Fears and Goals

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Opening Exercise: QED meeting date: Feb. 1, 2007 Transcription submitted Feb. 2, 2007

Using the QED (Quality Education) Committee diagram listing the Constituencies: Teachers, Taxpayers and Parents with children in the center and Administrators as bridges between the constituent groups the meeting participants were asked to divide into like groups (The instruction given was to self identify which group to join. The task given was to fill in the list of the Fears you have about the QED committee and what are the Ultimate Goals you would have for the QED committee.

The following is a transcription of what was reported out and listed by the individual groups.

PARENTS’ FEARS	TEACHERS’ FEARS	TAXPAYERS’ FEARS
Inconsistency from teacher to teacher	Additional burdens for teachers beyond what they are doing in the classroom-night classes, email, Pearl River, more hoops	Not facing priority of “getting it right” that is the importance, i.e. urgency for a world class education if we want to prepare our children for the future
Taking away creativity of teachers	“Witch-Hunt” mentality. There is genuine fear because trust is weak due to experience from last spring	Lack of accountability up and down the district-unrealistic spending while there is a limit to what we can pay
Too much academic challenge-too much too soon	“Business Plan” mentality drives decisions. Treating students like widgets instead of as unique students	Continued &/or expanded division.
Too much reliance on data collectionàlose perspective on what we are doing well	Broken promises-breach of agreement to not release survey comments about individuals to public	Perceived failure to examine status quo is resulting in stagnation and instead continue to add on
The uniqueness of the district will get lost		As a district a failure to understand the urgent need to make change
Over assessment-collection of data without meaning
Focusing so much on measurable progress, with all energy going into pushing for Calculus as age 5 that we fail to stop and look at the other things that contribute to a quality education
Collecting of benchmarks without collecting information on what it is that we are doing that is working-collecting benchmarks instead of benchmarking-how an organization achieved the desired outcome
Only a few voices will rule-the loudest will have the final word in what happens in the district, in this committee
Fear of limiting our choices

PARENTS’ ULTIMATE GOALS	TEACHERS’ ULTIMATE GOALS	TAXPAYERS ULTIMATE GOALS
The QED committee is able to recognize and publicize how good our schools are	Build respect for professional expertise	Develop agreed upon accountability standards for the school district
Hope committee is more then just for PR	Support for professional growth and freedom to take risks	As we do the budget demonstrate that we are thoroughly examining how we spend taxpayers money
Hope committee is not just a waving of personal agendas and personal wars	Report data about school successesàQualitative and Quantitative	Inform the community-the extent to which our teaches are professionals working to improve the quality of education in the district.
Collecting data that is meaningful	Support existing quality	Set a the target for a broad margin of approval for budgets-this leads to building consensus and this would stem the developing divide
Identify what works that is unique to this district that may not be happening anywhere else		Develop a common definition of Quality of Education
Results in physically safe and psychologically safe schools for our children
Want balance in our schools, high standards with fun. Schools have to walk the talk of balance for kids to get it in their lives
Hear from the kids-high school students about what makes a quality education for them