Schools.
It appeared today in the Pioneer Press.
Face the fact -- we don't know how to get all students to learn
By Ted Kolderie
Posted: 03/15/2009
Let me suggest another interpretation for Meria Carstarphen's leaving the
St. Paul schools. It's being unable to get all students to learn.
This isn't the only reason; quite likely the bigger district and the extra
money were important. But these aren't the basic reasons. It's because she
can't deliver on the promises about achievement.
This is no slam against Carstarphen. No superintendent can. None gets all
students to learn. In truth, no one knows how to get all students in a city
to learn, and to be "proficient." If we knew how to do that, we'd be doing
it. We don't.
Why else do you think superintendents move all the time? They know the
promises they've made can't be realized. So they know not to stay in one
place too long. They're like machine-gunners in combat, who know they have
to move every 15 minutes so the mortars won't get them.
I was at the meeting of the St. Paul board when Michael Casserly came to
advise it, following the first (and aborted) search for a replacement for
Curman Gaines. Mike told them the average tenure of superintendents in his
Council of Great City Schools was 2.7 years. "No significant progress on
achievement can be made so long as this continues," he said that day.
Gaines stayed longer than that. But he would have been gone sooner if he'd
answered the questions differently in Seattle. Seattle went to a former
Army general instead; in time, Gaines went to the private sector. Patricia
Harvey came. She was interested
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in Seattle after Gen. John Stanford died, but didn't win there. Soon after,
she showed up being interviewed in Denver. Then she was gone.
Minneapolis persuaded its superintendent, Carol Johnson, to turn down an
offer from Nashville, but soon after that she accepted an offer from
Memphis, getting out just before Minneapolis crashed. Now she's left
Memphis to go to Boston. Paul Vallas came on strong in Chicago with
promises about change and improvement. But he left, going to Philadelphia.
Now he's gone to New Orleans. Arlene Ackerman has gone from Washington,
D.C., to San Francisco and now to Philadelphia.
Who can miss the pattern here? And the lesson?
It's time for St. Paul β and every city β to give up the notion there
is a Great Leader who has The Answer that will Turn Our District Around so
that All Children Will Achieve.
People will make these promises. These are good jobs, and St. Paul is a
good first superintendency, a good stepping-stone. The city needs to be
realistic about its own interest. Right now the last thing St. Paul needs
is another honeymoon with another new superintendent, national or local,
telling us the answer is some particular curriculum or some particular
method of teaching. It's time to be honest about the leader not having the
magic answer that will get all kids to learn.
What do we normally do when we have a problem or a goal we want to reach
and we don't know for sure how to get there? We try different things.
Almost certainly this is the beginning of wisdom here now.
Find someone who is willing to free up the schools and their teachers β
those closest to the students β so they can be continually adjusting the
program of learning to meet the needs of the particular students,
collectively and individually. Give them the chance to create new schools
β different schools.
Andreas Schleicher, who handles PISA, the Program for International Student
Assessment for OECD in Paris, said the other day in Boston that two things
account for the high student performance in countries like Finland:
national standards and school autonomy. Presumably he will say the same
thing when he appears at the University of Minnesota on March 23.
It will be good to motivate teachers by enlarging their professional roles.
And when teachers have larger roles, they tend to motivate students by
letting them individualize their learning. This makes basic sense. The
differences among students mean there isn't any One Right Way. Achievement
will rise when students can specialize early in what they find interesting
and move as fast as their interests and aptitudes will take them.
St. Paul needs a new superintendent committed to innovation, and to helping
schools and teachers try things.
Ted Kolderie of St. Paul has long been involved with state-level K-12
policy. In recent years, he's been senior associate with Education
Evolving, a policy group that works in Minnesota and nationally. His e-mail
address is <email obscured>.