Ogden » Brightly colored bar graphs line the hallway at Odyssey Elementary, charting students’ progress in reading, math and attendance. In most grades and subjects, the bars stop far short of a blue line marking the goal.
"When you’re at 15- or 20-percent proficiency, that’s not an easy thing to publicly own," said Ogden Superintendent Brad Smith. "On the other hand, it’s important and it’s imperative. … If you don’t acknowledge where you’re at, there’s no way to know where you’re going."
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About Brad Smith
Age » 45.
Family » He and his wife, Debbie, have three children.
Education » Smith, a self-described “product of Utah public schools,” graduated from Cottonwood High and earned his bachelor’s and law degrees from the University of Utah.
Career » An attorney, Smith has worked as a Brigham City prosecutor and started the Ogden law firm Stevenson and Smith in 1997. He joined the Ogden school board in 2007 and was named superintendent in August 2011.
Salary » $120,000 a year, plus up to an additional $30,000 if he meets goals set with the board.
Fun fact » Smith loves to cook and has helped Scouts cook a dutch-oven lobster dinner at camp. At home, he and his family enjoy making sushi, Chinese food and Italian dishes.
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For Smith, who has never been an educator, the only option for Ogden schools is up.
In his first five months as superintendent, Smith announced bold goals for Ogden — one of only two districts in Utah facing federal sanctions for failing to meet student achievement goals district-wide.
He came to the job at a tenuous time. In August, former Superintendent Noel Zabriskie abruptly resigned due to a family crisis. Teachers were still smarting from a summer standoff with the school board that left them without a negotiated contract.
The board looked no further than its own membership in quickly choosing Smith — an attorney with no teaching experience. Smith, who did not vote on his selection, resigned from his board position.
"There will always be people looking at the superintendent and saying, ‘You’re a non-educator.’ For those who can overcome that, there are great things that can be learned from his experience," said Ogden Board President Don Belnap. "He is just taking the baton, and he is running as fast as he can to make things better in the Ogden School District."
Smith, with the help of district and school administrators, has rolled out a list of "guarantees" or promises of what the Ogden district will deliver to students, parents and taxpayers "come hell or high water," he said in an interview.
Starting this year, Ogden will score above the state average on standard exams known as CRTs. And in two years, it will be the highest performer on the Wasatch Front, Smith pledged. That means in just one year, Ogden has to move from 52 percent of students scoring proficient in math, language arts and science, to 74 percent. To have the highest scores on the Wasatch Front, Ogden will need to gain another 11 percentage points, Smith said.
"Wow. That’s a very rigorous goal," said John Jesse, director of assessment and accountability at the State Office of Education. "At a district, to see a 20 percent change, something significantly different has to happen. You can’t fake it."
Smith also plans to boost the district’s lackluster graduation rate — 63 percent in 2011 — to above 90 percent in 2013. And he wants 95 percent of kindergarten through third-grade students reading on grade level by May 2013. In 2011, 54 percent of Ogden’s third-graders were reading on grade level at the end of the year. He also hopes to stop the annual net loss of 1,200 students who choose to attend schools outside Ogden district.
Ogden’s poor performance, at least in part, has been seen as a sign of the district’s challenging demographics. It has the highest poverty rate among Utah school districts, with 74 percent of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. More than a quarter of its 12,652 students are English language learners.
Smith plans to accomplish his goals without boosting the district’s budget, which includes $6.9 million in federal grants to be spent over three years for five low-performing schools that face sanctions under No Child Left Behind. But he insists there will be no excuses if Ogden falls short.
"We will not use poverty, race, funding, morale or prior history to excuse things within our control," his list of guarantees noted. "We know that history is not destiny."
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Reaching out to teachers » To craft the comeback he wants, Smith needs teacher buy-in. In fact, when asked how he will get the dramatic gains, his first answer is to change district culture so everyone feels accountable for student achievement. That includes publicly sharing test scores by teachers, which is already happening at Odyssey and Dee elementaries. Odyssey shares classroom data at community council meetings and will begin adding it to the hallway charts in the next few months.
"I think it is great," said Cara Nielsen, a fifth-grade teacher at Odyssey, of posting such data. But she believes it’s there to motivate students more than teachers. "Here at Odyssey, we’re pretty motivated to do the best we can with the students we teach," she said. "We’re trying to do more and more to have these kids take ownership of their work and their scores so it’s no longer a secret in a binder. Parents can see it, too."
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