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Would More Money Create Great Pagosa Schools? Part One |
Bill Hudson | 2/24/10
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During last week’s School Board meeting, a few parents reacted to the impending revenue reductions facing the Archuleta School District by suggesting that perhaps the residents of Archuleta County would be willing to approve additional local taxes — either sales taxes or mill levies — to keep school funding close to current levels.
What a fascinating suggestion.
I arrived at some intriguing information about our school funding predicament while doing some research for a completely different article on “economic development” — whatever the heck that is. During my research, I came across an colorful website for the City of Corvallis, Oregon. That website goes by the appellation: businessisgoodhere.com
The website’s intended message is, of course, that Corvallis welcomes you, if you wish to relocate your business there — and not only that, your chances of enjoying your life after relocating are better than average.
Here’s the website, if you want to take a look.
"Have a great idea?” the website asks. “Bring it to Corvallis. An economic downturn provides entrepreneurs with the best opportunity to start their own businesses and realize their dreams. Whether you want to start a large, small, retail, e-tail, or home-based business, now may be the time to pursue your idea in the creative Corvallis environment.”
 The City of Corvallis sits midway down the Willamette River valley near the Oregon coast. It claims a current population of about 53,000 residents, up from about 20,000 in 1960. The per capita income is about $20,000 a year — similar to Archuleta County’s per capita income.
The language on this economic development website implies that Corvallis is currently experiencing an economic downturn, perhaps similar to the one people are slogging through here in Pagosa Springs. And in the same way that Pagosa leaders are looking, with economic longing, to potential “new businesses” to help pull the community out of its morass, business leaders in Corvallis want you to “realize your dreams” in the particularly inviting environment only Corvallis can provide. That environment includes an extensive system of bike paths, for one thing. The EPA named Corvallis the number one purchaser of renewable energy in the United States — and the mayor drives around town in a tiny electric car.
“Corvallis is where innovative people with diverse ideas turn their ideas into reality,” says mayor Charlie Tomlinson on the website video clip, as he unplugs his electric car from a curb-side charging station. “We’re also one of the greenest cities in America.”
I understand there are about 13,000 economic development organizations in America, representing rural communities like Pagosa Springs. And each wants you to relocate you business to their town.
While looking at the Corvallis website, I noticed several links inviting me to find out about: “Caring Community,” “Available Land,” “Biz Incentives,” “Industry Clusters,” and “Great Schools.”
I clicked on the “Great Schools” link.
I have a thing about “truth in advertising” and I wanted to know the website’s justification for the word “Great.”
Daily Post writer Glenn Walsh and I have been talking a lot about great schools — and mediocre schools — lately. Glenn has a sense that outstanding schools are essential to a vibrant, healthy community — the kind of community that could attract business relocations in any significant way. Glenn sees our local school district discussions about closing school buildings, and cutting the school week to four days, as perfect ways to advertise “pretty mediocre schools” to anyone thinking about relocating here.
So what makes Corvallis think they have “Great Schools?”
When I clicked the link, I found myself at the Corvallis School District website, a rather professional-looking website, in my opinion — at least, when compared to our somewhat more modest Archuleta School District’s website.
Here are the two websites.: Archuleta. Corvallis.
But where’s the beef? Can Corvallis really lay a claim to “Great Schools”?
I started off looking at the school district’s overall performance on the Oregon Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (OAKS) tests — a series of assessment tests roughly corresponding to our CSAP tests here in Colorado. The district scores were given for 2007-2008 and for 2008-2009.
Wow. Impressive.
Percentage of students meeting or exceeding state standards on the state assessment tests. |
Except in the Third Grade scores from 2007-2008, Corvallis schools consistently scored higher than the state averages in reading, math, science and writing — often significantly higher. To judge simply by OAKS scores, it looks like Corvallis truly does have "great schools" — by Oregon standards.
For comparison, here are Archuleta School District scores for the same periods.
Percentage of students meeting or exceeding state standards on the state assessment tests. |
Compared with Corvallis’ district scores, the Archuleta Schools appear to be all over the map. The district’s seventh graders tested 21 percentage points above the state average for reading skills in 2007-2008. The following year, the seventh graders were below the state average. In 2007-2008, the eighth graders tested 10 points below the state average in math; the following year, the eighth graders exceeded the state average by 10 points.
Where Corvallis might be able to make a claim to “Great Schools” — if you were to judge their schools by their test scores — the best our Archuleta District can claim is probably “Unpredictable Schools.” Here in Pagosa, our test scores seem to have little to do with curriculum, teachers or programs, and much more to do with the personalities and talents of the particular 75 students who happen to be in any given grade during any given year.
I spoke briefly by phone with Mike Strowbridge, Corvallis’ curriculum and staff development coordinator, to see if he could explain Corvallis’ excellent scores. He gave me a brief explanation of his district’s approach to assessment tests and curriculum — an explanation that used many terms identical to the ones I used to hear from Archuleta’s thoughtful former assistant superintendent, Bill Esterbrook — "reasonable, consistent growth," "response to intervention," "core curriculum programs," "success on assessments," "a professional development calendar."
Then I asked Mike to step outside the district programs and give me a community-based explanation.
Mike noted that Corvallis is the home of Oregon State University, implying that the community has a generally “above-average” population, intellectually speaking. He pointed out that 26 percent of the school district’s students qualify for Oregon’s Talented And Gifted programs — compared with a more typical 12 percent in other Oregon Schools.
So we are again faced with a very basic question — one that American educators in general, maybe don’t want us to ask:
Does student achievement and performance correlate most closely with how school programs are formulated — or with the natural and innate aptitudes of each student, or perhaps even with the students’ activities outside of school?
In other words, if a new University were to open its doors in the middle of Archuleta County, does it go without saying that our CSAP scores would improve — simply from the infusion of university staff families? And conversely, if our population of Mexican immigrants were to increase — families with limited experience with the English language — does it go without saying that our CSAP scores would drop?
And an even more intriguing question perhaps: Does student performance improve when we give more money to our schools?
That question is a little easier to answer. The answer is a resounding, “No.”
Read Part Two, tomorrow… |
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