Roseville School Board Candidates Tackle the Achievement Gap

Editor’s note:  Six candidates are vying for three positions on the District 623 School Board in the Nov. 8 election.

School Board Chair Lisa Edstrom and Board Clerk Tom Ring face challengers Christopher J. Heinze, Shoreview; Mike Boguszewski, Erin Azer and Kaying Thao, all of Roseville.  In August, these candidates shared their views with Roseville Patch.

These posts are focusing on the responses of each candidate to specific questions posed by the local chapter of the League of Women Voters at a recent forum in Roseville. On Monday's story, the candidates addressed class size.  Today, they focus on the achievement gap.

We cannot resolve the achievement gap overnight, in a week, or even within a school year.  But what can the school board do to address this issue?

 Mike Boguszewski.  We must focus on individualized learning to identify those kids who are most at risk.  Look at our AYP scores.  Six out of nine schools failed this year [to make Adequate Yearly Progress under the No Child Left Behind Act].  I totally agree with Superintendent Thein’s letter to the public that it’s not fair.  Fair is a relative term…if a fox is chasing a rabbit, it’s fair if you are the fox, unfair if you are the rabbit. 

The metrics support the fact that learning has to be focused on those cohorts that are most at risk–whether they are defined as students of color, English Language Learners, or other cohorts.

Lisa Edstrom: At our last school board meeting, we looked at the progress we’ve been making on the achievement gap, as well as the most recent AYP scores.

Little Canada Elementary is one of the schools we are celebrating.  They’ve made their way out of failure to make AYP and are making AYP this year. I would credit their family involvement project. They’ve actually engaged families from the community that they serve.  They’ve demolished the PTA, brought in another name, another structure.  They’ve brought in leaders from the community.  I think that has had a great impact and would strongly suspect it’s a major reason they’ve had the success they’ve had.

Christopher Heinze:  If you look at studies where the achievement gap has been closed, three main components have been involved: small class size, increased expectations of students and rigorous curriculum.   

We’ve talked about class size and the expense to reduce it, but it doesn’t cost anything to increase our expectations of students. We already have funding in place for curriculum. We have a general fund budget of $72 million, and another $15 million that we spend elsewhere.  If we can put a man on the moon, we ought to be able to close the achievement gap.

Tom Ring:  The achievement gap is probably the most pressing priority facing the district. The first thing to do is to make sure students are ready to start school. We don’t want anybody starting behind. That means a commitment to early childhood and family education and literacy instruction. 

In the first three grades, students must learn to read.  After that, the student needs to be able to read to learn. They must have high expectations and challenging curriculum. Probably the most critical ingredient is a professional staff that is capable and engaged in real equity work to meet the need.  Differentiated instruction is a phenomenal tool in our effort to meet the needs of each learner.

Erin Azer:  School readiness is a major component in narrowing the achievement gap. We also need to support other programs that foster leadership and growth. 

We also need to engage the families of struggling learners. I went to an achievement gap workshop and they had a great idea of having home visits, where the teacher goes to the home and gets to know the student and the family, so that the family is more comfortable coming into the school and talking to the teacher. We need to train teachers so they understand the community in which they are working, so they can create a culture in the classroom that is respectful of all students.

 Kaying Thao: We can talk about curriculum and programs all day, but in order to narrow the achievement gap, we must address the true issues—race, poverty, class – the structural, systemic issues that have kept our achievement gap where it is. 

We don’t need to create more programs that don’t work. We don’t need to tell parents what they are doing and not doing correctly. We need to start here – from our administration, our district staff, our teachers.  Until that culture changes, we cannot do much about the achievement gap.

Next:  What is the one thing that separates you from other school board candidates?