Analysis of CCSD's Rating Shows How Statistics Can Lie

I haven't always agreed with Jon Butzon, but his analysis of the statistics being touted by the Charleston County School District should be read by all.

Job One: Find the right superintendent
BY JON BUTZON
Nov 19 2014 12:01
An old Navy friend of mine is fond of saying, "Experience is the best teacher. Considering what it costs, it ought to be." Now that there is a big "Help Wanted" sign out at 75 Calhoun Street, I thought it might be useful for the new school board to consider how our most recent experience could inform the search for the next superintendent.

Some great slogans have come out of CCSD. My personal favorites are "All Means All," "The Victory is in the Classroom," and the lesser known "A Tale of Two Districts."

Let's start with "All Means All." Even just a cursory review of student achievement data suggests it's really more like "All Means Some." Here are a few examples.


On the 2014 ACT (unlike school ratings, this is an actual measure of students' college readiness) the five lowest performing high schools in all of South Carolina are in Charleston County. The bottom five in our state!

They are Lincoln (the state's lowest at 12.7), Burke (13.1), North Charleston (13.4), St. Johns (14.0) and Garrett (14.1). The vast majority of students in these schools are economically disadvantaged and minority.

Let's be clear - these embarrassingly low ACT scores aren't the students' fault. They are the result of a systemic achievement gap that still defines CCSD, despite a ton of spending, new ideas and interventions. The ACT folks determine a 21 and above to be "college ready." Last year, the 1,099 white seniors who took the ACT earned an impressive 22.8, compared to the 692 black students whose average score was only 14.9, and the 127 Hispanic students who scored 18.7. Seniors at CCSD's suburban and competitive magnet schools far exceeded national averages. These are the same exact trends we were seeing 10 years ago.

So, we need a superintendent who can accomplish more than great slogans. We need a superintendent who can not only close, but can eliminate the achievement gap.

Let's look at another popular saying: "The Victory is in the Classroom." Unfortunately, over the last six years, this victory has been defined by race and income. The black/white achievement gap on the PASS tests has widened over the last six years in English language arts in grades 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8, and in math in grades 4, 5, 6 and 7. The gap for low-income children as measured by comparing free lunch children with full-pay children has also widened in both English language arts and math in grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. The widening gap means the district has lost ground for these, our most vulnerable children.

If the victory is in the classroom, we need a superintendent who can do more than just claim victory. We need a superintendent who will reject the status quo and truly win on behalf of every child.

Which leads us to "A Tale of Two Districts." White middle class and affluent students in Charleston County outperform their white peers across the state. The opposite is true for their black peers. On many measures, black students do better in other S.C. districts. Remember those ACT scores. "The Tale of Two Districts" - the same sad tale told 10 years ago, five years ago, and still today - means that in Charleston County we manage to teach white children better than white children in the rest of S.C., but for some reason we continue to teach black children worse. That sounds closer to the state of education we'd expect to see in 1860 than in 2014.

Over the last 10 years, Charleston County has changed significantly. People are flocking here from all around the country. While the white and comparatively affluent population in CCSD has grown, the black population has shrunk. Improvements hailed by CCSD - for example, the percentage of students attending "excellent" schools - reflect demographic trends and enrollment shifts as much as any improvement to the quality of education. Now there may be fewer buildings labeled "at risk" - easily accomplished by simply turning out the lights and locking the door - but just look at actual measures of learning, and the quality of education has not improved for our children.

Taking all of this into account, we need a superintendent who can do more than add chapters to Charleston's historical inequities and "A Tale of Two Districts." We need someone who can provide real solutions, make excellence a reality for every child, and close this shameful book altogether.

I may be in the minority, but my hat is off to the school board for making a difficult change. The story may be unpopular, but the truth is, progress hasn't been made. We may have new shiny buildings and catchy slogans, but we're failing the same students we have always failed.

To the school board: Take a hard look at the data yourself.

Make this not about watermelons, but about the enduring tragedy of youngsters like Ridge Smith and the thousands of Ridge Smiths remaining in our system. [Editor's note: Ridge Smith, featured in a 2009 Post and Courier series on low literacy rates in the district, was shot to death in North Charleston on Oct. 31.]

Make it about the continued erasing of whole generations of children from the economic map, and the irreducible fact that after ten years of bold promises and new visions, race and income still define the quality of education in CCSD.

I trust you'll see that CCSD needs a leader who will bring a new set of skills and a true sense of urgency and humility to this work. At the end of the day, the buck stops with you, and this is the most important task you will undertake.

Get it right!

Jon Butzon is the former executive director of the Charleston Education Network.

CCSD's $9 Million iPad Fizzle

It's just other people's money.

No doubt iPads are fun to use and entertaining for students. Yet the Charleston County School District cannot claim that having an iPad for every student in three of its schools made a dent on improving test scores. Superintendent McGinley is still scratching her head trying to put the best face on mediocre results.

Board member Chris Fraser fecklessly stated that the technology needs more than a year to work, even though Haut Gap Middle has had one for every student for three years. Pay attention, Chris.

Technology is not the answer; it's just that simple. No doubt people raved about the first blackboard raised in a classroom and the first overhead projector. Computers were going to do it, too. We can all wonder when the next technological marvel will come down the pike and how many millions more it will cost.

However, one observer does have a point about iPad use:

"Before spending another penny, one education advocate said the district needs to look at why this investment hasn't translated into better test scores. Jon Butzon, former leader of the Charleston Education Network, said he thought a lack of staff training and technology support were to blame.
"It didn't produce the results, and we need to know why," he said.

Although the school board will decide what happens next, the mostly glowing report likely won't result in more schools getting iPads immediately.

[Lainie] Berry said giving an entire school iPads isn't the best way to ensure that they are used effectively. Before that, teachers need to be trained, model classrooms need to be established, and the school needs to build some capacity to use them, she said.
"We're highly aware that schools are clamoring for the iPads and want to do this," Berry said. "It's a fine line to walk. We want to get the technology out there, but we've got to move slowly and we can't rush into this. We have to do this right and now just let everyone move forward as fast as they want."

Was this $9 million well spent?

Sick and Tired of CCSD Half-Truths in the P & C

Having read the story in Sunday's paper concerning payments to fired teachers in excess of $150,000, a person must assume that the reporter (or editor) desires for the elected Charleston County School Board to appear as slacker idiots. Nowhere in the article does she mention that it was CCSD administration's decision to defer hearings that began the "rubber room" salary status of five tenured teachers who were not given contracts.

One suggestion from a local observer deserves a look:

"If the board had its own administrator to run a small and efficient staff focused only on the board's work, one that was independent of the superintendent's office, preferably a competent attorney, it wouldn't be running into these conflicts. That's how county council does it. Every standing committee in the state legislature does it that way, too. I can't imagine the cost of this small but qualified staff being any more expensive than what the district is now paying out to outside attorneys and for other related charges associated with this problem."

Two other observations deserve attention:

1. Why does a hearing take an entire day? Something is wrong with the process. Cindy Bohn Coats is in charge and should move the hearings along so that no hearing takes more than half a day.
2. Board members need to know in advance that their election means many other meetings to attend than merely the twice-monthly Monday night ones. The amount of time spent on CCSD business is extensive. As comments from two or three present Board members reveal, the Board should be paid more or the self-employed will be discouraged from participating. At this rate, the time involved for representing the public points toward a board composed of retirees and millionaires.

The truth is that some non-attendees have missed more than 29 out of 30 meetings (our noblesse oblige Chamber of Commerce member, Chris Fraser, comes to mind).

Charleston Education Network Defunded, But Why?

The non-profit known as the Charleton Education Network (CEN) is being disbanded, and its representative to the Charleston County School District, Jon Butzon, is out of his job.

Despite our differences with CEN in the past, our first reaction is, did Superintendent McGinley have anything to do with its defunding?

Lately Butzon hasn't been completely on her page.

CCSD: Smoke, Mirrors, and Spin

Lexiles are good enough to show whether students' reading skills are improving. The Charleston County School District wants to obfuscate the problems by using percentiles that only the cognoscenti can translate.

That is the heart of the argument between Jon Butzon of the Charleston Education Network (CEN) and CCSD's "director of assessment and evaluation."

Jon, you know that the director must justify her six-figure salary!

In 2010 after a series of exposes in the P&C (imagine that!) the School Board voted to make literacy a priority in the district. Maybe it had assumed literacy  already was a priority?

Since then, CCSD has attempted several approaches to the problem, each inching towards success, each unwilling to take the Draconian measures needed for success, namely separating illiterate students from their peers. Moves at the sixth-grade level have been the least effective (see previous statement for effective Draconian meaure).

Now the improved statistics reported by the district do not match those provided by the new (watered-down) PASS, which shows a higher percentage below grade level at every grade. Mmm.

Butzon is quoted as saying that he doesn't "know if they were intentionally deceitful or incompetent, but . . .the data they reported to the board is bad and useless.”  The answer to his question is "yes."
How about reporting how many students improved to reading on grade level and the cost per student. That'll be the day.

“I can’t make any sense of this,” Butzon said. “I can’t argue that progress is being made, but we just don’t know how much. This is smoke and mirrors and spinmanship. I have no idea whether we’re getting what we’re supposed to get out of it.”

Donnelly said the report is a reflection of the way in which [unspecified ] educators asked that students’ progress be reported. The report has three tiers, or ranges of students scoring in certain areas, and that’s used in educators’ decisions on who is served by the literacy academies. Students in different percentile ranges receive different help.

Why the resistance to reporting what even non-educators can understand?

What we all can understand is that students reading below grade level at the end of the third grade are virtually guaranteed to become dropouts if they make it to high school.

Riley's Lapdog Attacks Kandrac

With permission from his master, Jon Butzon of the Charleston Education Network (CEN) (the what? you ask), has joined the attack against CCSD Board member Elizabeth Kandrac. [See Thursday's tirade : Letters to the Editor]

Readers of this blog may recall several postings on Butzon and his curious privileged position vis a vis the School Board. You may want to try for yourself to get any specific information on the organization at this web address: http://www.charlestonednet.com. See any references to how it is funded? Learn who its members are? Of course not.

Here's what I wrote back in January of 2009:

Jon Butzon--the executive director of the Charleston Education Network--sounds impressive, doesn't it? I'm impressed with how much he takes home (must be up to $80,000 per year by now) for attending CCSD School Board meetings and writing two or three op-ed pieces per year. And his qualifications for that are what? And what is the Charleston Education Network (apart from being part of the edublob)? [See entries for CEN and Butzon on this blog.] Who pays his salary? Who calls the shots?

Here's what a commenter wrote back in July of 2007 (just a sample of a heated conversation):

"The waste and inequities that CCSD has forced on Dist. 20 are common issues that unite both white & black downtown public school advocates. Butzon & CEN have been noticeably absent on all fronts. A united downtown is a scary prospect to some. It would seem that all the special interest groups that live off the crumbs that CCSD throws them, from Dot Scott to Jon Butzon, the NAACP to the Chamber of Commerce (what a strange mix), none can afford to have a bunch of loose cannons downtown calling for public school reforms."

My nominee for controller is Joe Riley.

Even Butzon Has a Point

The message of Jon Butzon's semi-annual obligatory op-ed column in Saturday's edition of the P&C? [EnoughAlready: Pay the Price to Rescue Struggling Schools]

To Superintendent McGinley, her flunkies, and the CCSD School Board:

• Stop putzing around. ("The Italians call it dolce far niente, sweetly doing nothing. In the Ashkenazi Jewish diaspora it's called putzing around.")

As Butzon writes,

"Burns isn't the only school that should be seriously considered for reconstitution. We can begin with the list of the other 11 schools that appeared in The Post and Courier article last week about school report cards. These are the schools with a string of single stars by their names, indicating at least four years of failure. By the way, Charleston is the only one of the four local school districts that still has unsatisfactory schools."

'Nuff said.

CCSD School Budget Charades Successful Again

Mike Bobby could tell the taxpayers of Charleston County that the Charleston County Schools operate on a shoe-string, and no one could disprove his assertions. Most people looking at the proposed budget will immediately flash back to those days sitting in algebra class, when X2 + 4xy + 3Y2 needed to be factored. In a sentence, "Let me out of here!"

On the other hand, those knowledgeable regarding accounting will immediately flash back to prior chief financial officers and their sleight-of-hand numbers. Despite the requests and pleas for clearer outlines of expenditures, no such clarity has developed. The public, to put it bluntly, is "foiled again." And that will become "taxed again."

This week's public hearing reported in Wednesday's paper (School Budget Could Mean Tax Increase) was a charade to provide cover for the coming tax increase--and it will come! Supposedly three "community" members (i.e., non-CCSD-attached) attended the hearing; however, the only one who spoke, Jon Butzon, is a community member in the same sense that Nancy McGinley is: not. No one who has attended closed-door sessions of the School Board could represent the community at large, and anyway, he represents the Mayor! Holding a barely publicized meeting at 5 p.m. on a Tuesday was guaranteed to keep naysayers away.

Ask yourself: if the meeting had kept secret from the public, how many fewer participants would there have been? What does that answer tell you about how well it was publicized? Instead, 75 Calhoun rounded up the usual suspects from employees who have a vested interest in getting as many dollars as possible (and I don't mean "for the children"). CCSD Board members in favor of a tax increase (all but two--Ravenel and Kandrac) arranged their "cover" by voting initially for no increase. CFA Bobby obligingly came back with a budget in which, as his fellow conspirator Toya Green puts it, "the cuts that would be required if no tax increase is passed would be so painful that [. . .] those in the majority would approve some sort of increase." Which they planned all along.

These folks "in the majority" are more than happy to raise taxes. Let's not forget that those elected to the Board in the last election, those that constitute the majority in favor of this tax increase won thanks to the endorsement of the Charleston County Democratic Party.

The idea that we have a non-partisan school board is as ludicrous as thinking that this one doesn't want to raise taxes. We're stuck with them for now. Will voters' memories be long enough to "throw the bums out"?

Cheerleader Butzon Butts-in to CCSD Again

Thanks to Saturday's op-ed in the P & C [see Help McGinley with Hard Work of Improving Education], we are now informed that those opposing Superintendent McGinley's plans were people who think the poor and black can't learn.

Gee, I wonder what the parents at Brentwood, Schroder, McClellanville Middle, Fraser, and Charlestowne Academy would say about that! Not. Not to mention the other "stakeholders" who worked so hard to put together counter-proposals that McGinley and the CCSD School Board ignored.

Jon Butzon--the executive director of the Charleston Education Network--sounds impressive, doesn't it? I'm impressed with how much he takes home (must be up to $80,000 per year by now) for attending CCSD School Board meetings and writing two or three op-ed pieces per year. And his qualifications for that are what? And what is the Charleston Education Network (apart from being part of the edublob)? [See entries for CEN and Butzon on this blog.] Who pays his salary? Who calls the shots?

Here's what a commenter wrote back in July of 2007 (just a sample of a heated conversation):

"The waste and inequities that CCSD has forced on Dist. 20 are common issues that unite both white & black downtown public school advocates. Butzon & CEN have been noticeably absent on all fronts. A united downtown is a scary prospect to some. It would seem that all the special interest groups that live off the crumbs that CCSD throws them, from Dot Scott to Jon Butzon, the NAACP to the Chamber of Commerce (what a strange mix), none can afford to have a bunch of loose cannons downtown calling for public school reforms."

My nominee for controller is Joe Riley.

CEN's Butzon Butts in on Charter School Rent

Don't you just love the edu-blob? It pretends to have the best interests of students at heart, when in fact it has its OWN interests at heart. Take Jon Butzon, of the Charleston Education Network, a Riley and Chamber-of-Commerce front--please take him!

Monday's P & C's op-ed page has a message from Butzon: The sky is falling in CCSD. Run for your life.

Butzon tries to link CCSD's financial woes to its failure to charge rent to the new Charter School for Math and Science. For example,

"Locally sponsored charter schools are already a financial albatross for school districts. When charter school proponents complain about the slow growth of charter schools in South Carolina, they typically attribute that slow growth to anti-charter sentiments among educators and school boards. But as the law is currently written, having charter schools is a financial disincentive for school boards."

What you really mean, Jon, is that school boards lose control of the money that goes to those students. I agree it's a financial disincentive but only because many on the school board have other agendas than the best interests of the students involved. You and I both know that the amount of money alloted per student in the district does not change--only who handles it.

More to the point, why should the Charleston Education Network get a chair at the table? Who elected it to decide what policies the district should have about anything? Why do so many friends of Riley and Democratic activists sit on the committee? What qualifies Jon Butzon to sound off on the finances of the district and its funding? Let's see his credentials.

As I inquired in a posting last July 27th,

Who calls the shots in this unwieldy committee of 26?
Who decides what policies to push?
Where does more than $92,000 in "public support"[as of 3 years ago] come from?
What are Butzon's qualifications for sitting in on CCSD meetings?
Why does CCSD list CEN under "parent" organizations?

Well, Jon? Why did CEN leave its offices at the Citadel? Why is it that on CEN's website not a single member of the committee is listed under "Who We Are"?

Don't you just love it?

P & C Discovers the Education Blob!

Only 20 years! That's all it took for the P & C to read the entrails of the "education blob." That sobriquet, coined by then-Secretary of Education William J. Bennett, describes non-profit organizations feeding at the public trough in the name of advancing education.

Saturday's paper finally provides coverage of the finances of Heritage Services, showing how (as I have stated previously in this blog) non-profit does not mean "non-profitable" to those involved. [SeeSex-ed nonprofit banks heavily on public funds ]

There's politics involved? Gasp!

Whether you are against abstinence-based sex education or not is immaterial here. What everyone can agree upon is that public funding of non-profits (and even for-profits) needs to have more oversight and transparency. Those who pay attention to CCSD's administration can easily rattle off the call letters of many--CEN, CEP, NTP, etc.--that remain shrouded in mystery as to effectiveness per dollar spent. Why do I suspect that Heritage is not alone in its important political connections, family business salaries, and lack of accountability to the taxpayers?

Maybe because I didn't fall of the turnip truck yesterday?

CEN's Big and Little Shots: Who's Playing in CCSD

Not too surprisingly, the Board of Directors of the Charleston Education Network (CEN) is comprised of big shots, money bags, and even the occasional educator.


Jon Butzon, its executive director, reports to a chairman, co-chairman, and 24 directors. Since the tax reports of 501(c) organizations (such as CEN) must be available to the public, through a helpful reader I am able to provide the names of these mysterious eminences, at least as of two years ago. Perhaps you can add some pertinent information to my groping attempts to identify all of them.

1. Neil C. Robinson, Jr., a lawyer with Nexsen Pruett, a director who states he is a founder and past chairman of CEN on the firm's website;


2. John Barter of Kiawah Island, listed as past co-chair, on the Board of Directors of Spoleto Festival USA and Board of Investors of the Noisette Company;


3. James Etheredge, vice-chairman for operations, has an MUSC email address;


4. Wilbur Johnson, lawyer with Young Rivers Clement;


5. Sybil Fix, former education reporter for the P & C;


6. Katherine Duffy, of Katherine Duffy and Associates, a marketing research firm, former director of the Palmetto-Lowcountry Health Systems Agency;


7. Lee Gaillard, former principal of Burke High School and present interim principal at Murray Hill Academy;


8. Edwin Halkyard, former president of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra;


9. Thomas Hood, president of First Financial (better known in Charleston as "First Federal");


10. Robert Lurie, retired founder of Bright Horizons Corporate Day Care, who lives on Kiawah;


11. Cathy Marino, also of Kiawah, active in Gibbes, Etc., and WINGS;


12. Elizabeth Marshall--no clear information available;


13. Sara Davis Powell, professor in C of C's School of Education;


14. Allan Rashford, M.D., downtown practitioner whose patients include former police chief Reuben Greenberg;


15. Retired Bishop (and former chairman) S.K. Rembert of the Reformed Episcopal Church;


16. Joseph P. Riley, Jr., who needs no introduction;


17. John Thompson, whose name is so common that no reliable identification can be made here;


18. Ruth Baker, another activist in community affairs from Kiawah;


19. Nella Barkley, director of Crystal-Barkley and first general manager of Spoleto Festival USA;


20. Johanna Carrington-Martin, co-chairman previously identified here;


21. The Rev. Willis T. Goodwin, chairman of the Charleston Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance;


22. Alicia Gregory, identified as Secretary, also on the board of directors of the Children's Museum along with Robert Lurie, its president;


23. Paul Hines, Co-chair of the Blue Ribbon Education Committee that opposed the A-team in the last school board election;


24. Rita O'Neill, General Manager of Channel 5;


25. Theron Snype, Minority Business Enterprise Manager for the City of Charleston and CCSD school board candidate in 2004;


26. Elisabeth Oplinger, former principal at Memminger Elementary.

In 2005 CEN listed its address as Capers Hall, Room 330. In that year it received almost $93,000 in "public support," $65,ooo of which went for Butzon's salary as the only employee.

Considerable overlap exists between this group and the members of the Charleston Planning Project for Pubic Education (C3PE) that produced a year-long study of public education in Charleston County in 1998. That organization's work was described by the Charleston Business Journal as

"the Equity and Excellence Study funded by private donations generated through a volunteer committee, the Charleston Planning Project for Public Education. C3PE is an education planning group consisting of business leaders and educators who are dedicated to the overall improvement of Charleston County schools."

Is that study the blueprint for the Charleston Education Network?

Who calls the shots in this unwieldy committee of 26?

Who decides what policies to push?

Where does more than $92,000 in "public support" come from?

What are Butzon's qualifications for sitting in on CCSD meetings?

Why does CCSD list CEN under "parent" organizations?

Any and all answers will be appreciated!

The Mystery of CEN and Butzon's Power

"Who is Jon Butzon and what is the Charleston Education Network," recently posted in my comments section set me to digging. Here's what I've gleaned so far about this seemingly powerful organization.


First, Jon Butzon does not reside in Charleston but in Berkeley County. As Executive Director of the Charleston Education Network (CEN) he leads an organization that is part of PEN--the Public Education Network. LEF's (local education foundations) such as CEN funded by the Ford Foundation attempt to improve education in urban and impoverished school districts. South Carolina sports several others besides CEN--in Aiken, Greenville, and even North Charleston, where the Education Foundation affiliated with the Metro Chamber of Commerce can be found.

It's not clear whether CEN gets public funds or where it has an office, if any. Butzon uses an email address at the Citadel (cen@citadel.edu ), but no mention of his name or that of the organization appears on the Citadel website. CEN's so-called website remains "under construction" and contains a post office box.

However, the Charleston Education Network does appear on the CCSD website under "Parent" organizations, a categorization that seems a bit off. Its activities are touted there as

"promoting effective School Board functioning through state-of-the-art training in goverance; facilitating leadership and management development for senior district personnel; helping parents transfer children from chronically low-performing schools; working for legislation to reform school district governance; and providing data and analysis on educational performance to be a voice for improved student achievement."

How and when Jon Butzon became Director of CEN is unclear, as are his credentials for the position. Certainly one of the criteria must be to act as cheerleader for the district office and school board. However, according to PEN's website, the motivation for local education foundations like CEN is to change minds gently from within.


Two policies that CEN has lobbied successfully against include the "Put Parents in Charge" bill that did not pass and the powers of the district constituent school boards, which the state legislature gutted recently.


This spring CEN put forth seven goals for improving education in CCSD. According to the P & C article, "members of the advocacy group announced seven policies that they believe will improve the district:


--Staff the lowest-performing schools first.
--Ensure that teachers at below-average and unsatisfactory rated schools have at least three years of experience.
--Assign only experienced principals to those schools.
--Ensure every child without a profound disability is a proficient reader by the end of third grade.
--Fully adopt student-based funding as the budgeting mechanism.
--Identify ineffective employees. Improve their performance quickly or remove them.
--Improve the use of technology in delivering instruction.


"'There is nothing magic in these policies,' said Johanna Martin-Carrington, cochair of the Charleston Education Network board. 'They are all common sense and they all go to the heart of the school district's mission: teach every child successfully to high standards.'" Who could disagree!

Martin-Carrington, Director of Jenkins Orphanage in North Charleston, ran for CCSD school board in 2000, when she was endorsed by BACPAC, a political arm of the Metro Chamber of Commerce. It is unclear how and when she became co-chair of CEN and who else is on its "board."

Superintendent Nancy McGinley should get along just fine with CEN. The Philadelphia Education Fund that she headed for five years prior to coming to Charleston is also an affiliate of PEN and the same type of organization.


Perhaps some of you can shed more light on this non-transparent organization.