Last week Cleveland Metropolitan School District CEO Eugene Sanders released his long-awaited district transformation plan. It is an ambitious proposal that seeks a substantial reorganization of CMSD and looks to spur innovation for the long-suffering urban district.
One hardly needs to make a case for reform in Cleveland’s public schools. A dwindling manufacturing base, high rate of home foreclosures, abandoned neighborhoods, and the current economic recession put the city at risk of becoming the next Detroit. Its population and student enrollment have declined exponentially over the last decades, and as a result many school buildings remained under-utilized or empty. Cleveland’s academic performance is arguably one of the worst in the nation. As we noted previously (see here and here), the district’s performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (aka, the Nation’s Report Card) has been alarmingly low and remained stagnant. For example, Cleveland is the only urban district in NAEP’s Trial of Urban Districts that has not seen academic achievement gains in reading or math since 2003. Graduation rates have not exceeded 62 percent in the past decade, and the city has been rated “Academic Watch” (a D) by the state or below by the state for nine of the last 10 years.
The transformation plan’s primary goal is ambitious – within five years no district school will be rated below “Continuous Improvement” (a C) by the state and at least half of the district’s schools will be rated “Excellent” (an A) or “Effective” (a B).
The district is seeking a broad array of changes. Most notable is a mass consolidation of its facilities. A third of its 110 buildings will stand to be “repurposed” or closed. While academic performance does play a role in scheduled closures, the primary motivator seems to be unused capacity. The district’s approach to turnarounds (which it refers to as “repurposing”) is interesting as it seeks multiple approaches such as total closure, restarts, and charter conversions.
The plan calls for strong K-8 neighborhood schools with enhanced social services, and replacing large comprehensive high schools with smaller academies of choice that have an emphasis on ninth-grade retention.
There are some significant top-down changes outlined, among them a shake-up of the central office. The district’s offices will be reorganized to more efficiently serve schools and promote innovation. The district is seeking to establish more of a building-based management approach that allows principals greater latitude in administrative decisions. (This decentralization effort seems to be based on the efforts of reform-minded districts like New York City, but unlike in NYC the money in Cleveland won’t follow the child to the school and be managed by school leaders.)
The district also includes language that seems to get tough with teachers whose students are not performing academically. The plan touches briefly on linking student performance with teacher evaluation, and hints at removing teachers who do not deliver results.
While this reform proposal is incredibly detailed in some areas, it is vague in others. It continually mentions strengthening a system of accountability. However, it includes only broad proposals in this regard and does not provide substantive examples of accountability benchmarks.
Additionally, it goes into few specifics on development of curriculum and pedagogy, pushing their development down the road. The document talks about a mishmash of “common core” curriculum and 21st century skills jargon.
There are quite a few hurdles that the district will need to clear for these efforts to be successful. It is predicting a serious deficit for the next school year, and it will cost approximately $20-25 million annually to implement all of the proposed reforms. CEO Sanders seeks to cover the costs through a combination of Race to the Top funds, private and corporate philanthropy, and cost cutting. Both the Cleveland and Gund Foundations have provided substantial financial support for the thinking behind the district’s reform strategy.
Stakeholder buy-in is essential, particularly when dealing with school closures. Many in the community are upset about the proposed closures, and the city council and teachers union have expressed anger over their lack of input in the plan.
Union acceptance of the reform package is sure to be a major sticking point, as the district and its union have had strained relations in the past. However, as Ohio’s only district under mayoral control, Sanders may have the leverage needed to push the reforms through.
Overall it seems as though CMSD did its homework before releasing this substantial reform package, and it presents a comprehensive strategy for moving itself forward. While the transformation strategy is light on pedagogy and curriculum changes, its structural and organizational changes are sorely needed. The main challenge for CMSD will be in the heavy lifting of implementation and actually carrying out the sweeping change for which it aims. This is a step in the right direction for the district, and hopefully a sign of turnaround not only for Cleveland’s school system, but also for the city itself.