Hazleton Area Joins Race for Funds

January 14, 2010

Hazleton Area will compete for federal Race to the Top funds that would commit the school district to sweeping curriculum and personnel reform while requiring schools to improve state test scores through 2014.

Superintendent Sam Marolo, school board President Paulette Platukis and Hazleton Area Education Association President Patricia Cannon held a press conference Wednesday morning and announced they have signed a memorandum of understanding that lists Hazleton Area as a participa ting district. The agreement lists roles and responsibilities of the district, union and state as Hazleton Area competes for at least $8 million in competitive grant funds.

Memorandums from interested school districts were due to the state by 5 p.m. and were required to have signatures from the superintendent, board president and union president.

In a written statement, union leaders with Hazleton Area said they signed the agreement because the program "encourages meaningful and good-faith collaboration between the association and school district in developing important and meaningful reform efforts to improve our student achievement."

"Participating in Race to the Top will bring a new spotlight to the commitment that our members and school district have to working together to do all that can be done to strengthen the academic achievement of our students," the statement reads.

Local union leaders followed suit with a recommendation from the Pennsylvania State Education Association and included language in the memorandum that says the association, by participating, will not waive bargaining rights or contract language that protects its membership.

Weatherly Area School Board directors on Wednesday approved Superintendent Frank Victor’s recommendation to participate in Race to the Top. Officials signed a memorandum of understanding, which has been submitted to the state. Because Weatherly Area is not on the state’s list of struggling districts, Victor said he doesn’t expect the program to result in hardship for staff. Weatherly Area has already fulfilled most program requirements, he said.

The Crestwood School District also filed complete memorandums of understanding with the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Six other Luzerne County districts filed MOUs with two signatures, from the superintendent and board president, because the teachers unions did not agree to sign. Superintendents said they were aware the MOUs would probably be rejected by the state but filed regardless.

The program

Race to the Top is designed to support states that have made "marked student achievement gains" and the potential to continue with those gains. But Hazleton Area’s participation hinges on Pennsylvania’s eligibility to secure part of the $4.35 billion in federal funds earmarked for the program. Pennsylvania education officials expect 10 to 12 states to be awarded funding in the first round, and that Pennsylvania can qualify for between $200 million and $400 million in competitive grants. Half of that money would be funneled to participating school districts.

A second application phase begins June 1 for states that were not awarded money in the first round.

Marolo said he believes the district made strides in improving its curriculum over the past 1½ years. While the district would benefit from Race to the Top (RTTT) funding, it will continue evaluating and upgrading programs, he said.

"Whether we get RTTT funding or not, we’re going to have the intermediate unit come in – an independent agency – and look at a needs analysis (for local schools)," Marolo said Wednesday. "This way, if we get RTTT funding, we can spend it wisely and we can look at the holes in our curriculum. If we get funding, the high school will be priority."

All participating school districts will be required to strengthen and expand the standards-aligned system, or SAS – state criteria that governs student achievement – and develop "a human capital pipeline" or adopt a standard application for prospective teachers and identify district needs and strategies to "attract and retain effective teachers," according to a program description released Wednesday.

Districts would also have to:

n Develop a multi-measure evaluation system for teachers and principals that would account for student growth and use these evaluations in shaping professional development;

n Create a comprehensive professional development plan based on needs identified by evaluations, provide training on systems that identify at-risk students, and develop individual learning plans for those students;

n Turn around lowest-performing schools and use data when evaluating programs and identifying and promoting best practices.

These criteria would be implemented at all Hazleton Area schools, Marolo said. Because Hazleton Area High School has been identified as a "turnaround" school, or one of the lowest-performing in the state, Hazleton Area must also implement one of four intervention models for improving academic performance.

Marolo on Wednesday said officials are leaning on an option called "transformation," which requires that districts evaluate teachers using a multi-measure evaluation tool; reward school leaders, teachers and staff who have increased student achievement; and remove those who have not.

Other proposed intervention plans call for hiring new school principals and replacing at least 50 percent of the staff; closing the school or re-opening it under a charter school or "education management organization," or closing the school and sending students to a higher-performing school.

Curriculum changes

As the district waits to hear if it will receive a share of federal funds, Marolo said Bob Barletta of Luzerne Intermediate Unit 18 will work with district administrators to conduct a "needs assessment" at all Hazleton Area schools.

The district will also look to implement a Response to Intervention and Instruction, or a multi-year plan that would realign and re-engineer the school infrastructure through a review of the curriculum, instructional practices, schedule, and use of data, staff and fiscal resources, Marolo said.

"We’ll look at the data and adjust the curriculum," Marolo said. "Basically, we’ll intervene before someone fails."

Barletta said he believes Hazleton Area has intervention programs in place to succeed, such as Read 180, and said Hazleton Area is the first school district in the intermediate unit to align its curriculum to the SAS framework. Building-level teams have been created to develop a single school-wide SAS curriculum and assessment framework; teachers would prioritize the highest and most important standards and content that would be covered in depth, according to plans released by Marolo.

"Hazleton Area School District has a lot of great things in place," Barletta said Wednesday. "There needs to be a focus on fidelity. It’s a matter of coordinating data – getting the spokes of the wheel working together."

Key to accomplishing these goals is professional development, or giving staff opportunities to access and use programs that are available to them, Marolo said.

"We’re a big district and we know we need help," he said. "I’d rather see us be one of the top big schools in the state. In three years, I’d like to say we’re the best of the big schools. Every school district has what you would call a mantra. Ours is going to be ‘excellence.’ Everything we do from maintenance on up – excellence. It’s simple and it covers everything."