JonNarcisse.com

A first draft for public review...by Jonathan R. Narcisse, Des Moines School Board Member
---Click here to view the entire "Eight Steps to a Better District" in a PDF document.

This is an excerpt from the first public draft of the full "Eight Steps" document; the full document is available by clicking on the above link. I believe these eight steps will help fix our Des Moines School District. It is the product of years of engaging the education issue in Iowa and months of focusing solely on Des Moines. At this point I will not itemize the effort. I will simply say it was thorough and comprehensive and it is a collective, not individual work. These ideas have been presented on a less formal basis through local media. Now I am releasing them to a broader public searching for feedback, input, improvements and recommendations.

Our district is broke. That’s the bad news.

Our district can be fixed. That’s the good news.

The opportunity to fix it is within our grasp. Three seats are available September 9th on the Des Moines School Board. As soon as September 16th the implementation of real solutions and the return of this district to parents, students, citizens and taxpayers can commence.

What is implemented, however, must be sound. So in addition to direct feedback through email, phone conversations and one-on-one meetings, hearings on these eight points will be held throughout the city much like my fall Listening Posts.

I ask for your feedback.

1. Allocate a minimum of 90% of the money generated at the building level to the building generating the
dollars.

This addresses two key concerns.

• First we significantly increase the dollars available at the building level. This
  is vital. For example only one middle school in Des Moines has a full-time librarian. Through this formula we could
  significantly increase staffing, reduce class sizes and address key needs like music and art programs.
• Second it would reverse a disturbing trend in public education. The further away from the child the bureaucracy
  is the more power, authority and resources we vest in the bureaucracy. We have competent educators at the
  building level. They spend hours of their free time and hundreds, if not thousands of their dollars to help educate
  our children. If we can trust them with our children we should be able to trust them with the power, authority and
  resources to educate our children.

As we decentralize the academic function we need to improve two areas of administration. First we need to
staff key positions with persons that are professionals in the area they are hired, not just former teachers or
principals. Second we need to improve our citizen input infrastructure to tap into expertise and insights lacking at
the board and bureaucracy levels.

Note: As a district we will spend an average of just under $13,000 per pupil. Only a fraction of that is currently
spent at the building level. Spending 90% at the building level would still leave between $25-30 million for the
bureaucracy. This is not an insignificant dollar figure.

2. End social promotion and move to skill based progression.

Currently in our district a student can miss 150 days of school, fail every course and promote year after year
until 9th grade. Then we start failing the students. This has proven disastrous. Instead we need to move to skill
based progression. If a student excels we should no longer limit that student to the mediocre middle but use project
based learning to maximize the potential. At the same time if a student struggles we need to work with that student
until the foundation blocks are in place. The practice of promoting poor students while we stunt the academic
growth of many outstanding students has failed us. Skill based progression linked to authentic assessments is much
superior.

3. Provide laptops and the Internet for every student.

While many affluent districts have already moved to this in parts of our country many urban districts struggle
to provide even basic learning materials like up to date texts. Students can carry libraries on their laptops, have
up to date instructional materials, preserve teachers’ notes and reduce the health consequences from carrying text
laden back packs.

Once home students would be able to access the internet, communicate with teachers, do research and compete
with their more affluent counterparts. Also by allowing them to personalize the computers they would be much
more mindful caring for them than their current texts.

A key component of this is taking advantage of state and local resources in creating meaningful curriculum.
Wherever we see local staff participate in selecting and creating curriculum the quality of instruction is superior,
the students are more engaged and achievement is significantly improved.

4. Provide Meaningful Instruction

The time has come for the district to recognize the varied needs of our students as well as key subject instruction
proven to enhance achievement while developing better members of our society.

• Get away from the teaching the test curriculum and return to a more classic education. Every student entering
  our district should have music instruction, art instruction, physical fitness and learn a second language at the early
  elementary level. Waiting until middle school is too late. These efforts added to reading, science, mathematics and
  other areas of study over the years such as geography, history, economics will empower our students to do more
  than compete in the global market place, it will prepare them to thrive.
  We teach math, math, math because it is politically palatable. We know if we teach math, music and a second
  language to our elementary students they will be better at math and science. The time has come for us to do what’s
  best, not what’s easiest. We know students that develop their creativity early on are also better scientist, better
  readers, etc...
• Full time vocational and technical education at the high school level and expanded vocational and technical
  offerings at the middle school level will provide academic and career opportunities for large numbers of students
  we are currently losing. The cost of academic failure is documentable and staggering. Some ask how can we afford
  this. How can we not when we add up the cost from the justice system, welfare system, illness maintenance system
  and lost productivity?
• A (K-12) School of Fine and Performing Arts. This is one of the offerings that could help us to compete for
  students regionally. We would also tap into the genius of many of our students where that talent is lost currently
  to both them and the world.
• An Advanced Academic Academy, including an advanced science program and an advanced capitalism
  curriculum.

5. Return to neighborhood schools and create community schools.

Students should be allowed to attend the school or school district they want in compliance with Iowa’s Open
Enrollment law, including their neighborhood school. The time has come to put an end to the failed social experiment
of busing. By doing so we will also improve on parent participation.
We must not stop there, however. Despite attempts to ignore core facts many of our students are arriving at
school at 6:00 a.m. I met with a middle school principal just days ago who struggles with this problem. So let’s
eliminate it as a problem.

Our schools have the best locations in town. Let’s open them early staffing them with volunteers. We could
have early morning fitness going on, or tutoring, or music and art instruction. We should also keep them open into
the night as community centers. Adult education offers some wonderful programs but on a regional basis. Why
not have our schools hosting parenting classes, and ball room dancing, and Monday Night Football gatherings while
the kids play in the gym, for example.

In a district with high levels of poverty community schools would go a long way towards building community,
stretching budgets, and treating the emotional and social consequences of poverty. Community has always been
a powerful remedy in impoverished areas. Let’s take advantage of this fact.

6. Volunteer Corps

Citizens volunteer in sporting leagues because their volunteerism has structure to it. We need to take a chapter
from this and create a staffed Volunteer Corp that can recruit, assign, coordinate and evaluate volunteerism in the
school district. We need to expand our thinking first. Why are we paying coaches when we have tons of Division
I athletic talent that would coach for free. Also before and after school art and music instruction could be staffed
by volunteers. Movie nights, potlucks, tutoring, even weekend custodial work could be done by volunteers.
I met with a high school principal who’s school had a Sunday youth league for early and pre-teens die because
of custodial issues. How tragic. Meanwhile while attending the dedication of the new Valley High School there
were tons of West Des Moines residents using the pool and other school facilities. Why? Because Valley is more
than a high school. It is a community center.

7. Youth Labor Force

Few things in life teach us more important life long lessons than work. Rural kids have an advantage in that they
learn this as part of their daily lifestyles, many of them. Children of business people, too, like my daughters who
have their own newspaper and have since one was in 3rd grade and the other kindergarten.
Many of our youth would profit from a structured work experience and the opportunity to earn a few dollars
cutting grass, washing dishes, etc...would make them feel a contributor to the family, especially with 60% of our
Des Moines students living in poverty. On top of this they would learn valuable life lessons that cannot be simulated
in the classroom.

Note: We’re not talking about sending them down a coal mine. And how is this any more unreasonable than
having them return from athletic competitions at four a.m. or playing video games all day and night?

8. Realign Grades

We need to go back to more traditional grade alignments. Many of our 6th graders are overmatched in middle
school. Our 9th graders are failing at staggering levels. By returning to K-6, 7-9, 10-12 we increase many fold the
probability of academic and personal success in a district graduating fewer than 50% of the students served as
9th graders four years later.

Contact Information

If you have questions I can be reached at 515-770-1218 (C) 515-280-8092 (H) or 515-471-5092 (O). My email
address is jon_narcisse@yahoo.com and my website is jonnarcisse.com.