(Vol. 4, No. 1 - Spring 2000)
Chris Steinhauser on
Low-Performing Schools
LBUSD Deputy Supt. Chris Steinhauser's sole responsibility
is to raise student achievement in the district's 18 lowest-performing schools
-- including four middle schools. In these interview excerpts, Steinhauser
describes how the district plans to hold schools to a high standard, including
"reconstituting" low-performers to avoid potential school takeovers
by the state under its new accountability system.
Chris Steinhauser's job description may be unique for a school district
deputy superintendent. His sole responsibility is to raise student achievement
in the district's 18 lowest-performing schools -- including four middle
schools (Washington, Franklin, Butler and Avalon).
Several months ago, Steinhauser received school board approval to "reconstitute"
Washington Middle School, replacing the principal and requiring teachers
who wished to remain at the school to reapply and go through an in-depth
interview process. (For more details about the Washington changes, see
the story on page 2.)
Here are some comments from Steinhauser about his new responsibilities and
the district's determination to be "proactive" and avoid potential
school takeovers by the state under its new accountability system.
---------------------------------------------------------
The Mission
"My mission is to make sure that our lowest performing schools meet
their (state) target goal and move from there -- that they have an instructional
plan that will continue to build achievement. But we won't meet our targets
and stop there. That's not what we're about. It's about that making sure
that the bar keeps getting raised higher and higher."
The Strategy
"My grand strategy is that I want to be able to say to parents that
no matter where your child goes to school, he or she is being providing
a rigorous academic program. I want to be able to say that the child at
Washington Middle School is getting the same kind of program as the child
at Stanford Middle School in every course. Yes, some of the kids at Washington
may need more time, may need support after school and during school breaks,
but I want the standard to be consistent so that all schools are going up."
The Approach
"There are two prongs to the agenda. The core of the program is to
insure that no matter where you are as a student in this district, you have
a rigorous instructional program. That's our standards agenda. But we also
know that we are under the gun on the SAT-9 for these low-performing schools.
So how do you marry these two things? We are focusing on our own standards-based
assessments, and if they do well on those, they will do well on SAT-9. Our
end-of-course tests for math are the proof. We've done the analysis, and
if you score at 80 percent or higher on those, you will have a similar score
on SAT-9. That tells me that if you focus on the skills and knowledge represented
by the standards, and assess, reteach, and make the necessary adjustments,
you don't need to worry about anything else. You're going to do a great
job."
State Intervention
"If we hadn't acted at Washington, the state would probably have been
in here in two years and done it for us. And let's be honest. When the state
comes to do it, they are not going to have the manpower to support these
schools. It's not going to happen. What they are going to say is, 'you no
longer can have this program. You have to use this other program instead.'
And it will probably be a canned program from someplace. That's not what
we want. We know what to do, and we need to do it now."
Unprepared Students
"To be frank, part of my problem (with low-performing schools) is that
because teachers say the kids can't read the textbooks, they supplement
with lower, watered-down material. And I am saying very clearly we can't
do that. But I have to help them bridge that gap. We are taking extraordinary
steps to see to it that their kids get the literacy skills they need. And
it's already happening.
"When I was a principal at Signal Hill Elementary, we went from the
8th percentile to the 45th percentile. We didn't change the student population.
What we changed was the focus. And that's what we're doing now. That's part
of our battle. . . . We want to be in a place where people are willing to
take risks -- to say, I may be at this school in the inner city, but our
standards should be just as high and our expectations are just as high as
the teachers who teach the kids across the way."
Collaboration
"The bottom line for anything we do has to be whether it's paying off.
And that's why the teacher feedback is so critical. We have to meet with
teachers and create opportunities for them to be very open and honest about
what they like and what they don't like and how we can make it better. And
we're doing that regularly now."
The Future
"Let's say that three years from now Washington has moved up to being
fifth from the bottom. That will be great progress. Another school will
find itself on the bottom and my job may be to work with that school, looking
at what worked for Washington and deciding how we can have the same success
at that school. But we expect and believe that the 'bottom' will be closer
to the top than it is now.
"My focus next year will be to turn the fire up even more. Franklin
is going to be my number one priority next, but I've also got Butler and
Avalon. I'm open to all kinds of suggestions, and I think the schools have
been very responsive in trying to improve (without reconstitution). But
everything's on the table."
Back to the "Changing Schools" table
of contents