KMAC Draws Mixed Reviews from KISD Teachers 

(Article previously posted on "Radio Free Katy"--the official on-line publication of the Katy Citizen Watchdog$)

By: Mike Green, Staff,  The Katy Sun

05/26/2004

Mention "KMAC" to any Katy ISD teacher and you're likely to receive an earful.

The Katy Management Automated Curriculum-or KMAC, to those who know it -is a district wide newly developed internal computer network that houses a standardized curriculum database and specific objectives to help teachers conform to a more standard process of teaching students across grade levels. It's a mouthful - and also a source of controversy throughout Katy ISD.

Some teachers are happy to toss the cumbersome binders that failed to keep up with evolving curriculum and interim changes, for the always up-to-date computer system that offers a library of curriculum objectives that teachers can incorporate into their lesson plans.

But other teachers perceive the new system as a new method of micro-managing classrooms and placing undue pressure on teachers to follow precise new guidelines and teaching methods as designed by "curriculum specialists." Whether a teacher is for or against the new system, it is the hottest topic among Katy ISD educators and administrators.

Ronnie Mosher is a third grade teacher with five years experience who thinks KMAC is "absolutely wonderful." He believes the standardized curriculum helps to alleviate problems that transitional families within the district may experience when moving students from one school to another during the year.

"Without KMAC, if a student moves to my school and hasn't yet learned fractions and I've already taught fractions, they miss it," Mosher said. "But with KMAC having standardized curriculum, the students in all of the schools are on the same page at the same time. It has helped my teaching and helps students with different learning styles. The strategies also help a lot when you're lesson-building."

Controversy looms over the lesson plan issue. While opponents of KMAC readily admit there are advantages to the system, which offers teachers an opportunity to give and receive direct feedback with curriculum specialists, time is the major factor KMAC opponents say is a stumbling block. Carrie Lowery, Texas State Teachers Association incoming president for the Katy area, addressed the Katy ISD Board of Trustees last Monday with the theme, "Teachers need time to teach." Lowery is adamant regarding the time it takes to input the information necessary to use KMAC.

"I input my lessons on KMAC in several ways," Lowery said in an interview with the Sun. "I first print the objectives and resources for each of my courses, and use that as my starting point. I spend planning time at school with other teachers on my grade level. Then I must spend time after school, and unfortunately lots of time at home on my personal computer away from my family inputting those lessons."

Lowery's complaints over the time necessary to input weekly lesson plans into the system dovetail with the issue over low teacher morale, which some say has precipitated due to the number of teachers leaving and retiring in the district this year due to a major issue with pension plans. The Texas legislature's slow progress in adequately funding school districts across the state has exacerbated the problem in Katy, with classroom sizes expected to balloon due to losses of teachers who cannot be replaced until the district solves its budget problems.

Jan Adam is the current president of TSTA-Katy. Her fear over not having enough time to make KMAC inputs is elevated, considering the additional problems facing the district. Adam suggested the district would have a hiring freeze due to budget difficulties. As a teacher in the language arts, Adam said the number of students she teaches has risen from 132 to 150, and she expects the rise to continue next year.

"I can't teach students to write unless they write," Adam said. If I spend five minutes grading a paper, that's five times 150. It's frightful to think of what classroom sizes will be next year," Adam said.

Then there's the time allotted to KMAC.

Deputy Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Elizabeth Clark fervently believes the system will enable Katy ISD to advance its ability to bring state-mandated standardized instruction to students in a more efficient and effective manner. She understands there are growing pains associated with the implementation of the new system and believes as teachers become more proficient with the functions of KMAC, the more effective they will become and more appreciative of the system.

Junior high science teacher Tracy Reap agrees with Clark.

"I love it," Reap said. "It's one of the greatest programs we have. I teach all different levels of science and it's nice to have all of that information at my fingertips in one place. I can look up objectives and resources that are teacher-proven without having to hunt for information."

In the early stages of developing an online computerized curriculum for the district, "Abacus" became the initial forerunner to KMAC, but despite its functionality, was not user-friendly. After a trial and error period, KMAC was developed with three essential ingredients, curriculum, use/functionality, and feedback.

"KMAC is a convenient house for over 500 curriculum documents," Clark said. We have nine specialists to communicate with nearly 3,000 teachers throughout the district. We developed the curriculum using expert teachers. In my 34 years in education, never have I heard people talk about curriculum as we do in Katy ISD."

Feedback is the single best component of the system over which there is no controversy. Teachers help the system evolve by providing feedback in two main areas, technical (functionality) and curriculum. With over 30,000 objectives available in the system, questions over the use of objectives in lesson plans are numerous.

Linda Helbach receives feedback from teachers who make suggestions regarding changes needed in the curriculum, while Lenny Schad fields feedback in the technical aspects of utilizing the system.

"Since January, we've had over 800 feedbacks from teachers just in curriculum," Helbach said. "We've responded to each within a one-to-two-week window. That would be virtually impossible without an automated system."

While KMAC offers teachers an opportunity to conform to statewide standards of curriculum, a library of easily accessible objectives and resources, and the ability to enhance the information in the system, with the more experienced teachers sharing plans with other teachers within an internal network of information that transcends grade levels and works both vertically and horizontally throughout the system, there still remains strong opposition that believes KMAC costs too much, takes away too much teaching time and imposes a built-in pressure to conform, that adds to the stress levels of teachers already over-burdened.

"The total cost for KMAC is $936,342," Steve Stanford, a district spokesperson said. "Through this investment, KMAC has streamlined a number of very labor intensive processes, as well as made available aligned resources which in the past were isolated.

"There are a number of school districts interested in purchasing KMAC and the District is investigating options surrounding this. Additionally, there are a number of software companies who would like to enter into discussions centered on bundling KMAC into their product line, almost like an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software for curriculum management.

While the district is moving ahead with implementing what it believes is a system of the future, opponents are critical of what they perceive as mounting problems.

Insiders claim the district has wasted $500,000 on a previous system that failed (Abacus) and hired a group of computer consultants, with some commanding salaries comparable to those of the highest-paid administrators in the district, to work fulltime on KMAC.

According to one inside source, "the way the district has gotten around admitting how much KMAC has cost the taxpayers is to say that some of the people who were hired to help with this system perform other jobs. The district has sped up the retrofit process, which upgraded the computers on each campus, and put in new network system servers to satisfy the growing demands of KMAC. The salaries of the core players alone were over $1,000,000 for the last few years; and they do nothing but KMAC."

With some insiders estimating a $27 million shortfall for next year's budget, they believe excessive expenditures on KMAC have been unwarranted at this point. Opponents feel the system may very well have some good points, but is a bad investment at this time.

"I was introduced to KMAC at a technology training last fall," Lowery said. "The training was a disaster as the system crashed. I don't feel it was ready for us...and I know we weren't ready for it."

A veteran Katy ISD teacher, speaking on condition of anonymity, agrees with Lowery. Since the system initially focused on math curriculum, teaching peers in the mathematics department have not experienced the numerous difficulties other teachers have had inputting lesson plans and juggling objectives to meet the curriculum standards and timetables. Even after acclimating to the system and becoming familiar with the KMAC functions, the time for one teacher has been reduced down to two hours.

"It takes double the time it used to take to do my lesson plans previously," the teacher said. It's my Sunday afternoon ritual."

Contrary to the personal experience of some teachers, KMAC engineer John Mathis estimates the average "visit" for most teachers using the KMAC system is 10 minutes. "House calls" by experts from the district assist teachers having difficulty acclimating to the system. But volunteer teams of teachers on each campus are trained, and in turn, train others to help spread the ability to use and appreciate the system district wide during a phase-in period of time.

"KMAC evolves while teachers use it as a tool," Clark said. "It allows great latitude for teachers choosing resources to meet objectives. The curriculum is dynamic with specialists making changes, incorporating feedback from teachers throughout the year. And the system is flexible, helping teachers plan from home using web-based technology and access to KMAC."

The flexibility of use at home for some teachers comes as a necessity. Opponents maintain the district is forcing the system upon teachers quickly and monitoring their use or non-use. Teachers receive a color-coded grading system of green, yellow or red in regard to their weekly lesson plans. Green means completed. Yellow is incomplete, and red is given if there has been no attempt to enter lesson plans into the system.

With class sizes increasing, network problems remaining to work out, a learning curve for the system, less time to teach due to a variety of obligations and mandates by the district, and teachers feeling they are being asked to do more on their own time with no increase in pay...the stress level throughout the district is high.

"Many plan their lessons in teams, which is a practice most administrators encourage," Lowery said. "Then they must go back and input those lessons and make them 'fit' the KMAC format. This is on top of the other duties that teachers are expected to carry out, like conferences, meetings, documentation, tutoring or re-teaching students who have had difficulty. With only 45 minutes of planning a day, that is a lot to ask. There just isn't enough time to get it all done well."

On the elementary level, there are a number of teachers who are afraid to voice their complaints about the system due to fears over retaliation. However, some teachers are speaking out anonymously. One veteran source admits there is only one person they've found who likes the system on their campus...but even that teacher complains that it takes too long. Some teachers put together plans just to get their "green" for the week. But there is no guarantee they will follow that plan.

A number of teachers have expressed fear of being appraised on their evaluations based upon the colors they've received on KMAC, which further adds to the stress and opposition to conforming to the system. Teachers feel like they are being micro-managed and graded based upon their ability to conform to the district's mandate, which some maintain, is impacting morale, which negatively impacts teaching.

In December 2003, Adam addressed the Katy ISD Board of Trustees with complaints regarding the impact of KMAC on teachers. There were reportedly approximately 200 teachers on hand who gave a standing ovation upon completion of her address.

Essentially, the district and teachers all agree that something needed to be done to replace the old pen and paper system. With the Texas Education Agency (TEA) moving more toward a state-wide standardization of public education curriculum, Katy ISD has forged ahead to help pave the way and potentially benefit financially from the growing pains they experience today, with the sales of KMAC to other districts as the "bugs" are worked out of it.

"We're going to be way ahead of universal curriculum," Helbach said.

Clark agrees.

"All algebra needs to be the same," she said. "Consistency, continuity and cohesiveness; we can't have people doing their own thing."