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the learners in the class need in relationship to the curriculum and the specialists that are <br />involved. <br />Commissioner Gordan made reference to the recommendations for OCS and said that <br />decreasing class size was not included. She asked that if additional funding could be provided <br />to the OCS to achieve the objectives an pages $Q-$2, would they be doing what the OCS <br />needed. Dr. Grumet said that it would certainly improve the school system. The OCS is <br />working with a greater number of economically disadvantaged children. She said that there is <br />substantial national data to suggest that children that come from mare affluent families come in <br />with stronger literacy skills and more familiarity with abstraction. The more affluent children are <br />getting more resources. She said that if at least the same degree of resources were expended <br />on the children with a larger learning challenge, the playing field might be mare level. <br />Commissioner Gordon said that it makes it all the more notable that the OCS has such an <br />exemplary record in the elementary school level because it meant that they were doing <br />everything they could with the resources that they had, including smaller class sizes. <br />Dr. Grumet said that they wanted to make a paint of how well the OCS was doing. She <br />said that OCS was doing a great jab of pulling children from level 2 to level 4 in grades 3-5. <br />There is also the distinction between proficiency and the level of proficiency. This becomes <br />more significant as children move to middle and high school. She said that as curriculum <br />becomes more complex and as schools become less personal, being able to become a high <br />achiever requires well-developed, independent cognitive, social, and expressive skills. If there <br />are a different proportion of children at level 3 and 4 in the two school systems, as the work gets <br />harder, the gap is going to increase. Then there is the interesting question of what kind of <br />resources will be provided for the middle school learner. She thinks this is an issue for both <br />school systems. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis said that he and Commissioner Brawn volunteered to work with <br />Dr. Grumet and her team. After Commissioner Brown left, he stayed on and assisted. He said <br />that it took Dr. Grumet a significant amount of discussion time to make sure that they were <br />comparing apples to apples and oranges to oranges with respect to positions. He made <br />reference to Dr. Grumet's comment that "money isn't everything, but money buys people and <br />money buys resources." He agreed with this. He said that the bottom line for him becomes <br />money, and in order to level the playing field, the County will have to wrestle with the money <br />issue. He said that Dr. Grumet has discovered things that he knew about 30 years ago. He <br />said that when you have a political commitment from the local Board of Education to an <br />educational process, and when you have as your goal excellence, then you will end up <br />somewhere close to excellence. But when people go an the record saying, "We don't want <br />excellent schools, we'll just take good ones or average ones," this hurts the people working in <br />the system. These comments have been made over the years. He thinks this has to be seen <br />within the overall context of this report. He thinks that things are pretty much on a level field <br />from K-~, and then OCS starts losing. <br />Dr. Grumet said that it is not a level playing field in terms of resources and advanced <br />achievement. Commissioner Halkiotis agreed. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis said that he thinks that the bottom line is that it is going to be a <br />political decision with respect to how to close the gap of equity. <br />Commissioner Jacobs said that he will be interested in how the two school systems <br />respond and if there are any changes in priorities. Dr. Grumet said that both school systems <br />worked with them very closely and were very cooperative. <br />Commissioner Jacobs said that he does not feel that it is his place as a County <br />Commissioner to make decisions about the educational process. He made reference to table 7 <br />on page 17. He has been struck by the heavy population of economically disadvantaged <br />children that are concentrated in some OCS schools. He wonders if it is unusual for a school <br />