How to Fix Our City Schools
The Answer is… In Your Own Backyard!
In each of the five urban districts where I have served, the superintendent looked to one or more outside “partners” to operate or manage a small group of the district’s schools and, each time, a few board members asked “What does the ‘partner’ know how to do that your team doesn’t?” The question always seemed like a reasonable one to me, and the superintendents’ answers always seemed strained and, often, cringeworthy – but that is a subject for another day.
Even odder is the fact that in many urban districts there are already one or two schools consistently “beating the odds”[1] that could be used to inform district level reforms – but rarely are. In fact, amazingly, in my experience, district leaders often do not even try to figure out what successful schools are doing differently. The reasons for these failures are important to understand.
The most absurd “reason” is that some successful principals are simply not well-liked. In some cases, that may be, in part, because the principals are not overly open to outside “scrutiny” – probably, because they fear prying central office administrators will only make their work more difficult. In fact, a dirty little secret, rarely acknowledged by senior district administrators, is that many (if not most) principals think most central office staff provide little or no assistance to them. Of course, it should not be surprising that many of the people working “in the trenches” have little regard for those perceived as “sitting in cozy offices drinking coffee.”
A second “reason” district leaders rarely learn from successful principals is the commonly held view that great principals possess unique qualities that cannot be duplicated or imitated. As I noted in my October newsletter, for many years, I also foolishly thought these outlier great schools were the result of the rare skills, character, and/or “charisma” of the principals who possessed some kind of supernatural powers that resulted in higher student achievement. More on that in a minute.
Third, and, perhaps, the primary reason district leaders do not learn from successful principals is that many district leaders believe they already know how to create great schools. That doesn’t necessarily mean they are arrogant, it only means they have their own well-established specialties, interests, priorities, theories, philosophies, and biases. As my back doctor recently suggested, in regard to treatment options, “People become obsessed with their own specialty.” I think that is exactly what happens to many district leaders. If successful principals’ methods are “inconsistent” with their views, district leaders simply ignore them – sometimes, even criticizing successful principals as engaging in poor practices. Unfortunately, twenty years of NAEP reading and math data clearly show that urban district leaders do not know how to create great schools.
The fourth reason district leaders do not learn from successful principals is, perhaps, the most important to understand. Schools are complex systems with many moving parts. Too often, I believe, district leaders don’t see the forest for the trees. To them (except for the principals), all the schools look, more or less, the same – same curriculum, same staffing ratios, same programs, assessments, schedules, policies, etc. Even if they try to identify the one or two (or three) critical things successful schools are doing differently – or better than other schools – most are likely to overlook or underestimate the key factors.
For example, in the Blue Ribbon School I described in earlier newsletters, teachers were allowed to implement the core curriculum with little interference but there were three components closely “monitored” personally by the principal. (See the September and October 2022 newsletters for detailed descriptions.) Unfortunately, if they had visited the school, many of the district leaders probably would have viewed these three key components as just “typical” elementary school programs. But, they would have been very wrong. While many schools, to varying degrees, include basic skills instruction, writing and math application, and independent reading in their daily schedules, they rarely do so as fully and effectively – some might even say “obsessively” – as this Blue Ribbon School.
That difference was only evident to me after spending hours at the school and discussing with the principal, at great length, the key “game changers” he had implemented to “level the playing field” for the many students (including many English language learners) who arrived at his school every year (either in kindergarten or later) with huge word fluency and auditory comprehension skills gaps and the many students who continued to need consistent and effective programs and extra supports to allow them to access the on-grade-level curriculum.
Unfortunately, according to the principal, I was the only senior officer interested (curious) enough to try to understand what the school was doing differently. Why? I think the answer is closely related to the third reason cited above. I didn’t have a horse in the race. My only interest and bias was the school’s results.
That brings me back to the second “reason.” It is critical for educational leaders to understand that great schools are not successful because of tricks or luck or magic. As the Blue Ribbon School principal recently told me, his school was not great because he had magical powers; the school was great because of the simple “system” he put in place. “Superstar” principals do not have supernatural powers, they simply behave differently. They put in place consistent programs, processes, and procedures that lead to dramatically better student outcomes. The challenge for educational “experts” and district leaders is for them to look past their own specialties, interests, biases, and beliefs so they can see the forest for the trees – or perhaps, in this case, it is the other way around.
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Dear Readers,
I hope you find the information and ideas in my newsletters compelling and useful. If you do, please become a free subscriber and the newsletters will be emailed directly to you once a month.
The information and ideas in my newsletters are informed by over 40 years of experience working with twenty superintendents, dozens of future superintendents, hundreds of senior administrators, and thousands of principals. In Baltimore, DC, St. Louis, Austin, Atlanta, and the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) – on almost a daily basis – I listened to their hopes, doubts, complaints, excuses, and promises… and discussed and debated priorities, philosophies, theories, programs, strategies, and plans. Again, if you find the newsletters valuable, please become a (free) subscriber and please continue to share them with friends and colleagues. If you have questions or comments please share those as well. Only by informing school board members, educators, parents, and community leaders can we finally create the great schools every child and family deserves.
Best Regards and Happy Holidays!
Bill Caritj
President and CEO
Capital Schools Consulting Group
925 S. Prospect Street
Burlington, VT 05401
Links to recent newsletters:
(November 8, 2022)
(October 19, 2022)
(September 16, 2022)
(September 3, 2022)
(August 8, 2022)
(July 22, 2022)
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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 theory, philosophy, or program. My only loyalty is to results.
Since “retiring” from the Atlanta Public Schools in 2021, I’ve been busy working on a book, How to Fix Our City Schools, publishing this “monthly” newsletter, and launching the Capital Schools Consulting Group (CSCG). The book is part memoir and part handbook and while I am very excited about finally completing a “good” working draft, the process has made me even more acutely aware of the disappointment I feel about the failures of the last forty years and my fear that they will continue indefinitely for future generations of poor and disadvantaged children.
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[1] “Beating the odds,” here, refers to schools in communities with high poverty rates (and, therefore, schools with very high percentages of students who qualify for free and reduced price meals) that achieve high average test scores similar to the schools in the district’s most affluent communities.
Hello John, Happy Holidays! A friend, who has been consulting for years, recently asked me why I keep writing and working. Obviously, the primary reason is that I know how important schools are to our children's well-being and futures. The challenge is to create just one or two districts who fully understand that everything begins with literacy and that it really isn't hard to teach every child to read and do basic math - if a district employs all the resources at their disposal. Then, every other district can follow their example. Who will be first and get all the "glory?" Best, Bill
Thanks for today's commentary, Bill. I believe these issues are exactly what separate excellence from mediocrity and worse.
The unfortunate propensity for central office to often unwittingly act as an anchor and their failure to capitalize upon campus excellence are [in my humble opinion] the primary reasons our public schools and students are not universally successful.