MARIETTA - Cobb school board members David Morgan and Alison Bartlett urged their colleagues Wednesday to increase the rigor of the board's draft strategic plan.

But they were met with resistance by some board members.

In January, the board directed staff to design a strategic plan that measures academic progress, Associate Superintendent Dr. Steve Constantino said. The board adopted the framework of that plan in June and asked staff to fill in proposed targets.

A vote to make the plan official is scheduled for Dec. 10.

Wednesday's meeting was the first time the board discussed the targets in public. Board Vice Chairwoman Lynnda Crowder-Eagle asked why her colleagues had not sent her any revisions to the plan.

"I have not received any input from any of you at this point," said Crowder-Eagle, who was placed in charge of the plan by board Chairman Dr. John Abraham.

Morgan and Bartlett took issue with some of the targets staff inserted in the plan, saying they could be more challenging. Morgan said he thinks staff just dropped in numbers after looking at trends.

"I think a problem with that is, when you're looking at schools that have low trends, then you're going to put in a low number, which goes back to our point that you don't have a high expectation," Morgan said. "You can't necessarily look at trends and say, 'This year we're two, next year we're four, next year we'll be six, if that's underperforming. You have to say, 'No, this year we're going to be 25.'"

Crowder-Eagle criticized the strategic plan for having too much summative data, that is, data used to determine a final outcome, such as a course grade, as opposed to formative data, such as a teacher helping a student on the material to get that end of course grade.

Educator Robert Stakes explained the two terms when he said, "When the cook tastes the soup, that's formative; when the guests taste the soup, that's summative."

Abraham asked Crowder-Eagle to give him an example of a formative benchmark that could be measured, but Crowder-Eagle said she couldn't.

Crowder-Eagle asked what the outcome be if the board were to set a target to advance on a test from 70 to 80 percent.

"How about if we don't meet those targets. What then? Are we just going to turn those teachers over and get us a brand new bunch?" she asked.

Morgan said if the goal wasn't reached, then the board must look to Superintendent Fred Sanderson and his administration to explain why.

"But we will clearly see either we exceeded it, we met it or we're under it," he said. "I think we have to be able to have higher expectations, and hopefully that will be accomplished."

Morgan said he would like to see the composite scores on the Iowa Test of Basic Standards rise 30 percent.

"I don't think it's unrealistic to say four out of every five fifth grader meets the average, just the national average in those content areas," he said. "And if we see that we're not, then we see where we need to do work. But the only way that's going to happen is if we have true accountability."

Morgan said only 7 percent of black students exceeded expectations on the end-of-course math test.

"Well, that's the same number as students with disabilities. There's something wrong with that. That has to be a number that's raised," he said.

He quoted the late Dr. Benjamin Mayes, "Not failure, but low aim is a sin."

Both Crowder-Eagle and board member Holli Cash questioned raising the bar so ambitiously.

"So do you not put any credence in trend data? You think that's a waste?" Crowder-Eagle asked Morgan.

Cash added, "I don't want to get hung up on numbers."

Cash sneered when Bartlett said she didn't understand why staff didn't set ITBS targets higher to be competitive on the world market.

"Yes, I'm pretty sure that the world market is really concerned about how our students in first, third, fifth and seventh are doing," Cash said.

She said she found it "funny" that they were focusing on ITBS.

"You're acting like it's the be-all and end-all test," Cash said.

Cash also recently dismissed the importance of the SAT when asked about McEachern High School's plunging scores.

"We've got SAT scores that you like to drive home, which is really just basically a certain group, a small group of students," Cash said at the time. "It doesn't represent the whole district ... SAT isn't the highest standard any more."

Board member David Banks, meantime, warned of the risks of comparing one class over the next year's class, as they are not the same students and do not have the same resources. Banks was echoing a point Sanderson made earlier when he said he took SAT scores with a grain of salt for that very reason.

Even Constantino said a good school system is one that measures itself on not one or two factors, but many.

Morgan said they were trying to have it both ways. He asked why the board and administration showered praise upon a school awarded for its superior testing performance, but when a school performed poorly on a test, that test was downplayed in significance.

"We can't have amnesia when test scores don't say what we want them to say," Morgan said. "If we have poor test scores, it's to be spotlighted. How do we fix it? We can't use the argument that test scores don't matter. One of the key variables to an excellent teacher is having high expectations, and I think the same thing will happen if we have a strategic plan that's full of high expectations. I think people will rise to the occasion, they'll get out of their comfort zone and we'll be a much better county."

The strategic plan may be viewed on the district's Web site at www.cobbk12.org. Links to board members are provided for residents who wish to give opinions on the draft.