Allocation of resources is one of the most challenging pieces of the budget process that a superintendent must take into consideration. In light of the pressure placed on a district leader to get results, failure to move the student achievement agenda can lead to certain demise. “However, accountability is a broader construct than the computation of student performance, including aspects of responsibility, authority, evaluation, and control, and must be constructed in relation to both internal and external communities” (Johnson & Kruse, 2009, p. 189). This process of balancing limited resources and accountability becomes increasingly complex when one must stay true to the vision they set for the district. It is essential that the district …show more content…
Research indicates that early literacy intervention programs are the type of district interventions that can avoid the potential cost of special education services which will later result in a student’s education due to an area of challenge going unaddressed. “No district can create smarter budgets without tackling the twin challenges of raising achievement for students with special needs while reducing costs” (Levenson, 2012, p. 107). The point Levenson (2012) is making here, and which I noted earlier, is that special education costs are one of the biggest drivers of district budgets. The impact special education costs on a small district’s budget can be especially challenging. This encourages district leaders to develop programs that limit the potential exposure for future special education expenses.
Early literacy intervention programs are the type of services that districts can provide to address the needs of students at an early age and potentially reduce future special education expenses. “Children who received daily instruction in addition to the normal classroom instruction will help students to do better” (Vaughan, Wanzek, & Murray, 2012, p. 41). This is a conclusion most individuals would come to when asked if increased instruction and practice would benefit students. In his study of the impact of extensive practice, Malcolm Gladwell (2011) makes the case that for an individual to become an expert or
I teach in the Westside Consolidated Number Five School District in Jonesboro, Arkansas. The school district is a consolidation of three small rural town school districts Bono, Egypt, and Cash, Arkansas in 1968. I met with my mentor Mr. Scott Gaunt the school district superintendent on January 18, 2017 between meetings with district leaders and countywide superintendents. We met and discussed the community relations plan and identified the two most important issues for our district as identified in the poll by the Phi Delta Kappan and the Gallop poll. The issues were the lack of financial support for the school district to provide an adequate education for students and the testing and regulations imposed on school districts that lower educational time for students while in school.
Early reading success is the foundation of a student’s knowledge and self-esteem. The foundation also provides future opportunities for growth. Students must learn to read proficiently so that they are able to learn more in future grades, post-secondary schools, and the workforce. Beverly Tyner’s Small-Group Reading Instruction: A Differentiated Teaching Model for Beginning and Struggling Readers states “In the United States, which offers few career opportunities for the illiterate, teaching children to read proficiently is the most important single task in education.” (Tyner, 2009). Beverly Tyner created the Small-Group Differentiated Reading Model which incorporates research-based strategies for teaching beginning reading skills and skills
As the newly promoted director of student achievement for Washington, D.C Public Schools, I am fully committed to the expansion of current program offerings as well as the creation of additional programs. To achieve this, I will make use of the principles learned in my graduate budgeting course to assess the current financial situation, plan the department’s future direction, create and implement the new annual budget, and lastly, evaluate the success of the programs and the budget in preparation of repeating these steps.
At a town hall meeting during the March 11th California Association of African-American Superintendents and Administrators (CAAASA) annual conference, panel members openly spoke about the transformation to the way California would fund education for the nine million public school students it serves. This panel discussion offered various stakeholder viewpoints around the Local Control Funding Formula and the Local Control Accountability Plan. Each member of the panel contributed honestly about LCFF and LCAP as it relates to the states vision of moving forward in trying to close the achievement gap for all students.
Our political leaders struggle to understand the impact they have on the policies they put into place to improve public education. We see mandates that are unfunded and have a significant impact on a school district’s budget. Special education continues to be an area rich with policy and yet additional dollars are not included in the decisions made for implementation. Title one funding is an area that falls into a blurry area of policy for school districts. In our district, we have policies for fiscal responsibility in our spending procedures and yearly audits to be sure we are spending our money in a proper way.
In corporate America, the expectation for a CEO is to increase profits and to project a positive public image for the corporation. The role of the 21st century public school Superintendent often mirrors that of a corporate CEO. The superintendent is responsible for a multi-million-dollar budget, the management of a large employee pool, and the expectations for high stakes profits are in the form of standardized assessment scores. Just as the CEO is expected to produce an increase in profits, the school Superintendent is accountable for, and is expected to produce, a yearly increase in test scores.
Closing the achievement gap is not an easy task. However, education leaders have a moral obligation to create a system of student supports and a belief system in which all students achieve beyond the standards. A superintendent's belief system and passion need to extend outward. As you move your institution toward the goal of everyone passionately believing, as a district leader, you only hire teachers, administrators, secretaries, bus drivers, custodians and all staff members who believe this as deeply as you do. By doing this, you begin to change the culture of your institution be it a school or an entire district.
If the current system not the administration calculates that the annually will increase as a chance to reinforce the district where it needs the assistance. While increased funding not necessarily equate to improvements in student performance, it’s funding and where it is clearly needs to be addressed. Ambitious effort to lift student achievement and, fundamentally, to undermine the idea of public
This is also occurring by scoring of teachers in these diverse school districts negating individual school district needs. This viscous circle undercuts the needs of students and teachers, to make current informed performance goals in accurate and fair treatment for teachers and students. The intended purpose of feedback from these principals is to meet strategic goals, establish standards, compare performance to standards, and make corrections to the system thru the monitoring the organizations they represent, identifying the activities then taking corrective
In this new era of accountability, the performance of all students is counted and schools must help every student to succeed.
Every school district has board meetings throughout the school year. Unfortunately, many parents, community members, & school personnel do not attend such important meetings because they don’t realize or understand the importance of such board meetings or how informative they can be. According to Kankakee School District (2017), the Kankakee School District Board of Education is composed of seven elected members, who were elected by the citizens of Kankakee to serve a four-year term that do not receive no salary for they services, are committed to ensuring a quality of educational excellence that will enhance the opportunities and challenges facing today’s student and additional responsibilities that board members include are selection of the District superintendent, developing general polices according to wishes of the community and requirements of law, hiring school personnel based upon recommendation of the Superintendent and the Assistant Superintendent of Personnel, adopts salary schedules, approves funds to finance school operations, must adopt and review the annual operating budget for the District, and setting the property tax levy to produce adequate funds to meet the District’s financial needs ranks among the responsibilities of the Board of Education (Retrieved from https://www.ksd111.org/domain/68). For this paper, the Kankakee School District board meeting will be used, information learned from board meeting, use of
State departments of education must be able to build capacity within their state by providing districts the essentials for developing a clear vision of what their schools’ futures entail, and the necessary components of professional development for leadership and teachers to create their own goals at the local level. Once this is accomplished, states need to hold the districts and local levels accountable, including themselves.
he most fundamental responsibility of schools is teaching students to read. Indeed, the future success of all students hinges upon their ability to become proficient readers. Recent scientific studies have allowed us to understand more than ever before how literacy develops, why some children have difficulty, and what constitutes best instructional practice. Scientists now estimate that fully 95 percent of all children can be taught to read. Yet, in spite of all our knowledge, statistics reveal an alarming prevalence of struggling and poor readers that is not limited to any one segment of society:
Funding for special education students is, and historically, has always been, a complicated issue. Most people believe the federal government funds special education in the United States. “Understanding Special Education Funding” (2009), states that, on average, most states estimate that the federal government provides less than 15% of the money needed to fund special education services. This, in turn, leaves local school systems responsible for funding the remaining portion of special education services. This paper examines the history of special education laws and funding, the wide variance of funding that exists from state to state, and the problems created by a lack of funding.
Of the 27 programs evaluated, six showed strong indication of effectiveness and five had moderate evidence of effectiveness. The results for these programs were on language, literacy and/or phonological awareness. For some of the studies the significant effects were seen at the end of preschool (Direct Instruction, Interactive Book Reading), and for others at the end of kindergarten (Curiosity Corner, ELLM, Ready Set Leap!) (Johns Hopkins University, 35). It is programs that actually show results that improve academic and cognitive strength. That is why it is important to support and fund programs like these.