Education Week - November 27, 2019 - 10

Some K-12 Leaders
Are Beating CEOs
At 'Greatness' Game
By Michele Molnar
"Good to Great" author Jim Collins, who has spent more than 25
years studying what separates the
best businesses from the rest, made
an interesting discovery in his research: Some K-12 leaders are beating
businesses at the "greatness" game.
Collins, in fact, featured the transformational work of Deb Gustafson,
who was the principal of Ware Elementary School in Kansas for 18
years, in "Turning the Flywheel,"
his latest publication, a monograph.
It explains how organizations
can identify key moves needed to
reach their goals, work diligently on

them, and ultimately try to create a
self-propelling "flywheel" that fuels
ongoing progress with greater and
greater ease.
"The f lywheel is about understanding what generates momentum, then produces results," he said
in an interview.
Ware Elementary's results were
strong enough for Collins to highlight them in the monograph, along
with Amazon's and Intel's.
In 2001, Gustafson, who was
assigned to the Fort Riley, Kan.,
school, was challenged to produce a
turnaround as required by the state
and desired by the district. Fewer
than 35 percent of students were

Generating Momentum
for Better Student
Outcomes

Select
teachers
infused with
passion

When Deb Gustafson
was assigned to
lead a turnaround
school, she needed
to focus on where

Replenish
the passionate
teacher
pipeline

she could influence

ware
elementary
school
flywheel

others to make a
difference. This
flywheel highlights
the steps she and
her team took to
build momentum
that has lasted

Jim Collins

for nearly two

Build
collaborative
improvement
teams

Enhance
reputation
as a great
place to
teach

decades.

Assess
student
progress, early
and often
Achieve
learning for
each and
every kid

Deb Gustafson

Could Calif. Admissions Plan Shut Out Blacks and Latinos?
By Christina A. Samuels
The nation's largest public university
wants to raise freshman admissions
standards-a move that has galvanized opposition from advocates and
school districts that argue it puts more
roadblocks in the path of students who
already struggle to meet current requirements.
California State University, with
nearly 500,000 students on 23 campuses, has proposed adding a year-long
"quantitative reasoning"course to its
minimum standards for admissions.
University officials say the additional
class, which can be a math course, a
laboratory science course, or a mathheavy elective such as statistics, coding, or personal finance, will cut dropout rates and increase the number of
students who graduate on time.
But opponents say it could shut out
otherwise qualified black, Latino, and
low-income students. At Gov. Gavin
Newsom's request, CSU's board delayed its vote on the proposal until
January.
The proposed change would be on
top of the three years of high school
math that are already part of the minimum standards. The University of
California system, with 10 campuses
and 280,000 students, has the same
minimum course requirements.
Adding the new course is about providing a stronger academic foundation
for students who are already eligible,
said Marquita Grenot-Scheyer, an assistant vice chancellor for CSU who
oversees educator preparation and
public school programs.
Only a small fraction of students enroll without having taken a fourth year
of math or course that has a quantitative reasoning requirement, GrenotScheyer said. But those students are

Raising the Bar in Math
California State University, with nearly 500,000 students,
wants to add a "quantitative reasoning" course to its
current minimum requirements for admissions. It would
be the first change to the requirements since they were
adopted in 1988. Current requirements are:
a.
b.
c.
d.

History and Social Science (2 years)
English (4 years)
Math (3 years, 4 years recommended)
Laboratory science, including one biological science and
one physical science (2 years)
e. Language other than English (2 years)
f. Visual and performing arts (1 year)
g. College preparatory elective (1 year)
The proposed new requirement could be met by an additional
year of math, laboratory science,
or another course that has
a math component, such
as sports medicine,
economics, statistics,
coding, robotics, or
others.
SOURCE: California
State University

less likely to stay beyond their freshman year: about 85 percent who have
four years of math come back for their
sophomore year, compared to 74 percent of freshmen who had only three
years of math.
"This is about access, success, and
completion," she said. The university
is trying to close equity gaps among its

10 | EDUCATION WEEK | November 27, 2019 | www.edweek.org

own students, she said, and "we know
that based upon our data, academic
preparation in high school is absolutely
critical to eliminating these gaps."
But some school districts see an impediment to access and a strain on limited budgets.
"I think the real question is why
are we creating more barriers for

students?"said Alfonso Jimenez, a
deputy superintendent in the Santa
Ana Unified district where 96 percent
of students are Latino and 88 percent
are from low-income families.
The proposal "really benefits students that are strong in math and science. But if you're not going to major
in math or science or one of the STEM
areas, that alone creates a two-tiered
system," Jimenez said.
Such a move would also force the
district to get rid of some non-math
electives-classes students "can strive
and do well in"-in order to accommodate more electives to meet the
new requirement, he said. And the district would have to hire more teachers
qualified to teach math or the mathoriented electives.
"How is this going to be paid for?"
Jimenez said.

A Diverse System
California State University draws 95
percent of its student body from high
schools in the state. California State
University has traditionally drawn
from the top third of California students, while the more-competitive
University of California system has
historically drawn from the top eighth
of the state's students.
As a result, CSU campuses have
been more accessible to under-represented students and more closely
reflect students who attend the state's
public schools. This fall, about 44 percent of students in the CSU system
were Hispanic, 21 percent were white,
16 percent were Asian, and 4 percent
were African American. Nearly a third
of undergraduates are the first in their
families to attend college.
A study released earlier this year
found that about 41 percent of the

state's high school graduates in 2015
met the current minimum standards,
which also include four years of English and requirements in history, foreign language, and science.
However, only 30 percent of black
students, 32 percent of Latino students, and 34 percent of low-income
students in the class of 2015 met the
minimum entry standards.
California only requires two years
of math to earn a high school diploma,
one of only three states with a bar that
low (the others are Maine and Montana). However, California districts
can require more, and most do require
at least three years. Only 2 percent
of the state's 977 districts require a
fourth year of math.
CSU officials proposed a longer
ramp-up before the new requirement
would take effect: instead of applying
to the class of 2026-students currently in 6th grade-it would apply to
the class of 2027. This would give more
time for districts to prepare.
"We do a disservice to our K-12
districts to suggest they can't make
changes in seven years," GrenotScheyer said.
CSU said it would invest an additional $10 million over four years toward efforts to increase math, science,
and computer science teachers produced at its campuses, which would
benefit districts. And in the early
years of the requirement, CSU would
provide automatic exemptions to prospective students not able to meet the
requirements due to a lack of resources
in their high schools.
In documentation that accompanied the proposal, CSU officials note
districts that have added a fourth year
of math to high school graduation requirements, and, as a result, have seen
a boost in the percentage of students

http://www.edweek.org

Education Week - November 27, 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Education Week - November 27, 2019