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More oversight needed of school consultants, experts say
[April 12, 2012]

More oversight needed of school consultants, experts say


Apr 12, 2012 (Detroit Free Press - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- When 28 Michigan schools received millions of dollars to spur student improvement, they turned to outside experts for help.

That has sparked criticism from those who say too much of the national School Improvement Grant (SIG) money -- Michigan's schools got $83 million in 2010 -- is ending up in the hands of consultants with little work being done to ensure they are effective.



A Government Accountability Office report issued Wednesday urges the U.S. Department of Education to provide more oversight of the performance of the providers.

Schools need the outside expertise, but states need to keep track of their effectiveness, said Rick Hess, director of education policy study at the American Enterprise Institute.


"What you've got is lots of folks posing as experts happily scarfing up these federal dollars," Hess said.

The Michigan Department of Education (MDE) requires each of its SIG schools to hire an external provider, and schools are budgeting an estimated 50% of their grant funds on those providers. The average grant amount per school was $2.95 million.

"Having schools work with an external provider that met their needs was one way to ensure that schools received high-quality professional learning," said Mark Coscarella, assistant director of the Office of Education Improvement and Innovation at the MDE.

The outside companies provide a range of services, including coaching, professional development and data analysis.

"The fact is, schools and districts need outside support," said William Guenther, president of Mass Insight Education, a nonprofit focused on school improvement efforts. "The question is, 'How do we do that well and how do we do that with accountability?' " The state provided grant recipients with an approved list of 68 vendors to contract with -- a mixture of nonprofits, for-profits and government entities. Most schools chose nonprofits or government entities, such as intermediate school districts or universities, according to a Center on Education Policy (CEP) report issued in March.

Coscarella said the schools are tasked with monitoring the effectiveness of the providers.

Although most schools have been satisfied with their providers, problems have cropped up.

For instance, the CEP report described a "troubled" relationship that led Phoenix Elementary-Middle School in Detroit Public Schools to change providers. The report didn't provide specifics.

Another report, completed by WestEd, a San Francisco-based education research and development agency, found leaders in five of the 28 schools were dissatisfied with their providers.

"Respondents reported their external providers were ineffective, offered no support, lacked communication and had not met the schools' expectations," according to the report, which focused on the first year of implementation of the grant in Michigan.

Adrian Public Schools Superintendent Chris Timmis said the first company chosen to assist Adrian High School didn't have an aggressive enough plan, and it would take five to seven years to achieve the gains needed in three.

Robert Floden, co-director of the Education Policy Center at Michigan State University, said there is both merit and pitfalls in requiring schools work with outside companies. "The providers who are best at selling their product are likely to get the most customers," he said.

But that doesn't always mean they're the best at providing for the schools, Floden said.

___ (c)2012 the Detroit Free Press Visit the Detroit Free Press at www.freep.com Distributed by MCT Information Services

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