Northwood Cluster TestimonyFY11 Operating Budget to the Board of Education

Good evening. My name is Jennifer Chambers representing the Northwood Cluster. The Clusterappreciates the status quo budget with only a 1.1% increase due to projected higherenrollment. Last year, I stood here to advocate against the reduction in academic intervention(AI), special program, and focus teachers; thank you for listening to our concerns andlessening the reductions. However, the same reductions are in the FY11 “potential” cuts and Iam back again advocating that no cuts be made in these teaching positions in the cluster orthe DCC. Further cuts in these positions cannot be adsorbed in any of the cluster’s schools.Here are the reasons why:1.

AI teachers in all schools and focus teachers in elementary schools provide directinstruction to students who are performing below grade level in reading and math to meet AYP and support to students failing classes to meet eligibility, pass HSAs, and graduate.Below are examples:

Highland View Elementary School

(HVES) - Last year, HVES had 2.3 AI FTE and wasable to provide direct instruction to students performing below grade level and enrichmentto those above grade level. This year, HVES lost .5 AI FTE and only provides directinstruction to students in K-5 who are reading and performing math below grade level. If more cuts are made next year, HVES cannot provide direct instruction to all studentsperforming below grade level in K-5. Very hard choices will have to be made.

Northwood

(NHS) currently has 1.4 FTE allocated for academic intervention, .8 of itshared with Kennedy High School. With this staff allocation, NHS has been successful atincreasing ACT/SAT participation and scores. In addition, with allocated staff, NHS hasincreased participation of students in AP classes by 31% with only a 3.2% increase infailure rates in the first quarter compared to last year. This is due to staff allocation of APsupport classes for first-time takers. With these successes, NHS still struggles with eligibilityrates with only 56.5% of Northwood students meeting the 2.0 GPA eligibility criterionduring all four quarters of last school year, following in line with the rest of the DCC highschools.

Silver Spring International Middle School

(SSIMS) allocates its AI teachers to teachdouble blocks of reading and math instruction to students performing below grade level. Inthe past two years, SSIMS has been able to improve their ineligibility rates to its current6.6%, also helping to decrease ineligibility at Northwood and Blair. However, five out of seven middle schools in the DCC have double digit ineligibility rates from 11-21%.

Sligo Middle School (SMS)

has the highest rate of ineligibility and uses its 2.0 AIteachers to reduce class size in co-teaching classes, to teach math using Fast Math, andRead 180 to R-ELL students. SMS is particularly mindful of overcrowding at OaklandTerrace ES and the impact it will have on SMS to share the building, in particular the safetyof all students and the retention of floating teachers due to instructional space lost.2.

Focus teachers – HVES, FKES, and SCES are MCPS focus schools (KMES, AES, and GHESare Title I schools) each with less that 1 FTE focus teacher allocation (.7, .8, and .4). All

three uses their allocations for direct intervention to students performing below grade levelin reading and math based on the data discussed during SIP meetings.3.

Special program teachers in Northwood Cluster schools provide a myriad of learningopportunities and experiences for students at the same time helping to close theachievement gap. Below are examples of how a reduction would impact these schools:

Forest Knolls Elementary School

(FKES) has 1 FTE special program teacher whoteaches the school’s communication magnet program from which all students benefit. Sheteaches the William and Mary program to 24 students which allows for smaller readinggroup instruction to students performing at or below grade level. Furthermore, sheenriches the language arts program at FKES by providing learning experiences valuable toclosing the achievement gap.

Sligo Creek Elementary School (

SCES) has 1 FTE. The French Immersion coordinatorprovides small group intervention for students struggling to meet benchmarks, teachesEnglish classes for grades taking the MSAs, conducts reading assessments, and trainsteachers, in addition to other responsibilities.

Silver Spring International Middle School (

SSIMS) has 1 FTE. The MYP coordinatorprovides coordination and mentoring to 50% of SSIMS 8

graders who complete a MY project, in addition to teacher training and coordination of MYP.

Northwood High School (NHS)

– For three years, the budget reductions have includedcuts to signature program heads and coordinators. At Northwood, no more cuts in thesignature programs can be made. Academy heads all teach 6 out of 8 classes and thecoordinator is teaching 3 classes. The signature programs are already greatly impacted,impeding their ability to provide classes, programs, internships, and partnerships with thecommunity that enrich and promote the academies.Beyond AI, special program, and focus teachers, the Cluster continues to supporttransportation to magnet and immersion programs which provide access to all students in thecounty not matter their families income.The Northwood Cluster is aware that cuts will be inevitable. Increasing class size in the DCCand the cluster is a sticky slope to climb due to the diverse challenges in each school. Whenpolled, some schools in the cluster feel they can absorb the one student increase per classrecommended in the potential cuts; however, others feel they can’t and offer an alternativesolution of allocating all FTE, no matter the staffing position label, based on the school’spopulation data, needs, and educational load. The non-classroom teaching positions (AI,special programs, etc.) are always at risk; therefore, develop a formula based on schooleducational load to allocate all FTE teaching positions. This would also eliminate the less thanone FTEs that are hard to fill and retain.For the last three years, the Northwood cluster has fought to maintain AI, special program andfocus teachers from being cut. Why are these positions consistently put on the chopping block by Superintendent Weast? How do schools in the cluster reach higher AYP goals with fewertools? By recommending these potential cuts in intervention, is Dr. Weast setting up schools inthe DCC for failure? Once again, the Northwood Cluster’s highest priority is to maintain the

current levels of AI, Special Program, and Focus teachers in each school in order to maintain AYP, continue to close the achievement gap, increase eligibility rates, and achieve the MCPSSeven Keys to College Readiness. The cluster asks the BOE to stop the assault on directinstruction to students and find other ways to reduce costs that don’t directly impact ourchildren, for example, reducing publication costs, reducing the number of communitysuperintendents, freezing the curriculum department, and consolidating MCPS to make it amore efficient institution. Northwood Cluster constituents remark that during hard economictimes, institutions, including MCPS, need to employ a third party to step back, look in themirror, exam their current practices and productivity, and decide how to become an efficientwell-oiled machine. Thank you for listening and your consideration.