Saturday, July 18, 2009

Stu's Warrior

In the fight for future economic and social prosperity, it's hard to think of a more important battle than the one over school improvement. If America fails to produce a well-educated and globally-competitive workforce the present economic struggles will only foreshadow tougher times ahead and our standing among nations will continue to slip. This is no time to rest and Arne Duncan is calling for warriors to carry the battle against ignorance into the most resistant precincts.

But if you send them out there, you've got to protect them and the evidence is that Superintendent Stu Silberman protected and supported his most noble warrior, former BTWA Principal Peggy Petrilli, for quite a while. Then one day, he didn't.

This week a Fayette County jury will be asked to figure out what caused the rift, and what's the right thing to do when local politics threaten the larger system - and that runs headlong into an individual's employment rights.

This from Politics K-12:


Duncan to Principals:
Release Your Inner Warrior!


In his campaign for turning around the nation’s worst public schools, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan this morning called for a cadre of “warrior principals.”

Speaking to principals from across the country, Mr. Duncan said that without strong leaders, any effort to dramatically transform the thousands of public schools that have failed for decades would be futile. He challenged the leaders to “take on the toughest job in America.”

“We need a team of warrior principals to leave the easier places and go into the most underserved communities with a chance to build a new team,” Mr. Duncan said to the roughly 350 principals who are in Washington this week for the annual meeting of the National Association of Elementary School Principals and National Association of Secondary School Principals. Mr. Duncan said he would need to enlist about 1,000 principals a year, over the next five years....

Unless one has tackled "the toughest job in America" it's easy to overlook the complexities involved.

Roughly, the average elementary principal manages an $7 million physical plant with an operational budget of $1.5 million. They must focus on student achievement. But missing the politics going on around them; ignoring safety concerns; mismanaging money; allowing students to become unruly; an inability to enlist community support; or misapplying the law - these are easy ways to fall. All this in the public sphere, where every action is open to scrutiny and second-guessed by a population that has attended school themselves and all too frequently thinks that qualifies them to run the school - or worse - a population that is so damaged or disconnected that they fail to appreciate their own self-interests and need for betterment.

There is a constant urgency in the public school environment and the best principals perform like air traffic controllers; with discipline problems. They battle ignorance and by sheer force of will, try to move a community of stakeholders - most of whom don't have to do a thing the principal says - from Point A to Point B. Those who weaken are sacrificed, but the strong typically survive.

The facts surrounding the stunning departure of Stu's warrior is now for the jury to decide. Many warriors have lost in battle. Will jurors believe she laid down her shield? Some become pawns to powerful kings. Will they believe she was wounded by politics? We will know soon enough.

But the larger question involves the fallout from Petrilli v Silberman. What impact will the jury's decision have on the future warriors Duncan calls for?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

But is it really Mr. Silberman's mission to produce a well-educated workforce?

Teachers in Fayette County Schools are being told by their academic deans, who ultimately receive their directives from Mr. Silberman, to teach only the Kentucky learning objectives. Teaching to the test is what we are doing in Fayette County Public
Schools. Well-educated parents know this , but for some reason have remained silent.

I do not see FCPS's focus on making our students globally competitive. What I see, daily,are students being taught to take open response reading tests where they are told to put quotes in their answers. They are coached on the proper way to use calculators on math tests. It is clear students are being prepared to take tests with coaching that seems reminiscent of Stanley Kaplan.

As an educator who ultimately is answerable to Stu, I feel I have no right to protest this "testing occupus." A letter to the editor is out of the question because I must sign my name. Speaking up at school will result in my being moved into a less visible position.
This lawsuit, is not just about Peggy Petrelli. Rather, it will determine whether Silberman will be able to conduct business as usual.

Richard Day said...

Thanks for the comment.

You asked, "is it really Mr. Silberman's mission to produce a well-educated workforce?"

Yes! Or if it's not, it sure ought to be. It is directly tied to our state's Gross Domestic Product.

That is not to say we're getting it all right at prsent.

I believe we all (mostly) want the same things. A propserous state; a prosperous country; and the ability to enjoy those things that make life worth living: family, friends, peace, freedom, life style...

The devil is in the details.

In recent years, America has had "a crush" on quantitative data collection, a necessaary but insufficient aspect of understanding what schools bring to their students. That has greatly influenced that nature of our accountability systems. And yields the kinds of "teaching to the test" phenomenon you illustrate.

But the accountability has been built from the top down, which is 180 degrees wrong.

We have the opportunity to change that and build a new system; one that begins with curriculum; whose most important data come from formative assessments in the classroom; and whose accountability system simply draws its data from annual summative assessments and other sources.

The upcoming redesign of CATS is very important, for that reason, since it will drive future classroom practices.

I fully understand your reluctance to speak out publicly. But I'm glad you chose to speak out here. KSN&C is not a huge blog. It's niche. But I know it gets monitored by the media and the most influential education officials in the state. It can be a place to be, at least, heard.

Anonymous said...

Dear Mr. Day,

You are helping Kentucky educators to think, and since I came to the Commonwealth, I've learned that what our administrators want us to to do is obey and accept uncritically.

I've been told to accept, without question, everything fom Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences to the fact that it is okay to teach to the test and give every student an "A." I've been made to feel that if my students are unsuccessful, I am the problem and that the parents and the students themselves face no blame.

What I like about this blog is that I can learn about developmnents in education in Kentucky. The "Kentucky Teacher" reads like the pages of a propaganda magazine. (It gets tossed, unread, into the recycling container) The education stories you print show both the good and the bad in our state and in our nation.

While I know that as a teacher I must remain silent, it is pleasing to see an independent blog where ideas are exchanged freely.

For this, I say thank you.

Richard Day said...

Well, first, Gardner's got a point. : )

It may be helpful to understand that today's school leaders are under more pressure than ever and some of them are scared. They don't always know what to do but the district will tell them - something new every year.

Add to that the fact that a principal's ability to deviate from the district plan and keep their job, is directly related to their "numbers." A highly competent principal gets a lot of latitude, as Peggy once did. But if principals get too independent, and their school numbers don't improve quickly enough - they're outta here.

Most folks go along to get along.

But what is education if it does not challenge the mind?

How good can a teacher be if he or she is not challenged to think and create?

Anonymous said...

I am also an educator who was elected by my staff to serve on the superintendent's teacher advisory committee in FCPS and I have always been able to say whatever I wanted to say without worry. I always bring Stu ideas and concerns from my staff and he has been very responsive in a positive way.

Richard Day said...

Anoymous,

By their nature, blogs can lean toward one ideology and tend to invite critical points of view. That's OK - we welcome that - but here at KSN&C we are interested in the pros as well as the cons.

So, thanks for your comment.