...In "Every Child, Every Classroom, Every Day: School Leaders Who Are Making Equity A Reality" (2011), edited by Harvard's Robert S. Peterkin and Deborah Jewell-Sherman, et al., former Stamford Superintendent Josh Starr writes of the tugs and pulls of board micromanagement: "It becomes difficult ... to avoid micromanagement when the ... boards force them to wallow in the details" because they have final say on the budget.
Of course, a superintendent and board are forced to address a variety of challenges, and there's no denying that perceptions about the success of a superintendent -- or even a board, for that matter -- are formed by subjective as well as objective evaluations. But the reality is that these boards also can do more harm than good when they are buffeted by competing forces in the community that have little to do with the core work of classroom instruction, student achievement and the leveling of the playing field, which will lead to improved life trajectories, social equity, fairness, basic justice and the promise of America. All too often, and in too many circumstances, board governance can impede a record of student achievement...
In February 2010, some of Atlanta’s top business leaders realized they had a problem. State officials, though, were suggesting gains by Atlanta schools resulted from widespread cheating. Suddenly, the deal between Hall and the business community took on Faustian overtones. For a decade, they had aligned themselves with Beverly Hall, the superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools. They willingly accepted Hall’s story line of rebirth in an urban school system. They promoted and sometimes exaggerated Hall’s achievements — for her benefit and for their own...
...Hall’s efforts to engage business leaders succeeded. The education fund and the district collected millions of dollars in grants and donations, most notably $22 million for science education from the General Electric Foundation.GE’s vice chairman, John Rice, who was based in Atlanta, became one of Hall’s closest confidants. Her emails, obtained through the Georgia Open Records Act, show she frequently consulted Rice on matters large and small. He offered advice on managing stress, for instance, urging her to not read critical editorials. Volunteering as chairman of the education fund, Rice worked with Hall to solicit corporate gifts. In April 2009, for instance, they appeared together at what the education fund billed as a “cultivation event” for potential donors...
...For teachers, a culture of fear ensured the deception would continue.“APS is run like the mob,” one teacher told investigators, saying she cheated because she feared retaliation if she didn’t.The voluminous report names 178 educators, including 38 principals, as participants in cheating. More than 80 confessed. The investigators said they confirmed cheating in 44 of 56 schools they examined.The investigators conducted more than 2,100 interviews and examined more than 800,000 documents in what is likely the most wide-ranging investigation into test-cheating in a public school district ever conducted in United States history.The findings fly in the face of years of denials from Atlanta administrators. The investigators re-examined the state’s erasure analysis — which they said proved to be valid and reliable — and sought to lay to rest district leaders’ numerous excuses for the suspicious scores...
...The special investigators’ report describes years of misconduct that took place as far up the chain of command as the superintendent’s office. The report accuses Hall and her aides of repeatedly tampering with or hiding records that cast an unflattering light on the district. In one case, Hall’s chief Human Resources officer Millicent Few “illegally ordered” the destruction of early, damning drafts of an outside lawyer’s investigation of test-tampering at Atlanta’s Deerwood Academy, the report said...
...The district’s priority became maintaining and promoting Hall’s image as a miracle worker...
...Her supporters were so concerned the district’s problems would reflect poorly on the Atlanta “brand,” the report said, that they attacked those who asked questions about the district’s purported success...
...Hall preferred to spend her time networking with philanthropic and business leaders rather than walking the halls of her schools, the investigators found...
“Hall became a subject of adoration and made herself the focus rather than the children,” the investigators wrote. “Her image became more important than reality.”
With Dr. Starr coming to MoCo, its time to introduce an important member of his transition team, Larry Leverett.
Dr. Leverett's biography is honorable in its own right. Here is his bio, courtesy of NJ After 3, an organization where he also is a member of the Board:
Dr. Larry Leverett is the Executive Director of the Panasonic Foundation, a corporate foundation with a mission to help public school systems with high percentages of children in poverty to improve learning for all students so that they may use their minds well and become productive, responsible citizens. Leverett recently served as Superintendent of Schools in Greenwich, Connecticut.
His career in education has included urban and suburban experiences as a classroom teacher, elementary principal, assistant superintendent, school board member, and Assistant State Commissioner of Education and 15 years as superintendent in 3 school districts, including Plainfield and Englewood in New Jersey. Leverett serves on advisory committees for the George Lucas Educational Foundation, Educators for Social Responsibility, and the Laura Bush Foundation for School Libraries. He is committed to social justice and ensuring that all children have access to a high quality educational experience in public schools.
Wait a minute - doesn't this sound a little like our own Dr. Starr?
Yes. Here is why.
Not only is Dr. Leverett on Josh's MoCo Transition team, the two go back to being superintendents in neighboring districts in Connecticut.
And more good news? Dr. Leverett is already an MCPS consultant. He's participated in several retreats for the Board of Education. Best of all, Dr. Leverett facilitated an MCPS BOE retreat in December 2009, and his organization facilitated another September 2010 worksession for the Board of Education.
Do you see a pattern? Are these two inseparable or is it just a coincidence? Six degrees of Keven Bacon comes to mind.
Here are my two questions for the day:
Who is running the June 21 closed BOE retreat/training/team building session?
The bigger question whether the Panasonic Foundation and Dr. Leverett influenced the recent superintendent search. Was the selection open, or did the BOE really have a lead candidate from the start.
Maybe the "P" in MCPS will soon stand for the Montgomery County Panasonic School System.
This may sound like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, but honestly, this song just kept popping into my head all day today, so I thought it was time to sing along:
