Reno News & Review: Meet the new boss

Washoe County’s new school superintendent Heath Morrison* is young, experienced and excited, but can he turn around the district?

By D. Brian Burghart

From the article (reporter's questions in bold, Heath Morrison's reponses in blue):

...Top administrators tend to develop kind of an aloof attitude toward the frontline, on-the-ground, in-the-classroom teachers. What are you going to do to prevent or alleviate that in your administration?

The great thing about being married to a teacher, whether she’s actively teaching or pursuing her doctorate, is she’s always going to be a teacher at heart. And so I’m married to somebody who’s always going to remind me about how important teachers are and the important work that they do. A big part of it is to be in the schools and to be in the schools a lot. I’ve been in a school every day that I’ve been on the job. That’s something I want to try as best I can do to maintain. The principals I’ve met with already have really enjoyed the fact that I’ve come out to the school, that it hasn’t been a rushed visit, that I’ve sat down with them. As a matter of fact, I was at Silver Lake Elementary School today, and the principal said many times, “I really appreciate how much you listen.” And then spending time out visiting classes and speaking to teachers and support staff and to some parents were there [is also important]. The core business of what we do is teaching and learning, I’m actively involved in those decisions, and I’m out there where it’s happening. You can’t do this job at a distance. The only way that I know how to do this job is to be out in the schools, visiting, meeting, listening and asking how we can support. The one thing I know about this building we’re sitting in is it exists to support schools. And I’ve been speaking to my executive cabinet about the customer service that’s important that we give to our schools, our principals and our teachers. I’m going to be out in the school’s a lot.

You were quoted on The Broad Superintendents Academy website as saying: “Public education has entered into an unprecedented era of accountability. We cannot continue to talk about ‘closing’ the achievement gap; we must be dedicated to eliminating the gap by raising the level of rigor for all children. As leaders, we must be steadfast in asking all stakeholders to think ‘how we can,’ not ‘why we can’t’ as we create the optimal conditions for teaching and learning.” What does that mean?

[Laughs.] Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

It’s great. It’s a great quote, but it’s dense.

...and later in the interview with Superintendent Morrison...

Now you’ve got interactive whiteboards, you have the ability to do things called Active Votes. So the teacher asks a question: “Is it A, B or C?” Kids have to vote. She can see that everybody voted. You’ve got 25 kids in the class; you’ve got 25 votes up here. She hits a button, and you see a bar graph. Twenty-five kids in the class, 20 answered A, A is the correct answer. Twenty kids got it, five kids answered B or C. They clearly didn’t get the material, so here’s what I’m going to do: The 20 of you that got A, I’m going to give you this other problem; this is the new concept. While the 20 kids are working on the new problem, the teacher can pull those five kids, and reteach that concept. She’s not delaying the learning of the 20, but she’s also not there just to meet the needs of the five. Technology can do a lot of that. It’ll never replace a teacher, but …

I’ve never seen that.

...and later in the interview...

I think a big part of what we’ve learned over the last five years about trying to help our students who don’t speak English as a primary language is that we used to do what we called “pullout.” We would take those students, we’d pull them out, and we’d give them their English-language instruction outside of regular classroom. And that made a lot of sense because in that way we could keep a small number of kids and a teacher, and we could try to meet that student’s needs outside of a classroom. But then I think people started to look and say, “What are we pulling them out of when we do that?” They were pulled out of math and reading and other things that they’re going to be held accountable for in the state tests. Now I think people are being much more thoughtful of what we’re doing; it’s called “plug-in.” The English-second-language-learner teacher comes into the classroom, partners with a regular teacher and addresses the needs of many students with a focus on the students who are not speaking primarily English.

Read the full article here.

*Heath Morrison: former MCPS Down County Consortium Community Superintendent