Vancouver schools brace for shake-up

Vancouver Public Schools will dramatically overhaul student learning and faculty controls at Discovery and Jason Lee middle schools next school year, prodded both by penalties and incentives set by Bush and Obama administration federal policies.

The impact, mostly in relocation of many teachers and other staff, is bound to ripple through several more Vancouver schools.

• Principals at both middle schools are out: Chris Olsen (Discovery) and Susan Cone (Jason Lee) will head for Thomas Jefferson and Alki middle schools, respectively, next summer. Curtis Smith, current Alki principal, will replace Olsen at Discovery; Marianne Thompson, Jefferson principal, succeeds Cone at Jason Lee.

• Teachers at Discovery and Jason Lee will be evaluated more closely than ever on student test performance, with merit rewards or forced removal in the balance.

This new scrutiny could prompt mass transfers of teachers within Vancouver schools this summer — including at least half of current Discovery and Jason Lee faculty under one reform plan being considered.

• Students at Discovery and Jason Lee will see some combination of longer class periods, longer school days, additional tutoring and other enhanced learning options. Teachers will get more professional training and the schools will strengthen community partnerships.

The district mailed a brief explanatory letter to school parents Tuesday. Staff at the schools were briefed following class the same day.

“It’s definitely not business as usual. It’s high accountability for everyone,” said Chris Burgess, Vancouver associate superintendent.

The intervention stems from Washington state measures — chiefly, Washington Assessment of Student Learning, or WASL, exam scores — that put Discovery and Jason Lee among the bottom 5 percent of “persistently lowest-achieving” secondary schools (middle or high schools) over the past three years.

At least 45 Washington schools have been placed in that group — each judged by overall school test scores, rather than any of three dozen student sub-categories. Each is designated a “Tier II” school under federal No Child Left Behind Act rules for any school eligible for (based on poverty rates) but not receiving federal Title I money for enhanced instruction.

Mandatory school reorganization would not be required for Vancouver for another year.

The district is applying for federal stimulus-funded School Improvement Grants that would pay between $50,000 and $1 million to each school per year for each of the next three years. The SIGs will be awarded competitively within each state by May.

Vancouver must get its formal application to Olympia by Tuesday. Faculty at Discovery and Jason Lee — about 95 full-time equivalent teaching staff — have until March 14 to indicate whether they’re willing to stay put under the tighter scrutiny, seek in-district reassignment, or leave the Vancouver system.

District chose to act

Balancing the looming Bush-era stick and the Obama-era stimulus carrot, district leaders chose to pursue the SIG money, setting the rapid chain of events into motion.

Word from the state that Jason Lee fell to Tier II status came just days ago. But it’s been clear that Discovery would face some intervention, district officials said.

“It’s not a surprise,” Superintendent Steve Webb said Wednesday. WASL scores at the two schools have lagged behind others in reading, writing and math categories monitored under NCLB, despite efforts toward improvement. “We’ve recognized for some time that some of our schools have struggled to achieve” test standards, he said.

Webb and others point to high poverty rates as one huge hurdle: Discovery had 69 percent of students eligible for free or reduced lunch rates last spring; Jason Lee, 60 percent (Vancouver’s district average was 47 percent; the state’s, 40 percent).

Jason Lee hosts Vancouver’s middle school magnet program for English language learners (one in four students last year was Hispanic), who struggle more on the WASL than their peers.

There’s also tremendous challenge to teach a greater number of students who have switched schools, often more than once, as their families relocate.

“When you mix poverty with high mobility, it’s just a toxic mix,” Burgess said.

It’s not as if Vancouver has looked the other way, Webb said.

Discovery has launched a schoolwide Middle Years Programme, a more rigorous academic system that models the International Baccalaureate program at Columbia River High School. It also has a small challenge (gifted student) program.

Besides its ELL magnet program, Jason Lee hosts a larger challenge program. This year, it added an Advancement via Individual Determination program designed to boost study habits and rigor for students with college aspirations who face extra hurdles at home.

While test scores could improve this spring (the WASL has been replaced by similar state-mandated exams), there’s no guarantee the two schools would escape the bottom 5 percent, relative to other Washington results, Burgess said.

‘Devastating news’

And so the first significant, tangible teeth of No Child Left Behind sanctions have clamped down on Clark County — even while dozens more schools fail to meet annual test standards but have not yet faced similar discipline.

The Vancouver district will reform Discovery and Jason Lee schools using one of five federal intervention models.

o Its first choice is a “transformation” model that requires: Replace the principal; improve teaching strategies and training; identify and reward staff who improve student outcomes, remove those who do not; increase learning times and strengthen home and community partnerships.

o The district may opt instead for a “turnaround” model with same rules — except at least 50 percent of school’s faculty must be transferred, and no pathway for teacher rewards/removal.

Teachers knew the intervention hammer could eventually fall, but they still were rocked by Tuesday’s announcement, said Ann Giles, president of the Vancouver teachers union.

“I know first-hand many of the Discovery staff. They work harder than any staff I’ve seen,” Giles said. “They take their work very seriously. So, yeah, this is devastating news.”

Now those teachers have just 11 more days to indicate whether they’re willing to stay and abide new, tougher performance evaluations, work longer hours and undergo additional training.

Those who don’t likely will seek in-district transfers. A chain of seniority-driven “bumps” might be eased by waivers allowed under the grant, but several schools may end up shuffling their lineup. The changes could trickle out to neighboring districts, too.

Giles’ union must help navigate that process and negotiate the sticky particulars of any longer work days, hours, professional training or other reforms the district selects.

The complexity is great: SIG grant money would go in part to performance-based “rewards” outlined by federal standards updated in January. In other words, merit pay — embraced by President Barack Obama and his Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, but long bitterly opposed by the Washington Education Association and many of its rank-and-file members.

“It’s tricky, because we need to explore what (district) options are,” Giles said. She said the union will work closely with administrators to avoid trouble, such as controversial mass faculty terminations made in other states that have grabbed headlines. “Some of them have done it abysmally and harmed students in the process,” she said.

Meantime, some teachers motivated by the new incentives may rush toward Discovery and Jason Lee. “We know we have teachers who will want to go into those schools,” Burgess said.

There will be chances for community involvement and input in coming months, they said. They also plan on some changes in feeder elementary schools.

Short-term, the district is sprinting to complete its application and decide on its precise reform path.

“It’s a very fast turnaround, which is worrisome to a lot of us,” Burgess said. “We want to do it the right way.”

One thing Vancouver won’t do: Lay fault upon the two principals, Olsen and Cone, in their fourth and third years, respectively, at their schools (Olsen has been with the district since 1987, Olsen since 1996).

“This superintendent and this (school) board unequivocally supports our principals,” Webb said. “This is about student learning … it isn’t about placing blame,” he said.

Howard Buck: 360-735-4515 or howard.buck@columbian.com.