During the February Primary Election, we asked Manitowoc Public School Board candidates about the most important issue facing the district and why they are running. Following the primary results, we decided to ask candidates their opinions about SFA or the Success for All program implemented by the district and whether recent results of some improvement show the program is working. These were their answers.
Stacey Soeldner
- SFA is good for a number of reasons. First, we have seen reading proficiency levels rise 10% district-wide K-8 after just 2 quarters, and our quarter 3 numbers are looking like it will be a 15% rise. That is incredible growth in such a short period of time. Next, it provides ongoing progress monitoring which gives district leaders and the Board of Education info we need to make good decisions and adjustments when needed to ensure we stay on track to see increases on the state exams. Finally, it provides the stable foundation we have been lacking for years, with more admin support in buildings, professional development, social, emotional, and behavioral components, and a distributed leadership model that empowers our staff to do their jobs effectively. Prior to SFA, our district wasted millions of dollars each year in staff time teaching curriculum not based on the science of reading that clearly wasn’t working. SFA has yielded the best measurable return on investment to taxpayers we have seen in years and it’s only been in place for 3 quarters- I can’t wait to see what our district will look like when we keep stacking these positive quarters on top of each other in the next few years.
- Yes- without a doubt, it is working. Kids are reading better, and staff can see the positive changes. This is based on internal assessments with SFA and nationally normed assessments with Fastbridge. Staff that we have talked to feel these gains will translate into the state testing as well. I was told by staff that the state proficiency levels and SFA assessments were very close in how they placed students, indicating similar measures. The state scores also weigh growth heavily, which will bode well for us since we have seen tremendous growth from baseline in a short period of time. For these reasons, we are confident we will see similar growth in the state assessments. There is more work to do but what an exciting time for our district to see all this positive growth!
Kerry Trask
- While the SFA program has begun to yield some positive results in reading scores, there remain troubling aspects of it that cause me to have some serious reservations. It is the most expensive reading program available and has already cost the Manitowoc School District $2.6 million in just the first five months of its use in our schools. Also, being a fifty-year-old program, most of the reading materials are antiquated and out of touch with current students. In the classroom, at the insistence of the company, information is presented in a highly ridged, unvarying prescribed format, which has been characterized as “a mechanical factory approach” to instruction, thereby stifling teachers’ creativity while diminishing the intellectual curiosity of good students who are already proficient readers. Furthermore, in the implementation of the state’s new reading program mandated by Act 20, SFA is not listed among the approved programs and, in fact, ranks second from the bottom of the programs rejected by the Department of Public Instruction. That alone raises questions, but if Manitowoc persists in using SFA, our schools will not be eligible for reimbursement for any costs that they would otherwise be eligible to receive if they selected any one of the approved programs. As a consequence, the loss in potential revenue could be as much as $500,000.
- Yes, the SFA program has resulted in positive results, with an average increase of a 10% improvement of reading proficiency during the second quarter of the school year throughout the school district. Also, improvement has continued into the third quarter as well. This, in deed, is much-welcomed, good news. However, the gains have been uneven. The highest gains have occurred at Franklin Elementary, where (in the 3rd quarter) 61% of the students are now reading at grade level, and at Wilson Middle School, where 58% have reached that same level. But both schools had high levels of achievement even before SFA was implemented and attribute, in part, for the 10% gains. On the other hand, in the 2nd quarter, scores went down in some grades at Jackson, Madison, and Monroe, and didn’t improve at all in grades 2 and 3 at Jefferson while using SFA. It must also be pointed out that all these scores have been measured exclusivly by internal testing, and while most results have been encouraging, the most objective and valid confirmation of success—the only ones that really count—will be the results of the “Forward” test required by DPI in April. We have to wait for those results before we breakout the champagne.
We also asked Candidates Keith Shaw and Basil Buchko about what their opinions were but we didn’t get a response.
