Author: ijsadmin (Page 4 of 13)

When 2018-19 assessment results for Jeffco Schools became available last year there was a great deal of consternation. Achievement was down pretty much across the board and more importantly growth for the District was below the state average. A scramble was made to provide teachers with more planning time. Even though this was the second year of declining results under Glass, Deputy Superintendent Kris Schuh told the Board that this dip was anticipated due to moving to a focus on transforming the task and Deeper Learning.

While end-of-year state testing was not conducted in 2019-20 due to COVID, the District did, as it does every year, administer Winter MAP tests. Predictive MAP tests are highly correlated to state tests.

We can compare the yearly Winter MAP results to get an excellent idea of the direction the District’s students were headed in 2019-20 before Covid and whether the additional teacher planning time and the emphasis on transforming the task and Deeper Learning were having positive impacts.

Comparing the percentage of Jeffco students who Met or Exceeded Exceeded Standards from Winter 2018-19 to Winter 2019-20 we can see that the highly touted teacher planning time and continued emphasis on transforming the task were not working.

Essentially, Glass was failing in his most important responsibility – improving education in Jeffco.

And, unfortunately, this was the 3^rd straight year that Jeffco Winter MAP results went in a downward direction, for both Reading and Math under Glass.

Is it any wonder that Glass beat feet out of Jeffco? Winter 2019-20 results should have been available in January and he would have known these before applying to be Kentucky Ed Commissioner. It also makes me suspicious why, unlike every year in the past, Winter MAP results were not presented to the Board of Education in January or February. Was this an act of intentional deception that no one wanted to be accountable for?

It is clear from these charts that Jason Glass did a massive amount of damage to Jeffco’s kids. Even without the additional impacts from Covid, it will take years to stop this slide and get Jeffco headed in the right direction.

Complicit in this damage is Jeffco’s Board of Education. Current members Susan Harmon, Brad Rupert and Ron Mitchell were members of the Board when they hired Glass, without any record of improving education.

I hope these Board members realize how many kids’ they permanently harmed with the Glass hire and that they learned from this mistake when hiring the next Superintendent.

Jeffco is fortunate that Glass left when he did as there is no end in sight to Jeffco’s continuing downward spiral.

Glass was a complete failure in Jeffco.

The damage he did was real and will be extremely difficult to correct.

With Denver Public Schools just announcing a start to the school year in full Remote Learning, we can believe that Glass will follow and announce the same within the next few days for Jeffco. This will be mere days after Glass’s disastorous FB Live event in which no actual questions regarding the District’s restart plan were answered.

In fact, in the 40 minutes of the FB Live event, Remote Learning and academics were not mentioned once. The restart plan itself merely contains several pages of vague eduspeak and is actually tellingly shorter than the Communications plan.

It’s just a plain dereliction of responsibility and an avoidance of accountability that the Plan is so vague and includes no specifics.

Remote Learning, in some form, was always going to happen this Fall. A failure to provide specifics in the Plan is a truly appalling lack of leadership.

Going forward, Glass should be required to immediately and definitively answer the following questions:

1. By what date will EVERY Jeffco student have at-residence access to their own electronic device? The only acceptable answer would be within the first week of class.
2. By what date will EVERY Jeffco student have at-residence internet connectivity. The only acceptable answer would be within the first week of class. Did the IT Department work on alternatives during the summer such as bus or school building roof hot spots as many other districts have done?
3. Will teachers be required to deliver Remote Learning from their classrooms for accountability purposes? If not, why not?
4. Given that school will start a week late, should we continue to expect 5 days of instruction weekly? If not, why not and what impact on students will reduced class time have on students?
5. When will beginning of year assessments be administered to ascertain how much learning was lost during the spring’s failed experiment in Remote Learning?
6. Will student attendance be measured in a different manner than in the spring? If not, why not?
7. How will teachers be held accountable for their instruction?
8. How, specifically, will best practices be shared? Will best practice sharing be limited to tool usage or will sharing/instruction on proven Remote Learning techniques be mandatory?
9. What guidelines will teachers be given relating to Remote Learning? Will there be Synchronous teaching requirements? If not, why not?
10. How will students be held accountable for Remote Learning?
11. What are the specific plans to make up for the spring learning loss?
12. Will anything be done to improve the Grab-and-Go meal distribution to ensure more students and families receive meals?
13. How long will non-working Classified staff be paid full wages if Remote Learning extends beyond just a few weeks?
14. If the school year starts with Remote Learning for all, why didn’t the District fall back on the K-5 in school option previously presented?

It’s well past time for the eduspeak and vague ‘plans’ for how things will work this fall. Remote Learning was always going to be given. At this point, Glass and staff should be able to provide details and extremely specific plans. If he can’t do that the Board should execute their responsibility of ensuring quality education and get rid of him immediately. They should put someone in charge who will actually get something done while there is still time to make an impact.

Unfortunately, we know that isn’t going to happen because the Board is extraordinarily weak and unwilling to ask the hard questions. In the end, thousands and thousands of students will be permanently harmed because of the incompetence of Jason Glass and the Board’s failures.

Glass can call it what he wants, an “opportunity to come home”, but mere days into the start of a 5 year contract extension, I call it something else – a complete lack of integrity and a total betrayal of Jeffco and the Board members who gave him that contract extension.

As much as I think that Glass is an extraordinarily weak leader, this move goes far beyond weak leadership – this move is downright disgusting.

Think about it. Glass left Jeffco at a crucial time in implementing his Covid Restart plan and at a time in the year when it is extremely difficult to ensure that high quality candidates to fill the position would be willing or even available for interviews.

What type of person, if they really cared about an organization, its employees and most importantly its students would just pick up and leave at this critical time after the Board had done everything within its power to provide continuity for the next 5 years?

Obviously, someone who is self-centered. Someone who doesn’t really care about the damage that their move might cause. Maybe someone who doesn’t think they can really succeed in the position. In any case, its someone I’m glad I’m not. I’ve been in positions before where I hadn’t finished projects I was leading, or hadn’t finished the transformation of an organization to my standards and turned down more lucrative and exciting opportunities. Not only did I want to get the sense of accomplishment for what I set out to do, but I felt an obligation to the organization and my people. I guess that’s the difference between Glass and me. I’m glad I don’t have the same set of values and integrity he has.

And, where does that leave Jeffco’s 84,000+ students and 5,000+ employees? Essentially leaderless for a year. Another year with no academic gains and then a transition year with a new Superintendent, who most likely isn’t going to buy into the Transform the Task, Deeper Learning mumbo-jumbo that so far has only brought about confusion and declining results in the District. So, another change in direction as 1,000s of kids continue to be harmed each year by the poor curriculum and teaching methods propagated by Glass.

The Board needs to get it right with the next choice for Superintendent. We need someone who has a track record of focusing on students, not teachers, and a record of improving education, backed by results. Glass was a great talker and blogger, but his 6 year record of failing to improve education results in both Eagle and Jeffco is a total disaster for the kids.