With regard to counselors and nurses, do we use the other agencies, the Planned 224 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. Parenthood agencies, the Women Against Rape agencies, who can really provide the kind of one-on-one support and counseling that kids need?
Yeah. You know, there's a lot more outreach than people realize, or I should say coordination among agencies than people realize. The problem, though, is, many of these agencies are themselves financially strapped. I mean, Human Resources is overwhelmed with the challenges that they face. But let me give you an example of the way we cooperate. Public Safety, we have our Public Safety Task Force. We work very closely with the Police Department, the courts and other intervention agencies, and I think the school-based -- and with community-based organizations, and I think the reason that we've had a lot of success in the reduction of incidents is because of the school-based community policing approach 225 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. and the cooperation we've had. Ever since the Mayor created the Task Force, you remember, two years ago after the shooting outside Strawberry Mansion, I mean, I think the cooperation has never been greater, and I think we're seeing the success. We've been able to have success in the schools without changing the definition of what is an arrestable offense. In other words, we still have probably the toughest reporting requirements around when you look at cities like New York and LA where you literally -- I mean, the criteria for determining a persistently dangerous school is almost impossible to achieve. Also, when it comes to Human Resources, we, I believe -- and somebody can give me this number -- we've been coordinating with City agencies to create behavioral support teams in our individual schools, with DHS and others, so that we have using their resources and 226 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. our own, we've converted these TSS positions and some of these social service support positions into, in effect, behavioral support specialists, individuals with Master's degrees, individuals who are experts in child psychology and child counseling and things like that, and those teams are now operational in, I think -- can somebody give me the school number now? It's more than -- it was 29 the first year. I think it may be as many as 40, 45 schools. But if you look at the proposals in the Mayor's Blue Ribbon Commission on Behavioral Health, youth behavioral health, there are a number of recommendations to enhance that level of cooperation and coordination that do not necessarily require additional funding as much as improve coordination so that we can have a better delivery of social services and of intervention services at the local level. We can do a lot better, but under the Mayor's leadership, we're 227 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. doing a heck of a lot more than was ever done before prior to his Administration.
Thank you very much. I'll defer to my colleagues. President Verna.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Before I start my line of questioning, one of my constituents, Al Brown, was here earlier. He is the Senior Vice-Chair of the Point Breeze Arts Center. I asked him if he would leave his testimony, we would make it part of the record. And at this point, Mr. Vallas, good afternoon.
I understand that the high school dropout, the rates have become a national crisis. It's not just here in Philadelphia. Can tell us what you believe are the main reasons for our school children dropping 228 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. out of school?
You know, I'll tell you -- and I have a summary sheet that summarizes my talking points on the Youth Collaborative, and it really answers that question in a little more detail, and I'll circulate a copy. I don't know if it's in your packet. My cheat sheet, I'll give you my cheat sheet. I think the biggest problem -- there are a number of problems. I think probably the biggest problem is, the majority of our children in this District are being raised by single parents, and I would submit to you that a large number of them are high school dropouts themselves. And I think what we have here is, there's this expectation that high school graduation isn't something that's expected and that college is something that's beyond their reach. One of the things that drove Chaka Fattah to push the CORE Philly 229 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. Scholar initiative was to, in effect, tell children that when they graduated, if they stayed on and graduated high school, college would be financially affordable to them. We would pay for their first year of college, to overcome this perception that college somehow is not affordability and beyond their reach. And I'll tell you, it's interesting, because during the period that the CORE Philly Scholar program has been in effect, our graduation rate has actually risen. According to the State, it's risen higher than the Youth Collaborative report would indicate. I trust the Youth Collaborative report. I've always felt that -- and that states as a whole have a tendency to inflate graduation numbers. But if you look at -- I firmly believe that. Also, if you look at Time Magazine's special edition called "Dropout Nation," they focused on the national dropout phenomena, and they concluded that children are dropping out 230 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. for a variety of reasons. Number one, as I pointed out, college is just not part of the expectation, and if you don't think you're going to college, you're less inclined to stay in high school since high school is a prerequisite to college. High school is boring. They can't relate. They don't understand the relevancy of high school. And high school is not financially affordable. I think they cited in some circles either the number one or two reason was this perception that high school was not in their future because it was not financially affordable. So I think these things are reasons why children drop out. Now, what compounds those -- and this is just not inner city. This is national. What compounds this problem are other challenges that we face; for example, the late start. I will tell you this: Children starting school at seven 231 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. and eight years old is almost fatal from an academic standpoint. When we get kids in early childhood programs and after those early childhood programs when we get them into school on time, we compensate for a lot of things that they don't receive the support on. We can work with the mother and provide the mother with the help so that the mother can manage the basic parenting skills. We can make sure the child's nutritional needs are addressed. We can stimulate the child so that the child, when the child starts kindergarten, the child is ready for kindergarten. So the lack of early intervention, compounded by the fact that many children are being raised by single parents, very inexperienced single parents, that challenge can sometimes be overwhelming, and I think that challenge complicates the problems or combines with the other reasons that I cited, the reasons in the Time Magazine article, to 232 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. make things even more complicated. When you look at the three categories of dropouts -- and the Youth Collaborative will talk about this in greater detail -- I think children who are incarcerated drop out at a 90 percent rate. Pregnant teens drop out at a 70 percent rate.
I don't know what the statistic was of the overage underachievers. But clearly, those were kind of three categories of the highest number of dropouts. So what we're trying to do, Councilwoman Verna, is, we're trying to identify interventions that we can add to our reforms in addition to the kind of comprehensive reforms that we've laid out that help us address this issue. The Cradle to the Classroom Program, if a pregnant teen has a baby, make sure that that pregnant teen is counseled and goes through parent training, make sure that baby is put in daycare and pre-school. You do that for one or two generations 233 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. and you're going to do more to break the cycle of poverty and of academic underachievement than anything. Overage underachieving students, the kids that are in 6th, 7th and 8th grade now, when we get those kids of that middle school grade setting -- in 2002, my first year here, we had 3,000 students in middle grades who had reached the age of before the end of the 12 school year, including 400 6th graders. 13 Now, you don't think that's a disruptive 14 influence, I say rhetorically? If you 15 can move the overage underachiever kids 16 out into these transition schools, into these MGAP classrooms, into these transition middle schools and high schools, you will not only keep them in school and then you provide them with wrap-around services, more intensive instruction, things like that, but you'll get the potentially disruptive kids out of the general school and thus relieve the general school of a critical burden. 234 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. And then, finally -- and I've been talking to every mayoral candidate and every elected official I can ad nauseam about this, and this is building on the CORE Philly Scholar initiative that Chaka Fattah has pushed forward. I said if we could tell all of our high school kids that if they get to their senior year, if they got to their senior year, we would provide them with not only a scholarship, regardless of their grades, but we would provide them with an opportunity their senior year to actually enroll in college and take college courses before they graduated -- and we have a dual enrollment program now -- but we would also give them a job, a college job. We would give them a job, an internship, a paid internship. So if we told the kids, You get through your junior year and we'll get you a summer job, we'll get you an after-school job, you'll be able to take college courses before you've graduated, 235 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. and when you graduate, you'll get a first year scholarship, let me tell you, you start telling the 6th graders that now and those 6th graders -- when I talk to 6th graders about scholarships and I talk to 6th graders about high school choices, 6th, 7th, and 8th graders, you can hear a pin drop, because too many of our children don't think college is financially affordable. Too many of our children are searching for some work to generate some income. Too many of our children don't believe they have choices. So when you provide those incentives, then you can begin to create a college culture, because then you can begin to tell the young kids in primary grades and middle grades that this is something there for you, it's yours, you can have it if you get this far. So those are some of the reasons I think for the high dropout rate. It's also some of the -- I don't want to call them stop gap, but some of 236 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. the interventions that I think we need to initiate to address the population of potential dropouts that we have right here deciding whether or not they're going to continue to come to school or they're going to hit the streets.
Whoa. Thank you. I guess I was distracted a couple times when you were testifying. Did you indicate the current dropout rate at the School District and how it's computed?
I'm going to let the Youth Collaborative do that. They can go through their methodology, because there's like three or four different ways --
I know. Every jurisdiction seems to compute in a different way.
Obviously we track the kids once they leave 8th grade, have they dropped out. And we're just not looking at a one-year rate as much as 237 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. we're looking at the overall rate, which is why we look at graduation rates and dropout rates. But you're right, because like New York, New York State, the city says their graduation rate is 58 percent. The State says it's 56 percent. And Educational Week, when they did their study, said it was 39 percent. So they're all over the board. Our graduation rate, according to the State, was, I don't know, 66, 68 percent, but yet the Youth Collaborative identified the graduation rate, I think, at 47 -- 57 or 58 percent. I don't know what the statistic was. But the reason we embarked upon this study is, we wanted to really develop the best methodology for computing the dropout rate and then to identify the categories of dropouts and determine the unique characteristics of these dropouts so that we can do earlier intervention once we identify children 238 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. who are likely to drop out and tailor our programs to meet the specific needs of the dropout, be they the pregnant teens or, for that matter, the incarcerated youth or the overage underachievers.
Mr. Vallas, can you tell me how we compare to the national average of dropouts?
Well, you know what's funny, Education Week, when they did their study, our graduation rate -- and they didn't do dropout rate. They did graduation rate, because a lot of kids may drop out but then they get back into school and they graduate. And the graduation rate put us at the mid 50's, and their data was 2002-2003. And we were, incidentally, I think first or second among the old industrial city schools. There are 50 schools that they listed, but like New York, LA, I think we were like first or second, and we were right in the middle 239 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. of the 50 largest school districts, but that includes like Raleigh and some of these others. In the Youth Collaborative study, they had a little index where they took select schools, the traditional cities, let's call them, and I think we were ranked either second or third when it came to graduation rates. So at least according to these studies, we're average or above average. But bragging about a 55 or 58 percent graduation rate is like bragging that you're in the first-class section on the Titanic. The bottom line is, the ship is still going down and you don't have a life jacket. So we probably compare favorably, but let me tell you, the numbers are dismal across the board. So I'm not heartened by the fact that our graduation rate may be higher than New York's, Detroit's or even Chicago's or LA, because the graduation rate is just 240 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. unacceptably low.
Mr. Vallas, what are the vocational training programs that the District offers its students? Do you believe that if we strengthen these programs, more students would stay in school and be better prepared --
-- to enter the workforce? You know, reading the report from Johns Hopkins, one of the reasons that children leave is because they're bored. Maybe if we put them into vocational training programs, it will help them and certainly make it much easier to join the workforce.
Right. Well, one of the proposals in our partnership with the Youth Collaborative initiative is to dramatically expand dual enrollment programs, and when I talk about dual enrollment, I am talking about not only dual enrollment in colleges, 241 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. universities, dual enrollment so children can, in effect, be enrolled in job training, job preparation, work skill programs, vocational ed programs while they're in high school. Because, look, the old vocational educational programs in this District, which, incidentally, were not maintained for 10, years, I 10 mean, many of these programs were 11 obsolete and irrelevant, and what we've 12 been doing is, we've been working to, in 13 effect, clean up those programs and get 14 those programs certified again, because I 15 think only six or seven of our programs were certified and now I think 60 or 65 are, just to basically upgrade the programs that --
I can give you a list. I can have Lori Analoff put together a list of those previously certified and those certified now.
And 242 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. what are your plans for the future?
Well, our plans are threefold. One is to upgrade and improve the physical condition in the programs that we have, get them certified and, in effect, do the equipment upgrades that we need to have. That's number one. Number two, to expand our off-campus enrollment program. In other words, they are from Community College to DeVry to private providers, who do a heck of a better job in job training and workforce development and workforce preparation than we do. So, I mean, we have 80 colleges, universities, institutions of higher learning, many of them with work study programs, not to mention -- and those, incidentally, include -- higher ed also includes the vocational technical training programs. Manor College, for example, we have 75 kids at Manor College who attend Northeast High School in the afternoons. They're taking courses at Manor College. 243 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. So the second approach is to go out and partner and to buy space in those programs. The third approach has been to establish these academies, and by "academies," I'm talking about the Sunoco Academy, establish academies with -- Sunoco, for example, has an academy program in Bache. Lockheed Martin has an academy program in three high schools. The Exelon and one of the other providers are looking at establishing an academy program in a couple of our high schools. A number of the hospitals have healthcare academy programs in one of our high schools. St. Christopher has a healthcare academy in Olney. So the whole idea is to bring in the employer, design a program in the school that matches the employer's needs, do the buildout, whatever, then they provide the internships, the apprenticeships so, in effect, we can alter or modify our electives to prepare 244 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. them for those jobs. So, once again, threefold: Upgrade what we have physically, number one; number two, dual enrollment; and then, number three, establish academy programs.
How many students would you say are in these programs?
I'd be curious to know how many of these so-called academies we have and how many students --
-- we have attending. Can you tell us, please, how does the District interact with the City's Health Department, the Department of Human Services and many other agencies in an effort to keep students in school? What additional assistance and/or 245 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. coordination with these agencies would be helpful?
Do you want me to provide a written response or I can bring someone up to -- I mean, we can spend an hour talking about that.
I'll be more than happy, if I can ask my staff. Brenda Taylor, who is our Director of Specialized Education Services, she interfaces with all the social service support agencies, and we'll be more than happy on a very short memo to summarize the cooperation and partnerships that we have them. Okay?
Thank you. I know I have a number of other questions that I would like to ask you, but I see that other Councilmembers would like to ask you some questions.
Thank 246 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. you, Council President. Councilman Goode, then Councilman Savage.
Mr. Vallas, who conducted your final interview for your job?
I think we ran the gamut. We talked about closing the gap. We talked about --
Do you specifically remember anyone referring to the dropout rate within that interview?
I remember being asked about dropout rate and then dropout intervention programs. 247 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC.
And what did they say the dropout rate was at that point?
What was the charge given to you as potential CEO with regard to the dropout rate?
Well, I don't think there was a specific charge per the dropout rate. The dropout rate was to close the gap and to improve academic achievement. Also, the School Reform Commission set a number of goals laid out in the Declaration of Education, identifying certain goals for the District to achieve that would define us as being a high-quality school district.
My question was whether you were given a specific charge.
At the time I was hired, no. The charge was improving the graduation rate and improving test scores. There were no specific 248 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. increments.
Let's shift to academic performance. How are young black males performing in the District?
Well, I think the majority of children in this District are still underperforming in terms of they're not at proficiency, the majority of the children are.
I'll give you the specific details, but I would say about over 60 percent are not at proficiency.
Well, in the area of math, it's more than doubled. In the area of reading, I think it's improved by about 50 percent. But I can give you the 249 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. specific breakdown, disaggregated data, by test scores. For example, underprivileged children, percent of 5 the underprivileged children -- 6
My specific 7 question is, how are young black males 8 performing in the District and how has it 9 changed under your tenure? 10
And what I'm 11 saying is, there has been dramatic improvement, and I'll be more than happy to give you those specifics.
I can generalize, but I can't give you the exact specific test score performance.
Well, as I mentioned, I believe that the math scores have improved by close to 50 percent -- or I'm sorry; that math scores have dramatically -- 250 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC.
I'll give you the numbers. I'll get the disaggregated data for you and I'll read off the test scores.
How does the dropout rate affect measurement of high school test performance?
How does it affect the measure of high school test performance?
Do you account for dropouts at all in measuring success or failure or are dropouts just removed from the equation altogether?
So, in other words, if you've dropped out or you're 251 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. truant or just don't take the test, you're basing your success or failure based upon who actually was there and took the test?
Well, we test children who are officially enrolled. So, in other words, if a child is officially enrolled but that child is not attending school but that child is on our roster and that school does not -- and that child is not tested, then even if the school experienced improved test scores, that school can be disqualified from making AYP for having poor test turnout. But if a student drops out of a school, if a student is not attending an individual school or in a specific school district, then obviously they're not going to be tested.
So is it safe to say that if your overage underachievers, those people who are not performing, who do not feel they can perform, drop out of school, then your 252 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. high school test scores would go up?
That was a question. I wasn't asking whether you said that. I was asking, is it safe to say that if those overage underachievers, those people, in many cases young black males, do not feel that they can perform within the District and they simply drop out, that your test scores, your high school test scores, will go up?
Right. If children who are underachieving are not in school, obviously the test scores would be higher than if they were in school being tested.
So your test scores may have gone up related to those 253 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. people dropping out of the system and so you've actually not necessarily just succeeded in terms of those people who you have tested, but you've also failed to those people who dropped out?
Well, let me respond by saying your question assumes that the dropout rate has been going up, and it hasn't. Your question also assumes that -- because comparing apples to apples, if you look at the statistics, the graduation rate has actually been climbing. So one could argue that us keeping more kids in school compared to past years, previous years and previous superintendents, should have resulted in slower growth in test scores. So the bottom line here is, we can talk about what the dropout rate or the graduation rate is. The fact remains the dropout rate is not lower than it was when I came in. According to the State, it's higher in terms of the graduation rate. The dropout rate appears to have 254 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. declined. So one can argue that we are testing more kids and we're keeping more kids in school, thus that would put a downward pressure on test scores as opposed to an upward pressure, just to point that out.
I'll get back to that in a second. What correlation do you see between the current murder rate and the dropout rate?
No. I asked you a question. What correlation do you see between the current murder rate and the dropout rate? You can answer it or not answer it, but I'm not trying to blame anybody. I asked a question.
Well, I can't give you an exact correlation. I will say 255 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. this in response to your question, that the majority of children incarcerated, the majority of individuals who are in prisons are not college graduates and, for that matter, the majority have dropped out of high school. So I can't tell you that definitively.
Let me ask you a question. How many young black males and young Latino males have dropped out under your tenure?
I can't tell you off the top of my head, but I'll be more than happy to give you that.
So you probably have no idea how many of them have been killed or have killed someone either?
Well, if you're asking me that information, I can 256 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. certainly try to secure it for you.
Okay. Of the murders this year -- I think right now we may be at 384. I've asked this question to the Administration, several people. This is not something I'm just asking you.
Out of the victims and perpetrators, how many do you think were high school dropouts?
I would be very interested if you could give me that information.
I'll be more than happy to give you that. Absolutely. If we have the names of the victims, we can tell you how many -- or the victimizers, 257 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. we can tell you --
Because I've been told by the Mayor, by the Secretary of Education, by the Director of Social Services and everyone else that that information is not available, has not been provided by the School District and it can't be tracked, and I've asked everyone involved in this issue --
But the first question was, how many -- and I'm asking you now to just generalize off the top of your head -- of the 384 people who were murdered, how many do you believe were high school dropouts?
Yeah. I can't -- I will not want to guesstimate on that, 258 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. but if I had the names of those individuals, I can tell you how many were.
And I'm sure if -- I mean, it's easy to get the names, and then you go back and you track where they came from and --
I'm going to throw out a number and I'm going to guess that I'm probably going to be pretty close to it. I'm going to say 80 percent.
If 80 percent of the people who were murdered this year were high school dropouts, do you think it's actually fair to just put them into categories of overage underachievers; to suggest that their 259 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. parents were high school dropouts, therefore they're going to be high school dropouts; to suggest any of those things that you have done today and to simply say that, Well, we need to come up with different pilot programs and try a bunch of test programs? We're actually talking about a significant portion of our population, a significant portion of young adult males in the City. We're actually talking about an epidemic among young men of color. We're talking about an epidemic in terms of a high school dropout. We're talking about an epidemic in terms of failed academic performance. And not just in terms of those who you test, but particularly those who you haven't tested. So I don't accept higher test scores as meaning anything if there are people who you have not reached in this City, you cannot reach, were never given that charge and even of your own 260 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. statement saying those were not your primary goals as CEO, you were given different goals by the SRC, your goals were not to effect the dropout rate.
Yes. Read the Declaration of Education that's in your packet.
I said that the School Reform Commission set a number of goals that would define us as a district. It includes graduation rates, it includes the percentage of children going to college, it includes test scores, it includes student behavior, it includes partnership. It's in your packet. And incidentally, we've distributed these goals every year.
Did you understand specifically I'm asking about 261 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. the fact that there are young black males --
I understand. I have to deal with that every day. I've been to the funerals, Councilman.
Well, you know, let's just say that we're trying to reach. But I've come before this Council every year and I've had conversations with this Council about ways that we could access additional help every year. I've had those conversations lightly publicly, and I've had those conversations more deeply privately. The bottom line is, the Youth Collaborative is bringing an initiative before this City Council and before the Legislature that they have been partnering with us on for the last two years on how to stem the dropout rate. Now, I think given the fact -- and I think the Mayor very eloquently 262 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. said it, the challenges that we face in the City cannot be just laid on -- I'm willing to take my share of the blame any time, any way. In fact, I'll take more of the blame, but the bottom line here is, we have a collective responsibility to identify those programs that work and take them to scale. You're going to have an opportunity to do that in a very specific way, Councilman. You're going to have an opportunity to decide whether or not you want to take programs to scale that will stem the dropout rate in the City, and those programs are very specific and they have specific results. And I'll be more than happy to work with you to lobby Harrisburg for that support, but that support is also going to have to come from the City Council.
So you're in your fifth year and you're coming here talking about creating new programs that will eventually go to scale.
No, no. You know 263 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. what, I've come here every year and I've had conversations with Councilmembers every year about ways that we could secure additional resources to help move this School District forward.
This is not an issue of money for me. Let me make a statement to you.
No, no, no. The implication is that I'm just showing up here now asking for this.
I'm willing to commit every dime of our fund balance toward education, but the issue is -- and I'm willing to say that publicly. I don't have a problem with that at all.
Money is not the issue for me. For me the issue is how it's going to be spent.
You know what, money -- 264 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC.
And whether it works for everyone. That's part of my charge.
Well, guess what. Money is the issue, too. Because everybody says money is not the issue, let's figure out what the numbers are. Hey, let's verify the numbers. That's an excuse not to provide more money. It's going to -- you need to get 100 percent of the kids, the pregnant teens, you need to get 100 percent of those kids in the Cradle Program. That's money. That's the issue. You need to have transition schools for the overage underachievers. That's money. That's the issue. You know, I've been in public life for 20 years and I've heard the same old story, it's accountability, we need to verify the numbers.
I hope 265 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. you're having fun, because I'm ready for you when you're finished.
The issue for me is not just intervention. Once they get of high school age, by that time you've probably already lost them. Well, we've probably lost them. I'm going to use the word "we." And we discussed this last time you were here. If you can predict by third grade reading scores when people are going to drop out, then the intervention should start then.
So I'm asking you what your track record is, what your track record is during your tenure.
I think my track record is that we've seen an increase in graduation rates, a decline in dropout rates. We've seen a significant, I 266 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. think, decline in serious incident reports. We've seen an increase in the number of kids going to college. We've seen an improvement in test scores. And I think that track record compares very favorably to the track record of other big city superintendents. That said and done, it's --
No, no, no. You asked the question. Let me give you the answer.
The specific question I'm asking is the specific epidemic that relates to young black males that starts with underachievement --
Let me finish -- (continued) it starts with 267 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. underachievement, then leads toward higher rates of drop out and it leads toward being murdered or murdering. I'm asking what your specific track record is with regard to young black males and whether you take that as a specific charge, when you talk to me about programs and how the system is achieving in general. You want to talk to me about how good a job you've been doing --
No, no, no. Look, I'm saying -- you're asking me for comparisons. I'm giving you comparisons. Am I satisfied with the progress we've made? No. But I can sit back here since you're -- I can sit back here since you're comparing --
I'm not comparing. I'm asking you specifically about young black males.
Since the implication of your question is that somehow our academic failure --
It's a 268 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. question. It's not an implication.
-- that our academic failure is contributing to the murder rate, and I could also sit back and I could also say, Well, what's been your role in helping the District address some of the critical issues? What about the role of police in the schools? What about the role of providing more persons intervention service?
Mr. Vallas, this is not going to work today. I asked you what your track record is.
And let me explain to you why else it's not going to work. Because you don't question me here. I question you.
Well, I have the opportunity to respond to a question with a question.
Actually, you don't. 269 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC.
What is your track record with regard to reversing the trend of underachievement by black males in the system?
I think my track record is good vis-a-vis other superintendents and other large districts. Is it satisfactory? No. 11
What is it? You're comparing it to other people in the District. What is your track record?
I'll be more than happy to give you the detailed growth by race and income and social group, both test scores, graduation rates, and then you can draw your own conclusion, but I think the conclusion you will draw is that it's --
If you can 270 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. just tell me, I'd be happy.
Well, I can't give you the exact numbers now. I'll be more than happy to submit it to you.
You know what, I'll provide the information to you. Would that be satisfactory? Thank you.
You could also say you don't know what your track record is.
Thank you, 271 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. Madam Chair. Mr. Vallas, one of the warning signs that children will eventually drop out of school is a high number of absences. In all likelihood, a truant student will eventually drop out. Recently, a program has been developed by the Mayor, the School District and the Family Court in order to crack down on the number of truants in the District by holding parents accountable. Could you explain how this program will work?
Yeah. The program is threefold, and it's designed to expand upon three School District initiatives. The first initiative is to expand the number of parent truant officers. The way that program will work is, in effect, more parent truant officers, more home visits. More home visits, more follow-up. The District has historically had about anywhere from 100 to 200 parent 272 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. truant officers. The District has historically had parent help desks and contracts with community-based organizations to have parents and community people in the schools working in a variety of social service categories. But what the Mayor wants to do is to finance the hiring of at least an additional 300 parent truant officers, and those parent truant officers will work in the schools hours a week and 14 they will, in effect, make home visits. 15 So that if a child is absent in excess of 16 three days, those parent truant officers 17 will make a home visit and a follow-up 18 visit. 19 When they make the home visit, 20 they have an opportunity to assess the situation. They can assess and evaluate the situation and they can make referrals to social service agencies. They can call the police, if need be. They can call in DHS, et cetera. So they can 273 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. provide certain social service interventions if they determine that that's needed. Or if they need additional help, they can contact our crisis intervention services and we can go out and address the needs. In addition, the parent truant officers will also not only make home visits to reach those children who have not been attending school, but if you have a child who has attended school regularly and the parent has been absent, the parent isn't coming and picking up the report card, the parent isn't coming to parent/teacher conferences, the parents have been unresponsive, the child is disheveled or the child obviously appears to have been neglected nutritionally, whatever, the parent truant officer can make a home visit to track down the truant parent, so to speak. So the truancy program is not only designed to reach the child but also 274 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. to reach the parent. But all the truant officers will be trained to do kind of social service referrals. The second component of the truant officer program -- or the dropout prevention program is to expand the Saturday program. This is the Saturday program for children and parents and guardians, children who have been chronically absent and children who have been chronically badly behaved. So if you have a child who has been disruptive but they haven't violated the zero tolerance policy and if you have a child who has been absent unexcused for X number of days -- I think the number is three -- the children can be required to attend a series of successive Saturday programs, and they must attend that program with a parent, foster parent or guardian. At the Saturday program, the child and the parent or guardian is provided with certain wrap-around 275 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. services. So, in other words, there will be representatives from social service agencies there, like DHS and others. Right now we have ten Smart Sites, and the plan is to expand those Smart Sites eventually to the 29 beacon sites. These are 29 schools that are open on Saturday for the beacon program. So we'll be able to get thousands of children and their parents in these Saturday programs. And then the third program, the third major initiative -- there are other elements of this, too, but the third major initiative is an expanded outreach initiative with the courts, because obviously your last recourse is court intervention or, for that matter, sometimes reassigning the child or placing the child in a foster home or sometimes imposing fines or whatever. So those are the three main components. We have elements of this program at all levels.
I don't want to say they're pilots because they're not, 276 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. but this allows us to expand these programs dramatically. Where we've had parent truant officers, we've had success. Schools that have had regular parent truant officers for the past four years have better attendance, better test scores, better behavior. So this would allow us to really take this program to scale; in other words, have a team of parent truant officers and community climate people in virtually all of our schools, all of our K-to-8 elementary schools.
Thank you very much. We have to permit the stenographer to break. We'll take a five-minute break. (Short recess.)
Thank you very much. We are ready to move. I know this is one of the most exciting 277 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. days you've had this year. Thank you. We're promising Mr. Vallas that as soon as our testimony is finished, we will invite the student up who has been waiting all day. Thank you for noticing. Thank you. We would now like to entertain a few questions from Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown and then Councilman Greenlee.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to go back to one of the reasons that brought us here, and that was the $70 million plus deficit. You acknowledge four findings, I guess, or reasons for why we got here, the proceeds from the late receipt of the revenues from the sale of property and the number of others. What lessons have we learned going forward so that we don't -- we may have other conversations and we will, but on this particular issue around the $70 278 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. million and the surprise that so many of us got, what lessons have we learned from that?
Well, a couple things. One of the things that we're doing in this year's budget is, we're going to budget a very low rate of salvage and we're going to raise kind of the minimum term pay estimates in our budget. I mean, I think our assumptions about salvage were much higher than anticipated. While they're historic, they're much higher. So we're going to lower that amount. I think this year we're budgeting $6 million in salvage. Now, I think the City's number is probably four times, five times, but we would rather err on the side of caution, so that if we have more salvage than anticipated, it will just give us additional money that we can roll over into programs the next year. It's the same thing on term pay. Our estimates on term pay, which is 279 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. the payouts for people who leave the system, and our estimates on salvage, which is unspent appropriations, I think they are unrealistic based on last year's results. So we're making adjustments to reflect last year's results. What that will do is, that will guarantee that we won't have surprises in these two categories again, and that if we do have a surprise, it will be on the positive side. It won't lead us to raise the number the following year. It's just that if we get the windfall, great. It's more money to spend, more money we can put in our reserve.
Was the fiscal FAR, I believe you called it, Fiscal Accountability Review Unit, a direct result of --
Speak to 280 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. what it is.
If I may, Councilwoman, the Financial Accountability Unit, the FAU you're referring to, that was an entity that was created, if you would, by the School Reform Commission and adopted in November. And, yes, the intent of having that ongoing unit, which is made up of appointees on the Commission, our senior CFO, as well as an appointee from the CEO's office, is to maintain an ongoing oversight of both programmatic and budget issues, so there's realtime information being shared and brought back to the School Reform Commission. And, of course, that would be available to City Council or the Mayor's office and also our state partners. And we're really looking at that being one of ten measures that were put in place to really tighten up on what we view as important and 281 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. necessary management policies that were in place, but really refocusing on them and then adding others where we thought they were weak. So, yes, that is part of a ten-point plan, if you would, and one that is going to be ongoing, and I believe it will be very beneficial, both management and to the School Reform Commission, to keep a better view of this budget throughout the school year.
Yes. It's the same thing with the Parent and Community Budgetary Review entity. That will be a permanent entity. As you know, the Home and School Councils who are housed in the central office and have access and participate in the School District's cabinet meetings, we want to set up a formal -- they want to set up a formal 282 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. budget review. It will be beneficial not only in terms of giving them access to the budget documents and all the detail, but also they're going to work with us to design a budget supplement that's easier for parents to understand and more accessible, and we're also going to set up a website that parents can access to get information from them on budget and finance issues. And then what will also emerge from this will be an opportunity to have more public meetings on budget issues, preferably at night, preferably in the community, which will be run and hosted by the Home and School Council Association and other parent and community groups. So that, I think, is going to be a permanent feature of this reform.
Okay. Now, the issues of our dropout rate and truancy also brought us here, and you reference in your testimony the work of 283 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. the Blue Reform Commission.
Yes. Many of us have participated in those year-long hearings, and one of the glaring findings, although not new, not a terrible surprise, is still the gap of communication across systems.
The need for us to still figure out how we do that better. So to that question, what role do you believe DHS could have or should have when it comes to increasing the number of youth who graduate from high school?
Well, let me just give you one example. When students are truant and when they're chronically truant, you have a couple of recourses. Because, again, about 65, 70 percent of the children who are absent are absent unexcused, and when students -- and you 284 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. have a choice. If students are absent unexcused and consistently absent unexcused, what do you do? Do you suspend them? Well, great. Then they just stay home anyway, you know. I mean, the more you suspend kids, the greater the likelihood they're going to stay home and they're not going to come back. So you have that dilemma. So what recourse can you take? Well, there's a couple recourses. One is, if students are chronically absent without excuses, you can take them to court or you can take their parents to court. And let me point out that we do. We have mobile courts. We have family courts. We have the mobile rotating family court. So a lot of times we will pursue legal recourse and we'll go to court to get the parent, foster parent or guardian to get the child back into school. Another recourse is a goal to DHS. And we make a lot of referrals to 285 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. DHS for children who are chronically absent. I mean, the case that was cited in the Inquirer Sunday about the child, not only did we make a referral but an assistant principal and a special education coordinator actually visited the home, because the child -- this child wasn't absent. This child just wasn't enrolled in school, trying to get the child enrolled in school. So we'll make referrals, because a lot of times the children and the family will be in the care or under the supervision of DHS or, for that matter, they should be under the supervision of DHS. But then that -- and I can give you the data on the number of referrals that we make a year to either the courts or to social service agencies and to DHS. And they're in the thousands and thousands and thousands. But I'm not here to critique other departments, but a lot of these departments are stretched themselves, 286 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. because what does DHS do when they're overwhelmed with the number of referrals that they get? You see what I mean? So that's our approach. If children are chronically -- now, what we're hoping -- one of the reasons we've been partnering with the faith-based community -- and we now have, I think, 80 legitimate faith-based partners. In fact, former Mayor Wilson Goode has played a leadership role on our interfaith task force to help us establish their criteria for these partnerships is to, in effect, have school and community-based organizations who can reach out to these homes and can provide some sort of intervention besides the interventions that DHS provides or other social service agencies. And so if you have a family that's troubled, you can contact a local community-based organization or reach out and have them visited by the local church. You see what I mean? The local 287 12/11/06 - EDUCATION - RES. 060806, ETC. faith-based organization.
Does the School District currently have a method in place where when you have a student like the one you just described that has been truant for X number of times and you contact DHS, the Office of Social Services has a system by which departments can talk to each other, they plug in a child's name and all the agencies in touch with that child show up? Is the School District tapped or wired into that system with the Office of Social Services?