District/School Administration Administration
The Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education

Randolph Public Schools - Turnaround Plan

Background

At the May 2008 Board meeting, members received an update from the state-appointed District Support Team assigned to work with leaders of the Randolph Public Schools, the Randolph School Committee and the Randolph Board of Selectmen in developing a plan to address the causes of district underperformance. In this progress report, we were informed that Randolph officials were on track to present their Turnaround Plan for review and discussion at the June Board meeting.

Update

On June 11, 2008, I convened a meeting with Randolph leaders and selected Department staff members to discuss critical questions that will affect the recommendations I must make to the Board regarding approval of the Randolph Turnaround Plan. Among other issues, I was particularly interested in understanding:

• How confident Randolph's leaders are that the improvement initiatives they have targeted in the Turnaround Plan are the right ones
• The willingness of all stakeholders to collaborate in meaningful ways to support purposeful implementation of the improvement initiatives set out in the Plan
• The level of commitment among these leaders to address and resolve existing barriers that have inhibited community support for education in the past, and
• The likelihood that the community will maintain the desire and capacity to sustain the necessary support over time.

At the end of this memo is a list identifying attendees at this meeting.

I appreciated the opportunity to engage in this discussion with Randolph leaders and Department staff. It was a long meeting at the end of a long day, but the discussion was substantive and important.

The Randolph Public Schools Turnaround Plan has been developed through a collaborative effort directed by a local team that included representatives from the School Committee, the Board of Selectmen, parents, the local teachers' association, and a range of school and district administrators. The Turnaround Plan articulates the district team's identification of key challenges and their analysis of the root causes that have contributed to low student performance. The Plan is focused on three priority goals:

1. Develop, implement and support standards-based curricula and instruction in all content areas, with particular attention to teaching and learning in mathematics.
2. Improve performance for all special education students.
3. Raise the community's confidence and trust in the quality of education provided to all students through the deliberate design and implementation of opportunities that will create new conditions for positive collaboration.

  Enclosure:

Addendum:
June 11, 2008 Commissioner's meeting with Randolph officials - List of Attendees

Mitchell D. Chester, Commissioner
Jeffrey Nellhaus, Deputy Commissioner
Rhoda E. Schneider, General Counsel
Juliane Dow, Senior Associate Commissioner
Lynda Foisy, Associate Commissioner

Richard Silverman, Randolph Superintendent of Schools
Larry Azar, Chair of Randolph School Committee
Paul Connors, Chair of Randolph Board of Selectmen
Tamara Pitts, Member of Randolph School Committee
James Burgess, Member of Randolph Board of Selectmen
Karen Manning, President, Randolph Education Association
David Murphy, Executive Secretary to the Randolph Board of Selectmen