Education

PG County Public School Report: Facilities for Education

Here is a copy of PG county public school: facilities for education. Their average building age is 41 Years Old. The report itself is four years old.

The report listed some benefits about good education facility and environment. I wish they provide a reference link to those data points.

  1. Building temperature can lower overall student performance by 0.2% in test scores for every 1 degree increase in temperature
  2. There is a 5% reduction in attention levels in poorly ventilated classrooms with too much CO2.
  3. Math and English scores can be improved through increased ventilation by 2.9% and 2.7%
  4. Improved lighting increased reading fluency by 36%.

They proposed using P3 to build new schools and even for maintenance effort. Here is the full report:

PG-Co-Education-Infastructure-ReportDownload

Speech at Achieve Success Together

Work Hard and Achieve Success Together 

Friday, 2019-10-25

First, I would like to thank Jean Xu’s invitation and congratulate the Chinese American Parent Association of Howard County on their great success in initiating and running the AST program. Thanks for Mr. James Lemon from the school system on behalf of superintendent Martirano and Ms. Angela Cabellon from the county government on behalf of Dr. Ball.

We are one community, each with different strengths. By collaborating and helping each other, we are creating a win-win situation. By tutoring students from low-income families or ESOL students, we are nurturing the spirit of helping each other, thus benefiting all in the community. 

My early life before college

While preparing the speech, I have been reflecting my life before college since some of you in this Achieve Success Together program have similar backgrounds as me while I was at your age.

Some time ago, while joking around with other board members who was more miserable when we were young, I won easily. I never had any new clothes until high school. Our family raised a pig for a year but had to sell the meat in exchange for cash to pay other debts every year.

I needed to walk at least half an hour to my elementary school no matter what the weather was like,  in the rain, in the snow. If I wanted to choose a shortcut, I needed to walk through a cemetery, which was very scary for  me when I was young. Until the middle school, I never took a bus or a car, even a bike. That’s probably the reason I always get motion-sickness whenever I take a long distance bus ride. 

However, I never felt I was poor because I took every opportunity to learn and barely paid attention to other material stuff. My world was not about the materials around me, but the knowledge inside me. I was borrowing books from everywhere, reading extensively at every topic, working on math problems, building relationships with my teachers and having some great friends who had similar aspiration as myself. We were poor but every friend wanted to improve ourselves, to be better than our parents’ generation. I even had a dream to become a poet before high school. 

In retrospect, this kind of attitude was shielding myself away from the extreme poverty I was facing at that time. And there is also a community culture that I need to work really hard to change my life, Otherwise, I had to work on the farm field, like a child labor, which always scared me. 

I was almost pulled out from middle school because my father felt he would not be able to pay my high school tuition, which was less than 20 dollars. I was almost sent to work as a carpenter to earn some money for my family. With some help from my relatives, I was able to go to high school, and eventually became the first in my family to go to college.

Moving up and moving forward

Nothing is more important than our self-determination. I had some classmates whose families were richer at that time. For some rich kids, they did not have that urgency and struggle. I was determined to study hard and change my life. 

If I didn’t have the will to help myself, nobody can help me. God helps those who help themselves. Along the way, I took every opportunity in front of me. There are many great-hearted people who would love to offer a hand in the world to those who are in need.

The social-economic situation is one barrier many of us need to overcome. In most cases, it is a huge burden to our young children. However, how to deal with it in the right way is important for our life trajectory. For people who have faith in themselves and work hard to build a strong foundation, they will greatly increase the chance of their future success when they rise from early hardship. 

  1. Being a student teacher in AST, you are believing in yourself capable of changing the world for the better. Thank you.
  1. By joining this program, our students believe in themselves that they can change and improve themselves for a better future.  Thank you.

Find your own interest and work on it. If we are a fish, we go to swim. If we are a bird, we go to fly. If we love math, work on a lot of math problems. If we love reading, read a lot of books. 

Together, we can do better. Thanks for everyone’s effort. 

Superintendent Struggle Part 2

What is happening with our superintendents recently?

  1. Howard County Superintendent Renee Foose resigned with 1.6 million dollars’ package in 2017.
  2. Baltimore County Superintendent Dallas Dance first resigned without any early notice and now was jailed for greed, bribery and lie in 2018.
  3. P.G. County Superintendent Kevin Maxwell retired with 800,000 package in 2018. Under his leadership, PG county systematically inflated student grades to meet graduation requirements.
  4. Montgomery County could not find a superintendent for a long time since 2015.

These four school systems are very large. The superintendent struggle probably tells us something unique to our school system. The Council of Great City Schools, which researches tenure, salaries and characteristics of school superintendents, found in a 2014 report that 3.2 years was the average tenure among superintendents in cities with populations of more than 250,000. Ref: http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2017/04/18/baltimore-county-schools-superintendent-dallas.html

In order to prevent the superintendent position as a cash cow in the future, we need give the school board the authority to fire the superintendent. In my opinion, the firing needs a super majority, not a simple majority.  We need push our state legislatures to update our law.

 

Correlation between early voting and election day voting

There is a consistent correlation between early voting and the election day voting for all candidates except No. 5 and No. 6 seats.

But overall, candidates received votes proportionally in the early voting and the election date voting. Coincidentally, No 7. and No 8. received exactly the same total votes. Every vote counts.

2018 primary election BOE data.JPG

The result is obtained from https://results.elections.maryland.gov/elections/2018/results/Primary/gen_results_2018_1_by_county_140.html

The data may change before it is certified.

Thank you note after primary election win

2 Comments

I am really excited to get into the top four (of 13 candidates) with more than 15000 votes in the 2018 Howard County Board of Education Primary Election. I will advance to the general election in November 2018. I am so grateful to many voters who trusted me and my volunteer team who helped me.

It is a learning experience. When the journey began, I was really careful with what I said or what others said about my campaign. You don’t want to offend your potential voters, right? I paid attention to Facebook posts after work every night. During one meeting with some community activists, when I said “I value education” and one person asked me back “so you mean others don’t value education?”, I began to realize that I didn’t need to and I could not please every one. What I need to do is to have an equal conversation and promote my experience, my value and my vision for HCPSS.

It is not always easy for me, as a non-native speaker to speak as eloquently as other candidate. I need to slow down while speak ( I often forget this either because of nervousness or excitement) and I need to articulate about my thought. Even if I have great ideas, I need present them well. I picked up my old vocabulary book and other accent training tapes again.

As an engineer, I need to find ways to resonate with audiences and voters. During my professional work, I just need focus on A+B=C or ax^2+bx+c = 0, etc, which has a very standard way to be expressed and understood between engineers. I can articulate well and get the ideas exchanged effectively and efficiently in the engineering field. While in a community meeting/discussion/chat, many people’s backgrounds are quite different from mine, I need to understand their background first and find a way to get my thoughts out in the right format.

As myself growing up from a low-income family, I have always believed education is not about education only. It is an effort that should be worked with students, teachers, families and the community. We just could not expect the school to address all the issues which are caused by the society. That is not realistic. We need to motive our students to learn and work hard by involving families and communities.

We need to provide more vocational training as an another career choice for our students. My brother graduated from a teaching school ( equivalent high school level) and became a teacher when he was 18. With his support, my family was turned upwards and I followed his path, studied really hard, eventually went to college.

I am not an emotional person which prevents me connecting with some voters. I stay calm, listen to others and try my best to look at issues objectively and find a practical solution.

I am independent and always keep my eyes open to new ideas. I do my research first and speak later. I learn from every source to keep myself informed and engaged at issues.

I am new. I even did not know politics was associated with color. Some people assumed me to be republican since I was using “red” in the yard sign or I wore a red tie. I was really surprised. Just reiterate: I am an independent candidate. The color identity politics is weird and wrong. I just feel red/write yard sign in the green/blue grassy background is more visible and it bring me the energy. It is the person, their idea and character that matter in the life, not the color of their tie, nor the color of their skin.

I will continue to advocate “quality education” for our students. We should look for a reasonable and fair solution to address each issue we are facing in the school system.

It is a learning experience for me as a county-wide (at-large) candidate because our community is so diverse and their focuses are also quite different . It is also a learning experience for my volunteers. Many of them never participated in any political process before. They were disfranchised in the community or the political process before. Now they are engaged.

Our campaign is a grass-root effort. This time we jumped in the boat and learned to row the boat. We made some mistakes ( I apologize if those mistakes cause some trouble for you or others) and will make sure we do not repeat those mistakes in the general election in November.

If you would like to continue the journey with my team, please board our boat. Please remember:

  1. A Vote for Wu is a Vote for you.
  2. Save the best for last since my name is the last in ballot.

Together, we are stronger. Now it is time for us to sail further, wider and happier.

Connecting people and building friendship

Connecting people and building friendship. That is the exact reason why I have been working with CA’s program manager Laura Smit and our residents Hui Dong, Jun Han to explore a sister city relationship between Columbia and Liyang of China since Oct. 2015.

The Liyang Sister City Committee of Columbia Association took its official name on Tuesday 6/12/2018. We are promoting culture exchange, high school students exchange, tourism and many more between Columbia, Howard County and Liyang, China.

Congratulations to all China Sister City Planning Committee members. Thanks a lot for your great and continuous work. It is tremendous work.

Congratulations to all delegates who made the trip to Liyang last year, including CA board members Alan Klein and Dick Boulton, Delegate Eric Ebersole , former long time Delegate Liz Bobo and Howard Council member Lloyd Knowles, Marcy Gitt ( Liyang Sister City Committee Vice Chair), Barbara Kellner ( former Columbia Archive Director), Laura Smit and many more. Unfortunately our great reporter Len Lazarick did not get the visa.  It was a successful trip.

I am looking forward to many opportunities for these two great cities to work together.

Connecting people and building friendship. Liyang China

Endorsement for Chao Wu

Here comes the endorsement for Dr. Chao Wu for Howard County of Board of Education. I believe it is not a specific organization that can speak for you.  It is you, our voters, by making a little bit of effort to understand the candidate’s background, experience, and vision for the school system, make an informed vote. Your vote is my endorsement.  With this belief in my heart, I won the primary in June with 15600 votes. 

I wish the non-partisan BOE election will be still no-partisan and our voters still strongly  believe a practical and programmatic candidate like myself.

On the campaign trail for the Board of Education, many people from all sides have keep encouraging me because of my ideas, my experience and my vision for HCPSS.

  1. Here are my priorities:
    1. I will work with stakeholders to solve the $37 million (falling from $50 million) school budget deficit. I will make sure the BOE is not a rubber stamp.
    2. I will make sure HCPSS provide equitable learning opportunities for all students, motivate students to learn and to succeed through hard work. I will make sure HCPSS provides more vocation/trade programs for our students.
    3. I will listen to all sides and be open to new ideas for solutions.
  2. I have the experience as an effective board member of Columbia Association ($80 million yearly budget), working on the budget committee( once as a chair), the risk management committee and the audit committee. I also has the opportunities to engage with community members, village associations and other stakeholders. I write monthly to inform our residents about what is happening in our neighborhood. This experience prepares me with the necessary skills and education as a BOE board member.
  3. I have been involved with the school system for several years. I testified in front of BOE several times. I sat on the BOE Operating Budget Review Committee. I led discussion on the early school starting time. I go to many meetings, PTA, PTAC, SEC, CAC, CEC, etc. I read and write a lot on many school topics and keep myself informed. I am passionate about how to provide a quality education for our students.
  4. I have the experience as a first generation immigrant who was lifted up by the public education all the way along. This experience gives me the best understanding how a quality education can inspire students to learn and succeed.
  5. I have the experience staying in three different countries(China, Singapore and United States), three different systems(educational, religious, economical and political). These experiences give me the first hand understanding how a diverse community can live together harmoniously. I can bridge the gap and seek common ground for our school system.

I will be your voice and you are my strength.

A Vote for Wu is a Vote for you. Save the best for last. 

Answers to Howard County Chamber Questionnaire

Howard County Candidate Questionnaire from Howard County Chamber

May 31, 2018

Board of Education Candidates

1.     Some believe that Howard County schools are overcrowded. However, data seems to reflect a balancing issue. Would you consider school redistricting to best utilize the existing facilities we have in our county?

In reality, many schools are overcrowded and a few schools are just below the allowed capacity. From the school data we have, even as we try to balance the student numbers, some schools will be still overcrowded because we don’t have enough capacity to house the existing and ever growing student population. School redistricting should be used to utilize the existing facilities, but it should not be the only tool to address the school overcrowding issue. We need build more schools where the students come from. We need plan our housing development more carefully.

We should not allow developers drive our county’s development by consistently redistricting schools. 

2.     If Howard County schools operate under capacity as a result of the Board of Education’s desire not to redistrict, are you willing to fund school construction without state funding?

As indicated in my first answer, I am against massive (20%) school redistricting which is disruptive and damaging to the students and the community. Massive school redistricting will shift the burden from the county council and the county government to the parents and students. We need the county council and the county government to provide enough funding for the school system, plan housing development at the right pace and the right location.

I believe BOE should seek any opportunity to fund school construction with a short-term and long-term plan. 

3.     How can the Board of Education best support education while at the same time promote Howard County as a business destination?

BOE should work hard to maintain our quality education such that we can attract families and employees to live or work in Howard County.

Having a top employee force can promote HoCo as an attractive business destination, for sure.

At the same, we want to keep our business tax at a competitive level. This requires the county not to overspend its money and then have to raise tax. Since our school system spends around 58% of the county budget, BOE should make sure our school system is fiscally managed well.  

4.     Do you believe that there is a shortage in career and technology education and how would you address this issue going forward?

I believe there is a shortage in career and technology education. I would ask HCPSS to promote such career path to our students. We need provide such opportunities to our parents and students. At the same time, we must make sure our parents and students take advantage of such opportunities.

Furthermore, we should work with business communities to hire our graduates. We should build a reliable partnership between HCPSS and our business community both for the program direction and the hiring collaboration.

5.     Howard County has long been lauded for its education system but there are concerns by many that an achievement and equity gap exist. Do you agree with these assessment? How would you work with the superintendent and the community to address these concerns whether real or perceived?

I agree that HCPSS has a problem that some of students are not achieving the level of the success they can achieve. We need work with the superintendent, the school staff, families and the community together to address this issue. We will not succeed with the only focus on the school involvement. We should create an inspiring and motivational learning environment for our students which will eventually drive our students forward.

6.     Previous Board of Education and administration decisions have left the school system with a health fund deficit. What recommendations will you propose to remedy this situation and prevent it from happening again?

If I am elected into BOE, I will never be a rubber stamp as before which left us the current $50 million budget deficit. The board should keep their fiducial responsibility for HCPSS and the community.

We need improve the budgeting and spending process such that line item transfer should be strictly controlled and specifically approved by the board. The school should not start a new initiative without sustainable income to support such program.

We need better and frequent audit and risk management system for HCPSS such that problems can be found earlier before it becomes catastrophic.

7.     Is the current budgeting process between Howard County and HCPSS working well, or does it need improvement? What improvement would you pursue? 

The budgeting process definitely needs improvement.  For each budgeting cycle, before the school proposes its budget to the county government, the county government and the school should have an honest discussion on much money can be allocated to HCPSS. Based on that discussion, the school proposes a feasible budget to the county government and county council.

Right now, the school system and the county government are treating the school budget as a kicking ball in the public face. This process causes a huge distraction to the real problems:

1)    what is a reasonable and fair share that the county government can fund our education system based on our county’s revenue;

2)    what is a good mechanism to fund the education system when the county revenue is fluctuating from one year to another.

Answers to Questionnaire of Facebook HoCo School Interest Group

Thanks to Bonnie Bricker’s effort, she organized a Facebook HoCo School Interest group and had an online BOE candidate forum. There are four questions and my answers to all of them.

Questions, Board Of Education:

  1. Please describe your role as a board member in creating equity for vulnerable populations including those in Special Education, immigrant and undocumented students, LGBTQ, and racial minorities. (350 words or LESS)

I believe all students, including those in Special Education, immigrant and undocumented students, LGBTQ, and racial minorities, should be treated equally. As an immigrant and racial minorities myself by these definitions, I know the challenges first hand. However, I don’t want to be labeled as “vulnerable” in my work place or my community, neither I want my children to be labeled as “vulnerable” in school. This label puts me down and does not aptly describe who I am. I want everyone to be treated equal with respect. I believe I am not the only one who share this sentiment.  Putting our students into different baskets is not the best way to help them to perform to the best of their abilities. It may prevent them to become the best version of themselves and this is not a healthy mindset for students to adopt both in and outside of school.

As a board member, I will ensure all the policies are non-discriminatory. I will ensure these policies are implemented in a non-discriminatory way. Most importantly, I will ensure everyone feels welcomed in school and everyone is expected to achieve the highest standard no matter which “basket” he or she is in.

Family involvement and effective communication is another crucial component of creating a supportive and encouraging environment in our schools. We need to create an avenue for families to communicate to the Board about the inequities they are facing in order for the Board to pass policies to address these inequities. Labeling people as “vulnerable” does not create this avenue of communication and only discourages our families from reaching out for help. We should create a straightforward, efficient and effective feedback mechanism for each policy and each program such that we can engage with the students who are not treated equally or need resources. Only through continuous effort and improvement, we can provide an equitable learning opportunity for all.

  1. What experiences or skills do you have that prepare you to make educationally focused decisions?(350 words or LESS)

I want to make sure HCPSS has a quality of education for years to come. I have one child currently in HCPSS and another one will enter next fall.

I have been actively involved with the school system. I served on the BOE Operating Budget Review Committee (OBRC). I have testified on multiple issues during Board of Education hearings including later school starting time and school redistricting. Most recently I provided suggestions to the school regarding transportation optimization. I have been an active participant in CAC and my local PTA meetings.  I also testified on tightening APFO in front of county council since I believe APFO will affect our education system significantly.

I have been elected twice as a Board Member of Columbia Association and River Hill Village Association since 2015. I am a strong proponent of fiscal health and great customer service for Columbia Association. I care deeply about both the organization health and residents feedback.

I was educated in three different education systems, China, Singapore and USA. My unique international education experience gives a multi-dimensional perspective and approaches while looking at issues and solving problems.

As an engineer, I always look for practical and optimal solutions when encountering problems. I look for solutions which are data-driven, pragmatic, community involved and professional derived.

  1. Redistricting is a difficult process, yet we know it is in our future. How can we best help this process to be more informative and less divisive? (350 words or LESS)

Redistricting is one part of strategies to solve the overcrowding issue. I was involved in the redistricting process last year by applying for the Area Attendance Committee (the selection process was not transparent, to say at least), attending community meetings, engaging with community members, exchanging ideas with HoCo Collaborative Community Plan group, I have learned a lot thought my first-hand experience.

We should improve both the process and methodology for school redistricting. We need accurate, complete and clean data for a data-driven solution. We need to develop in house capability to process redistricting data in real time while discussing this important topic.

We need a more objective goal while moving polygons around. In policy 6010, we should assign each criteria a weight (for example, each criteria 7.69%) objectively and evaluate the overall performance while doing the adjustment. We should not let one criteria dominate all of other factors.

We need to keep student-focused education in the policy center. Siblings, rising junior etc. should not be negatively impacted. We should always try to give parents and families options and choices such that they can choose what is the best for them.

Furthermore, the board should keep the pressure on building new schools as our student population keeps growing. Since the board approved high school #13 at Mission road, the board should continue look for high school 14. We should make sure high school #13 will be completed on time with quality assurance and make sure the elementary school in Turf Valley be on track.  We just could not keep large scale school redistricting plan on the table all times.

  1. If elected, what are your top 3 priorities as a Board member? (350 words or LESS)

1)      Work with all stakeholders to solve the $50 million school deficit and bring accountability and transparency back to the school system. Because of the rubber stamp support from previous BOE members and continuous lack of accountability and transparency, HCPSS is hitting hard with this $50 million deficit. We need work with the community, teacher association, county council, county executive and other stakeholders to develop a long and stable plane to address it.

2)      Provide equitable learning opportunities for all students and motivate students to learn and to succeed through hard work. Different students have different learning capabilities, different learning environments and different personal interests, the school system should provide individualized learning opportunities for them. At the same time, HCPSS should work with families and communities to address individual student need, motivate students to achieve their best potential through hard work. If there is a will, there is way for both students and HCPSS.

3)      Listen to all sides and be open to new ideas for solutions. As a board member, I am looking for data-driven and practical solutions. We have a diverse community and diverse perspectives and we need respect and embrace them and use the talents from all resources.

Issues with HCPSS world language program

About the language program, unfortunately HCPSS is not offering enough support. Because of the budget issue, Spanish classes were dramatically downsized too. Here, I am introducing some community support for the language learners. For Chinese language learner, there are several channels you can use:

1) There are three weekend Chinese schools in Howard County:

  1. The Howard County Chinese School at HCC and Centennial High (https://www.hccs-md.org/ ),
  2. The Peiying Chinese School at River Hill High (http://www.peiying-md.org/),
  3. The Chinese Language School of Columbia at Howard High (http://www.clscweb.org/).

All of them offer Chinese language classes from K-12, paced with our public school schedule. The tuition is really affordable. There are more than 20% of class participants do not have Chinese heritage at all.


2) The Columbia Association’s language coffee at East Columbia Library. It takes place at the fourth Tuesday of the month. It offers almost all major languages and is relative causal. It is fun.  https://www.columbiaassociation.org/facilities/international-exchange-multicultural-programs/multicultural-programsevents/


If you can weigh in and share other language learning opportunities in the same post, that will be great. I can then put all of them in one place in the future.

2018 Howard County Primary Early Voting Locations

The following four centers open from 10 am to 8 pm daily from 6/14-6/21. A vote for Wu is a Vote for you.

  1. Miller branch Library, 9421 Frederick Road, Ellicott City, MD 21042
  2. The Bain Senior Center, 5470 Ruth Kenton Way, Columbia, MD 21044
  3. Howard County Fairgrounds, 2210 Fairgrounds Road, West Friendship, MD 21794
  4. Ridgely’s Run Community Center, 8400 Mission Road, Jessup, MD 20794

You can register to vote there too.

Then the general election is on Tuesday, 6/26/2018. The polling station may be changed. Check https://voterservices.elections.maryland.gov/PollingPlaceSearch.

If you could not make it , please request the absentee vote right now at: https://voterservices.elections.maryland.gov/OnlineVoterRegistration/InstructionsStep1

It is your right to vote and it is your voice to determine the BOE race.

Columbia’s Sister Cities Show at the Mall

We have four Sister Cities, Cergy-Pontoise, France; Tres Cantos, Spain; Tema, Ghana; and Cap-Haitien, Haiti. Another new sister city from China, Liyang is under the board consideration now.

Ongoing High School Exchange Program

There are three amazing opportunities for Howard County high school students to travel abroad next summer and experience the life of a teen in one of Columbia’s three sister cities: Cergy-Pontoise, France; Tres Cantos, Spain or Cap-Haitien, Haiti.

We are connecting people and building friendship.

Lisa Cameron Schuster shared a valuable picture (from Columbia Flier) when she joined a CA sister city trip to France long time ago.

Robot will take our jobs?

Robot will take our jobs. How can HCPSS help our students to avoid this?

  • Andrew Ng’s biggest concern about AI is its effect on Jobs (Not evil AI)
  • Industrial Robot sales in the US are now growing at 32% YoY US (2017)
  • Expected to accelerate as robots become more intelligent, less expensive more capable
  • Low Wage Jobs are most susceptible https://willrobotstakemyjob.com/
  • Based on Oxford 2013 Report on the susceptibility of jobs to computerization in the US
  • Machine learning will put a substantial share of employment across a wide range of occupations at risk
  • By the authors’ estimates about 47% of total US employment is at risk
  • Job automation bottlenecks: Perception and Manipulation, Creative Intelligence, Social Intelligence

Feedback from my February candidate community meetings

Thanks to Alan Klein and Janet Evans’s support. I had two “meet your candidate” meetings at Village of Harper’s Choice and Village of Long Reach in this February. I really like this kind of small scale community meetings such that we can have great dedicated convetsation.

Here are the questions I heard from our communities.

  1. School ranking: why are some schools are better than others?
  2. How do you view standardized test?
  3. What can the board do to help disadvantaged children?
  4. Why you are running?
  5. What do you think about Dr. Foose?
  6. Did you get teacher association’s endorsement?
  7. Issues: school start time, school redistricting, vocational schools

DSC_8275

2017-2018 Report of the Commission on the Future of HCC

It was my great honor to serve on the 2017-2018 Commission on the Future of Howard Community College. I participated in the “Building Global Competence” Task Force. I believe the success of HCC is a success for Howard County.

Here are the recommendations from our task force:

HCC comission on the future p1.JPG

HCC comission on the future p2

HCC comission on the future p3

Here is the link to the whole report: http://www.howardcc.edu/about-us/mission-and-strategic-plan/commission-on-future/documents/January_2018FinalReport.pdf

I am attaching a copy here too: The report of Commission on the Future of HCC 2017-2018

 

 

Leadership Perspectives on Public Education

1 Comment

From The Gallup 2017 Survey of K-12 School District Superintendents. Link: http://news.gallup.com/reports/217103/gallup-k-12-superintendent-report-201708.aspx#aspnetForm

Executive Summary
Gallup developed this research study of K-12 superintendents of public school districts in the U.S. to understand their opinions on important topics and policy issues facing education. Since 2013, Gallup has conducted the survey at least annually. The following are key findings from the 2017 study.

Forty-two percent of superintendents are engaged in their job, a significantly higher percentage than Gallup finds among U.S. workers nationally and on par with the 45% of workplace “leaders” (those who manage teams of managers). Engaged workers tend to be more productive, and their work leads to better outcomes for their organizations.
Superintendents in city, suburban and larger districts tend to show higher levels of work engagement.

Superintendents are most likely to believe their greatest challenges are improving the academic performance of underprepared students, the effects of poverty on student learning and budget shortfalls. Compared with 2013, far fewer regard rising demands for assessment from the state and federal level and revamping curriculum as challenges. Superintendents were most likely to name rising assessment demands as a challenge in 2013, but now it is a mid-range concern for them.
Superintendents express concern about being able to find talented teachers and principals to fill their district’s positions. Two-thirds say the quantity of new teacher candidates is decreasing, while fewer than one in 10 say it is increasing.
Superintendents are also much more likely to view the quantity of new principal candidates as decreasing (43%) rather than increasing (10%). Superintendents are somewhat less pessimistic that the quality of teacher and principal candidates is getting worse, but still more say it is decreasing rather than increasing. About one in four superintendents say that former teachers in their district are leaving the teaching profession entirely.

Not surprisingly, then, superintendents tend to rate their district as less effective at recruiting talented teachers and principals than they are at selecting, developing and retaining them.

Superintendents are generally positive about their relations with the school board. The vast majority indicate they agree with their board on most decisions, and two-thirds are confident their district is well-governed at the board level. But not all superintendents have a good working relationship with their school board — about one in five say they have considered leaving their position because of their relationship with the school board.

Superintendents are less likely today than a few years ago to positively evaluate their board’s knowledge of K-12 education or the board’s diversity and inclusivity. Forty-three percent strongly agree or agree their board is very knowledgeable about K-12 education, down from 55% in 2013. And 45% today, down from 52% in 2013, believe their
district has a diverse and inclusive board.

Superintendents are much more likely to be engaged with their work if they strongly believe their district is very effective in recruiting teacher and principal talent and if they are very positive about their relations with the school board and about their board members’ knowledge of K-12 education. Among various strategies or initiatives designed to foster student success after graduation, superintendents are most likely to rate having teachers who create excitement for the future as extremely important to achieving that end. Most also see building student engagement and teaching a rigorous academic core as extremely important to students being successful later in life.

Superintendents are largely confident that their graduates are prepared to be good citizens, to lead healthy lives and to make informed decisions about postsecondary education. They are less confident that students are prepared to manage their finances well and to understand how their talents align with the needs of the community. Superintendents are about equally likely to say their graduates will stay in the area and contribute to the local community as to say their graduates will migrate to other communities. Relatively few superintendents believe their students are prepared to be entrepreneurs and business builders in their communities.

Like many education leaders, superintendents believe early childhood care and education can have a substantial impact on student learning outcomes once they begin school. But they perceive early childhood education programs to be lacking in their state, and a majority disagree that most children are prepared to be successful when they
start kindergarten.

Superintendents acknowledge that federal education policy affects their district, but they remain negative about the job the federal government has done in this area in the last five years. It is unlikely that those views will change under the new Donald Trump administration, since a majority of superintendents say they have no confidence at all in the Trump administration to handle K-12 education policy.

Reflecting that pessimism, 32% of superintendents strongly agree or agree they are excited about the future of K-12 education in the U.S., down from 44% in 2015. The vast majority of superintendents remain excited about the future of their own district.

superintendent facing issues

2017 Superintendent Report FINAL