A Message from NASB`s President

readers to hope that the anecdotes he has chosen to
share are outliers. He then mercilessly demonstrates
that they are not.
Office
Mailing
Phone
549 Court Street
PO Box 14855
775/657-8411
His assertions are:
• The American Dream was alive a few decades ago,
though of a somewhat different nature than our
“self-made” perceptions of it, that
• Right now, social mobility is entirely out of reach for
a massive proportion of American children, and
• There is still time to do something about it.
Reno, NV 89501
Reno, NV 89507
Fax 775/453-1017
Supporting Success for All Students
through Local School Board Leadership
Most of the book is devoted to documenting a divide
between young (generally ages 18-22) Americans with
access to The American Dream, and those without that
access. Putnam traces how the featured individuals
ended up on their sides of the divide, documents the
trends to which the individuals are party, and analyzes
the nature of the divide itself. Stark childhood
information gleaned from interviews of young
Americans, both well-set and not, invest the reader in
the quantitative data that follows each set of personal
stories. What is documented by this combination of
anecdotal and trend data is alarming. It has also been
a great source of clarity for me in my work as a school
board trustee this year.
A
Message
from
NASB’s
President
It is time for the top pick from among this year’s
reviewed books.
I have enjoyed taking recommendations and seeking
out a few books myself as we have made 2015 a year
focused on literacy. No better book came to my
attention this year than the book recommended by
NASB Executive Director Dotty Merrill shortly after it
was published this spring.
A brief concluding portion of the book offers a menu of
possible actions that Americans can take, individually
and collectively, to halt the sinking of the trend lines of
opportunity for poor young Americans.
As I have worked these past few months with the
perspective that Our Kids brought to my view, I have
noticed that the stark and well-documented reality of
the challenge before us has been the most useful and
influential of its information.
It may be literacy that will bring The American Dream
back into reach for millions of young people who need
something to change for the better. As we wrap this
year and look forward to our Conference November 1921, I once again recommend Our Kids: The American
Dream in Crisis as a must-read.
I recommend a full read of Our Kids, and I would love
to talk it over with you if we find a moment during our
NASB conference later this month. How can we, as
school board members, perhaps the closest elected
officials to the realities described therein, help the
author of this book to rekindle America’s “deeper sense
that those kids, too, [are] our kids?”
Notable quotes from Our Kids: The American Dream in
Crisis
• Contrast the stable parental support that enfolds
Andrew and Chelsea [two of the case studies] with
the dreadful chaos in which Kayla and David [two
more] have grown up. Children pay the cost of
early childbearing and multi-partnered fertility in
the form of diminished prospects for success in life.
– Page 78
Of all the books I read this year, Our Kids delivers the
facts and insights that most often come back to mind in
my efforts to make a difference as a school board
member. Here I will share again some of what Our Kids
offers to us as we seek to develop policy and represent
and lead our communities in ways that will lead to
student success.
Author Robert Putnam is a meticulous bearer of this bad
news: In the “aftermath of the Great Recession,” the
American Dream is not currently available to poor
young people.
By taking us deeply into the lives of young people who
are tapping into opportunity, and likewise into the lives
of young people who are not, Putnam causes his
•
1
The disadvantages facing poor kids begin early and
run deep…. –Page 134
•
•
•
As the twenty-first century opened, a family’s
socioeconomic status had become even more
important than test scores in predicting which eight
graders would graduate from college. A generation
earlier, social class had played a smaller role,
relative to academic ability, in predicting
educational attainment….Even more shocking, highscoring poor kids are now slightly less likely (29
percent) to get a college degree than low-scoring
rich kids (30 percent). That last fact is particularly
hard to square with the idea at the heart of the
American Dream: equality of opportunity. – Page
190
NASB 2015 Annual
Conference
November 20-21
Reno—Atlantis
Governance Meetings November 19
Award Ceremony November 21
… We have seen that social networks, communities,
and community institutions like churches can be
powerful resources for child development and social
mobility. But we have also seen that in today’s
America these resources have become less public
and collective, forcing all parents to rely more
heavily on private provision…. Caring for kids was
once a more widely shared, collective responsibility,
but that ethic has faded in recent decades. That
narrowing of the effective scope of ‘our kids’ has
had dramatically different effects on privileged and
impoverished children. – Page 226
Thanks to these corporate friends—
To be sure, the link from income inequality to
opportunity inequality is not simple and
instantaneous. As our cases illustrate, it took
several decades for economic malaise to undermine
family structures and community support; it took
several decades for gaps in parenting and schooling
to develop; and it will take decades more for the full
impact of those divergent childhood influences to
manifest themselves in adult lives…. These time
lags of indefinite duration complicate our ability to
draw a simple statistical correlation between
inequality of income and inequality of opportunity…
causal links and future projections remain
uncertain, but … if we wait for perfect clarity, it will
be too late. –Page 228
This year’s top pick is Our Kids: The American Dream in
Crisis. I hope that you find clarity, motivation and ideas
in this book that will positively impact your work as a
school board member, and I hope that many Americans
will read it and join us in the day-to-day life-saving
work for our kids.
I look forward to spending time together with you
November 19-21 in Reno as we work toward better
policy and better school board work for greater student
success, for all children!
Sincerely,
Erin Cranor
NASB President
702/266-6890
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November 21—
Dr. Doug Reeves
NASB Conference
Keynote Speakers
Present National
Perspectives
November 20—
Dr. John Draper
Dr. Doug Reeves has worked with education,
business, nonprofit, and government organizations
throughout the world. The author of more than 30
books and more than 80 articles on leadership and
organizational effectiveness, he has twice been named
to the Harvard University Distinguished Authors Series
and was named the Brock International Laureate for his
contributions to education. Dr. Reeves received both
the Distinguished Service Award from the National
Association of Secondary School Principals and the
Parent's Choice Award for his writing for children and
parents. His career of work in professional learning led
to the Contribution to the Field Award from the National
Staff Development Council. For his international work,
Dr. Reeves was named the William Walker Scholar by
the Australian Council of Educational Leaders.
Dr. John Draper has enjoyed a wide variety of
experiences in his lifetime. He has been a newspaper
reporter, construction worker, jailor, actor, timber
buyer, musician, small business owner, choir director,
soccer coach, Sunday school teacher, and door-to-door
aluminum siding salesman. Dr. Draper will address
Conference attendees twice on November 20, jointly
sponsored by Zions Public Finance and Oasis Online.
November 20—
Focus on Generational
Attitudes and
Education in the Future
For the last 30+ years he has been middle and high
school teacher, assistant principal, principal, Executive
Director of the Council for Leaders in Alabama Schools,
CEO of the Educational Research Service in Washington,
DC, and now serves as a nation-wide consultant with
the National School Public Relations Association
(NSPRA). NSPRA is a membership organization helping
educational leaders increase public support for schools
and school districts.
Dr. Draper earned his undergraduate and graduate
degrees at the University of Montevallo in Alabama and
his Doctorate from Samford University. He is most
proud of his doctorate from the school of “hard knocks”
earned as a middle school assistant principal in charge
of discipline for 1400 students. He has done keynotes
for hundreds of school districts and education
associations across the nation.
CenturyLink—one of NASB’s
corporate friends—is sponsoring Randy McCrillis.
Randy is returning due to the popularity of his
presentation at the 2014 Conference and with a new
perspective on generational attitudes that influence
public education.
Here are some comments from those who have heard
Dr. Draper speak at other conferences:
• One of the best presentations I have ever had the
opportunity to attend.
• John is an amazing leader and storyteller. This was
the second time to hear him and both times I have
come away with ideas and a brighter outlook.
• John’s presentation was jam-packed with useful
information presented in a timely and fun manner.
Randy’s work focuses on facilitating large organizational
change efforts, guiding management teams in the
promotion of systemic effectiveness and employee
satisfaction.
3
He conducts team-building, personality-assessment,
and diversity-awareness events for top level managers
to front line staff teams.
Commentary: Up to the
Challenge
As an external consultant he has used his consulting
experience in the private, public and volunteer sectors.
He currently serves as faculty/staff at the University of
Colorado, Boulder.
By Del Stover
Academic rigor is one of those buzzwords that makes
the rounds whenever there’s a debate on improving
public education. Everyone wants to ensure that all
students graduate from high school “college and career
ready.” Most urban school boards already are on top of
this issue. They’ve expanded access to Advanced
Placement (AP) courses, phased out less-demanding
classes, and punched up the curriculum to promote
higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills.
Randy has a Ph.D. in Leadership from the University of
Nebraska; he has taught courses in cross-cultural
communication, organizational behavior, leadership and
diversity facilitation at the graduate and undergraduate
levels.
Yet, the issue of rigorous coursework is important— and
school boards always should be questioning whether
they’ve done all they can. Have you clarified what rigor
actually means in the classroom? Are your teachers
trained to provide that rigor? Have you spotted all the
challenges to translating your goals into outcomes?
November 21—
Concluding Conference
Speaker to Focus on
Effective Governance
You could spend weeks reading the research and
reports on this issue, and then devote yet more time to
talking to practitioners about their best practices. We
pulled together a list of ideas to spark discussion when
rigor next appears on your board agenda:
Offer More Academically Rigorous Courses
As painfully obvious as this advice sounds, it remains
one of the best strategies a school board can pursue to
add rigor to student learning. Research shows that most
students rise to the challenge of higher expectations, so
offering more academically rigorous courses is likely to
produce results.
Ken Odom, Jr., is an award-winning public speaker
with a passion for education and leadership
development.
Having served his community as a school board trustee
for more than a decade, Ken has keen insight about
what makes effective school governance.
As a business professional, Ken has held leadership
positions both in Fortune 500 organizations and small to
medium start ups.
That was the thinking behind the Houston Independent
School District’s decision six years ago to expand AP
courses at each high school, as well as to offer its
International Baccalaureate program in more schools.
In these roles, he has honed his abilities to think
strategically and formulate solutions for myriad forprofit and non-profit governance challenges. He is the
author of 10 Questions Every School Board Member
Should Ask and a frequent contributor to Texas Lone
Star magazine.
It also was a conscious decision to not shortchange AP
offerings in the city’s lower-performing schools, where
large populations of low-income students traditionally
have been perceived as less likely to be successful on a
college-prep track, says Erica Deakins, a manager with
Houston’s Innovative Curriculum and Instruction
Department.
Ken has presented at the annual conferences for the
Texas Association of School Boards and the National
School Boards Association, has served as a keynote
speaker for various organizations, and trained both
non-profit and school boards.
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The expansion of AP courses—and a requirement to
take the AP exam—fueled a 64-percent increase in
students who are passing AP exams.
Provide Supports
A commonly voiced concern to academic rigor is that
some students will fall short—and frustration,
disengagement, and failure may result. But that risk
exists only if school boards confuse rigor with a sink-orswim philosophy to learning.
Introduce Academic Rigor at an Early Age
The most productive and cost-effective strategy for
raising academic rigor in your schools is to push rigor
early. Waiting until high school to get tough is only
going to backfire with students who are behind grade
level in English and math.
Many urban school leaders recognize that strategically
placed support systems for lower-achieving students
can make all the difference in their ability to handle
more rigorous coursework. And the research backs that
thinking up: The Annenberg Institute for School Reform
studied 13 New York City high schools to determine why
they were so successful in preparing low-performing
ninth-graders to graduate on time, prepared for college.
One key factor in their success: “Adults in the high
school kept track of every student’s progress and
intervened quickly with a targeted and efficient
intervention when difficulties arose.”
Some of that support must take place in the classroom,
but other support can be developed and implemented at
the district level. As part of its effort to prepare
students for college and career, for example, Houston
established the EMERGE program to provide interested
low-income students with a strong support system.
That was the thinking in Chattanooga, Tennessee,
where Hamilton County Schools has made English and
math literacy a top priority in the primary grades.
“This is how we can ensure students are ready for
grade-level work,” says Robert Sharpe, the district’s
assistant superintendent for education and leadership
support.
Promote Student Diversity
One of the main points of Brown v. Board of Education
was that “separate but equal schools” ultimately leave
disadvantaged students—isolated from their more
affluent, academically successful peers—with lowered
educational outcomes.
Years ago, Maryland’s Montgomery County school
district embraced a similar strategy, and its
implementation strategy is worthy of attention: School
officials analyzed the content of high school AP classes
and revised the district curriculum, from preschool
through early high school, so that students would learn
what they needed to be successful when they reached
those advanced courses.
Make Sure Everyone Understands Rigor
“Academic rigor is determined not just by what is
taught, but how it is taught and how it is assessed.”
That observation, included in a report on rigor by the
Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media,
underscores the need of school boards to clearly define
what rigor means in their school district.
According to Richard Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the
Century Foundation, that dynamic is as true today as 60
years ago.
For Hamilton County school officials, it wasn’t enough to
simply mandate English and math literacy as a priority
in the early grades—teachers needed to understand
exactly what that mandate meant for their classroom
work, Sharpe says.
“We hear a lot about differentiated instruction, but too
often, the teacher aims the classroom lesson to that
average student in the classroom, and if you’re stuck in
a low-income school, and you’re very bright, you
probably aren’t going to be challenged academically.
Your schools need to allow more low-income students to
attend school with middle-class students.”
That meant defining what children needed to learn and
“what teachers should be doing, what students should
be doing, what activities need to be going on,” he says.
The district then provided the professional development
that gave teachers the instructional tools to implement
the district’s expectations.
This argument doesn’t resonate as powerfully as it once
did. The demographic, political, and legal obstacles to
5
This central tenet has been over-shadowed, if not lost
altogether, after many decades of growing influence
and power of the central government. Some of that
was almost destined to happen, given the complex
challenges of modern society. Yet, Congress, the federal
courts, the presidency, and executive agencies
comprise just one part of a larger system of
government, one that also encompasses the states and
local jurisdictions. Taken collectively, they constitute
the diffusion of official authority that is the essence of
federalism.
promoting diversity have grown more daunting over the
past two decades. And some educators argue a highquality instructional program can offset many of the
educational obstacles that exist in today’s segregated
schools.
Signs of Success
The challenges of adding rigor to urban classrooms—
and turning these higher expectations into tangible
academic results—can appear daunting.
But urban school leaders should realize that they’re
already succeeding: The nation’s high school graduation
rate has climbed to 81 percent, the highest in 40
years—and much of that improvement can be attributed
to improving academic results in urban districts.
To be sure, the word “federal” has a much different
connotation today. It has become synonymous with
Washington, D.C., and the labyrinth of agencies that
govern virtually every aspect of daily life. That
overshadows the concept of shared governance that
draws on the intelligence and good judgment of people
at the local, state, and national levels. It is what
federalism was meant to be. Thankfully, that may be
changing.
There also are signs that these graduates are better
prepared for college, says Daniel D. Challener,
president of the Public Education Foundation, a
Chattanooga community organization.
What is happening in Congress right now can be viewed
as an effort to restore a balance of power that was an
original underpinning of the American governmental
model. Both the Senate and House of Representatives
have passed bills reauthorizing the Elementary and
Secondary School Act (ESEA). And, while the two
pieces of legislation are markedly different and need to
be reconciled before any proposal can be enacted, they
share a common affirmation of the vital role of state
and local levels of government in providing public
education. (In fact, the provisions in the two bills
protecting the authority of school boards were inserted
largely at the behest of NSBA and its state school
boards association members.)
Local research has shown, for example, that college
retention rates are increasing among graduates of the
Hamilton County Schools.
“That suggests they’re better prepared academically,”
he says. “They’ve had more rigorous coursework.”
[Del Stover is senior editor of the American School
Board Journal. This article first appeared n the October
2015 edition of ASBJ.]
A Message from NSBA’s
Executive Director—
Restoring Federalism
in Education
Reauthorization of ESEA would represent an incredibly
important milestone, for at least two reasons. The first
is the widespread consensus that this major federal law
is badly in need of repair. Efforts to fix it have fallen
short on previous attempts. This year, with both
houses of Congress moving to pass legislation (in the
Senate, by an overwhelming margin), is the best
opportunity to enact a workable, effective new law.
By Tom Gentzel
It’s probably best that our nation’s founders are not
around to hear the current debate about education
policy in the United States. Those who fought and
worked so hard to create this new country likely would
be badly confused, and probably greatly frustrated, by
the language being used today.
Beyond that, this development is even more important
because it represents an effort to restore balance
among levels of government in the delivery of
education.
Although those early leaders had widely different
opinions about the workings of government—the battles
between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton
being a great example of the spirited debate that
shaped our nation—a core principle made the formation
of the United States possible. It was the notion that
power not be concentrated in one place, and that
decisions over public policy be made at the levels and
by the leaders who are in the best position to make
them.
It recognizes that local, state, and national leaders
should work in common purpose to strengthen and
improve the public school system.
That is not too much to ask. It is what we should
expect. It is federalism in its truest and best sense.
[Written by Tom Gentzel, NSBA Executive Director. This
commentary originally appeared in the October 2015
issue of ASBJ.]
In a word: federalism.
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ESEA Reauthorization Highlights
Accountability
Although the Obama administration began awarding state
waivers to NCLB rules in 2012, the House and Senate bills
formalize a new accountability that ends the adequate yearly
progress (AYP) goals and sanctions.
Requirements on testing remain, but states will assume
authority for determining when and how to intervene in lowperforming schools. This model may be debated in conference
committee, however, as some lawmakers are concerned that,
with eased federal oversight, states may not pay enough
attention to disadvantaged students receiving inadequate
support.
Title I Portability
The House bill allows Title I money to follow children who
transfer to another public school within their district. An
amendment to the Senate bill would have done the same—but
also would have allowed the money to follow a child to a
private school. That voucher-like amendment failed by a 45-51
vote.
The difference between the two bills must be resolved in
conference committee, and NSBA has expressed concern about
the House provision. “Portability sounds so harmless,
particularly when the money stays within the public school
system,” says Lucy Gettman, NSBA’s deputy associate
executive director of federal advocacy and public policy. “But
the policy could redirect Title funds from higher-need school
districts to more affluent ones and, therefore, will make it
harder to direct federal funds to the most vulnerable students.”
safety and security
The safety of children and the security of
student data and personal financial
information are critical issues for schools.
Lifetouch has proudly delivered its SmileSafe
photo ID cards and a national safety program to
over 500 million parents, investing some $27
million since 2004.
Standards
In a demonstration of the political backlash against the
Common Core State Standards and the Obama
administration’s efforts to push states to embrace them, both
the House and Senate bills allow states to set their own
academic standards and prohibit the U.S. Education Secretary
from imposing any set of standards on states.
As a direct result, missing children in 24 states
were returned to their families. As the trusted
name in school photography, Lifetouch requires its
photographers to pass background and other
state-mandated testing to support a safer
environment at school. For more information, visit
safety.Lifetouch.com.
Title I Formula
An amendment to the Senate bill revises the formula for
distributing Title I funds, putting a greater emphasis on rates
of poverty rather than on the number of poor children.
Lifetouch is the only school photography company
to demonstrate its commitment to keeping school
data safe by signing a voluntary, enforceable,
school-service-provider, privacy pledge. (Learn
more at studentprivacypledge.org).
It’s expected that the new formula, if accepted, will divert
millions of dollars in future funding to less-populated and
poorer states that spend less on education. To ease opposition
from more than a dozen states expected to lose Title I funds
under the formula, the amendment includes a temporary holdharmless clause that would preserve those states’ current
funding levels.
And each year, a third party auditor certifies that
Lifetouch meets or exceeds the credit card
industry’s strict standards for use of financial
information. Lifetouch supports local employee
owners as they strive to deliver safe and secure
relationships.
Block Grants
The House rejected an amendment to distribute ESEA funds
through block grants to states, a funding model that would
have given state officials more discretion in how money is
spent. NSBA opposed the measure, as funds traditionally
directed to disadvantaged children could have been diverted to
other uses, such as private school vouchers.
Lifetouch is a corporate sponsor of the
Nevada Association of School Boards and its
photographers will be taking pictures of
Conference attendees on November 21, 2015.
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