation’s response to this challenge.

Unlike those who suggest that serious attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will hurt the economy, the Governor sees a new “Gold Rush” for the state – an unprecedented opportunity to build a vital new economy based on products and services that can meet the needs of society without endangering its future.

Our investment community agrees, and its visionaries have declared that “green technology” – from clean, renewable energy to new approaches to the design of our homes, offices and communities – will power the 21st century economy.

It is likely that the majority of those whose help we need to accomplish this transformation are unaware of the events unfolding around them – or their tremendous potential to make a difference in the lives of millions. These individuals are the students in California’s schools, the essential building blocks of our new “green workforce.”

Rarely in our history has it been more important for our schools to operate, and to educate, with real awareness of society’s needs. We are in a transitional period that will end with an economy, a workplace and a culture that are very different from what has come before.

If we manage the transition well, the differences will be positive: cleaner air, healthier more productive workplaces, improved transportation systems, and communities that satisfy basic human needs as much as they do the needs of commerce.

A haphazard, half-hearted approach could lead to a much different kind of future, one in which the flaws and injustices of our current culture are magnified and increasing numbers of men and women find themselves without access to essential resources.

It is our responsibility to ensure that this transition is productive and creative, that it provides increasing numbers of Californians with work that is financially and environmentally rewarding. This is the scenario the Governor proposes, and I strongly support his vision.

The range of needs is great, and it is important that the diversity of opportunity is shared among California’s diverse community of students. Social equity is one of the cornerstones of sustainability. Lifting up larger and larger numbers of students who are currently at risk and preparing them for careers that allow them to greatly improve their own quality of life – while improving conditions for society at large – is profoundly sustainable.

As an important step in this direction, on January 14, 2008, I will be spearheading a conference in conjunction with the Willie L. Brown Jr. Institute on Politics and Public Service titled “Advancing the New Energy Economy in California.”

This conference will bring together investors, political leaders, educators, industry experts, and labor leaders to advance long-term investment, financial growth, and job creation within the green technology sector. Key figures will articulate the challenges and solution strategies for a diversified, continuous expansion of green business and technology in California.

This conference is not intended to be a one-day event, but rather the beginning of a dialogue to bridge the gap between the investor community and the green economy workforce to ensure that all communities can benefit from these new economic development opportunities.

This dialogue must also include those in the educational community, from students and teachers to administrators. The talent and experience that exists in this sector is essential to a successful evolution of our economy.

We have the power to create an educational surge that can match the United States’ response to Sputnik. I urge you to become involved in this work, and I look forward to working with Green Technology to engage educators in it. We have the means to ensure that our state – and our planet – can remain productive and welcoming for future generations.

Links to the news about the news (12/2)

►L.A. UNIFIED WARNED THAT IT FALLS SHORT OF STATE STANDARDS

Along with 98 other districts, it faces penalties under No Child Left Behind.

►THIS JUST IN: COMPARING APPLES TO ORANGES SELLS MAGAZINES!

US News & World Report's Best High Schools in America

▲The USN&WR RANKINGS: California schools move to the head of the class

►Worth a Listen: LA SCHOOL DISTRICT WOES

from Patt Morrison on KPCC

First it was the payroll debacle that left thousands of LA school teachers overpaid or underpaid, now a vote by the district to spend up to $18 million to retain current teaching staff threatens a renewed fiscal crisis. Meanwhile, reports are surfacing that LA's schools aren't fulfilling their physical education requirements. Could it look worse? Yup. An attempt to improve the district's image by spending $10 million on communications — including quietly hiring a public relations firm — is getting the district into even more trouble. Patt brings LAUSD officials in for some in-studio detention.

• Howard Blume, LA Times reporter
• Tamar Galatzan, member of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education, District 3
• A.J. Duffy, President of United Teachers Los Angeles

►PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS + EDUCATION

• from the New Yorker: HUCKABEE? Funny, improbable, ascendant.

• from Slate.com: THE DEMOCRATS ON EDUCATION

The USN&WR RANKINGS: California schools move to the head of the class

Annie Wells / Los Angeles Times

BACK TO SCHOOL: Fourth-grader India Zeldes, tackles that fall classic: "What I Did on My Summer Vacation."

U.S. News & World Report, in its first ranking of high schools, includes 23 campuses in the state in its list of the top 100.

By Mitchell Landsberg, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 1, 2007

California public schools dominated a national ranking of high schools released Friday, countering the usual depiction of the state's schools as lagging behind their counterparts elsewhere in the country.

In a first-ever ranking of high schools by U.S. News & World Report magazine -- best-known for its influential and controversial ranking of colleges and universities -- 23 of the top 100 schools in the nation were from California, including 10 from the Los Angeles area.

This is a very special place, and I appreciate any opportunity I get to have that recognized.

— Patricia Hager, principal of Gretchen Whitney High in Cerritos, No.12 on the list.

Related Stories
-	View the complete U.S. News & World Report list

No other state has as many schools on the list, although New York City and its suburbs, with 20 schools, have by far the most of any metropolitan area, and Massachusetts has the highest percentage of its schools ranked among the top 505 profiled.

The top-ranked school in California was Pacific Collegiate School, a charter campus in Santa Cruz, which was ranked No. 2 in the country behind Thomas Jefferson High in Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C.

Also in the top 10 were the Oxford Academy at No. 4, a college preparatory school in the Anaheim Union High School District that accepts students by examination, and the Preuss School at No. 10, a charter school under the joint oversight of the San Diego Unified School District and UC San Diego. The Preuss School is currently under a cloud because of allegations of grade-tampering, but that would apparently not have affected its ranking, since U.S. News relied on standardized test scores, not grades.

In the Los Angeles area, the top-rated school was Gretchen Whitney High in Cerritos, at No. 12. The ranking was the latest in a long list of honors for the school, and Principal Patricia Hager was both proud and circumspect.

"Well, I'd like to be No. 1," she joked in an interview. "I'm very proud because this is a very special place, and I appreciate any opportunity I get to have that recognized."

At the same time, she said, "It's interesting how we define things like 'successful' and 'top performer' -- what does it mean? As a public educator, it concerns me how we use those terms. Every school has something going for it, so in a way it's unfair to other schools that don't score highly on tests. Philosophically it's a dilemma, but I won't refuse the attention."

The other local schools in the top 50 were the California Academy of Math and Science in Carson (No. 21); and Animo Leadership Charter High in Inglewood, run by Green Dot Public Schools (No. 31).

Two Los Angeles Unified magnet schools placed in the top 100: the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies (No. 61) and Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High (No. 80).

Other local schools in the top 100 included University High in Irvine (No. 76), San Marino High (No. 82), Palos Verdes Peninsula High (No. 89), Palos Verdes High (No. 93), La Cañada High (No. 95) and Malibu High (No. 98).

The rankings are based on standardized test scores and rates of participation and achievement in advanced placement courses. U.S. News said it also took into account the percentage of economically disadvantaged students at each school and the performance of black, Latino and poor students, rewarding schools in which those students performed at higher levels than their peers in other places.

U.S. News also publishes annual college rankings, which have been criticized for pushing colleges to skew their admissions policies to boost their rankings.


Times staff writer Carla Rivera contributed to this report.

HUCKABEE? Funny, improbable, ascendant.

In Hendrik Hertzberg's December 3, 2007 New Yorker profile of Republican candidate Mike Huckabee he quotes the candidate's stump speech on Education and Health Care. Huckabee is a former Southern Baptist clergyman - not given to the ten-second sound byte. He speaks calmly, in stories, parables, and extended metaphors.

On education, he talked not about standardized tests or back-to-basics but about something like their polar opposite. "We have to change and reform the education system so that we're capturing both the left and the right sides of the kid's brain," he said. "There ought to be a new focus not just in math and science—which there needs to be—but also a balanced focus on music and art and right-side-of-the-brain activities. Otherwise, we end up with an education system that's like a data download—a great database but no processor." On health, he skipped the usual denunciations of socialized medicine and noted, as Republicans seldom do, that "we spend so much more per capita than any other country on earth"—far more than second-place Switzerland. "The current system says, 'We won't pay a hundred and fifty dollars for the visit to the podiatrist, we'll wait until there's a thirty-thousand-dollar amputation and we'll cover that.' "

The Foreign Policy parable is as much about kids as the education one:

The foreign-policy section of his talk (what there was of it) was a leisurely account of how his children laugh at him when he tells them that his grade-school class used to "duck and cover" in fear of a Soviet nuclear attack. "Somehow, in our naïveté," he said, "we thought that if the world is coming to an end the crosshairs of the first nuclear missile would be aimed at the Brookwood Elementary School, in Hope, Arkansas." The section's conclusion—and the speech's only hint at how the speaker might deal with what he called "a very dangerous world"—was a single sentence: "I want to be the President that helps to make it so that your grandchildren laugh at you when you tell them you used to have to put your toothpaste in a plastic bag and take your shoes off to get on an airplane to go somewhere in this country."

None of this is to say that Huckabee's policy positions are much better than those of his Republican rivals; in some cases, they're worse.

• He wants to replace the federal tax code with a gigantic, horribly regressive sales tax;
  
• he cannot name a single time he has ever disagreed with the National Rifle Association;
  
• he wants to amend the Constitution to ban gay marriage and abortion.
  

In practice, however, the sales tax and the amendments would go nowhere, and he couldn't do much about abortion except appoint Scalia-like Justices to the Supreme Court—which his rivals have promised to do, too. God knows what his foreign policy would look like, but no one else does.

To all appearances, Huckabee's gentle rhetoric is a reflection of temperament, not a stylistic tactic. Arkansans caution that he is capable of churlishness. But his history suggests that he prefers consensus to confrontation, that he regards government as a tool for social betterment, and that he has little taste for war, cultural or otherwise. He seems to regard liberalism not as a moral evil, a mental disease, or a character flaw—merely as a political point of view he mostly disagrees with.

The good news is that Education is emerging not just as an issue to choose sides over ("We must save/discard No Child Left Behind at all costs!") but as a subject for discussion. Hear hear! - and thank you Roy Romer and ED in '08. - smf

THE FULL ARTICLE

ILLUSTRATION: TOM BACHTELL