Presentation to the Board – November 17, 2009 Good evening School Board Chair, School Board members, Dr. Johnson and staff. My name is Marc Baron. I believe teachers, parents, and educators care deeply about students and we are here today because we want all students to graduate and achieve success in their future careers. Although the District has made progress over the past years in improving student achievement, the District currently has too many students below grade level and too few have reached the higher levels of achievement. This is particularly true for too many students in several of our federal accountability groups. What can we do to raise all of our students to grade level and above and have more of our students reach the highest level of achievement? Major national educational organizations and well-known educational researchers have identified the educational practices in effective and high quality school systems. Today, I will discuss two of the practices that have the greatest impact on improving student achievement: a guaranteed and viable curriculum and challenging goals and effective feedback. Essentially, a high quality school system has a guaranteed and viable curriculum when it: Clearly defines the standards that students are supposed to master at each grade level and subject, and when it Provides sufficient time for teachers to teach the standards so that all students can master them in the time available A high quality school system also promotes effective feedback by Implementing a comprehensive assessment system that provides timely, frequent, and accurate information on how well students are mastering the standards and by Helping teachers and students to use the results of those assessments to adjust ongoing teaching and learning. Now that we reviewed what the research has said, this is what the district has done to implement these practices The District had translated Florida’s curriculum, the Sunshine State Standards, into a scope and sequence that provides clear learning objectives, and The district has also promoted effective feedback through a comprehensive assessment system, including embedded assessments, that provides feedback on student mastery of the learning objectives. However, research also suggests that strategies are not as important as an organization’s ability to effectively implement them. Leading researchers have found that organizations often fail to achieve their vision because they implement it poorly. Dr. Johnson has already recognized that the District did a poor job of engaging the community and communicating the reason the practices were necessary, and the District tried to do too much too fast. Nevertheless, the District’s practice of providing a scope and sequence and embedded assessments is critical to students’ academic success. Rather than abandoning these practices, the District needs to work together with teachers, parents, and other stakeholders to find a better way to implement these practices to help all our students succeed. After all, this is why we are here today.