Irvine Unified’s ‘Continuous Improvement Council’: A Social Engineering Experiment
Commentary
The Irvine Unified School District (IUSD) in Orange County, Calif., has a plethora of advisory committees devoted to advising the board and administration on a wide variety of matters. Intertwined with all these committees is the “Continuous Improvement Council” charged with oversight of the district’s “Continuous Improvement Efforts.”
This Council has been in place for decades and upon its initial founding was referred to as the “Curriculum Council.” It meets three times throughout each academic year, and its most recent meeting took place on Jan. 26 at Creekside Learning Center.
After having served on the committee for the past 15 months, I was looking forward to the meeting on the 26th but never got the opportunity to attend—due to being notified via email on Jan. 20 that I was being removed from the Council. The reason cited was: “Our Council is comprised of IUSD educators, students, and parents, and now that [your child] is no longer enrolled in IUSD, we will be offering the opportunity to serve on the Council to another IUSD parent.”…