Leadership Tomorrow Workshop # 3

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WHAT IS THE MISSION OF PUBLIC EDUCATION?

Thursday, November 19, 1998

Workshop Coordinators: Paul Snyder & Barbara Claybaugh., Board Members

"All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of the empires depends on the education of youth

"The mind is a fire to be kindled, not a vessel to be filled"- Plutarch

We were met by the school's principal who was dressed as Dr. Seuss's The Cat in The Hat. She quickly explained that the students were celebrating reading 22,000 books and that many had come to school dressed as their favorite literary character. All the teachers were in costume as well. It was quite exciting!

After the flag was raised and the Pledge of Allegiance was recited, there were various awards/medals handed out to the students rewarding their efforts in reading all those books. The President of the PTA group played the guitar and sang a song about the importance of reading and everyone seemed to appreciate the message. Being an English Professor, I was feeling very encouraged.

Following the ceremony are group had the opportunity to sit down with Ms. Knutsen (in her first year as the principal) for a frank discussion on the challenges she faces at this very old school in a district that had close to a 70% turnover in its administration since the last school year. One of the issues that she pointed out was how important it is for her school as well as that district to align itself with business and industry in the private sector. This alignment,  she pointed out, has to be a "two-way street." The schools can not simply expect business and industry to support the schools without getting something in return.

While serving as principal at her previous school in Lancaster, she sat down with representatives from local business and industry and queried what it was they expected from the schools. The answers they gave her surprised her as it did most of us. She had expected them to say "teach them the basic skills...reading and writing and to do math!" However, that was not their response. What they want was employees that will be at work on time. Employees that will take initiative and solve problems at work. Employees that will take pride in what their job entails and demonstrate leadership in the workplace. In short, what they want is a person with a strong work ethic.  

We then had the opportunity to walk around the school, enter into classrooms and watch the teaching that was taking place. Ms. Knutsen said that what we should expect to see in the classroom was allot of cooperative learning groups, individualized instruction being given by the teacher, an instructional aid or a parent and students working independently. And that was exactly what I observed. We were unable to stay at Newport Elementary as long as any of us would have liked because the next stop was a South Lake Middle School in Irvine, which in contrast to Newport Elementary, is one of the newest and progressive schools in the area.

Upon arriving at South Lake Middle School we were greeted again by the principal Ms. Judy Cunningham and a panel of students who would later act as our host while we were on campus. We were led to the Library/Media Center and were immediately impressed by the technology that was available to the students at this school. Gone were the card catalog drawers replaced by computer terminals. There was a PowerPoint presentation on a large playback monitor about the school and what its educational philosophy was.

Right-a-way we were able to tell that Ms. Cunningham did not fit the stereotypical view many of us have as a middle school principal. She was a marketer, a businesswoman and she is applying these learned skills to education as she envisions it. Ms. Cunningham mentioned in her brief talk that after serving some time as a principal left education for the private sector. For three years she worked in a business environment where marketing your product and the quality of that product determined whether or not the company that produces it will continue to exist...very different from the educational environment as she had come to know it. Clearly, she is now trying to apply what she learned in business to education generally and specifically at South Lake.

After a brief introduction about the school we were led in groups on a tour of the school facility. We all marveled at the physical plant, the technology that was available to both students, staff and teachers, the educational philosophy described by Ms. Cunnigham being practiced...it was indeed very impressive.There were many comments made by members in our group like "wow has education changed!" or "jeez, I wish that I had the opportunities when I was in junior high school."

However, South Lake Middle School is not a typical middle school. You could not help but notice the homogeniality of its students. These students were from upper middle-class families, with educated parents who learned English as their primary language. The had grown up together in the same neighborhood in Irvine and were not bussed to a school miles from home. There was significant community support both financially and otherwise. Ms. Cunningham made a special point in her presentation as to how she had hand-picked her staff and teachers. I wonder if she would have been able to do that at a school where teachers were not as eager to work? Yes, what is going on at South Lake Middle School is wonderful, but in my view there its effect on society as a whole is somewhat diminished because these educational opportunities are available to so few students, even within the same district.

From South Lake Middle School, we again boarded the school bus and headed for lunch at the renowned Captain's Table on the campus of Orange Coast College. This community college has one of the few Hotel and Restaurant Certificate Programs in California. The program is known throughout the nation and the food served at the Captain's Table is prepared by students enrolled in this program. Th meal was outstanding. Interestingly enough, the program is headed by the father of Amanda Beard the Olympic Medalist swimmer.

Following lunch we were privileged to participate in a panel discussion with some very distinguished guests. All of the major educational institutions in the area were represented including U.C.I. the Coast Community College District, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District as well as Irvine Unified School District. The names of the participants are found above in the itinerary.

By far the most impressive presentation was that given by Dr. Lara, Vice Chancellor of Enrollment Services at U.C.I.. He explained that the California Master Plan for education was put in place in 1960. That plan essentially said that the top % of graduating seniors will have the opportunity to attend the University of California. The top 30% will have the opportunity to attend the California State University System. The Community College System will provide open access to all those seeking post-secondary educational or training opportunities.

Dr. Lara then went on to "throw out" some alarming statistics. There are approximately 300,000 students applying to the U.C. System each year. Of those, 75,000 are of Hispanic origin, 3,800 are actually eligible to be admitted to UCLA or Cal. There are 20,000 African American applicants, of which 250 are actually eligible to either UCLA or Cal. Of the Asian American groups, there are 38,000 applicants of which 1,500 are actually eligible again to UCLA or Cal. The lowest quartile of a student being admitted to either one of those schools is a GPA or 3.8 and 1200 on the SAT. At UCI the mean GPA of the freshman class in 1998 was 3.79 with 1192 score on the SAT.

What does this mean? Well for one, it puts enormous pressure on high school student for grades. And more importantly, we can not tell a high school freshman in 1998 what it will take for he/she to be admitted to U.C. in the year 2002. The "bar" just keeps rising. An interesting comment was later made by Dr. Laura. He spoke of a middle school is Santa Ana with a predominantly Hispanic student population. After years of pressure from forces within the U.C. system, they are just this school year offering one section of algebra. Quite a contrast with South Lake in Irvine and perhaps demonstrates why only 3,800 out of 75,000 applicants are eligible to be admitted to UCLA or Cal.

The California Community College System is the largest institution in the world. There are 107 colleges serving 1.5 million students or what would be equivalent of 1/9 of the U.S. population. Its mission is to provide transfer, certificated, remedial and life-long learning programs to the general population of the State of California.

One point that all the panel members seem to agree on and that was the need to deregulate the public education system in the State of California. Different regions of the state have different educational needs and those regions need more local control over their schools so that the educational opportunities offered are those that serve the need of the students attending.

Today, the best was truly saved for last. We again boarded the school bus and were taken back to the  Coastline Regional Occupational Center in Costa Mesa. What a treat this was as well as a very enlightening experience with respect to the role of the ROP in the educational community within California.

I think most everyone in our group was under the impression that the ROP served those students, who for whatever reason, the public education system could not serve or a primarily adult population. Nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, what was explained to us is that ROP provides what can best be described as internships into career pathways such arts and communication, business and marketing, health science, public services and science and technology. And, that out of a total enrollment of 8,000 at Coastline ROP, only 25% are what would be considered adult participants.

After a brief presentation by an administrator as well as a teacher, we broke up into two groups and taken to a classroom with a class session going on. My group was taken to a class session in banking. From the outside, the building looked like any other educational facility. However, when you walked through the door of the classroom, you would have thought you were actually in a bank. The entire classroom had been transformed to simulate a bank right down to the "New Accounts Desk."

We were asked to participate in a simulation. We were given a scenario to play based on the wide variety of needs that people have when they go to the local bank. And then, the banked was robbed!!!! It was of course a simulation, but it was carried out with such detail. After the "robber" got away we were all asked to fill out a detailed recollection of the events right down to a specific description of the assailant. We were all taken back by how little we actually remembered about what the robber looked like. Our composite description was put on the board by the instructor of the class then, she brought the robber back in. The point of the simulation was to show us how they train these students to deal with the real problems found in some of these careers. In this case, a robbery where bank employees would provide the only "leads" to law enforcement to solve the crime, their recollection of events could determine whether or not the suspects were ever apprehended. The simulation and the "debriefing" was handled in a very skillful way by this particular instructor.

Being an educator myself, this workshop had special signifcance for me. I wish that we would have had the opportunity to visit a high school. I also wish that after the South Lake Middle School experience, we were taken to another middle school in a middle or lower-class neighborhood so that all in our group who are not directly involved in education could plainly see that educational opportunities are not equally distributed throughout our society.