Linthacum explains JCPS superintendent evaluation goals

At Monday’s Jefferson City School Board meeting, Superintendent Larry Linthacum announced the three overarching goals on which he will be evaluated.

The board picked two, and Linthacum picked one: effective instructional programs, leading personnel, and responding to community interests and needs. Throughout the year, Linthacum essentially will build a portfolio demonstrating his achievement of these goals. He meets with the board in closed session for a quarterly evaluation and an annual evaluation in December.

The goals mirror Linthacum’s three priorities for the school district: learning, partnership and stewardship. The new evaluation was drafted as a “model evaluation” by the Missouri School Board Association, which features a lengthy list of potential goals, said board President John Ruth.

Instead of trying to evaluate Linthacum in-depth on dozens of goals, the board decided to pick three as focal points.

“It doesn’t mean he won’t be critiqued in other areas,” Ruth said. “He will. These are the big ones. They may be the same next year; they may be different. This model allows us to pivot what we want to focus on.”

At the December evaluation, the board will rate Linthacum individually then discuss it collectively. Before, the board used a one-through-five number system; but with the new evaluation, Linthacum’s goal is to reach the “mastery” level, meaning he could teach his practices to other superintendents.

During an interview with the News Tribune, Linthacum and Ruth explained what these goals mean and how the board intends to evaluate him.

Effective instructional programs

The bottom line is the district needs to ensure students are learning, Linthacum said.

To determine whether students are learning, Linthacum said, he uses the same process he has for several years. He asks where are students at, where do we want them to be and what’s the plan to get there.

Jefferson City Public Schools is in the process of revamping its curriculum, assessments and leadership practices through its partnership with the International Center for Leadership in Education. The aim is to have rigorous learning in every classroom, in every building — thus increasing test scores.

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education sets state standards, outlining what students need to learn at each grade level in every required subject. The full list of Missouri Learning Standards is a hefty book with hundreds of standards students are expected to learn.

Through the district’s partnership with ICLE, school officials are coming up with priority standards to teach in depth and encompass other standards.

“There’s too many standards to teach them at a high level,” Linthacum said. “You’d have to go an inch deep and a mile wide. They’ve helped us identify priority standards at a deep level you can truly understand.”

ICLE is helping JCPS come up with districtwide assessments, which will allow the district to predict how students will perform on the Missouri Assessment Program or end-of-course exams. The MAP tests are worth the most points on the Annual Performance Report, which every public district in the state is scored on.

“(The partnership) was Larry coming to us saying we need more support for our curriculum and what it’s measured on and making sure we have programs in place to spot check how we’re doing,” Ruth said.

Ruth said the best way to evaluate Linthacum on this goal is the district’s APR score in August. The APR is comprised of five categories: academic achievement, subgroup achievement, attendance, college and career readiness, and graduation rates.

To be fully accredited, districts have to earn a 70 percent or above. JCPS received a 70.7 percent for the 2014-15 school year.

Improvement in the district’s score is the easiest metric to look at for this goal, Ruth said.

“As that data comes in, we’ll be able to see if we’re meeting state standards, as we have not done a good job of realigning our methods with the state’s methods,” he said. “The district has always been in the top quartile, better than that even. But when the data points changed, I don’t think we were very quick to change with that.”

Creating common benchmark assessments should help the district determine how well students are understanding material that will appear on the test and change its teaching approach if need be.

“The one thing that kills me about APR is: can you imagine playing a football game and you don’t know what the score is until several months after it’s finished?” Ruth said. “That’s extremely frustrating. … Kids are graduating. We hear about kids going on to fantastic colleges or careers, but we don’t have the ability to see whether we’re meeting the state standards (until the next school year). At the end of the day, we’re accountable for those standards. It’s a big component of how our success is measured.”

Leading personnel

Linthacum describes his leadership style as one with openness where he tries to connect with staff, students, parents and the community.

He has said previously, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care,” which is what he tries to embody by being present in the schools and community on a regular basis.

Whenever the problem within the district arises, he tries to gather the facts of every side, see if there’s a precedent or a policy set on how to respond, and make a decision he can defend, he said.

“And you try to have empathy,” he added. “I think that’s important. You try to put yourself in their shoes and understand why they feel the way they feel. I have four kids. I try to put myself in parents’ shoes and be a good listener. Instead of focusing on getting your point across to them, I try to focus on where they’re coming from.”

Being consistent, fair, honest and direct and owning up to mistakes are also important components to being a good leader, he said.

“It’s a personal goal to create a culture in which all folks — students, staff, parents and community members — are motivated to be difference-makers in the lives of all our kids,” he said. “When we do that, guess what — not only are kids going to graduate, but we’ll have kids reading at or above grade reading level. We’re going to have more Bright Flight scholars than other schools, our graduation rates are going to go up and our APR is going to go up.”

Assessing Linthacum’s progress on this goal will be a little tricky because it’s not something the board can quantify.

Ruth said he would like to see Linthacum respond to any district issues and have frequent, honest conversations with staff to ensure he has the right team.

The board will be able to evaluate Linthacum, in part, based on which staff members he wants to retain, promote or hire and his argument as to why.

“It’s his team. He’s coming to us with recommendations, and we’re challenging him to make sure he’s thought it through,” Ruth said. “That one is going to be more objective, though.”

Responding to community interests and needs

All school districts are supported through tax dollars, so Linthacum said it’s vital he listen to community interests and input. When people pay taxes, they have a vested interest in the school district. People want to feel they’re getting the best “bang for their buck,” he said.

He meets with community members for a cup of coffee if they have concerns and tries to be empathetic and understand where they’re coming from.

The district recently experienced some backlash from community members after the board opted not to live-stream its meetings, which some patrons had lobbied for. Linthacum said responding to the community’s interests can be difficult and unpopular at times.

“You weigh the pros and cons, and at the end of the day, you have to look at yourself in the mirror and say you did your best,” Linthacum said. “I feel like I need to look any patron, any parent in the eye and defend our decisions. And we may disagree, but I’m willing to hear their side and understand where they’re coming from because we all have a lens we look through.”

Aside from face-to-face interactions, the district also has a strong social media presence on Facebook and Twitter. Daily happenings at the schools are posted online so the community and parents can see what students are learning and working on.

One social media Snapshot caught fire the day after bus No. 28 was hit by errant gunfire traveling from East Elementary School with 21 students aboard. Linthacum was pictured high-fiving the students, and he rode the bus home with them the day after the shooting.

He said he has received an outpouring of support from the public about those photos. He could tell the students were scared, and he wanted to show them it was safe to ride the bus — if he wasn’t willing to ride the bus, he said, he would never allow the students to.

Ruth said he also heard several people comment on Linthacum’s actions, which exemplify the superintendent’s commitment to the community and student interests.

“I think Larry has exceeded all of my expectations in that area in particular,” Ruth said. “He excels at creating relationships; he excels at getting on people’s level and making sure they’re cared about and their opinions are valued. That doesn’t mean we have to agree on every detail, but it lets folks know we care about you. We’re in this together. He caught me totally off guard with what he did with that school bus. I thought that was such a small but such a real thing. That’s Larry Linthacum. That embodies what we’re looking for.”