Tests and Measurements

 Years ago my family was involved in an exchange program through the school district with people in Germany. My daughter was very young, in elementary school, when we traveled to Germany. She realized that the language was different and she couldn’t understand the written words, but at least the numbers used in the US and Germany were the same so that made her feel a little ...more comfortable. She was very excited about renewing our relationship with the German family we had hosted in our home the year before.

We landed in Munich and had to then travel by bus to Schwandorf. My daughter was anxious to see our friends but grew very disappointed when she saw the road sign along the autobahn that indicated that Schwandorf was 161 km away. She assumed that km was the German abbreviation for miles and reluctantly prepared for a longer trip than she expected. I explained that the Germans used the metric system to measure so the distance was actually 100 miles, not 161 because one of our miles was the same as the German’s 1.6 kilometers. That smaller number made her feel much better, even though the distance wasn’t different, just the form of measurement. One hundred miles seemed so much closer to her than 161 kilometers.

A similar misunderstanding can arise from conversions involving Fahrenheit and Celsius measurements of temperature. And, confusion can also occur when learners are measured by two different tests that have very different forms of measurements.

That’s how I would explain the results from the recent state assessments to parents of children in our district. The performance may not have been any different among learners from last year to this year, but the form of measurement was. Unfortunately, we haven’t been told of the exact conversion method, just the results. The state elevated standards (and lowered expectations when our Commissioner of Education forewarned people of the potential for a significant drop in scores based on the results in Kentucky when that state also changed to the same test) and it appeared that learners were very deficient. They essentially recalibrated the measurement and that prompted a steep decline in outcomes. It's like they went from kilometers to miles and it seems like a big drop in performance.

When you recognize that the test was based on Common Core Learning Standards that have not yet been fully provided to teachers, nor have teachers in the state received supportive instructional materials or textbooks aligned with the Common Core, you can understand the ensuing chaos. As you may have noted in media reports, all schools experienced significant decreases in test scores (most had proficiency rates of less than 50% - including the schools traditionally at the top of performance levels on state tests last year with 80 - 90% proficiency levels).

Our results were disappointing but we should not be alarmed about the performance of our learners. Their progress should not be compared on two separate tests, this year’s and last year’s, which are very different in their construction and standards. We will maintain our course of action and exercise the strategy we have developed, despite the test results. With additional training and the expectation of learning materials becoming available and the curriculum to be completed at the state level, we expect that our learners will progress.

Please be patient and understanding as we sort through the tangled policies and practices imposed on public schools throughout New York. We remain committed to nurturing the dreams and sustaining the hopes of our learners as they invent their futures in a small school with BIG ideas.

Enough Said

Singer Tony Bennett swooned over leaving his heart in San Francisco but Tony Bennett, the former State Commissioner of Education in Florida, crooned a different tune when it was revealed that he left his grading scandal in Indiana. As a result, Tony Bennett the former head of education in the sunshine state leaves his post with a dark cloud over his head, and, as a consequence, the bevy of people and policy makers who trumpet the need to use high stakes tests as accountability measures to assign grades to schools and teachers.

Here’s an article from the Tampa Bay Times for the specifics:

http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/tony-bennett-scandal-sparks-new-discussion-on-validity-of-school-grading/2134762

Distinct or Extinct?

Distinct or Extinct?

One of my favorite authors is Tom Peters. His work has had an enduring and powerful influence on me as a leader of learners. I am indebted to people like Tom Peters, Jim Collins, Peter Drucker, Malcolm Gladwell, Daniel Pink, Chip and Dan Heath, and Warren Bennis (members of my personal Business Authors Hall of Fame) for their great ideas and thought provoking concepts. The title of this Blog entry originated with a thought provoking phrase I extracted from a series of power-point slides in a presentation Tom Peters supplied on-line http://excellencenow.com/part-1/.

Sit down tonight and review what you’ve experienced during the day. Focus on the choices you made. Not just the critical decisions, but all of the selections you made throughout the day. For instance, what you wear, what you chose for breakfast, what channel to watch or listen to, what Internet sites to visit… You will soon enough discover that there isn’t enough time to list everything. And, certainly there is not sufficient time to identify all of the options available to you at each juncture of decision making. Furthermore, the Internet sites are nearly inexhaustible, television channels extend beyond 100, and most of the opportunities we casually evaluate before casting a choice include a wide range of selections. For instance, ordering a cup of coffee anymore is a five minute process involving countless options - What flavor coffee? Decaf or regular? Large, medium or small? Cream and sugar?

We live in an environment that grows more personalized or customized each day. From shopping on-line and designing the merchandise of our desire (selecting color, specific size…) to confronting targeted advertisements generated on the basis of what we choose to view on the Internet (i.e. ebay or Amazon recommendations evolving from prior shopping experiences) to the food establishment that encourages to make your own salad or sundae, we exist in a differentiated market of ideas, services and products.

Advertisers speak about the clutter of “noise” they must penetrate in order for their message to receive notice from consumers. With so many different mediums in a fiercely competitive marketplace, attracting attention is difficult. Long gone are the days of television programming confined to the three major networks (ABC, NBC and CBS). So too, are the morning and/or afternoon editions of the local newspaper. And, we can now add education to that list reflecting the bygone days when public schools enjoyed a near monopoly on the provision of learning experiences for children between the ages of 5 and 18, and brick and mortar colleges were the lone avenue to explore for those seeking higher education.

Charter schools and home-schooling (the fastest growing alternative to public schools according to data from the federal department of education) continue to contribute, along with private and parochial schools, to a decrease in enrollment in public schools across the country. Virtual schools providing a menu of learning experiences on-line have attracted learners at the secondary level and even more dramatically in the area of higher education.

What can public schools do to thwart further enrollement erosion and avoid becoming extinct, while soliciting support of taxpayers for sustainability? Start by asking constituent members to identify three words that describe the school. Then, analyze the accumulated list of responses and discover which words are mentioned most frequently. that will reveal the perceptions of those associated with the school. Now, ask yourself, does the list of the three most commonly used words to describe the school match your perceptions? If not, there are mixed signals, or the school's trying to do too much or be everything to all people.

Think of advertising techniques. Think of a product or service (i.e. cadillac, Apple...) and observe their advertising to see how they emphasize a few certain qualities or characteristics. The company is attempting to direct your attention and asscoiation with their "brand."

They can seek to differenitate themselves from competitors through clarity (manage meaning and focus on purpose) marketing (articulate the mission in a concise and precise fashion)

Here are excerpts several books that I have found to serve as valuable resources regarding differentiation and developing and sustaining a company’s brand, points that address the distinct or extinct issue.

From Leading People by Robert Rosen

When thinking about accomplishing a goal or fulfilling a mission, go back to these four issues to clear away the clutter: need, credibility, unique contribution, and member interest.

From Good to Great by Jim Collins

The good-to-great leaders were able to strip away so much noise and clutter and just focus on the few things that would have the greatest impact. See through complexity and discern underlying patterns – focus on what is essential and ignore the rest.

From Kellogg on Branding by the Marketing Faculty of the Kellogg School of Management

CLUTTER: To stand out, brands need to be focused and unique; great brands mean something distinct for customers. Customers are bombarded every day by hundreds of advertisements and promotions. This is why brand positioning is so important. Almost every great brand has a clear set of associations.

A brand’s positioning articulates the goal that a consumer will achieve by using the brand and explains why it is superior to other means of accomplishing this goal.

Brand Positioning

1.         target customers - in terms of some type of identifying characteristics, such as demographics and psychographics (activities, interests, opinions).

2.         develop a frame of reference – a statement of the target’s goal that will be served by consuming the brand. There are two general categories – frames depicted in terms of product features and frames that are represented by more abstract consumer’s goals.

3.         create a point of difference – assert why the brand is superior to alternatives in the frame of reference. Attributes, image, or attitude information provides a reason for believing the functional or emotional benefit. Emotional benefits shift the emphasis from the brand and its functions to the user and the feelings to be gained by using the brand. These benefits are related to enduring, basic human needs and desires.

4.         provide reasons to believe - supporting evidence for claims related to the frame of reference and point of difference. This is more important when the claims are relatively abstract (credence claims) versus concrete (verifiable) because concrete claims often are their own reason to believe.

From A Crash Course in Marketing by David Bangs and Andi Axman

How do you take what appears to be a commodity and transform it into a specialty product or service? You start by knowing what makes your product or service different from other similar ones on the market - your  USP = Unique Selling Proposition.

See how you stack up against the competition when it comes to the following: the target market you serve, price, packaging, location, follow-up service, convenience, guarantees, benefits you advertise, and so on.

  

“We’re not in the education business. We’re in the transformation business. We expect everyone who participates in a program – whether it’s for three days or two years – to be transformed by the experience.” John A. Quelch, Dean – London School of Business.

Your business’ mission statement should answer these questions: Who are your most important customers? What are your products or services? What is your market area? What values are important to your business? What is your business really good at? What are your special concerns for your employees?

What problems does the service/product help solve? People buy solutions to problems.

Another way to understand your product/service is in terms of customer needs it fulfills. These needs fall into two broad categories: unmet needs and perceived needs. It is easy to sell aspirin to someone who has a headache. It’s somewhat more difficult to sell life insurance to a twenty two year old bachelor.

If you can describe your product or service in terms that reveal a need your customer can identify as important, your chances of making a sale go way up.

Perceived needs are more useful to you than any possible feature because perceived needs are what people buy. Or why they buy.

Recognize that people don’t buy products and services. They buy solutions to their problems, satisfactions of their wants and needs.

In differentiating your product/service from the competition – tout the benefits of your product/service – not its features.

You don’t buy coal/oil/natural gas – you buy heat;

You don’t buy circus tickets – you buy thrills;

You don’t buy paper – you buy the news;

You don't buy glasses - you buy vision.

Our school aspires to be perceived and valued as a small school with BIG ideas. As such, we seek to accentuate what branding experts and marketers describe as a “unique selling proposition.” That is, we try to capitalize on our small size to leverage relationships as a foundation that supports our meaning and purpose. Operating on that platform, we then generate growth in programs, people and practice - despite the threat posed by the economy or increased state standards and acocuntability measures. This requires creativity, new perspectives, and determined goal orietnation and commitment. We pursue opportunities to expand possibilities for our learners, equipping them with the means and assistance to invent their futures in spite of uncertain times, follow their dreams while contending with reality, and sustain their hopes while confronting obstacles. To that degree, we recently announced some new opportunities (see copy of the latest newsletter below in italics) designed to ensure that we will be more distinct and less likely to become extinct (as in educationally or financially insolvent, or subjected to an unwanted merger or consolidation, or a decline in our customer base...) These programs are routinely listed in the instructional menus of larger schools that function on a diffeent scale of economy, but for an impoverished K-12 school of 320 learners (approximately 60% are eligible for free or reduced meals), it's a struggle to extend these same opportunities to disctinguish us from other school districts, especially small school districts, serving similar clients.

It may be summer but we are still busy at school, already preparing for the upcoming 2013-14 school year. We are excited about the expanded opportunities available for our high school learners. Despite the continued economic problems we face, we exercised creativity in scheduling and developed a partnership with Hudson Valley Community College to increase possibilities for our learners without burdening the budget. We are committed to remain a small school with BIG ideas.

High school schedules will be available for pick-up from Tuesday August 27^th through Friday August 30^th between 8:00 and 2:30 in the Guidance Counselor’s office. This will allow learners time to review their schedules and make any adjustments in classes.

First, Hudson Valley Community College has approved several different semester long classes that will be offered at Heatly for college credit. This high school and college partnership allows learners at Heatly to acquire college credit while also meeting graduation requirements. Learners eligible for the free or reduced lunch program will not have to pay for the credits. Those learners who are not eligible for the free or reduced lunch program will pay $50.00 per credit for each class. That’s a bargain compared to what currently enrolled learners at HVCC pay per credit. There is no fee required for learners who want to take these classes without receiving college credit – in other words, like any other traditional class.

Second, our Virtual High School program continues for a third year of operation. This program began with a generous donation from a benefactor of public school education when I began working here. He provided the district with a check and encouraged me to “plant seeds of learning in Green Island.” After evaluating our needs it was determined that we needed to grow opportunities at the secondary level in an effective and cost efficient manner. There are over 150 different courses to choose from on a vast instructional menu offered on-line. Each class is taught on-line by a certified teacher. In addition, our own staff are made available to supervise the program and supply assistance to the learners taking VHS classes. This year we will have learners taking Meteorology, Anatomy and Physiology, and many more classes. This is a great opportunity for our learners to experience classes that are otherwise not provided by small high schools due to financial and staffing restrictions.

Third, we will be introducing a School-to-Work program that prepares learners for the world of work through classes involving resume development, creation of cover letters, completing applications, interview techniques, and much more. In addition, there will be internships that seek to match the interests of learners with appropriate work places in the area.

Fourth, we are introducing a new course at the secondary level that involves elements of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). The course is called STEM Fuse. It is a semester long class that engages learners with project based learning experiences leading to developing working games.

Fifth, this will be our second year of providing Math instruction at the elementary grade level for those learners who qualify for Academic Intervention Services on the basis of their performance on state tests in Math. Prior to last year we lacked the capacity to provide direct instruction to those in need of supplemental support in Math in the elementary grades.

Future programming plans involve exploring the possibility of providing universal pre-kindergarten beginning with the 2014-15 school year. Such a proposal is dependent on our ability to secure funding through grants and the availability of sufficient space. 

We’re working on it.

The Closing and/or Revolving Door

Two issues presented themselves in separate forums recently that, together, form an interesting view on the status of public school leadership.

During the May meeting of the Board of Directors of the CASDA Principals Center, while discussing the changes and challenges facing principals, a colleague reported that an area college, noted for their preparation of school administrators, has experienced a rather significant decline in enrollment. That may be considered a reflection on the economic impact of reductions to administrative staff in school districts throughout the region, as well as the increasing breadth and depth of stress confronting principals.

At a Chief School Officer's meeting that same month, I looked around the room at the assembled superintendents and counted the number of my peers who have arrived at their positions since I started as the superintendent of Green Island on July 1, 2010. There are twenty-three component school districts within our BOCES (Board of Cooperative Educational Services). Counting the district I serve, thirteen of these twenty-three school systems have district-wide leaders who were not in their present position prior to July 1, 2010 - just three short years ago today.

There may be several different reasons contributing to this turnover of superintendents and the diminished interest people have in becoming principals, but one cannot rule out the distinct possibility that the rate of externally imposed changes (drastic loss of revenue and the resulting cuts in budgets, programs, and personnel; Common Core Curriculum and state mandated assessments - and their link to teacher evaluation; volatile political climates; and the whole demand to do more with less) have created an environment that is not perceived as enticing to prospective leaders. The net effect of fairly frequent changes in building and district leaders can be problematic to developing and sustaining the culture and momentum necessary to promote progress.

It will be interesting to examine the long-term consequences of this matter.

Dear Fathers: Man Up!

Man Up!

That's what I challenged a cafeteria full of men to do this morning at school.

Man Up!

The On-Line Slang Dictionary defines this term to mean:
"To rise to the ocassion to complete a task," and, "To take care of one's responsibilities."

They were gathered in the lunchroom as guests of our first and second grade learners for a Father's Day Breakfast.

Parenting is a difficult task. I speak from experience. There was no "how-to" manual available to us when we brought home our first child from the hospital. Much of the time parents appear to turn to their own parents as models and harvest that experience for ideas and practices. Too often, it had been considered a mother's sole responsibility. There are limits to what one person can do. Parenting is likely to be more effective when it's a matter of teamwork, partnership, and shared experiences.

After acknowledging the tremendous role and work of mothers, I referred to research that indicated the powerful potential that a father's involvement can have on the success of children in school.

"When fathers are involved their children learn more, perform better in school and exhibit healthier behavior. Even when fathers do not share a home with their children, their active involvement can have a lasting and positive impact." Use the link below to read the summary of this research.

http://www.education.com/reference/article/father-involvement-important-education/

I thanked the assembled fathers for investing their time in attending the breakfast, particularly since the timing of the event (8:30 am- 9:00 am) occurred during a traditional work day schedule. Their time is valuable and visiting school demonstrated support for their child. But it takes a lot more than simply coming to school one time a year for Fathers Day Breakfast. Then I urged them to read to their son or daughter, check their report card and access the parent portal of our student management system, routinely ask their child about school at some point each day, attend parent-teacher conferences and PTO meetings, and explore other opportunities for them to exhibit sincere support for their child. It's an investment that can generate significant yields in the future.

So, on Father's Day this Sunday, make a pledge to yourself and your family - Man Up! and get involved with your child's education.

The Perfect Storm

"Dickensian" is defined in the Oxford dictionary as follows:
          adjective

• of or reminiscent of the novels of Charles Dickens, especially in suggesting the poor social conditions or comically repulsive characters that they portray:

This is a "Dickensian" themed posting. This Blog entry begins with a famous quote crafted by one of my favorite authors, Charles Dickens. It is the opening paragraph of his classic, Tale of Two Cities. It supports the preparation of this posting from a vantage point of thirty-eight years in the field of public school education.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

There are times, albeit rare, that several different social, political, technological and economic factors converge to produce educational chaos in support of Aristotle's contention, "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts." The points I will present in this Blog entry do not, in and of themselves, pose an insurmountable obstacle to success or progress. In my opinion, other than the discourse and disagreement on a coherent direction, we have the means at our disposal (data, practice, systems and commitment) in our society to attain the outcomes we desire in education, once we arrive at a shared destination. However, when these same factors are combined in time and conflict in resources they form a potentially toxic and excruciating mix with results that will not be known for quite some time and doubtlessly be subject to partisan interpretation.

Technological:
The tremendous capacity we enjoy in terms of electronic storage, retrieval, and analysis is an incredible tool for any organization. However, like anything else, there is a flip side that poses challenges and consequences. Renown statistician and forecaster Nate Silver (who famously predicted the outcome of 49 of 50 state voting outcomes in the recent presidential election) appeared in an interview in the current edition of Fast Company magazine. During the interview he referred to the overwhelming flow of data as follows: "The flood of data means more 'noise' (i.e. useless information) but not necessarily more 'signal' (i.e. truth). Substitute the word information for truth and you have a challenge school districts face. All of the mountains of data that can be disaggregated does not magically reassemble as leverage points for successful informed decision making. Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld once likened his experience sorting through the mass of data to "drinking water through a fire hose."

Political:
A case can be made that New York State prostituted itself to secure $700,000,000 in competitive federal grants through Race To The Top money to bail its Department of Education out during a time of suffocating financial stress. It now appears that much of the infrastructure of the department has been sub-contracted to educational giant Pearson (the company behind the expanded and imposing state assessments and related materials that support the test). Now under pressure from many sides attacking the testing program and the Common Core Learning Standards, the commissioner of education is traveling around the state soliciting moral and political support for these programs from big business.

Part of the agreement that netted the federal funds included lifting the ceiling on Charter Schools within the state. Few people realize that the cost of tuition for learners attending Charter schools is borne by the public school district in which the learner resides. In our case, each Green Island resident who enrolls in a Charter school costs our district $12,666 plus the cost of transportation.

Just prior to the annual school district budget vote in Albany in May of 2012, residents of Albany received a flashy, professionally prepared mailing listing reasons to defeat the public school budget. The local newspaper, The Times Union, tracked down the origin of the mailing (which they estimated cost $10,000) and discovered a connection to an individual with significant interests in the company that manages the handful of Charter schools operating within Albany under the auspices of Brighter Choice. If the public school budget was defeated it would prompt even deeper cuts in staffing and programs. Such losses would thereby make Charter schools more appealing to parents tired of rising class sizes and lost programs and, as a result attract more money to Brighter Choice. Needless to say, it is illegal for public schools in New York to use public funds to attempt to persuade the public how to vote. Fortunately, the newspaper broke the story in time and reflected light on an otherwise hidden subject and that may have helped the district receive an affirmative vote supporting their budget.

Is it any wonder, with the substantial challenges facing public schools, that there are a growing number of school districts across the state who were unable to attract enough candidates for membership on the local Board of Education to fill the vacancies they had available?

Economic:
Schools nearly everywhere have been strangled by a distressed economy at the state and national levels. Even the most optimistic and resourceful among school leaders has grown weary of the mantra thrust upon it by politicians and businesses, "Do more with less" or "Work smarter, not harder." In New York State, the governor, staring at a significant budget deficit in 2008, closed the gap by initiating a "one time only" reach in the cookie jar reallocation of state aid to education. The cuts were called "Gap Elimination." Schools took a hit for the team and suffered miserably with huge decreases to staff and programs. However, years later, the Gap Elimination remains in use. Our district has realized an accumulative loss in state aid of approximately $2,200,000 since 2008. Our total annual operating budget is just shy of $7,000,000. That's significant!

Social:
I could list examples of stressed out children and teachers featured in countless articles chronicling the pressure of newly imposed state tests that are directly related to teacher evaluation, but instead I will offer reprint of a commentary that appeared a few days ago in The Times Union. The author, Ed Sullivan, presents an interesting perspective on the potential impact of administering tests based on the Common Core Learning Standards before the CCLS curriculum has been introduced and supported with accessible materials sufficient to prepare learners for the exams:

The Board of Regents, which oversees education in New York, has authorized tests to be given to elementary school students based on what's known as the "Core Curriculum." The Core has been adopted nationwide, by 45 of the 50 states, plus the federal Education Department and President Barack Obama.
Only two states have authorized the tests to begin immediately, however. New York is one.
Despite considerable controversy over the value of the Core-based tests, Meryl Tisch, Chancellor of the Board of Regents, has said: "We believe that this is the right thing for students and teachers right now."
The Core Curriculum contains subject matter and problems which, for all the Regents know, have never been presented to many of the students taking the tests. The Regents might have taken steps to implement the Core Curriculum in the classroom first. They might have required each district and therefore each school, to teach the Core subject matter that would eventually be confronted by the students in the tests. Then, once the material had been presented to the students, the Regents could have tested them to find out how well the material had been learned.
But the Regents didn't do that. They have required many students to take the tests before being prepared to pass the tests. The material that they have never seen will befuddle those students, and, regrettably, they will blame themselves for not doing well.
Of course, some students will do well. Students from upper middle class families, whose parents have the leisure time to keep their children ahead of the wave in their school work, will do better. And parents who have the money to hire tutors or send their kids to prep classes will do best of all.
But students whose parents never went to college, or even finished high school, and students whose parents would like to help their kids through school but simply don't know how to go about it, will be blind sided. And they will blame themselves for being confused. Why wouldn't they. They couldn't imagine their teachers setting a trap for them like this.
And why indeed did their teachers, and the school district superintendents, and the Board of Regents set the students up, set many of them up for certain failure?
There is a notion afloat that this nation is falling behind in the global race to produce the best educated citizens. That there even is such a race is dubious thinking, but that drum is beat so constant that it creates the reality of an educational race to the top.
The resources devoted to education, many argue, have to be focused on winning that race, and assisting those students who have the best chance of moving ahead toward educational and economic success.
Who are those students?
They are the very students who will do well in these examinations, for which the general school population was inadequately prepared. If you have the kind of parents who will help you up the ladder to success, you will be welcomed on board the education express. And if your parents are not able to do that, for whatever reason, we would just be wasting our limited educational resources bringing you up to speed.
You did badly on the test that you weren't prepared for, we are effectively saying. That's a bad omen for your future studies. Better start thinking community college. Get to the back of the line.
The whole notion of education being a stepladder to success in American society is being abandoned. We don't seem to have time to deal with the wretched refuse of our own teeming shores, let alone immigrants. Let's move on.
There is certainly no evidence that the Board of Regents intentionally wants to skew the test results in favor of students whose parents are better able to help them succeed. But that will be the inevitable result.
That will be bad for social mobility in New York, the state that invented social mobility through education. In the long run, it will be to everyone's disadvantage.
Ed Sullivan is a former college professor and former chairman of the state Assembly's Higher Education Committee.


Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/New-York-s-about-to-fail-ultimate-test-4547003.php#ixzz2UdRps600



               
            

School Board Members, Money, and Mandates

The following headline appeared recently in news-feed I receive daily on educational issues throughout New York State.

Greece, NY school district has fewer candidates than board openings.

This is not surprising, and I suspect that a growing number of school districts across the state and nation will experience the same dilemma in the near future.

Last night I presented our proposed budget for the next school year. The tax levy required to sustain the budget represents a 3.74% increase. That is far less than last year when a significant drop in our revenue from a local power authority prompted a 12.47% increase that was subsequently approved by a supportive and understanding community. Nonetheless, Board of Education members nearly everywhere face daunting decisions and difficult circumstances that pose a "Sophie's Choice" of often choosing from a limited menu of options under the category of "the lesser of evils."

Reduced revenue causes cuts in program and people. And, in a human service enterprise that is people oriented and labor intensive, with approximately 75% of the budget allocated for salaries and benefits, eliminating positions is the likely target of decreases. It's also a very personal equation, especially at a small school or district where the Board members usually know everyone beyond name and face recognition. When you are aware of the stories behind the individuals - who is struggling with high medical costs for a loved one; who is wrestling with the need to provide elder care for older parents; who is a single parent, or a parent with several children, or someone weighed down with college loans, - then it becomes a particularly painstaking decision. Similarly, when the people and the programs they staff are reduced or eliminated, then there is a potential to diminish the hopes and dreams of those served by the programs.

The financial constraints that threaten to suffocate the opportunities and possibilities available within a school restrict the latitude of Board members to exercise initiatives and minimize the leverage they could otherwise apply to improve successful outcomes. There are limits to the mantra of "working smarter not harder," and/or "doing more with less."

If the fiscal crisis is not enough to dissuade candidates for the Board of Education, or to prevent attrition of veteran members who refrain from re-election, then the slow strangulation of Board discretionary acts by burdensome state mandates will surely inhibit civic minded individuals from seeking to represent their community.

The marriage of these two critical issues, financial peril and state mandates, is produced when the state mandates are imposed - without any state funding. For example, in New York state public schools must be prepared to administer state mandated tests via computers. These tests are given at specific times to specific grades. In our small district we must have 100 computers (a little under 1/3 of the learner population) available at once when these tests are presented. To avoid string long lines of electrical outlets we will need wireless access in much of the school building. These computers have to comply with stringent standards of operation regarding memory capacity, the ability to lock out access to the Internet and prevent test-takers from accessing knowledge bases for test answers. And, of course, we have to have sufficient bandwidth to accommodate that many computers interacting with complex graphics and rich text at high speed.

That's just one example of many available.

Did I already remind you that these are unpaid positions? Members must approve policy, manage budgets, make excruciating decisions during economic calamity, and appease varied constituent groups while maintaining the course of the district's mission,... all for no money!

Public school education cannot afford to suffer from an unwillingness of prospective candidates to seek and accept the responsibility of governing schools. Nor can we maintain our focus and direction if Boards experience disruption of momentum from constant turnover of members.

There is a crisis in education, with multiple layers of concerns, but this is exactly when we need leaders to emerge and seize the reigns of an organization and convert risk into opportunities.

Thomas Paine wrote the following introductory paragraph of "The Crisis" during the dismal early days of the American Revolution, when victory appeared elusive and the future was bleak:

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value."

What is more dear to us than the future? The trials and tribulations of a Board member does not travel a flat and smooth path, but it offers the richly rewarding destination of helping to sustain dreams and nurture hope for those you serve. Don't be a summer soldier or sunshine patriot who only accepts service during times of convenience. Stand up and reach out!