hard deadlines

Commissioner Deborah Gist with students in Bob Rutkiewicz's physics class

For four hours yesterday, Rhode Island Commissioner of Education Deborah Gist went to school in Portsmouth.

Gist, appointed earlier this year, spent the morning at Portsmouth high school with Supt. Susan Lusi and principal Bob Littlefield as her guides, going to classes and listening to groups of students, faculty, administrators, and elected officials as part of her plan to get to know all of the state's schools.

"I spent last spring looking at a lot of data, and it was so frustrating to not be able to imagine the community as I was reading about it," said Gist. She has now visited more than 20 districts, she said, to create a "human connection."

"We really appreciate her willingness to come and listen," said Lusi. "And she really did spend the vast majority of her time listening."

"Before today," said Littlefield, "Teachers did not feel a connection with the decision makers." Referring to Gist's reform agenda, he hoped participants will now see that "it came from an extensive dialog with teachers, students, and the community."

After visiting classes in social studies, AP English, and physics, Gist met with a group including Rep. Amy Rice and school committee members Dick Carpender, Sylvia Wedge, and Cynthia Perrotti.

"There is nothing more important than the teacher in the classroom," Gist said in response to a question from Perrotti about what school committees could do to help drive student performance. "Think about putting systems in place around teacher quality. Things that support and reward excellent teaching, develop those that are good, and move everyone else out." Gist referrred — as she consistently did with each group — to a one-pager on RIDE's five priorities, available on their Web site.

Gist also announced that there would be a policy memo distributed to superintendents shortly with a new RIDE requirement that "placement of teachers needs to be in the best interest of students," and that districts with strict seniority systems would need to revise their approaches.

Asked by Carpender about funding and S3050, Gist spoke about her commitment to work with the general assembly on the whole question of a "funding system," including "equitable and effective investments" and also transparency and return on investment.

Commissioner Deborah Gist with students in Marilyn Thompson's social studies class

Next, the commissioner engaged a group of 20 PHS students in an open discussion about their positive and negative experiences at the school. This reporter was impressed by the poise of the students and their articulate questions and insights, which ranged from grading consistency and PowerPoint ("It always seems like we're just doing PowerPoint") to the characteristics of good teachers and the desire to have communities of inquiry within classrooms. And at least one school policy may change coming out of today — when the students expressed frustration at lack of access to their interim grades on iParent, both Littlefield and Lusi noted that this was the first year of the program and supported this modification. "Don't tell your teachers," said Littlefield, "But I want you to be able to see your grades [on your phone]."

Gist expressed strong support for technology. "We need to make sure that we're connecting media and technology into teaching and learning," she said. "You communicate with each other so differently, and sometimes I feel like we bring you to school and unplug you."

Given that need for schools to raise their game in technology, I asked Gist afterward if she was considering certification for IT, which Rhode Island teachers do not currently need. Gist said she was "not interested in adding certifications" since the system currently has so many, but that she was "open" to the notion if it was needed to place or keep specifically qualified teachers in the classroom. Lusi observed that the forthcoming policy memo on teacher placements could help address this concern and Gist agreed, adding, "we need to work to make certification easier" for teachers with specific skill sets, "but not in the sense of lowering the bar."

After meeting with students, Gist spent time with several groups of teachers and staff. She was frank in admitting some of RIDE's past issues. "Policies created at the state level sometimes don't do the things that they were intended to do," said Gist, "But policy makers never look back." As someone who spent time as a classroom teacher, she said, "I have been on the receiving end," and she promised change.

Commissioner Gist, Supt. Lusi, and Principal Littlefield speak with teachers

When one foreign language teacher complained that she was denied professional development credits for taking a course in another country (at her own expense) Gist expressed surprise and support. "I'm going to work to fix the system," she said, and offered a direct route for teachers to resolve any policy problems, "In the meantime, send me an e-mail."

She referred again to the RIDE five priorities, with the central goal of student achievement. "Everything needs to be supporting that," she said, or RIDE would stop doing it.

Some of the directions Gist and her team are exploring are high-tech, like virtual courses to allow students across the state to take topics they are interested in but districts can't offer. Another, aimed a teacher improvement, is a proposed Web library of excellent teachers and model lessons, which Gist said would be an ideal project under sought-after Federal "Race to the Top" funding."

Other reform efforts are lower-tech but equally dramatic, like educator evaluation standards for the state, which Gist said have been drafted and are currently moving through hearings at RIDE. Gist seeks to ensure that every teacher is observed every year and that there is what we in the private sector would call "360-degree" feedback from students, parents, and colleagues.

"I feel it's very important to connect student achievement to all our accountability systems: my job, RIDE, the district, and teachers," said Gist. But she was clear that this did not just mean standardized tests: "It's really important to look at growth, over multiple years," said Gist, "because there are so many variables." Aiming for this balance, she said, is what underlies the NECAP test only requiring partial proficiency.

Gist expressed strong support for literacy programs. "There is nothing more important than students being able to read at grade level in the primary grades," she said. And, as one might expect from someone who began their career in literacy education at the elementary level, she argued that intervention needs to begin early. "The push for proficiency has to start in pre-K."

"Everything I do," said Gist, "Is through the lens of a classroom teacher."