SCAC Minutes
September 23, 2003

Superintendent Domenech asked the members to introduce themselves.

After self-introductions, Eileen Kugler asked for nominations for chair. Eleanor Shubinski-Mosser nominated Kugler; no other nominations were made. Kugler was elected by acclamation.

Kugler asked for nominations for vice chair. Shubinski-Mosser nominated Lynn Terhar; no other nominations were made. Terhar was elected by acclamation.

Kugler reviewed the purposes of SCAC and reminded members that they are to represent their constituencies. The Council does not take positions on issues but represents a diversity of views and interests of the very large Fairfax County community. Kugler said she would strive to urge everyone to speak at each meeting.

Shubinski-Mosser said that having materials to be discussed at a meeting e-mailed to members in advance, as had been done for this meeting, was very helpful, as was having paper copies of the same materials available at the meeting so that members need not print the materials out and take them to the meeting. Kugler said she would ask that both advance e-mail and paper versions of materials be available.

Domenech provided updates. He reiterated Kugler's comment that the Council represents the community at large. He noted that a lot had happened since the Council's last meeting in May. A crisis in early autumn seems to have become a rite of passage. Hurricane Isabel is this year's example. After years of this, FCPS is getting very good at responding to crises. All FCPS schools are in session as of September 23.

Domenech said he was disappointed by the second-guessing, by the media and elected officials, of decisions that were made to close schools, government offices, and Metro on the Thursday when the hurricane hit. These closing decisions were made on a regional basis in conference calls in which all the latest information was available. The National Weather Service had predicted that the hurricane effects could reach the capital area by 1 p.m. Thursday, and closing decisions were made on the basis of this prediction. He said he hopes no one in the future will make a decision that might put children in danger for fear of criticism of the sort that followed these decisions. School and government leaders are going to be faced with such decisions for the foreseeable future and need to be able to make the decisions rationally without fear of Monday morning quarterbacking.

Domnenech noted that FCPS students' average SAT scores for last year are the highest in history. No Child Left Behind is an awkward piece of legislation that deviates significantly from the previous practice of judging school effectiveness by student achievement, which is only a component of NCLB. Participation rates and the achievement of subgroups are equal components. For instance, "participation" (i.e., percentage taking the exams) of limited-English-proficient (LEP) students is the most common reason for an FCPS school's failure to meet these standards; frequently, this is because the school tested the LEP students that the state mandated, when the state rules conflicted with the federal rules. For instance, Langley High School "failed" for this reason. He said it is imperative for Congress to change aspects of this legislation that lead to these kinds of outcomes.

Jeanine Martin asked what the enrollment is for this school year. Domenech said it looks to be a few thousand lower than projected.

Suzanne Levy said one of her constituents asked how one can demonstrate that schools with lower pass rates are as good as those with higher rates. Domenech said that all FCPS schools have programs to meet the needs of all students, with plenty of options for individual students.

Brenda Greene asked Domenech to share with SCAC the talking points that he has given to legislators.

Barbara Allen asked that parents and other community members get information about the NCLB requirements on "highly qualified teachers."

Bob Whiteman said that the CCPTA will be getting the word out to its constituents about all NCLB requirements.

Dick Reed said he believes that Title I schools should get the best teachers. He is looking at databases on teacher qualifications to see if that is the case.

Michael Glascoe reviewed the FCPS Six-Year Plan, which is required by the state. Kugler said she hoped that everyone on SCAC would comment on it.

Reed noted that target 3 measures both the percentage of students taking AP and IB courses and the percentage of students that do well on the exams. He noted that much of the value to students comes from taking the course and wondered if using the test scores as part of the measure provided schools with an incentive to limit numbers of students taking these courses. Domenech said that having this measure has not reduced the percentages of students taking the course.

Kugler said that FCPS needs to market AP and IB to students who do not know about the courses or do not think they are for them. She also asked if requiring students to pay some of the cost of the exams would lead to fewer students taking them. Domenech said that no student is required to pay more than $25, no matter how many tests he or she takes. He said there had been no reduction in numbers of students taking the exams last year over the year before. Kugler said last year was the first year of the change and that students had already signed up for their courses before they knew they would have to pay for the exams; she said we need to look at the data for this school year.

Lynn Dysart said that targets 5 and 8 call for reductions in achievement gaps between majority and minority students and noted that this could be accomplished by achievement declines for majority students. She suggested that wording be changed to preclude such an interpretation.

Suzanne Levy noted that target 3.1 refers only to AP and IB exams taken by juniors and seniors, while increasing numbers of sophomores take these exams. Domenech said that, given the increases in numbers of underclasspeople taking AP exams and of programs such as the IB Middle Years program, we might look at changing the wording of this target. Ben Cooper agreed that the target ought to include exams and courses taken by students in grade 10 and lower.

Allen said that there should be a target for teacher compensation. Domenech agreed that teacher salaries need to be made more competitive.

Ray Worley noted that this Six-Year Plan is more specifically targeted than Six- Year Plans of earlier years.

Karen Weaver said she likes specific goals but asked whether there should be goals for staff members in areas such as staff development and acquisition of higher degrees. Domenech said he has striven to limit the Board to ten targets because, in his experience, an organization cannot work on achieving many more goals than this at the same time. However, goals for meeting the targets do include goals for staff members.

Todd Rowley said that targets 9 (student behavior) and 10 (reducing the number of students in trailers) have not come close to being achieved and asked why they had not been revised or eliminated. Domenech said that there has been progress on target 10 and that more progress is anticipated. He said that vis a vis target 9 he would recommend a suspension-free school system that would keep misbehaving students in school, learning, in environments in which they cannot disrupt the learning of others.

Whiteman said that parents are very concerned about the facilities issue and would not want to lose target 10.

Melinda Morgan said she finds the Six-Year Plan informative but that FCPS needs to showcase the fact that targets are assessed and changed over time.

Kirk Leswing noted that the NAACP met with the School Board concerning target 9 and felt that the schools had made progress.

Ron Henry noted that target 1 deals with reading at grade level only at grade 2. Should this be expanded to call for grade-level reading after grade 2 and to improving graduation rates?

Kugler said she would like to see a target on school climate. One measure for this might be the number of minority students in extracurricular activities. She would like to be on a committee looking at ways to measure school climate. Brenda Greene agreed with Kugler; she said that school climate is strongly related to student achievement. Greene would also like to see a rationale for each target.

Levy said that special education students ought to be mentioned on page 4 of the plan, where "ethnic and language minority students" are mentioned.

Martin said that she had heard there are plans to make TJHSST bigger. Domenech said there is no room on the school's property to expand its size. There has been some very preliminary talk of building a new school somewhere else in Fairfax County (perhaps with a public-private partnership similar to the one being used to build the new south county high school) as a replacement for the existing TJHSST.

The meeting was adjourned.