Snack 'n chat with the CEO
Dr. Alonso has a new strategy to engage principals and teachers in conversation and collect information about what's happening in schools. He'll first invite a group of principals out to dinner and then ask a few teachers from each of those schools to a "snack 'n chat" session, held within the same week. The gatherings are informal. Over soda and cookies, Alonso talks for a bit about his work and asks the teachers what his administration can do to make their jobs easier -- and make it easier for kids to learn. He wants to see if the issues that principals are bringing up are also on the minds of teachers and vice versa.
The plan is for Alonso to hear from all the schools in the city this academic year, hitting them up in the clusters that were created this summer to assign schools principal coaches. One issue that's being worked out is which teachers get to attend the snack 'n chats. Alonso doesn't want there to be a screening process, but for the first two sessions held so far, principals have picked the teachers to invite. In the future, the system plans to inform all teachers in a school about an upcoming session, but Alonso also wants to limit the number of participants to 30 so the discussion can be meaningful. To accommodate more teachers, he'll be hosting a series of Saturday breakfasts in the coming months as well.
Baltimoresun.com's 
Comments
Can't wait!
This has to be one of the most terrifying things I've heard yet for Principals.
Probably what will happen for our school is that the ones who the Principal sends will not be the ones that do all the griping (and I'm a little tired of this) nor the BTU rep, but the fresh ones.
Will it then proceed to round 2? I hear all about the visits, but he has not been to our school officially yet.
Posted by: VoiceForSchoolTruth | September 16, 2008 4:09 PM
VFST: You are correct that school leaders may have their come to Jesus moment as a result of these meetings. So to should central office staff be concerned about stepping up their game when Principals come in since they look for support from, and not compliance to, central office. And next lets see AAA invite parents and students from these same schools in for conversations of a similar nature. I would love to hear those conversations and know what teachers would think about this set up.
Basically I am amazed that a CEO would take the bold step of actually listening to those he serves - another major point for AAA. I also firmly believe that all of us - central office staff, administrators, school leaders, teachers and families need to STEP UP OUR GAMES and do a better job. I hope that AAA holds accountable those who he has the power to impact, namely those who receive a paycheck with his signature on it.
And now it's time for all of us who get such a check to reflect on our own part and practice.
Posted by: Interesting Observations | September 19, 2008 6:55 AM
I would love to have a chance to talk to Dr. Alonso as a parent, but I think it would be at least as hard to pick out parents from the pool as it is to pick out teachers. You don't want only the head of the PTA or those hand-picked by the principal. If you're interested in finding out how to attract parents who don't feel welcome, you might want to pick those who don't come to meetings, but how could you get them to come to this meeting? Maybe the best thing would be random selection, but make sure you get good representation of different ages, academic achievement, income levels... Now that would be something!
It's these kinds of conversations, plus some pretty impressive back-to-school nights that keep me optimistic about the City Schools.
Posted by: a parent | September 19, 2008 3:11 PM