Eric Mahmoud
CEO and President of Seed Academy and Harvest Prep
Achievement Gap Committee, 11/13/2009
History: We started our K-1 in 192 and the whole idea was to add a grade every year. After our first year, there was an article in the Star Tribune and Prince read that article. His manager called us up and asked us to come to Paisley Park. He made a $200,000 contribution. That became the seed money to get our elementary school going. Long story short we have about 800 students and four programs in our building on Olson Memorial Highway. We have a preschool program, SEED Academy Elementary School, Harvest Prep and our new program, the BEST Academy, which stands for Boys in Engineering, Science and Technology.
Mission: The mission for our school is to instruct, empower, enable and guide African American children to achieve superior academic, social and moral development. The way these programs relate to each other. The acronym is WINNERS,
· W = we love our children
· I = Innovation and creativity. Einstein said imagination is more important than knowledge
· N = Non-negotiation for student success. We can’t dictate the type of children who walk through our doors. We can only dictate the support systems we put in place.
· N = No excuses.
· E = Effort reaps rewards (not innate ability)
· R = Resilience. No matter how many times you fall down, the most important this is the number of times you get back up.
· S = Social Responsibility.
Best Practices for Closing the Achievement Gap. This so called achievement gap is related to three types of gaps: a Belief Gap, Time Gap and Leadership Gap
· Belief Gap: Dr. Stevenson at University of Virginia wrote a book called the Learning Gap. He looked at Asian education and American education. He concluded that some of the worst schools in Asia are actually better than some of the best schools in America. He said the difference is based on how the school is organized and the beliefs and values of the two cultures. He surveyed Asian students and asked what is the most important ingredient, hard work or innate ability? Asian students said hard work. American students, and they said innate ability. In the American culture if you have it, you have it. If you don’t, you don’t. In the Asian culture, if you don’t have it, all you have to do is work for it and you will get it. For African American students in particular, that has a significant undermining effect if your belief system is centered on innate ability. That is the belief gap of many of our children. They can sit next to other children, other children will get the information and our children, because of the belief gap, it undermines their capability.
· Time Gap: When you are running a race and you are behind, the only way to catch up is to devote more time. Many of our children come to us behind. What we found is that a 6.5-hour school day is not long enough. We have an 8-hour school day. We started a year ago, 200 days per year vs. the typical 175 days. Our children need more time. We spend two hours in math, sometimes three, as opposed to one period. In reading, we spend 2.5 hours. We have 5th and 6th graders from other schools that don’t know addition and subtraction. You have to steal time and bend time to favor those students.
· Leadership Gap: From a leadership standpoint, it is moving the teachers and organization in the direction of success for the children. If we have to spend more time, we will do it. If we have to spend more resources, we will do it. That is the role of leadership: Great leader, great school; Poor leader, poor school. The leader determines how to use resources and what staff stays, what staff leaves. Jim Collins said in Good to Great, a leader has to decide what staff are on the bus, what staff has to get off the bus, what staff are in the right seats on the bus.
This whole idea of the achievement gap we can make a significant and positive difference if we focus on the belief gap, time gap and leadership gap.
Gap-closing schools
· Mission driven
· More academic time, good teaching and more of time
· Positive school culture where children feel safe.
· Teaching for mastery instead of to a test
· Families as partners, where they have shared responsibility.
One thing we are focused on is that we are aligned with both MN and federal standards.
Every other Friday, we stop school at 2 p.m. and we spend three hours for collaboration and staff development.
Q&A
Q: Are you an MPS Charter School?
A: We are chartered by the state. Minneapolis used to be our sponsor. Now we are sponsored by the Audubon Center
Q: Why the break?
A: We felt there was a closer alignment. We wanted more of an environmental focus.
Q: If leadership is the key, how do you clone yourself? Find other leaders?
A: It is looking at the principles behind what makes schools and leaders then duplicating those principals. The principles are hard work, looking outside the box in order to solve the problem, then being committed. And a real passion for the children.
Q: How do you draw students in?
A: Because we are public, it is first come, first served. We advertise. Because we have been in business for a couple of years, we are pretty well known in the community. We have a lot of referrals by other parents. We have a waiting list.
Q: How stable is your population?
A: Mobility is a huge issue for most school districts around the country. Our children are probably a little less mobile than most schools. One of the things that we do, since we have our own busing system, we don’t have to relegate our enrollment to Minneapolis. We have students from St. Paul, Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park. About 15-20 percent of our population would be considered mobile, those that started at the beginning that are not with us at the end of the year.
Q: Revenue?
A: We probably have about right around $10,000 per student. That would be all federal and state programs.
Q: What is the biggest success in recruiting is …
A: Making sure our parents are satisfied with the program. If that happens, parents will refer other parents. A lot is word of mouth, customer service, making sure we are communicating on a regular basis, and that we are fulfilling the promise we have given them.
Q: Do you do home visits?
A: Not on a regular basis. But we do have parent teacher nights where parents come out once a month. We found if we have the students being recognized or performing that night, it brings the parents out. Food also helps bring the parents out.
Q: What percentage is special ed?
A: About 15 percent in all programs.
Q: What is key?
A: When we first started out, I thought curriculum was the be all and end all. We tied a lot of our philosophy and our work with curriculum. As we become mature as an organization, it is really not about the curriculum, it is about having dedicated, competent, strong teachers. That is really the bottom line. When you know what the goals are, Minnesota and national standards, the curriculum doesn’t address all of the standards. At the lower grades, we have used a program called Direct Instruction, K-2nd grade. It gives our children a very good jumpstart, the phonemic awareness and phonics they need. It is weak in the area of comprehension. We had to add to it. We have become less curriculum dependent and more laser focused on the standards. We created a report card that directly aligns with the standards. Before, the teacher would grade students for the work they had done that quarter. I said we are going to scratch that. I want to know what are the benchmarks. You are going to take those benchmarks, divide them up into quarters, and determine what you are going to teach that quarter. Then, the same the state evaluates whether students met the benchmark, teachers will give that type of evaluation for the students that quarter.
Q: Why do families leave?
A: For various reasons. I have a phenomenal teacher, 3rd grade teacher, 96 percent of her kids were proficient in reading and math, lost about six or seven of 25. Half of those students moved out of the state. With the economic times, we are seeing a lot of mobility. As for teacher mobility, we had about 25 percent teacher turnover last year. One of the reasons was because Harvest Prep went from 175 days to 200 days. So teachers were honest, and I was honest with them. They couldn’t do the longer year. I am honest. This is what our kids need. You could be a great teacher. You may not be a great fit.
Q: Given the criteria for good to great teachers, can you evaluate how well our higher ed schools are doing on teacher preparation?
A: I think there is anecdotal evidence that the higher ed institutions have not done a good job, especially working in urban environments. In particular, some teachers are not ready to deal with some of the nonacademic issues they find in the classroom. They don’t have the sense of urgency that is necessary. I don’t want to make a blanket indictment. ... KIPP and Uncommon Schools program in New York, they have created their own teacher education program at Hunter’s College. …
Q: [Couldn’t hear question, something about data?]
A: We haven’t done a good job of actually tracking the data. As far as looking at the number of graduates, we have been tracking that. We started 8th grade about 2 years ago, prior to that we only went to 6th grade. I could track 6th grade graduates that graduated from high school, it exceeded 90 percent and 80 percent going to college. We don’t just want to get them in college, we want them graduating.
Q: Two questions:
· Does the state come to you and say, "Can we learn from you?"
· Second, my organization runs an after school program. Our kids have much better success than those who just go to school during the day. These programs are run by and for African American and American Indians. It raises questions about our integrated education. What is wrong with it that these kids aren’t able to succeed?
A: The biggest enemy to being great is being good. Sometimes when you are good, you rest on your laurels. I believe we are a good school, not a great school. We have a long ways to go. There are many, many models that the state can learn from. From a school perspective, city perspective, state perspective, it is a matter of will. When you have the will, you do whatever it takes. ….
Second part: My position is, I want our children in effective schools. I don’t care if they are all black or all white; the schools need to be effective. You can find effective integrated programs. Just going to an all African American school does not make a school successful. What makes it successful is the leadership, and the unit of change is between the teacher and the student. [Integration] may have a social outcome, but it doesn’t have any educational value.
Q: How do you recruit teachers?
A: Anywhere and everywhere. We have had national recruitment efforts and local. We find out from students who have come from other schools, who was a great teacher in their school and we go try to pirate them. We have had about 10 teachers from Teach from America, which has been a great asset to our program. At one time, especially when we were a private school, I didn’t think white teachers could teach our children well. Over the years I have found we can have effective African American teachers and white teachers. The real question is, "Do they have a sense of urgency?" The percentage is about 55 percent African American, and the rest other.
Q: [Didn’t hear question]
A: There are some incredible programs going on in MN and around the country. I asked my staff, how many of you have actually seen a successful teacher or school? How many of you have read about a successful teacher or school? The reason I asked, because you can’t know success unless you have seen it. You don’t know how it feels or what it sounds like. You don’t even know if it is possible or not. One of the things I do I go around the country all the time, looking for models of success so I know what it sounds and feels like. These policy makers need to go to successful schools to see what is possible. Hopefully, then there is a higher sense of urgency.
The distance runner Roger Banister was first guy to break the 4-minute mile. Then a whole bunch of other people did. He showed what was possible. Once you see other people breaking that barrier of achievement, you know what is possible.
Q: What about parents?
A: We haven’t put as much emphasis on parents as we probably could. We only have some much energy, and control over parents. If you have limited time and resources, what do you control? I control time and budget and teachers. That is where I put a lot of time in. We invite parents to participate and encourage them. We talk about their role in the education process. I know there are other programs that do a lot more with parents. I am not the expert on engaging parents. … We don’t have the resources to go out and do a better job.
Q: Two questions:
· Teacher salary?
· Do you see a difference in the kids who come up through your SEED Academy and those who come from outside?
A: Preschool question: Our preschool aligns with our elementary program. There is a significant difference in the performance. They can take an 8-hour school day. The academic difference, behavior and other indicators, they are prepared.
Compensation: We align pretty much with MPS. We just received this Q-comp, the short answer to that, we are going with an “eat what you kill” compensation system. If you don’t perform, you don’t get paid. You don’t get an additional salary increase. You get a base salary. Then you get a 3 percent increase if you hit your growth score. It’s all within the control of the teacher. We use the NWEA assessment. There is a growth score. If I had a 6th grader reading at the 1st grad level, there is a growth score. You might not get them to 6th grade, but you get them to 3rd or 4th grade. If you hit that score, you get compensated. Then teachers are formally evaluated three times a year. It’s a five-point system. They have to get three out of five from two out of three evaluators. If they do that, they get another 3 percent.
Q: How do you evaluate teachers?
A: A rubric. It goes from 1-5. An example, all teachers, when they start a lesson, they have to have the objective on the board and state the objective. We will evaluate them on their objective. That is one component. We have ten components of teaching. The objective, modeling, did they give children independent practice? The rubric says this is no good and this is great. … They know what we are expecting.
Q: Who does the teacher evaluation?
A: Three administrators in the building. Two principals and an assistant principal do the evaluations.
Q How do you fund your Pre-K?
A: About 80 percent of our kids are on Title XX, the rest are parent pay.
Q: Given superintendent powers, what are the first 4 things you would change in MPS?
A:
· I would change teacher compensation for great teachers.
· I would change the length of the school day and school year.
· Incentives for great schools.
· If there was some way possible that we could supplement the cost for transportation. If the children don’t get to school, they can’t get educated.
Q: Harlem Children’s Zone?
A Geoffrey Canada is light years ahead of where we are. It started with wrap-around programs. In 2004 he started a school. The similarity is in spirit, the sense of urgency, and the same commitment to the children. …
Q: [Follow-up question, couldn’t hear]
A: As phenomenal job that Geoffrey Canada does, there are schools all around the country that don’t have the same wrap around services that are doing as well if not better. In Harlem, I visited the Excellence Charter School for Boys, one of the best schools I have ever been in. 100 percent African American boys, 100 percent proficient in 3rd, 4th and 5th grade reading and math. They have an incredible program and all they have is a school. It can be done.
Q: Talk about building character?
A: The social and moral development are a very important aspect of our program. I tell people that the Unibomber had three PhDs. Being smart is important but not sufficient. We want smart children who make a contribution to our community. We have a community meeting every day for our middle school, 30 minutes a day. It gives us an opportunity to inculcate values and character. When we talk about superior moral development, what does that mean?
Q: Girls program?
A: Sister Academy … When we developed this boys-focused program, BEST Academy, the parents and some of the teachers said, “What about our girls?” We created a parallel program called SISTER Academy. It stands for Sisters in Science, Technology, Engineering, Rx (Medicine). It has a technical focus at the middle school. It is a program under Harvest Prep.
Q: Creativity, how that plays out?
A: We are pretty rigid about [reading and math]. We also have a music program and an art program. Even with my engineering background, I think the great engineers are exercising both sides of their brain. Our arts and music program helps them. We are rigid in some areas. This gives them an opportunity to create.
