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Re: [Phys-l] How Much Value is Added at Elite Institutions-Response to Haim #2



Let me throw a grenade and then get out of the way. How about we get the government out of the education business? They don't have a great track record in much else that they do. And if you say that private education organizations would just abandon the inner city, then you have to explain how other businesses survive in the inner city, but private schools wouldn't.

Bill


On Jan 29, 2011, at 6:55 PM, Marty Weiss wrote:


On Jan 29, 2011, at 8:21 PM, Robert Cohen wrote:

The solution seems straightforward then. Stop devoting resources to raising the standards for teacher certification/retention and instead devote them to raising the standards for principal certification/retention? Can we do the same for superintendents?

Superintendency seem to be a revolving door profession. Too many times it is like a video game where you go from level to level without getting killed off on the way. The way many of these people get to the top reminds me of the old game "Sim Tower" where you build level after level and if you reach the top you get to build the big chapel and doves fly out of the roof, bells ring, lights flash, and you have won the game.
It is analogous to the hypothesis in physics I read about one time that there was only one electron that appeared to be everywhere at once. (I know I read that somewhere once, just can't recall where.) A superintendent is fired or quits in one district and magically appears the following year in another, many times with a substantial raise and mystical powers to hire and fire cronies just below them. Google any big city superintendent and their resume includes stints elsewhere in some large city or if they are just starting out, they come from another large city as assistant superintendent. Likewise, in small suburban districts in a state, superintendents seem to exchange places like relief pitchers who go from team to team. Sometimes one of these will magically jump from a small to medium size township district to a medium size city, then to one of the larger cities. From there they are on their way to ever bigger jobs, until they reach their "Peter Principle" job.
If they get that far up the ladder you will see riots, chaos, and so- on, until they are replaced with a new face who has climbed the same ladder.

The other way someone reaches the goal of superintendent is to be politically connected in their large city where they rise in rank from teacher to supervisor to assistant superintendent in charge of bus transportation to assistant superintendent in charge of academic supervisors to full superintendent. That doesn't mean they are any good at this job... it just means they are "connected."

By the way, I was once at a meeting of educators (college professors of preservice/inservice teachers) and they were lamenting the fact that many preservice teachers just weren't prepared to deal with the issues like threats (from students and parents), drugs and violence in schools nowadays. I suggested that, instead of trying to train teachers to deal with discipline issues, perhaps we should change the school environment so that our teachers can, um, actually teach without having to worry about such issues. Their response -- well, that would require a new paradigm -- and they quickly returned to discussing how to prepare teachers to deal with these issues. Why *not* a new paradigm?

That wouldn't be a bad idea, except then we would need a new paradigm in politics: one that empowers the principals to make the tough decisions. And to do that we need to ensure that principals are not using the job as stepping stones to the superintendency job I described earlier; that they are truly interested in their school, the kids, parents, teachers, and the community they serve. AND... to ensure the principals can do their job we need central administrations (superintendents and assistant supers.)that are interested in their schools, their kids, parents, teachers, the community, and not just using that job to rise to a bigger and bigger paycheck somewhere else. AND... to ensure that, we need competent city fathers (and mothers) who are interested and KNOWLEDGABLE in education, schools, kids, teachers, and the community they are supposed to serve. AND... to ensure that level we need politicians who are knowledgable in.... etc. Fat chance of THAT happening
any time soon.

Oh, to ensure any of the previous levels of administration we need a PUBLIC that CARES about education, not just how many athletes they can get into Division 1 colleges. When we can get ten-thousand people out to cheer on the Academic Challenge team and Friday night lights means lighting up the Science Fair...... (dream on.)

Marty

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