Partnerships in RPS (Part 3: Technology)

Room 107, Overby-Sheppard Elementary (2014)  

If you haven't checked out Partnership #1: Neighborhoods or Part #2:Business, then be sure to do so. If you have, then you're awesome and continue to read on.

Key Partnership #3

Technology we need (and can have) in schools today.

Yes, technology in education is needed. I know someone needed to say it. 

But where much of the tech-education discussion is on big spending in eLearning (e.g. Florida’s big push on technology), I want to focus on the two areas that highly impact student achievement and can be solved with simple tech solutions:

• Increased transparency of accounting and financial records
• Data gathering and analysis of student assessments

Increasing transparency in financial records may be the very first step that we need to take in Richmond, because if we are to increase funding for schools it needs to be transparent and used effectively. Per pupil spending in the City of Richmond is already the highest in the region, $4,564 more than the closest locality, Hanover County.  

	Per Pupil (FY12)
Richmond City	$ 13,730
Hanover County	$ 9,166
Henrico County	$ 9,041
Chesterfield County	$ 8,755
Source: Superintendent's Annual Report, VDOE, Table 15

Further evidence of financial waste can be seen in reports released by the City of Richmond auditor on RPS transportation spending and procurement practices. Recommendations from these reports could save the schools much needed revenue that would be better allocated towards the classroom.

Also, by making these records more transparent, community members would be able to help oversee the system as seen just this spring when Carol Wolf identified uncollected funds for city schools from the Redskins deal.

The tech solution for this need could come from a few different sources. If a top-down government approach is your flavor, then look to Transparent Utah for an easy to use accountability site for public spending. Although this type of change to the system should happen in Virginia, it would involve action at the General Assembly and would eventually filter down to the people, which is obviously not a quick process.

In the meantime, let’s be the change we want to see.

By constructing a crowd sourced, spending accountability site, we can develop a public-private partnership and leverage community investment to bring accountability to education spending. A great example of this concept in action is can be seen in Oakland, California with Open Budget Oakland. Led by members of Code for Oakland, this website receives, disseminates, and presents data in an easily accessible way to citizens and public officials.

Open Budget Oakland (2014) 

If you haven’t heard of Code for America and their mission to crowd source solutions to our nation’s biggest problems then you need to check them out.

Locally, it just happens that Code for RVA is currently working towards a solution for improving school transportation. Sometime in the near future this group will release an app to track school busses to better inform parents and provide information to officials to increase accountability and efficiency. 

The second major need to be met with a simple tech solution is that of data gathering and analysis of student assessments. Whether you agree or not, what will be with us for the foreseeable future is standardized tests.

As a teacher, one of the most time consuming activities was student data input and tracking. So much time was spent in these tasks that quality of classroom instruction and test validity suffered at times. Paper book test scores were kept for administration, online grades for parents, scanned paper tests for the county, and online scoring for state tests. With all of these different types, it was practically impossible for any cross-platform analysis of an individual student’s achievement of the standards.

What we need is technology that allows for teachers, parents, and students to spend more time on data analysis, and less on data input. Any tech solution should aid the teacher in doing their job better and not get in the way of instruction.    

Private technology developers have already jumped into this market with technology firms developing software tracking systems for student data tracking and input, which is termed “Big Data.” Creating partnerships with companies across the research, commercial, and educational sectors to co-design the best tools possible was a recommendation from the Department of Education’s report on educational data mining and learning analysis.

The school board and RPS administration could look to partner with companies in the VA BioTech Park to develop an improved data input and analysis system. This should be a long-term partnership where continued training and support is given to teachers in applying this new technology, as the common practice with education tech purchases is to dump and run. Applied Predictive Technologies (APT) partnership with DC Prep in Washington, D.C. is an example of a partnership in action.

With the generation of data and analysis, details on how this data will be used and applied will be critical. There are high rewards and risks associated with the power of metrics as a tool for decision making. 

What can be done today?

Well, if you have awesome coding or graphic design skills, then contact Code for RVA and attend one of their Hack Nights. The current project is on the bus tracking and I know they would welcome another hand. Also, if we are going to build out an open budget website like Oakland, then more minds will be needed.

For those less tech savvy people, like myself, a good start might be to read over one of the four reports conducted by the City auditor on RPS within the past year. Know what these recommendations are and contact your school board and city council members to make sure that these findings are being implemented.
Finally, be an advocate for increased technology spending in education to aid teachers and administrators. Hopefully this will one day involve a key partnership with a technology firm that will provide long-term training and follow up.

In the short term, a great first step would be to listen to teachers by conducting a survey to determine actual technology needs. For example, a trend I experienced in education was spending on Smart Board technology. In the Ohio middle school where I taught I used one, and really did not see that great of an impact on the effectiveness of my instruction. When it came time to possibly purchase one as a high school teacher in Virginia, I recommended to my administration that I did not need one and that dollars would be better served in another capacity. By starting with the individuals who will most use the technology on a daily basis, teachers and students, we can learn how to more effectively target investment of limited resources.

In the end, what we need is more effective use of technology, not just abundance.

Continue reading for Partnership #4: Marketing!

Education and Economic Development

What if education was Richmond's top economic development priority?

Current Economic Development Practice

The City of Richmond, through the Department of Economic and Community Development (ECD) and Economic Development Authority (EDA), gives money and city resources to businesses (e.g. Redskins Camp, Shockoe Stadium, Boulevard Site) to have them locate within the city. These are priority economic development projects.

Rationale

These businesses become the anchor, or attraction piece, to obtain more middle and upper income residents. These new residents spend dispensable income (sales and restaurant tax), and invest in property (personal property and assessment taxes), which in turn grows the city’s revenue base to better fund services and infrastructure to the poorest citizens and neighborhoods within the city.
Due to the city being unable to annex county land with jobs and middle/upper income households, the city must grow from within through redevelopment and revitalization. This is different from other examples in the south (i.e. Charlottesville, Durham, and Atlanta) that have been able to expand within the adjacent county to provide the revenue base to pay for services.

The Problem

To survive, these new businesses must continue to attract people from outside their local neighborhood, or even city, because the local economic base was not originally what attracted them to site (i.e. location made possible by government subsidy). The rationale that these businesses would be the linchpin for future development is not realized. The heavy up-front cost of public investment is not realized, and the city is left poorer with no other ancillary benefits from this initial investment in a select few.

One example where this concept was implemented and failed locally was with the 6th Street Marketplace. Further reading on this topic can be found in Roland Wilson’s 1989 master’s thesis assessing the failure of the 6th street marketplace.

The Solution = Education as a Top Priority

More middle and upper income residents need to be attracted, retained, or built-up from within (my favorite) the city to balance the income inequalities within our neighborhoods and grow revenues to fund city services. But, instead of government subsidies for one-time large projects, what if we made education the top priority?

Let’s say we made education our top priority within the budget and direct Richmond’s ECD and other city departments, along with the EDA, to make targeted investments and apply human resources to making Richmond Public Schools (RPS) a world class education system.

More money and emphasis on schools sends the message to middle and upper income families that they should stay within the city. Also, over time children of lower income families will become better trained and more educated, thus providing the opportunity to break family cycles of poverty. Check out this NY Times interactive map of economic mobility to see where these cycles are being broken today.

US Equality of Opportunity Project, Harvard University, 2014

Businesses see median household incomes rise and the development of a local economical base, thus making it fiscally viable for them to locate in the city. A sustainable system of consumer and businesses is created by the market, not artificially supplanted by government subsidies. An example of site selection factors can be seen in the City of Richmond’s VEDP profile.

But, let’s say this doesn't work as advertised and it takes longer for a business environment to be fostered. Are we just left with a vacant failed 6th Street Marketplace? No, because the ancillary benefits would be tremendous!

In the economic pursuit of investing in education, you now are FINALLY providing a world class education system to the numerous working poor and improvised families and children in the city. This would begin to account for past wrongs and degradation, while lowering future government costs to provide services. The fiscal benefits of education investment are detailed in countless academic studies, and are the main impetus behind why my former employer, the City of Hampton, funds “Healthy Family Partnership”. Programs like this are based upon real savings to city services (health care, incarceration, and other government services).



Could we really make this happen?

Yes, of course. Like most things in life, if you really want something to happen, you will find the time, money, or resources to make it happen. Think about that girl or guy who you pined for, and they finally said yes to a date. Did you worry about how much it could cost? I bet you would beg, borrow, or steal to pay for that date. What about scheduling conflicts? Are you really going to let your job or other priorities get in the way? Heck no.

Our City Council and Mayor should support the School Board and Superintendent in going after failing education in the way we would after a first date… minus the stealing part.

They are there to work out the details. We, the citizens, are here to advocate. So let your voice be heard and contact your city councilperson. Together we can advocate for more intelligent spending of public dollars and serve those in the most need, our current RPS students.