According to Albert Einstein, “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.” On the other hand, in sports, pundits often say “the best trade was the one the team didn’t make.” In my experience, both these statements are true.
Some of the best superintendents I have worked with were considered “difficult” even by those who liked and respected them. They were smart, caring, experienced, confident, organized, stubborn, demanding, (sometimes) unreasonable, get-the-job-done workaholics.
Because they were smart, demanding, organized, and worked hard, they achieved many successes – e.g., bond approvals, budget reductions, improved facilities, improved recruitment and retention of teachers and principals, better services for students with disabilities, more AP, dual credit, and credit recovery options, better data systems and reporting, improved technology security, better food for cafeterias, more reliable bus transportation, and on and on.
However, before long, all the superintendents I have worked for had disagreements with isolated groups of parents, business and community “leaders,” state and local politicians, and/or school board members. While these “groups” were often small (even just one or two people), they were still “powerful” and often became an almost daily “distraction” for the administration. (As the head of the assessment, data, evaluation, and accountability team, I was often closely involved in developing responses to questions, concerns, and complaints from these groups and individuals.)
These conflicts might well have been “manageable” if it had not been for the fact that, at the same time, only small gains were achieved on the state reading, math, science, and social studies tests. Eventually, the relationships between the superintendent and a few of the school board members deteriorated as a result of the frustrations about low student achievement combined with dissatisfaction stemming from what often appeared to be personal and/or “political” issues.
This is where the managers – i.e., school board members – must be at their best.
“Superstar” superintendents are not that easy to find… and they are often difficult to manage. But, if you are lucky enough to hire one, you must find ways to work together to meet all the district’s goals – particularly increased reading and math achievement.
As I wrote in the last newsletter, it is difficult to explain why otherwise capable superintendents have not been more successful at implementing early literacy and numeracy programs. However, I think the main reason for this failure is that even otherwise great superintendents simply don’t know how. As a result, they delegate the responsibilities to their deputies. Unfortunately, the national data show that delegating the responsibilities to others – who also clearly don’t know what to do – has been a disaster for many children.
What can superintendents and school boards do about this desperate situation?
1. School board members must stop letting personal conflicts and political issues determine whether superintendents’ contracts are renewed. As I have noted before, I have worked for twenty superintendents. Most were smart, hardworking, and capable. A few were “exceptional” – i.e., smart, stubborn, intense, dedicated, organized, and demanding.
Regardless of whether your superintendent is a “superstar” or merely mortal, if you are going to finally break the cycle of millions of students “graduating” our city schools unprepared for “college, careers, and life,” school boards and superintendents must act differently.
2. Districts must develop detailed plans to dramatically improve early literacy and numeracy achievement (beginning with kindergarten). If they don’t, their students have little chance of succeeding in middle or high schools and are much more likely to simply give up.
However, given city schools’ long history of failure, superintendents must look outside their own leadership team for help – regardless of how strong the team is in every other respect.
The board might even require an independent (external) review of the new plan to ensure it effectively addresses the most critical literacy and numeracy strategies (see December 8, 2022 and January 26, 2023 newsletters).
3. In particular, superintendents must look to those rare educators who have led Title I schools that “beat the odds” – schools that taught all their students to read and do basic math. Those experts are individuals who understand that it is not possible for students to participate in the secondary core curriculum unless they have learned the 1000 most common words in the English language by fifth grade.
Some may see this as an impossible task. It is not!
Even for those who enter your schools 32 million words behind, it is achievable if the school has a well-organized system that carefully tracks progress, employs “spaced repetition,” and integrates “stop-gap” word and math skills strategies with other reading and writing strategies (e.g., guided novel studies, independent reading, and writing workshops) to ensure that the words and language are “automatically” available to students as they read, write, and speak.
A simple accountability step is to implement mandatory periodic quizzes to monitor students’ progress and guide differentiation strategies.
[Again, the 1000 words are not vocabulary words; they are the most common words used every day to give directions and ask questions and in discussions and conversations. (See https://www.thenew3rseducationconsulting.com)]
4. Failure must not be accepted. That does not necessarily mean firing the superintendent or the Chief Academic Officer or the Chief Schools Officer or principals. But, it does mean a sustained, relentless focus on this most critical goal and holding superintendents, senior officers, and principals accountable.
Some argue that change takes several years. That is simply an excuse for not knowing what to do!
“Beating-the-odds” principals consistently say that critical changes can be achieved in the first and second years.
Districts must hire superintendents who are smart, diligent, organized, demanding, and good at getting things done – superintendents who have already shown that they can successfully complete important and difficult initiatives in coordination with the community and the school board.
If the school board sets clear expectations (not just for one or two point gains but for ten and twenty) and superintendents are unbendingly held accountable, they will develop detailed plans, seek outside assistance, demand full implementation, monitor schools’ progress, and hold their senior officers and principals accountable.
5. Not accepting failure and being relentless to achieve these goals also means dedicating the necessary resources to early childhood to ensure that your schools have the resources (such as smaller classes) to implement effective strategies and systems where differentiated instruction is the standard operating procedure (SOP).
Be the first… to teach every child to read!
“You only get one shot… This opportunity comes once in a lifetime.”[1]
Capital Schools Consulting (CSC)
CSC is different. We are only interested in working with district leaders on their most critical challenges. We certainly have experience and expertise in many other areas but we are only interested in devoting our time to those initiatives that can dramatically change children’s lives.
By carefully studying schools that are “beating the odds” we were able to discover the “secrets” of great schools. Great principals and teachers don’t have supernatural powers that are impossible to replicate. Great principals and teachers simply behave differently.
Capital Schools Consulting (CSC)
https://www.capitalschoolsconsultinggroup.com/
Planning and monitoring district reforms
Major program implementation audits
Evaluate critical priorities
Data analysis and reporting
Executive coaching
Board training – data analytics, planning, and goal setting
Support for new superintendents’ transition teams
Dear Subscribers,
I hope you find the information and ideas in my newsletters compelling and useful. They are informed by over 40 years of experience working with twenty superintendents, dozens of future superintendents, hundreds of senior administrators, and thousands of principals. On almost a daily basis, I listened to their hopes, doubts, complaints, excuses, and promises… and discussed and debated priorities, philosophies, theories, programs, and plans. (A short Bio is provided below.)
If you find the newsletters valuable, please share them with friends and colleagues. Only by informing school board members, educators, parents, and community leaders can we finally create the great schools every child and family deserves. If you have questions or comments, those are also very welcome.
Best Regards!
Bill Caritj
President and CEO
Capital Schools Consulting (CSC)
https://www.capitalschoolsconsultinggroup.com/
Links to recent newsletters:
Be the First!
https://williamcaritj.substack.com/p/how-to-fix-our-city-schools-286 (May 29, 2023)
Practice Makes Perfect
https://williamcaritj.substack.com/p/how-to-fix-our-city-schools-182 (May 20, 2023)
Mental Health, Safety, and School Culture
Part 2: Part 2: Keeping kids in school… at all costs!
https://williamcaritj.substack.com/p/how-to-fix-our-city-schools-db0 (April 13, 2023)
Mental Health, Safety, and School Culture
Part 1: The New Normal
https://williamcaritj.substack.com/p/how-to-fix-our-city-schools-2a0 (April 6, 2023)
“Practical” turn-around strategies
https://williamcaritj.substack.com/p/how-to-fix-our-city-schools-9bb (March 6, 2023)
The Most Important Things I learned in 2022
https://williamcaritj.substack.com/p/how-to-fix-our-city-schools-bd6 (January 26, 2023)
Keep Your Eyes on the Prize!
https://williamcaritj.substack.com/p/how-to-fix-our-city-schools-439 (December 27, 2022)
The Answer is… In Your Own Backyard!
https://williamcaritj.substack.com/p/how-to-fix-our-city-schools-d9c (December 8, 2022)
Where is the Outrage?
https://williamcaritj.substack.com/p/how-to-fix-our-city-schools-061 (November 8, 2022)
Bio/Introduction
For forty years, I was fortunate to lead the assessment, evaluation, and accountability departments of nine public school districts, including six of the largest in the nation – Washington, DC, Baltimore, St. Louis, Austin, Atlanta, and the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA). In almost every instance, my position was relatively independent of the internal and external “politics.” As a result, I am not biased toward or against any particular specialty, theory, philosophy, or program. My only bias is to results.
Over the years, I have had a wide range of responsibilities including state and local test development, accountability, research and evaluation, standards alignment, school improvement, information technology, and instructional technology. From 2014-2021, I supervised the Atlanta Public Schools (APS) Information Technology, Instructional Technology, Assessment, Research, Evaluation, and Data and Information divisions. Over that period, our teams were credited with restoring the integrity and public trust in the district’s assessment, accountability, and data and information systems after the cheating scandal of 2008. During the COVID pandemic, these outstanding teams also did amazing work to enable and support (and, in many cases, develop) the high-quality virtual programs provided each day to over 50,000 students who were forced to receive their daily instruction at home.
Since “retiring” from the Atlanta Public Schools, I’ve been very busy – working on a book, How to Fix Our City Schools, publishing a monthly newsletter (of the same name), and launching the Capital Schools Consulting Group (CSCG). CSCG services include executive coaching, training, evaluation, and data analytic services to district leaders and school boards. How to Fix Our City Schools is a brief how-to handbook and while I am happy to have completing a final draft, the process has made me even more acutely aware of the disappointment I feel about the missed opportunities and failures of the last forty years and my fear that they will continue indefinitely for future generations of poor and disadvantaged children. As a result, I have set the book aside for now and am totally focused on helping school district improve.
[1] Lose Yourself, Marshall Mathers (Eminem), Luis Resto, and Jeffrey Bass (2002). Lose Yourself is a song from the soundtrack to the 2002 motion picture 8 Mile. Lyrics written by Eminem. Released October 28, 2002