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| Thu, Nov 26, 2009 03:03 PM
| Issue of November 25, 2009 |
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In a meeting that seemed to be unusually high on confrontation, the South Harrison Community School Corp. Board of Trustees dismissed the importance of a standards-based accountability program, ousted an athletic director, negated the hiring of a junior varsity boys' basketball coach and shot down plans for allowing professional development for all principals in the South Harrison school system.
The most notable action taken by the board at the May 5 meeting at Corydon Central High School was the reintroduction of letter grades at the elementary school level, which will take effect beginning next school year.
The Individualized Classroom Accountability Network (ICAN) — an Internet-based software system that is endorsed by the Indiana Department of Education for use as part of standards-based accountability by schools as part of Indiana Public Law 221 and the federal No Child Left Behind Act — still will be used by teachers but only as a planning tool. ICAN is used for curriculum planning, student assessment and analysis and generating progress reports for students.
Letter grades for students in kindergarten through sixth grade weren't used after ICAN's adoption in 2004. ICAN has been under fire since it was implemented, with opponents saying ICAN removes incentive by taking away letter grades, that subjectivity offered by ICAN results in a great deal of inconsistency in the system and that terms like "ongoing," "demonstrated," "developing" and "applied" are confusing when compared to traditional letter-grade systems.
Sharon Mathes, principal at New Middletown Elementary who served on the ICAN committee, said it was the recommendation of the committee in March to implement letter grades starting with sixth grade next year, then fifth grade the following year.
School trustee Joyce Bliss suggested that beginning next year ICAN would be used for lesson planning and a teaching tool; a letter grade report card would be used for grades three through six, with kindergarten through second grade using the same letter-grade format that was used prior to ICAN; letter grades would be teacher generated or ICAN generated and under the teacher's discretion as to which format is used; a report card would be developed by a committee that would be uniform; and grades for honor roll students would be published.
Bliss made the motion for the switch and it was quickly seconded by Ray (Radar) Lillpop before Larry Hauswald stepped in to halt the action for additional discussion.
Hauswald, a former teacher in the South Harrison system, questioned whether or not it was feasible to enact such a policy without seeking feedback from teachers and whether or not it could be done in about 90 days (the start of the next school year).
"I think it's scary to do that to our teachers," Hauswald said. "My numbers may be off just a little bit, but I think I've figured up that 70 percent of our teachers will be affected by this, and to do it would be doubling their work.
"I've never been an advocate of ICAN, and I know it's not what Dr. (Neyland) Clark or what Mr. (Jeff) Hauswald want to hear, but the public wants grades," he said, referring to the corporation's superintendent and assistant superintendent, respectively. "I just don't want to overload our teachers. In 90 days, I don't think we can switch from ICAN to report cards."
Clark reiterated he never has had an issue with using letter grades.
"My concern is that I don't understand how a sixth-grade student makes A's in math and fails ISTEP. There's something fundamentally wrong there," Clark said. "We have to have a grading system that aligns itself with how the student is performing."
School board president Roger Windell said he didn't think the ICAN committee was moving fast enough; trustee Jeff Brown suggested using letter grades for fifth and sixth grades next year, then fourth and third the following year; and trustee Carol Uesseler said if there are only 90 days until next school year, then so be it, adding, "That's why (administrators) are paid what they are paid."
Trustee Dr. John Gonzaba said he wasn't comfortable with Bliss' proposal.
"I'm not sure if teachers and administrators are in favor of it. To pass this to me feels like we're making a decision against (the committee's) recommendation," Gonzaba said.
Windell noted the comments and went ahead with the vote, which passed 5-2, with Gonzaba and Larry Hauswald opposing.
In another matter, by a 3-4 vote, the board did not rehire South Central Junior-Senior High athletic director David O'Conner.
Brown, Bliss, Uesseler and Windell voted against the rehire, with the same four voting against a $14,785 leadership assessment and development program that would have involved all South Harrison principals. The money would have come partially from grants and partially from riverboat gaming money. The foursome also voted against the hiring of South Central boys' junior varsity coach Sam Mercer.
The board unanimously accepted a new valedictorian policy, which would allow for multiple valedictorians if there was more than one senior who graduated with a grade-point average of 4.0 or higher. If there are no students with a 4.0 GPA, the top-ranked student will be named valedictorian.
In other matters, the board:
—Was reminded graduation will be May 31 at 1:30 p.m. for Corydon Central High School, followed by South Central Junior-Senior High School at 4 p.m.
—Honored student council representatives Ryan Eichmiller and Pamela Joan Cockerell from Corydon Central and Kendra Cox and Megan Sherrard of South Central for making presentations to the board this year.
—Heard a presentation about the status of Corydon Central High from co-principals Jennie Capelle and Gary Pope.
—Was informed that the Harrison County Alternative School had received an award from Sue Foxx of the Indiana Department of Education for exceeding standards for the 2007-08 school year. Administrators with the school will make a presentation at a statewide conference later this year.
—Approved the purchase of two preschool buses, a 78-passenger bus and a special-needs bus.
The school board also made several personnel changes. They were, by building:
Corporation —- approved the transfer of licensed practical nurse Sonya Rhodes from Corydon Elementary School to corporation;
Harrison County Exceptional Learners Cooperative -— approved the hiring of homebound instructors Marcia John, Sherry Green and Janet Roberson, and accepted resignation of teacher Carrie Johnson;
Corydon Central High — approved hiring of assistant football coaches Aaron Humphrey, Kevin Burton, Jason Timberlake and Jeff Durham, and volunteer girls' assistant basketball coach Jarrod Bulleit;
Corydon Central Junior High School — approved hiring of girls' seventh grade basketball coach Les Smith, junior high cheerleading coach Kimberly Spieth, junior high assistant volleyball coach Brittany Shewmaker, junior high volleyball coach Cheryl Burton and one-half junior high wrestling coach Scot Payne;
Corydon Intermediate School — accepted hiring of fifth grade boys' basketball coach Chris Fessel and sixth grade boys' basketball coach Michael Wiseman;
Corydon Intermediate/Heth-Washington Elementary School — approved transfer of school counselor Kathleen Fahy from Corydon Elementary to CIS/HWES;
Heth-Washington — accepted hiring of fifth grade boys' basketball coach Tracy Schwartz and sixth grade boys' basketball coach Scott Taylor;
Heth-Washington/New Middletown Elementary School — accepted hiring of music teacher Lindsey Meyer;
Heth-Washington/New Middletown/South Central Junior-Senior High — accepted resignation of physical education/health teacher Brad Burden;
South Central Junior-Senior High — accepted hiring of boys' seventh grade basketball coach Tim Lewis, boys' eighth grade basketball coach Troy Lewis, girls' seventh grade basketball coach Bill Weatherford, girls' eighth grade basketball coach Jeff Pease, girls' varsity and girls' Saturday basketball coach Randall Schoen, assistant girls' track coach Jeffrey Riley, varsity cheerleading coach Missi Miller, junior varsity cheerleading coach Sarah Eyssen, junior high cheerleading coach, assistant varsity volleyball and one-half summer volleyball camp coach Susan Babcock, and created a 3/7 social studies position.
Reader Feedback
Thank you board members
May 13, 2009 | 09:12 AM
... Kids need to have something to achieve not an "applied" or "demonstrated". Parents can finally tell other parents outside this school system how their kids are during at school and not have them look at you funny. WAY TO GO SCHOOL BOARD ...
May 13, 2009 | 09:54 AM
Sounds to me like you want kids to "achieve" for your own benefit, not the kids. I want what our corporation thinks is best for our students, not what an untrained group of community members want!
The Failure of ICAN
May 13, 2009 | 10:03 AM
Seven years ago many parents tried to get Dr. Clark and (others) to see that ICAN would fail in that it promoted mediocrisy and gave no incentive to the students to exceed beyond the State Standards of their grade level. Now, parents of students that have had ICAN since its beginning, struggle to make their children understand they have to work hard and earn A's and B's in junior high and high school. Now the state is implementing End of Course Exams in high school and having to pass them to get the class credit for their diploma. Imagine how well students that have learned mediocrisy is good enough are going to do on these exams ...
Parent ...
May 13, 2009 | 12:12 PM
Quote: trustee Carol Uesseler said if there are only 90 days until next school year, then so be it, adding, "That's why (administrators) are paid what they are paid." The school board is supposed to hire the administrators and pay them to make these types of decisions. The board is not supposed to hire these people then run everything as well.
ICAN tip of the ICEBERG
May 13, 2009 | 02:41 PM
ICAN was a nightmare brought into reality by Dr. Clark and his administrative supporters. ICAN was developed by the state for use in special needs classes where there are many age groups with different abilities. Teachers in those classes usually don't have very many students and are better able to track the individual student ... As a parent of two students that were unfortunate enough to experience ICAN from first and second grade, I can honestly say my children "achieved" DESPITE ICAN because I gave my children incentives and goals to strive to meet. I thank the board for finally listening to community members ...
I Can't Say I Like ICAN
May 13, 2009 | 05:00 PM
As a school employee, I cannot say that I find ICAN as a useful planning or assessing tool in its current form. It is too cumbersome to use and too time-consuming. We are waiting for the State to unfurl a new version that is supposed to be better, but I am not holding my breath.
Failing the Test
May 13, 2009 | 05:06 PM
I agree with Dr. Clark. It is true that we should be concerned about students who make decent grades in the classroom not being able to pass the state-mandated tests (e.g. ISTEP+, ECAs). However, I do not think that we can directly compare the two. We, as educators, are taught to assess students in a variety of ways. In fact, we are discouraged from giving them high-stakes test. However, this is the exact format of the state tests. If we want them to pass them, then we had better start to use more of these types of tests ourselves.
Ican
May 13, 2009 | 05:57 PM
As a teacher in South Harrison, I am thrilled that the board changed the report cards back to grades.
South Harrison Teacher
ICAN HAS DETAILS
May 13, 2009 | 10:09 PM
I liked ICAN because it really broke down, with specificity, particulars of a subject. For instance, in math a student may have had high points and then difficulty in some areas. She may have done very well with multiplying fractions, but had problems with dividing decimals. This knowledge alerts parents (or should have) that their child needs some help at home. It's never too late to review with your child. Also, the bar graph/percentile chart on the ICAN report is a pretty good indicating of whether your child is an A or D student!
PS
May 14, 2009 | 04:09 PM
As a teacher at South Harrison, I am NOT thrilled that the board changed the report cards back to grades this quickly. Grades were already set to begin, hand-in-hand with ICAN, in the coming years. Why move so fast?
Another South Harrison Teacher
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