Dr. Villar's Latest Blog - Yes, it is About the EER

Every Voice Matters - It's Time to Move Forward Done


http://www.windsorct.org/pages/Windsor_Public_Schools/District/Superintendent_s_Corner

Recently the Windsor Board of Education received the results of the controversial Excellence and Equity Review authorized by the Board of Education on September 12, 2012. Almost immediately, and certainly predictably, the opponents of the study resumed their systematic assault on the study and the final report. The latest criticisms attack the quality and validity of the work and directly accuse Dr. James of allowing his personal bias to cloud his objectivity.  What concerns me with this immediate knee-jerk reaction is the lack of objectivity on the part of the opposition. The criticisms raised offer little variance from the playbook used during the fall of 2012 prior to the initiation of the study. Accordingly, I fear that the antagonists of the study and its findings may be throwing away an opportunity to learn, grow and make a difference for our students because of their opposition to how the study was introduced.

 

I concede it is possible that Dr. James’ own personal lens may have impacted the analysis of the data in section one of the study. An important component of qualitative research is to acknowledge that the researcher is the instrument used to gather and analyze data and, therefore, the data is subject to the bias that the researcher may bring to the study. In the case of the Excellence and Equity Review conducted for Windsor High School, Dr. James was accused of having an overt bias at the onset of the study and in my opinion, he did not describe with clarity the methodology that he used to protect the study from his perceived bias.   I am not suggesting that I know the research analysis in section one of the study is biased, but rather I am saying that Dr. James did not make it clear that it is NOT biased which is unfortunate because it has opened the door to public debate regarding the methodology rather than providing the catalyst for a public discussion about how we might move forward to address the problem.  Of course, Dr. James did not conduct the study alone and in fact worked with a diverse group of researchers representing two universities which suggests to me that the idea of some large conspiracy to find data that supports a preconceived notion doesn’t hold a great deal of water.  

 

The accusation of bias for me is meaningless. Critics suggest that the student comments quoted in section one of the study are “cherry picked” quotations selected to support a position predetermined by the researcher rather than samples that are representative of a larger body of data as stated by Dr. James.  Take for example the following quotation take from page 22 of the study, “In college classes, like they are the worse students. Like I feel like it’s stupid to me…it makes you feel dumb… While I’m in a college class, I feel stupid because I feel like they are putting me in like a low class for no reason.”   Determining if this quotation is a valid representation of all students at Windsor High School (which it is not) is not terribly important to me.   What matters most to me is that we have evidence of a student at Windsor High School who feels that our education system has called him or her stupid. How can we effectively educate students if our system results in making students feel stupid? Regardless if the quoted remarks are in fact representative samples of student sentiment or if they are simply “cherry picked” statements, they are comments that were made by at least one student at Windsor High School and therefore should be considered valid.  

 

The revelation that some students at Windsor High School feel this way should have resulted in our united call to action, not a continued debate about process and validity of findings. Study or no study, it is not acceptable for a child to feel stupid at school. Frankly, if one of my children came home from school and said it made him or her feel stupid I would be beyond angry.

 

The study has been completed, the findings have been reported. We must not fall into the trap of continuously arguing about the initiation of the study, the structure of the study, the bias of the study. Rather we should try to learn what we can from the study and address the obvious needs of students enrolled in Windsor High School. We have many points of data which demonstrate that we are not experiencing universal success at Windsor High School. Yes, some children are doing just fine. Some students are doing very well on state tests, the SAT and Advanced Placement tests and are going on to outstanding universities and that is wonderful! However, not all kids are having this success as evidenced by our CAPT test data, our SAT data, our attendance data, our discipline data, our final exam data, classroom grades data, and survey data and, yes, in data gathered by the Loyola University study.   I would suggest that we do not need any more data to determine that changes must be made.  The Board of Education commissioned a study to help identify why so many of our students are experiencing such difficulty in school and now that we have the results we are going to waste valuable time fighting over a single aspect of the project?

 

Even if the first section of the report, which is qualitative and therefore was inherently more vulnerable to the criticism that it has received was thrown out, the final two sections of the Excellence and Equity Review supply additional quantitative data analysis which clearly demonstrates the lack of universal success at Windsor High School.  

 

The study has been completed. The data has been gathered. The results of assessments for years have been studied. The time for argument and disagreement must come to a close. We need to begin the discussion of solutions. It is time for the Board of Education to unify and determine a course of action that will lead to greater student achievement.   The district has a complex Holistic Accountability Framework that has been quietly put into place which is already demonstrating a positive impact on student learning. The Board of Education had originally been scheduled to receive a comprehensive report on this progress on September 26, 2013. However, the report was pushed off until October to provide the Board of Education with more time to discuss the Excellence and Equity Review.   Once again I fear we will choose to argue rather than learn about solutions and progress.   It is time to center the discussion on the students and ensuring their success, the arguments must end. 

 

Jeffrey A. Villar, Ph.D.

September 26, 2013