Educators laud teaching program

GLENDALE — A group of East Coast educators visited John Muir Elementary School on Thursday to gauge the academic environment at the school, where instructors began implementing new teaching strategies four years ago.

Principals from Pennsylvania and Massachusetts were among the foreign administrators who looked over students’ shoulders as they worked on writing assignments, which were representative of the school’s academic focus.

Muir has emphasized writing since adopting strategies developed by the Huntington Beach-based company Focus on Results, Principal Amaly Avakian said.

The company’s techniques stress teacher collaboration to target student needs, she said.

The Glendale Unified School District has implemented Focus on Results teaching strategies since 2002, although the system has been criticized by some teachers as being costly, ineffective and centered solely around test scores.

The visitors at Muir said the school’s progress under the program was obvious.

“It’s amazing,” said Barbara Rudiak, an assistant principal at Pittsburgh Public Schools, referring to Muir’s schoolwide focus on writing.

Rudiak’s school district is in its first year of training teachers to work together to cater to the needs of individual students, even those at the bottom of the class, a goal that can easily get lost in the daily routine of teaching, the visitors said.

But seeing Muir’s results after years of implementing the framework was illuminating, Rudiak said.

“You have to see it to validate what it is that you’re doing,” she said.

But while administrators nationwide have bought in to the Focus on Results framework, Glendale Unified teachers have not, said Alicia Harris, a member of the Glendale Teachers Assn. executive board.

“I’ve never communicated with a person who has found this to be valuable,” Harris said of her discussions with members of the teachers’ union, which represents about 1,330 instructors.

In a survey of 507 members, 81% “felt that this program was not an effective use of money or time,” union President Allen Freemon said.

Teachers feel that their time is wasted on meetings that involve activities like collaborating to make and analyze multiple-choice tests, Harris said.

Also, the program’s major emphasis is on improving students’ test results, she explained.