Final Conference Thoughts: It was great!
Plenty of work left to do on closing the achievement gap and protecting our communities.

National School Boards Association Annual Conference
Full Conference – Day 4; Trip Day 6

Tuesday, April 01, 2008
From Orlando, Florida

Andrew C.M. Mizsak
Member of the Bedford Board of Education (Bedford, Ohio)
E-Mail: amizsak@sbcglobal.net

What a great few days this has been! While I have thoroughly enjoyed myself here in Orlando, it is time to get back home and take these ideas and what we have learned and bring them to the people we serve.

Believe me, this was no vacation, but sometimes time away and seeing things in a different place can give you some added perspective. Couple that with interacting with colleagues from across the country who may be addressing with similar issues, and you have a winning combination for finding best practices in order to govern more effectively.

During yesterday’s sessions on legislative efforts, Kathleen Branch of the NSBA mentioned, not by name, but a Board of Education Member from Ohio who is a great advocate on behalf of public education, and how she worked with NSBA after receiving a letter from the Chair of the House Health, Education, and Welfare Committee in order to properly address the Chairman’s questions that he fired back to her. That Board Member, who was not with us here in Orlando, is my friend and colleague Freda Levensen of the Shaker Heights City School District, who I work with in coordinating the 11th Congressional District of Ohio, for OSBA as Members of the Federal Relations Network. Freda is a seasoned veteran at grassroots lobbying, and does a truly outstanding job at keeping in good contact with our Member of Congress.

Of course, I also want to pay a tribute to another good friend and colleague, Karen Dendorfer of the Parma City School District, who I work with in coordinating the 10th Congressional District of Ohio as a Member of the FRN. Like Freda, Karen is also a seasoned pro at lobbying and legislative efforts. Karen is looked at as a leader on the several committees I have the pleasure of serving with her on, and is incredibly knowledgeable about legislative and policy issues at the state and federal level. Karen is also a great teacher and mentor for me as a first year FRN Member.

In the news back home in Ohio today, there is a story about how there is a growing achievement gap between urban and suburban students, when it comes to passing standardized tests and graduating from high school. This divide was referred to as a “gulf,” and is at a “crisis” level. So, what do we do?

Over the past few days, there have been numerous break-out sessions, vendor exhibits, and other discussion opportunities to address ways to close this achievement gap. Our Board President, Barbara Patterson, as I have mentioned in previous posts, has taken this issue head-on, by pushing for more interventions, additional tutoring, and more resources to help students pass their State-mandated tests. I absolutely agree with Mrs. Patterson’s efforts, but I would take them one step further.

Passing tests and graduating from high school is not just a school issue. It is a community issue. It is a quality of life issue. Not just the life of the individual student, but the life of the community as a whole. The boom to the suburbs from the central cities was because people wanted a higher quality of life for themselves and their children. Now those children have moved from the suburbs to the exurbs, and are seeking the same thing for their children. Can you blame them? I do not have children, but I do know that the goal and dream of any parent is to see their children achieve more and succeed far greater than they have.

With the issues of joblessness, foreclosures, plant closures, and crime saturating the landscape of urban areas, there is also a lack of hope…a pall cast over the dreams of young people to succeed and better themselves and rise up from the situation they are in. The study that discusses this achievement gap, commissioned by America’s Promise Alliance, says the chance of a 9th grade student in an urban high school graduating from high school four years later is 50-50.

Unfortunately, these issues have spilled over into inner-ring suburbs and school districts like mine, and now we are faced with dealing with the achievement gap too. You look at all of the school districts in the Lake Erie League – the conference our school is a part of – and all but one of the School Districts are considered to be an urban or inner-ring district. Our community is plagued by foreclosures, an influx of students transferring from neighboring districts for many of the reasons enumerated in the America’s Promise Alliance study, and quality of life issues being raised time and again, but between our District and our municipal partners, we are addressing them. In the Bedford City Schools, we have one of the highest rates of narrowing the achievement gap among minority students in Northeast Ohio.

Last summer, Plain Dealer Columnist Regina Brett wrote a wonderful column about our town, and how it is “post-card pretty,” but has fallen prey to predatory lenders and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. While I believe everyone should have the right to own a home, not all have the ability. Right now, I do not have the ability to own a home, but that does not mean I will not keep working to earn that ability. What HUD has done, as well as these predatory lenders, is gut our community at its very core. It has taken a proud community with a lovely housing stock and great people – a community with a proud history, a conscience, a soul, and a spirit – and turned it into one of America’s top 500 zip codes with the highest rates of foreclosure. How dare you.

As I mentioned in my “Life as a Board Member” post, I love my community, and when I travel around Ohio and around the nation and see other communities, I end up loving Bedford a little bit more (just look at my license plates). But, we are losing quality residents – those who have been there for generations – because they have given up on our community. And why?
Because we are now faced with problems coming in from the two urban areas that we are smack-dab in the middle of. And what has happened? The perception of our schools has taken a big hit too. A proud school district with a storied past that produced Academy Award ® winning award actress Halle Berry, three current and 9 former NFL players, a NASA Astronaut, a Naval TOP GUN aviator, news anchors and journalists, doctors and scientists, and on and on, is now looked at as a sub-par, urban school system by some. How dare you.

We are a diverse community, located in the suburbs. We pride ourselves on our location in proximity to the City, but are grateful that we are not in the City. We have companies locating here, and jobs with them, a historic Downtown area, excellent city services, sources of community pride a-plenty, and true neighborhoods…not these planned subdivisions like those in communities that are trying to create the charm that we have had for over 200 years. And I am the boy that John Mellencamp’s “Small Town” is all about. And, I am sure my colleagues who are born and bred Bedford would say the same thing.

So how does that tie to the achievement gap?

We have quality schools with quality educators, but we all know that the first teachers are parents, older siblings, grandparents, extended family members, religious leaders, and so on.

Everything begins in the home, including closing the achievement gap. We can do so much, but we need help. You do not need to have a Ph.D. in astrophysics to help your child…just read to and with them. Help them develop basic comprehension skills, phonics, and communications tools (AND WE DO NOT MEAN CELL PHONES, BLACKBERRIES, iPODS, iPHONES, etc.). Help them with spelling and sounding out words, basic math, making change, simple fractions by having them help you in the kitchen or more. Teach them the most basic science experiment that shows the three types of matter (solid, liquid, and gas) by taking an alka-seltzer tablet (solid), dropping it in water (liquid), and watching it fizz (transfer into a gas)…and if you want to make it even more exciting, drop in one of those blue denture tablets or some food coloring for some additional color and excitement. Oh, and please, get those kids to practice their handwriting too! We have become so lazy and dependent upon computers that we have let handwriting and good penmanship fall by the wayside. My colleagues have told me on numerous occasions that for a guy, I have the most girlish writing they have ever seen (no, I do not dot my “i” with a heart – like Member Tench once joked), but as my second grade teacher at Glendale Primary School, Marilyn Scotti, would remind us as she taught us the cursive alphabet, when you write or sign your name, it is a reflection of you and your family, so be proud of it, and write it neatly so that everyone will know who you are. I have Mrs. Scotti to thank for my cursive (that I still practice – because you MUST always continue to work at your handwriting), and my first grade teacher, Mrs. Linda O’Neill, for my printing (I still have my Most Improved Handwriting Award somewhere) and my love of reading. Still cannot color worth a darn, but I sure love to read!

We can close the achievement gap in the home by doing this, and by asking the same question my parents asked me EVERY DAY from Safety Town to Graduate School and even when I talk to them when I am away on business: “WHAT DID YOU LEARN TODAY?” One simple question that makes a world of difference to a child and shows that you care about their educational progress. If they answer “nothing,” then you call us, and our teachers will be more than happy to tell you what was on the day’s agenda. We do not pay our teachers to do
nothing, therefore, if a child says “nothing,” I can tell you that answer is not true.

But the key word in that question that my mom and dad would ask me is “LEARN.” Anyone can show up to school and go through the motions of going to class…believe me, I have seen it, especially at the public university level, but it is a matter of how well you comprehend and understand the material. What you get out is a direct result of what you put in.

I am not trying to give parenting advice…I would be out of line if I did that, but I am looking at things from an education-based perspective. We have a duty to our community’s children – all of us do – to give them the tools they need in order to be successful in life. My colleagues and I can only do so much, and we can only empower those who work for the District with so much, because it all truly begins in the home. We know, and my colleague Joe Mestnik can speak on this subject with expert level knowledge, that people want to send their children to our schools because of the great things we do. They want to take their kids from school districts whose reputations are those of failing Districts and bring them to us to give them a leg up.

Unfortunately, it is in that coming and going to and from our District where we end up getting a bad rap as a not-so-good School District on the State report card because students who transfer from district-to-district time and again do worse on standardized tests. In addition to that, students that come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds also tend to perform at a lower rate on standardized tests.

While our staff can assess students and give them as many interventions as possible, the most important intervention is the one in the home. Parents who are involved in the lives of their children, who help with homework, who communicate with their children’s teachers, can help their children score higher on tests and get more out of what they are learning. We have the tools and resources to help, both in the District and in the Community. All you have to do is ask.

Margaret Spellings, the Secretary of the US Department of Education, finds the achievement gap “absolutely unacceptable,” and recently stated that 90% of the fastest growing jobs will require more than a High School Diploma. (Source: www.wkyc.com)

In the Bedford City School District, we have numerous corporations in the STEM area locating within our territorial boundaries. Our job is to prepare students for the global workforce, and that includes giving them the skills that will get them into higher education. The jobs coming to our District are high-dollar jobs that are in growing fields, where the companies have made a commitment to stay within the District and possibly continue to grow within the District.
Helping kids and working to close the achievement gap is an investment in education no different than strengthening the infrastructure of a school building or buying textbooks are. Closing the achievement gap and getting kids to pass their tests and into college is truly also an investment in economic development. Those who have college degrees will enter into professions where they will earn more money, they will be likely to be homebuyers, they are then more likely to become engaged citizens in their communities, and so on and so forth.

Several years ago, I heard that over the course of a career, someone with a college degree will earn $1 million more than someone with just a High School Diploma. I am sure that figure is larger now. Corporations tend to locate where there is an educated workforce available, and when that happens, they bring their current employees with them, which brings more stability to the community, more tax revenue, a higher quality of life, and that ends up transcending into the schools.

Because I am tired of seeing the reputation of our School District and my Alma Mater get smacked around by some of our residents on their blogs, within the community, and by neighboring school districts and communities (cue the: “Ooooooh, you’re from Bedford, isn’t that the ghetto?” by some pretentious individual from (take your pick of the neighboring community or District that is probably a Member of a certain other conference)), I am in total favor of HB 27 of the 127th Ohio General Assembly that was introduced over a year ago by Representative Larry Wolpert of Franklin County. This bill totally makes sense, and would actually help our District’s overall rating, and paint a more accurate picture of what is actually going on in the Bedford Schools with regards to standardized testing. While value-added has helped immensely, this coupled with value-added, truly levels the playing field of all school districts, without lowering standards or taking any accomplishment or achievement away by another School District.

Mayor Dan Pocek of Bedford has a great mantra that has carried over to Council and some of us on the Board: “We believe in diversity, but not in diversity of values.” With that, he means that if you come to our community, you are accepting of the values of our community. We, on the Board, would extend that to adding the value of being active in the lives of your children.
Our schools are not babysitting agencies that watch kids between weekends. We are there to educate. We believe in discipline, as does our community partners, and we will not tolerate unruliness. When you come into our community and our schools, you accept that. Our Superintendent, Marty Motsco, says time and again, “We have our challenges, we know what they are, and we are facing them head-on.” Let us fix what we need to fix, because we really do not have the time to deal with other communities’ or other schools’ problems in addition to ours. Our constituents need us to do our work.

And to the person who decided to shoot someone at the IHOP, if you are reading this, our police department is darn good. You can run, but they will get you. Bet on it.

All of this…from legislative stuff to closing the achievement gap to addressing community issues…ties into my other area of interest: school safety and security. If you hit on all of these issues, the overall climate of the school environment improves, the quality of life improves in the community overall, and you are dealing with less juvenile issues, small crimes, etc. In the end, everything is so interrelated it is uncanny.

I have rambled on long enough for now. I started writing this just past 11:00 AM, and it is now 1:15 PM. I received a call from President Patterson from the airport informing me that things are crazy busy over there, which means I better grab some lunch and get over there even sooner.

To all of my friends and colleagues, it was great seeing all of you, and I bid you all safe travels.

I look forward to seeing my OSBA colleagues at events between now and Capital Conference, and to my NSBA colleagues, I will see you in DC for FRN, and at Annual Conference next year in San Diego.

And, to San Diegans, to quote Ron Burgundy, “You stay classy San Diego.”

The next update will be from the Orlando International Airport, followed by one from Charlotte.

Talk with you in a few hours with some additional thoughts.

Can’t wait to come home.

-Andrew Mizsak

The opinions offered are exclusively those of the author, Andrew Mizsak, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Bedford Board of Education, Bedford City School District, Ohio School Boards Association, or National School Boards Association. All comments should be directed to the author, Andrew Mizsak, at amizsak@sbcglobal.net.