SUBSCRIPT: How does CPS know a 'Quality Seat' from a 'High Quality Seat'?
[Substance Editor's Note: The following article was posted at Huffinton Post as "Need "Quality Seats" for a Big Event? Call CPS" on November 18, 2011. We are sharing it here with the permission of Matt Farmer.]
Since the Chicago Board of Education voted to make his its "Chief Portfolio Officer" (without defining what that meant) at its August 2011 Board meeting, Oliver Sicat (above, during the November 16, 2011 meeting) has been doing a Power Point just about every month, presenting the "Portfolio Mission" to "create quality seats." None of the Board members has yet asked Sicat to explain why his Power Points are using such Orwellian verbiage or how he suddenly qualified for his $162,000 per year executive job at CPS despite the fact that he had never taught in a real Chicago public school classroom. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.If you've spent any time at all listening to CPS officials during the past few months, you've probably heard plenty of talk about the need for "quality seats" in Chicago's public schools. But you probably haven't heard CPS CEO Jean-Claude Brizard explain just what a "quality seat" — or its upscale cousin, the "high-quality seat" — is. Sure, it's an aspirational, feel-good phrase, and it's something Brizard says he wants for all our kids, but until our highly-paid metrics maven defines that term by tying it to his much-loved testing data, we'll never know which schools, in his view, have "quality seats" and which schools don't. It's all about accountability, right?
Andrea Zopp seems like the best person to get to the bottom of this issue. She's one of Mayor Emanuel's hand-picked Board of Education members, and in her past life she was a top-notch prosecutor and a skilled questioner. As a prosecutor, Zopp never would have let a witness get away with the continued use of a vague term like "quality seats" — particularly when that term figures into real-life issues, such as CPS's upcoming school closings.
Chicago Board of Education member Andrea Zopp (above, during the presentation on 'Quality Seats' and the Portfolio at the November 16, 2011 meeting of the Board) continued to ask puffball questions. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.And while Zopp is certainly capable of shining some light on this issue with just two minutes of straight-forward questioning, I'll wear an Arne Duncan T-shirt to work for an entire week if I hear anything resembling the following (fictional) exchange at the next Board of Ed meeting.
Andrea Zopp: You've used the term "quality seat" repeatedly today. What do you mean by that term?
J.C. Brizard: Thank you for your excellent question. A "quality seat" is a seat in a school that is delivering a world-class education for our children.
AZ: You spoke at the November board meeting about starting to look for a CPS school for your own son, correct?
JCB: I did.
AZ: And you and your wife will obviously do your best to make sure he's in a "quality seat," right?
JCB: All kids should have that opportunity.
AZ: Let's stick with my question. You and your wife will do your best to make sure that he's in a "quality seat," right?
JCB: Yes.
The Board's "Portfolio Office" Power Point (above) has presented the notion that Chicago's public schools, unique in the USA, has more than 123,000 "students in underperforming seats" (above, during the November 16 Board meeting). No member of the Board has asked any serious questions about the Orwellian locutions of the Brizard administration since it voted to appoint Oliver Sicat "Chief Portfolio Officer" and pay him $162,000 per year at its August 2011 meeting. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.AZ: And because all kids should have an opportunity to be in one of those "quality seats," you, as the head of CPS, are going to have to identify those seats for parents throughout the city, right?
JCB: Yes.
Chicago Public Schools officials are planning to close dozens of schools, privatize many of them, and fire hundreds of teachers again this year based on the version of reality provided by the CPS "Portfolio Officer," Oliver Sicat. Above, the "Portfolio Mission" presented to the Chicago Board of Education at its November 16, 2011, two weeks before the annual Hit List is due to be released, states that students are to have access to "Quality Seats" as the Portfolio Office pursues its "Optimal State" mission. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.AZ: And you'd agree that if you can't or won't actually identify those "quality seats," there's really no point in your using that term, correct?
JCB: I suppose that's true.
AZ: Now, you recently told us that 123,000 CPS students are in "under-performing seats," correct?
JCB: I did.
AZ: And CPS has roughly 400,000 students, true?
JCB: That's about right.
AZ: So, are the remaining 277,000 CPS students sitting in what you call "quality seats"?
JCB: Well, I'm hesitant to go that far.
AZ: Well, have you and your consultants from The Parthenon Group identified which schools have the so-called "quality seats" and which don't?
JCB: We're in the process of evaluating the portfolio.
AZ: So the answer to my question is "no," correct?
JCB: Correct.
Chicago Public Schools Chief Executive Officer Jean Claude Brizard, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and Perez Elementary Schools Principal Vicky Kleros staged a media event at Perez on November 14, 2011, to unveil the new data maps attacking the majority of Chicago's public schools as "failing" or mediocre, according to the latest Brizard metrics. During the press conference that followed a staged event with parents, Substance asked Kleros whether Perez had a librarian for the library which the mayor had used to stage his publicity stunt. Kleros's answer, after a moment's hesitation, was "No." Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.AZ: Let's try it this way. You and the mayor recently visited Perez Elementary School in Pilsen, right?
JCB: Yes.
AZ: You and your CPS team gave that school a "Level 1" grade — the highest of the three levels you could assign to a CPS school, right?
JCB: Yes.
AZ: But the majority of kids who attend that school aren't even reading at grade level, correct?
JCB: Correct.
AZ: Same is true for their performance in math, right?
JCB: Right.
AZ: You wouldn't send your son to a school like that, would you, Mr. Brizard?
JCB: Well, my son is still several years away from . . .
AZ: Because even with a "Level 1" classification, those seats at Perez aren't what you and your well-educated wife would call "quality seats," when you're discussing public schools in the privacy of your own home, correct?
JCB: As I said, CPS is evaluating its portfolio, and we're talking to our Human Capital Managers.
AZ: Human Capital Managers?
JCB: Our principals.
AZ: I see. Some of the information that you'll use to determine which schools have "quality seats" can be found in the new school report cards that CPS just made available online, right?
JCB: Yes.
AZ: But you didn't get around to posting report cards for Chicago's charter schools, which educate over 40,000 kids in this city, correct?
JCB: No, we didn't do that.
AZ: Let me switch gears for a minute. You're about to announce a whole bunch of school closings, right?
JCB: We prefer to call them "school actions" — but, yes, we'll be announcing them in a couple of weeks.
AZ: And when you shut down those schools, you're going to tell the parents of the kids whose schools you're closing that you're moving their kids to better schools, correct?
JCB: Yes.
AZ: Will you be moving them to "quality seats"?
JCB: We will be moving them to "better performing schools."
AZ: But not "quality seats," as you've been using that term, correct?
JCB: Again, we are reviewing the portfolio at a granular level and . . .
AZ: You're certainly not going to be moving those kids to the type of seat that you'd consider for your son, right?
JCB: My son is still several years away from . . .
AZ: And to sweeten the pot for the kids whose schools you'll be closing, you said you might be making additional investments in the schools that you're going to move them to, correct?
JCB: Yes.
AZ: And according to the draft guidelines you released on October 31 -- and I quote -- "those investments could include: school safety analysis; social emotional supports; academic program investments; art and music programming; afterschool programming; professional development; additional administrative positions; school based health clinics; capital improvements." Did I read that correctly?
JCB: Yes.
AZ: You said "those investments could include" — so there's no guarantee that you'll actually do any of those things, right?
JCB: We are presently evaluating the portfolio.
AZ: Did you ever consider making "academic program investments" or "capital improvements" or adding "art and music programming" or "afterschool programming" to the schools you're now talking about shutting down?
While one of UNO's rent a protest organizers looks on, CPS Chief Portfolio Officer Oliver Sicat (left) and Chief Executive Officer Jean-Claude Brizard (right) present the concept of "underperforming seats" and "quality seats" to a supine Board of Education during the Board's November 16, 2011 meeting. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.JCB: That's something I'd need to discuss with the mayor and Juan Rangel.
Mark my words — if there's ever an exchange like that at a monthly Board of Education meeting, Chicago public school parents will start referring to spots in the audience at those Wednesday morning dog-and-pony shows as "quality seats."
Until that time, however, stayed tuned for continued "consultant-speak" and contentious school closings.
