posted June 22, 2005
A study of the Hamilton County Schools’ central office praises it for its "focus on academic performance and service orientation" while identifying three key areas for improvement - communications, constituency building and community engagement, and building on the district’s service orientation.
Results of the study by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform were made public at a meeting at the Convention Center on Wednesday morning.
Key Findings:
· Many teachers, principals, and parents experience and appreciate a strong service orientation on the part of central office. Central office staff also overwhelmingly described their work in terms of providing services and supports to schools and students. Participants felt that this strong service orientation is not well publicized to or perceived by the wider public.
· Participants also felt that HCDE does not adequately communicate with key constituencies about student progress, resources, and decisions.
· All stakeholder groups cited lack of adequate resources as a major impediment in moving Hamilton County students toward their full potential. With few exceptions, there is a widely shared view that the D.O.E., especially central office, is doing the best it can for students, given the limited available resources and contentious local politics.
· A "good basic education" or "good foundation" for all students is important to all stakeholder groups in Hamilton County. Participants differed on what this means concretely, but large numbers of people across every participant group identified technology skills as essential for entering the twenty-first-century workplace.
Recommendations
· Deepen, further develop, and sustain the focus on increasing instructional quality and results for all students in Hamilton County.
· Build on and demonstrate central office accountability to schools and the community by increasing transparency and inclusiveness of decision making.
· Build on the goal of broadening access to information about student performance and about how resources are targeted to meet student needs and community goals.
· Find and focus on the common ground around which HCDE constituents can join forces in support of public schools.
· Increase community accountability for public education by building more effective and engaged relationships with constituent groups.
· Make communicating about and marketing the achievements, priorities, and needs of HCDE a priority.
After the meeting, County Mayor Claude Ramsey said, "One of the four goals of the Education Summit was to generate 'broad-based community support' for our public education system. This study recommends that we hold an annual meeting to discuss our progress and I think it's a good idea. It's going to take all segments of our community -government, the private sector, educators and parents - to make our schools as great as we want them to be."
The CORRE team recommends that HCDE focus its initial efforts toward improving communications, constituency building, and community engagement.
The complete CORRE report is available at www.hcde.org.
The study involved six months of research and analysis, including in-depth interviews and focus groups
with more than 350 parents, teachers, students and community members, officials said.
Findings and recommendations were given from the Central Office Review for Results and Equity (CORRE) study.
“There is a great deal of quality information that the community and the school system can use going
forward to build an even better school system,” said School Superintendent Dr. Jesse Register.
The Annenberg Institute developed CORRE as a five-step process to determine how the performance,
capacity and effectiveness of a school district’s central office can support higher academic performance
and ensure results and equity for all of the children in its schools, it was stated.
The study was initiated by County Mayor Claude Ramsey and Dr. Register in December 2004 after being recommended by the Finance and
Statistical Resources Task Force during the 2003 Education Summit.
“The School Board, administrators and principals look forward to reviewing the CORRE study and its
recommendations in the coming weeks,” said Dr. Register. “The CORRE study recognizes the strengths and progress made as central office administrators while making several recommendations that will improve our staff’s ability to support teachers and students in our schools. As educators, we welcome the chance to learn how we can even better serve the school system.”
The study provided several recommendations for the school system to implement that will help strengthen the school system and its central office operation, officials said. One recommendation calls for making communications and marketing a district priority. This recommendation was made after many of
participants involved in the CORRE meetings raised several concerns and issues with the lack of communication from the Central Office. According to the report, communications is essential to being accountable and to building broader commitment to public education.
“Five years ago, we made a decision to put our resources into the classroom rather than build a
communications department. We now realize that we need a stronger communications effort to ensure all
constituents have better access to information while effectively marketing the achievements and needs of the school district,” said Dr. Register. “Hamilton County Schools is currently in the process of restructuring several central office positions to concentrate existing resources on building a stronger communications department that will focus on addressing many of the issues raised in the CORRE study.”
School officials plan additional meetings with the CORRE team and the Annenberg Institute in the coming
months to develop action plans for implementing the recommendations from the study. They said, in all, the study offers recommendations in six key areas that will help improve the performance and effectiveness of the
school system’s central office:
• Deepen, further develop and sustain the focus on increasing instructional quality instruction and results for all students in Hamilton County
• Build on and demonstrate Central Office accountability to schools and the community by increasing transparency and inclusiveness of decision making process
• Build on the district’s data orientation with the goal of broaden access to information about student performance and about how resources are targeted to meet student needs and community goals
• Find and focus on the common ground which HCDE constituents can join forces in support of public schools
• Increase community accountability for public education by building more effective and engaged relationships with constituent groups
• Make communications about and marketing the achievements, priorities and needs of HCDE a district priority.
Hamilton County Department of Education is the fifth school district nationwide to undergo the rigorous “self-analysis” process with the Annenberg Institute, it was stated.
CORRE processes are now underway or have been completed in urban school districts in California, New Jersey, Oregon and Rhode Island.
Dr. Register made these remarks:
"I would like to thank Marla Ucelli, Pia Durkin and Debi King for their work and the Annenberg Institute for School Reform for its investment in the future of public education in Hamilton County. Our school system will be even better because of this effort.
"One of the positive stories that we need to better communicate is the impact respected local and
national organizations have had in partnering with Hamilton County to improve public education. I think it is safe to say that there is no school system in the country our size that has benefited more from private sector support than Hamilton County.
"I would also like to thank County Mayor Ramsey, the members of the CORRE Advisory Group, the CORRE implementation team and many others who participated in the study. Thank you for your time and commitment to public education in Hamilton County.
Finally, thanks to each one of you here today who are giving your time to listen and to learn about the kind of school system we have today, and how we can continue to improve in the
future. Public schools are a vital part of economic health of our community. If you have never
visited a school, I extend an invitation for you to visit a school this fall and see what is going on
in our classrooms. Call me, I will go with you.
"Over the next day and a half, principals, administrators, central office staff and school leaders
will join with the Board of Education and dig into this report with the Annenberg team. We will see how to build on the positive, and look for ways to improve. The Board will engage in a longer and more detailed discussion tomorrow night.
"As educators, we welcome the chance to learn something new. As a Board and school administration, we embrace the idea that continuing the improvement we have made over the
past eight years means continually re-evaluating what we do and how we do it.
"This study is a fresh analysis on the effectiveness of the Central Office and its ability to support
higher academic performance in our schools. There is clarity here on issues such as the definition of a central office that can be used statewide to improve the accountability measures so important in today’s public education Debate.
"Since County Mayor Ramsey’s Education Summit, the school system has welcomed an ongoing public
dialogue about public education in Hamilton County. Today’s report adds valuable information, and as a community, we should use it as we move forward.
"After reading the CORRE study, I would like to share three issues that captured my attention.
"First is recognition of the 'academic focus and service orientation' of the members of the
system’s central office. That description of the central office team is an affirmation for a group
of people often caught in the middle of public debate, but a group of dedicated employees with the resolve to stay focused on doing their part to see that what goes on in classrooms brings about positive, academic results.
"Second is 'enhancing communication.' The Board and I are in complete agreement that this must occur. As I look back, I realize we made a mistake five years ago by not putting more resources into communications. In order to build stronger relationships with all of our
constituents, we must place a priority on telling our story and successes to our constituents as
will as DO a better job of sharing information with the public. As the years passed, it became more and more difficult to address the issue as we remained focused on putting resources into classrooms.
"Six months ago, we began internally to strengthen our communications strategies in everything we do, and share the facts about the system’s improvement and stewardship as we engaged parents, teachers, opinion leaders and the media. We know we have a school system that can
demonstrate improvement and vision – which can play a pivotal role in the community’s economic development initiatives.
"This fall, we will restructure some positions internally and concentrate existing resources on a stronger communications department that will focus on addressing many issues raised in today’s report. Broadening access to information, identifying common ground for all public school
stakeholders, and effectively communicating the achievements and needs of the district are all
critical. We will not be able to do all we need to do, but we are committed to taking important
first steps.
"Finally, some interviewed for this report mentioned and described the 1997 merger as the watershed event for public education in Hamilton County. The report talks about perceptions, issues and challenges faced since merger, and there were many difficult changes required. As a
community, we continue to debate attitudes and beliefs that the unification of two very different
school systems brings into view…rural, urban and suburban, city and county, black and white, rich and poor.
"Often, this debate manifests itself when we talk about schools. As a school system, we have done everything possible to move past merger and toward a system of good schools for all young people in Hamilton County. For more than three years, we have seen test scores and other accountability results begin a strong, upward trend. As I think back to the late 1990s, it was often
said that overall test scores would be the last thing to change. We are seeing that change. Our challenge now is to sustain and further improve our academic achievements.
"From my view, the school system began to rightly close the book on merger when County Mayor Ramsey initiated his Education Summit. The objective of the Summit was to move our community forward and envision the future of education in Hamilton County. To do our part, the school system had to have a single focus: To provide the best education possible for every child. Today’s report is another tool to use as we chart a course of continuing improvement that
brings our community the kind of school system every person in this room wants to have.
"There is a great deal of information to review in this report, and that is what the School Board, administrators, principals and leadership teams will do in the coming weeks. We will develop
actions plans where needed and work with the CORRE team and the Annenberg Institute to implement those plans in a timely manner. We are eagerly planning for the upcoming school
year, and much of what we have learned today and the plans we develop can have an impact as
school opens.
"Again, thank you to the Annenberg Institute for this work, and thank you for being here today."
One Annenberg official at the meeting said in focus groups there was little discussion of the central office being too large, but there was talk that "it could do a lot more" with more staff.
County Commissioner Curtis Adams has criticized the schools on having the largest central office in the state figured per student.
Officials said the study cost about $100,000 and was paid for by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
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