School District Faces Failure, Adopts RISC

Wiscassett Newspaper – November 4, 2010

School District Faces Failure, Adopts RISC

By Alan Bebout

Staff Reporter

In a public hearing, Chris Chamberlain stood before an audience composed of her superintendent, teachers, students, parents, and school board members, and acknowledged that the school district has accepted responsibility for failure in its mission to educate students entrusted to it.   She said it was about time for the district to be honest with parents about how bad things are, and went on to describe the problem in painful detail.  More than once she told the audience that the world has changed and America’s schools have not changed with it.  The problem is not uncommon in Maine, and one that most Maine school districts will likely have to address in the near future.

Chamberlain is Director of Curriculum for RSU 2, which includes schools in Dresden, Richmond, Farmingdale, Hallowell, and Monmouth.  Her candid presentation confirmed that students have been passed from grade to grade without mastering basic material.  Prior to graduation, some students get frustrated with falling further and further behind, and become a drop-out statistic.  Chamberlain and RSU 2 Superintendent Donald Siviski are not content to see future graduates get a high school diploma just because they sat in a chair for twelve years.  It is disarming to see a District Superintendent and Curriculum Director openly admitting to the failure of public education.  It is time, they say, to face the problem and begin to solve it.

Chamberlain admits that the United States used to have the world’s finest education system, and now rank fifteenth out of thirty countries.  The US has been slipping in its ranking in the world, and Maine has been slipping in its ranking in the US.  Chamberlain laments that we are no longer equipping kids to be competitive in the world economy.  The picture she paints is bleak.

She recalls the well-worn saying, “If we keep doing what we’ve been doing, we’ll keep getting what we’ve been getting, and what we have been getting is no longer acceptable.”  That, she says, is why she is having meetings at each school in the district.  Her purpose is to expose the problem, and outline what the district sees as the beginning of the solution.

As funding has been available, teachers in the district have been attending classes about a Standards Based Education system called RISC which was created by the “Re-Inventing Schools Coalition”.  A standard may be something as simple as learning fractions in math or learning the alphabet.  Under RISC, a student has to master each standard at his level before moving to the next level.  Grouping students by age is no longer the guiding criteria. 

The student will attend classes with students at his/her level, regardless of age.  It is possible for a student to be learning third grade math and second grade language.  The goal is to be sure students have met all standards before graduation.  Unlike today, nobody will earn a diploma if they are reading at an eighth grade level and doing math at a tenth grade level.  A Diploma will recapture its integrity, and employers and institutes of higher learning will be offered more qualified applicants.

Chamberlain said teachers enthusiastically latched on to RISC, and began introducing it to their students as early as the last school term.  It has not always gone well.  Some of the parents attending the meeting mentioned that their kids, who get good grades and normally love school, are coming home frustrated because they are confused about the new system.  In answer, Chamberlain said that some teachers are apparently going into action without fully understanding how the system works, and it will take awhile to work out the kinks. 

Not everyone at the meeting was on-board with Chamberlain’s plan of action.  Some parents of children in RSU 1 (Bath), along with author Charlotte Iserbyt of Dresden, who identifies herself as the consummate education whistleblower, were sitting at one table and said one of the big reasons for Maine kids’ failing to meet the expectations of employers or colleges is due to curriculum choices.  Woolwich resident Beth Schultz, co-founder of the Maine Coalition for World Class Math, commented that reform is pointless unless school curriculum is intensely scrutinized.  She argues that Maine schools are squarely in the “Whole Language” and “Everyday Math” camp and that is one very strong reason why Maine is no longer #1 in the USA for math achievement.

Others at the meeting were concerned that the flurry of activity around RISC will distract from other systemic education problems like paying teachers based on years of service rather than effectiveness and perpetuating the damage done by ineffective teachers who are protected from termination.  Still others are worried that their children are being used as an experiment.  They wish the school district would offer students a choice of attending a RISC school or another non-RISC school.   

After the meeting, a Richmond High student approached Chamberlain with his concerns.  Since 65% of the student body is not proficient at grade level, he sees them being innocent victims caught in the jaws of a policy change.  Because they have been passed from grade to grade without meeting past standards, by the time they enter high school they are so far behind they cannot catch up in just a year or two.  Yet, the system says they must master all standards prior to graduation.  The student expresses deep concern that many of his friends may not graduate with their class.

Chamberlain was not prepared to respond to him with a clear plan of action, but did try to reassure the student that the district will face the problem and find a solution that does not victimize large groups of students.  She indicated that there are still many questions that have no well thought out answers as yet.    

Chamberlain and Siviski admit that every “I” has not been dotted and “T” crossed, but are intent on not perpetuating something that is not working.  Rather than wait until all the questions are answered, they have chosen to act.  Most teachers are with them.  Their current challenge is to get students and parents on board.

Alan Bebout is the reporter for this article and can be reached at alanbebout@roadrunner.com