By Joe Earle
Atlanta’s new school superintendent says now is the time to remake a school system battered by scandal.
“This is our best opportunity,” Dr. Meria Carstarphen told school officials and parents who gathered at North Atlanta High School on Sept. 9 to hear her first “State of the Schools” address.
Carstarphen started her job as superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools in July. She said she has already made some personnel changes at schools and reorganized some district departments, but that more changes are needed. “If we don’t grab it and plant it in the ground and grow it, we will have missed the greatest opportunity,” she said.
Carstarphen’s said that for her talk, the 10th “state of the schools” address, she reviewed remarks from past superintendents and found they had made pronouncements such as the district was “climbing the hill” or “almost [at] the mountaintop.”
“The time for proclamations is over,” she said.
“We need to go backwards on proclamations. Right now, we are at the base of the mountain and we need to start all over again.”
Among the troubles Carstarphen must deal with is the aftermath of the cheating scandal that led to criminal charges against some APS teachers and administrators. On the same day Carstarphen delivered her “state of the schools” speech, a dozen former APS employees faced trial on charges stemming from changing students’ answers on high-stakes tests so they would get higher scores.
Carstarphen, answering questions after her speech, said she took the job in Atlanta because she thought she had the skills to tackle APS’ problems. What’s needed, she said, “is an extensive rebuild, but it has to happen.”
She thinks the changes will pay off. “I don’t believe your history determines your future,” she said.
She said changes she’s instituted to start addressing the district’s troubles were “reorganizing from a best-practices approach. … It was more reorganizing and building the right organization and making sure we have the right people in place.”
In some schools, that meant making sure the right people were in place. “When we go into the smaller high schools, they have very specific designs,” she said. “Finding someone who can run a school and who [also] has that kind of passion for that area – that is a very small skill set. You want them to love the design.”
During her talk, Carstarphen said repeatedly APS educators need to focus on the needs of students. “If we focus on the children, we will never go wrong,” she said. “We will never have to look over our shoulders.”
During her talk, Carstarphen said repeatedly APS educators need to focus on the needs of students. “If we focus on the children, we will never go wrong,” she said. “We will never have to look over our shoulders.”
The problems in Public Schools has been by a blinkered “focus” ‘ONLY’ “on the children” . That’s how things led to the cheating scandal, and the chaos that ensued, subsequent to the commencement of the NCLB policy. Teachers, principals and education administrators were pressurized inhumanly, and treated like assembly-line workers. Unlike the corporate world, teachers cannot be commission-based achievers….. 1% increase in performance => 1% bonus, 2% increase => 2% bonus. And, those who didn’t show progress threatened. And, when things happened, people are surprised… It is basic survival instinct. And, all the blame to the hapless teachers. The people who forced it on the system are laughing it all the way.
It will help the new superintendent to be aware of these events, and “focus” ‘NOT’ just “on the children”. Education is not a chemical reaction, where H2 (hydrogen) and O2 (oxygen) are combined and the result is always H2O (water). Education is long term, multi-faceted efforts & processes. Some of the critical areas are….
1. Parents are the most critical element impacting student-performance. Parent involvement and indoctrination to be active 24 X 7 X 365 is vital. The superintendent must directly hold parent education campaigns. Achiever students can only be developed, only if parents want them to. No child of actively involved parents ‘CAN’ lag or fail.
2. Next to parents, teachers are most likely the greatest influence to inspire, instruct, encourage and guide students to excellence. However, teachers have been the most maligned, blamed and scapegoated people for all the ills of education. They have been threateningly monitored, perhaps even more closely than prison inmates, to the extent leading to killing any initiative, individuality or creative elements of even the very best teachers. Teachers are just struggling to meet the regimented, fiercely-structured and threateningly-monitored expectations of the several layers of supervision… Superintendent, principal, subject-chair, content-leader, and many other. Teachers are required to monitor out-of-class student discipline, submit step-by-step lesson plans, and follow it second-by-second, with unannounced-intrusions from all these helicopter-supervisors, who are themselves unqualified for the subject taught. And, feedback galore, without discussion and often times humiliatingly in front of the very students being taught. Stifled, teachers who continue, are just waiting to leave, for less suffocating environments. It might help the superintendent to research the turnover of teachers in these recent years. And, it would not be out of place to state that teacher pays have been declining with forced-furloughs and no living-cost raises… to almost 15% to 20%.
3. While the headquarters employees have been enjoying 3 times the compensation of similar school systems, teachers have been given only near half. Drivers, janitors and frontline employees have been neglected.
Much optimism has been generated in the arrival of the new superintendent. However, the new superintendent must support teachers, because they want to help students. Suffocating teachers by over-supervision, will only continue the old pattern. With the communities and inequalities being served, the challenges that families face are extreme. A 60% graduation to start with, must be considered good. From that state, parents need to be brought together, and encouraged to work with teachers, supporting the students to attain higher levels of performance and graduation rates.
The “focus” must be holistic, and not just “on the students” !
During her talk, Carstarphen said repeatedly APS educators need to focus on the needs of students. “If we focus on the children, we will never go wrong,” she said. “We will never have to look over our shoulders.”
The problems in Public Schools has been by a blinkered “focus” ‘ONLY’ “on the children” . That’s how things led to the cheating scandal, and the chaos that ensued, subsequent to the commencement of the NCLB policy. Teachers, principals and education administrators were pressurized inhumanly, and treated like assembly-line workers. Unlike the corporate world, teachers cannot be commission-based achievers….. 1% increase in performance => 1% bonus, 2% increase => 2% bonus. And, those who didn’t show progress threatened. And, when things happened, people are surprised… It is basic survival instinct. And, all the blame to the hapless teachers. The people who forced it on the system are laughing it all the way.
It will help the new superintendent to be aware of these events, and “focus” ‘NOT’ just “on the children”. Education is not a chemical reaction, where H2 (hydrogen) and O2 (oxygen) are combined and the result is always H2O (water). Education is long term, multi-faceted efforts & processes. Some of the critical areas are….
1. Parents are the most critical element impacting student-performance. Parent involvement and indoctrination to be active 24 X 7 X 365 is vital. The superintendent must directly hold parent education campaigns. Achiever students can only be developed, only if parents want them to. No child of actively involved parents ‘CAN’ lag or fail.
2. Next to parents, teachers are most likely the greatest influence to inspire, instruct, encourage and guide students to excellence. However, teachers have been the most maligned, blamed and scapegoated people for all the ills of education. They have been threateningly monitored, perhaps even more closely than prison inmates, to the extent leading to killing any initiative, individuality or creative elements of even the very best teachers. Teachers are just struggling to meet the regimented, fiercely-structured and threateningly-monitored expectations of the several layers of supervision… Superintendent, principal, subject-chair, content-leader, and many other. Teachers are required to monitor out-of-class student discipline, submit step-by-step lesson plans, and follow it second-by-second, with unannounced-intrusions from all these helicopter-supervisors, who are themselves unqualified for the subject taught. And, feedback galore, without discussion and often times humiliatingly in front of the very students being taught. Stifled, teachers who continue, are just waiting to leave, for less suffocating environments. It might help the superintendent to research the turnover of teachers in these recent years. And, it would not be out of place to state that teacher pays have been declining with forced-furloughs and no living-cost raises… to almost 15% to 20%.
3. While the headquarters employees have been enjoying 3 times the compensation of similar school systems, teachers have been given only near half. Drivers, janitors and frontline employees have been neglected.
Much optimism has been generated in the arrival of the new superintendent. However, the new superintendent must support teachers, because they want to help students. Suffocating teachers by over-supervision, will only continue the old pattern. With the communities and inequalities being served, the challenges that families face are extreme. A 60% graduation to start with, must be considered good. From that state, parents need to be brought together, and encouraged to work with teachers, supporting the students to attain higher levels of performance and graduation rates.
The “focus” must be holistic, and not just “on the students” !