In today's paper, I report about KIPP's proposal to open a new charter elementary school in Baltimore in 2009. KIPP -- the acclaimed Knowledge is Power Program, which runs one of Maryland's top middle schools with poor city kids -- already had approval to open a second middle school next year. But the school management network is changing plans after analyzing the declining preparation levels of the incoming fifth-graders at the existing middle school. (KIPP Ujima Village Academy in West Baltimore serves fifth through eighth grades.)

KIPP administers the Stanford 9 standardized test to students as they enter fifth grade. In 2003, the incoming fifth-graders scored at the 30th percentile in reading, the 38th percentile in math and the 32nd percentile in language. In 2007, when the incoming fifth-grade class was tested, those scores had declined to the 16th percentile in reading, the 19th percentile in math and the 15th percentile in language. Every year, the students have come less prepared than the class before.

I asked Jason Botel, executive director of KIPP Baltimore, why he thinks that is. He doesn't know for sure, but he has two theories. One is that elementary schools are spending so much time and emphasis preparing students for the Maryland School Assessments that they aren't teaching them other basic skills that would be measured on a test like the Stanford 9. A second theory is that parents of needier students are choosing to send their kids to a charter school because the traditional public schools aren't working for them.

In any case, KIPP believes it needs to get students younger so there's less ground to make up when they arrive in middle school.

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The recent assault of a teacher by a student at Reginald F. Lewis High has highlighted a number of serious concerns facing schools right now. I have been most disturbed by the claims that administrators are not reporting certain disciplinary incidents to alter school statistics.

I must stress that the student in this recent case was suspended from school immediately following the incident. I am focusing more on the teachers union's claims that incidents like this are frequent and often unreported.

Marietta English, co-president of the Baltimore Teachers Union, said her office has been receiving two or three complaints a day of assaults on teachers, many of which are not reported to the school system or police, according to Sara Neufeld’s story.

The union has long claimed that administrators aren't reporting violent incidents or doing enough to punish children who are violent, for fear their schools will be labeled "persistently dangerous" under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, Sara’s story says.

A persistently dangerous school is defined in Maryland by the number of suspensions for violent offenses, not the number of offenses itself.

This isn’t just a problem in Baltimore.

My mother – a retired principal in Syracuse, New York – last night said she discussed this matter with some of her former peers, and it is common knowledge that some schools to not report certain disciplinary actions. (For the record, my mother detests this practice.)

Dr. Alonso has threatened to fire anyone in Baltimore city schools who does not report these incidents, Sara told me when I talked to her a few minutes ago.

The system says it has expelled students for assaults on staff members 112 times this school year, compared with 98 at this time last year.

School officials point to the slight increase in expulsions as a result of Dr. Alonso's policy, Sara told me.

Are schools are doctoring their discipline numbers to avoid: a negative community reaction, or an “unsafe schools” label?

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A recent article in the Christian Science Monitor reports something many of us have heard before --- good superintendents are hard to find; harder yet is keeping them. The current trend of fewer qualified candidates, especially minorities, to fill the vacancies has created what is called the "rock star superintendent." And apparently there is one in our own backyard:

"Successful 'rock star' superintendents, including Rudy Crew of Miami-Dade in Florida and Joe Hairston in Baltimore, show that the right fit can be helpful for improving academic performance and reducing discipline problems, experts say. Mr. Crew was named superintendent of the year in 2007 by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS)."

To read more, click here.

Posted by Gina Davis at 6:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

Baltimore County schools Superintendent Joe A. Hairston was recently reappointed as chief of the 105,000-student school system, but at least one local legislator is hoping Hairston isn't in line for pay raise.

Republican Del. Pat McDonough, who represents parts of Baltimore and Harford counties, says "these are tough economic times," and it would be irresponsible to give a raise to Hairston, who earns about $260,000 annually. In a recently circulated letter, McDonough asked fellow Baltimore County legislators to support this "hold the line" approach.

No doubt many of the county's 9,000 teachers might favor McDonough's suggestion -- Hairston's recently proposed $1.18 billion operating budget for the coming school year included no raises for teachers.

Posted by Gina Davis at 6:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

There's a good article in today's New York Times about a principal -- who happens to be a Hasidic Jew -- who's had surprising success turning around a middle school in the Bronx. Shimon Waronker was met with a lot of skepticism when he arrived at Junior High School 22, which had been on a list of the 12 most dangerous schools in New York City. The overwhelming majority of the school's students are black and Hispanic; Waronker surprised them with his ability to speak Spanish. Over the past three years, he has replaced more than half the school's teachers and earned his fair share of critics. But NYC schools chancellor Joel Klein (who was Andres Alonso's boss when he was deputy chancellor there) is quoted in the article saying he'd clone the principal if he could.

Finding great principals, giving them autonomy and holding them accountable for the results: That's the heart of school reform efforts in New York, and now in Baltimore. The question, when these principals are successful, is what lessons can be learned for all schools?

Posted by Sara Neufeld at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

My story today about the resignation of Marco Clark, the principal of Maritime Industries Academy, was reminiscent of another that I covered a few years ago, when the principal of Frederick Douglass High, Isabelle Grant, left suddenly under similar circumstances. The allegations against both principals involved grade falsification -- in one case, to let a student graduate; in the other, to let an academically ineligible student play football.

I remember a boy named Ignacio Evans, who spoke about Grant at a school board meeting in the spring of 2006. "She helped me out when my mother left me," he said then. "She extended her arm and was like, `Whatever you need, I'm there.' She pushed the papers so I could become a foster child, and now I am."

Like many students at Maritime now, Ignacio and his classmates wanted a chance to say goodbye to a person who might have been the most stable adult presence in their lives. The kids I interviewed yesterday talked about Clark as a father figure, just like the kids at Douglass viewed Grant like a mother.

And in both cases, the principals left without explanation, and students and families were left without any closure. In such cases, the school system is legally bound from commenting on what happened, since it's a personnel matter and anything said could lead to litigation.

What is the appropriate response in a situation like this? 

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With the holiday rush and cold season upon us, I didn't have a chance to comment last week on the appointment of East Baltimore's Cecil Elementary as a Maryland Blue Ribbon school. But here's something that struck me about the award:  

At the city school board meeting earlier this month, the board named a new principal of the school, Roxanne Forr. Forr is only the fifth principal that Cecil has had in 42 years of existence, according to a school system press release. That means each of the school leaders has lasted an average of nearly a decade.

Ninety percent of the students at Cecil receive free or reduced-price lunch. Ninety-one percent of the students passed the state reading test last spring. Ninety-six percent passed in math.

People ask how a school serving such an impoverished population can get those kind of results. Judging by the track record at Cecil and at George Washington Elementary (the national Blue Ribbon school in Pigtown), the answer seems pretty simple: a great principal who sticks around for a long time.

Here's hoping that Forr (who replaced James Drummond) can keep a good thing going...

Posted by Sara Neufeld at 8:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

In my story today, I write about a new study that found middle schools with the greatest needs in Baltimore City and Baltimore and Prince George's counties had the least experienced principals and suffer from high turnover among principals.

The study was done by the Advocates for Children and Youth, a Baltimore-based nonprofit. It looked at middle schools with the highest poverty rates and lowest test scores in the three jurisdictions. It made several disturbing revelations:

In Baltimore City alone, nine of the 10 middle schools that the study examined had at least one change in principal --- and eight of them experienced two or more changes --- from 2003 to 2007. Half of the schools had three or more new principals during that time.

In Baltimore County, where 10 of the district's 27 middle schools were examined, half had at least one change in principal and 20 percent had two or more changes during the five-year period.

And nearly 80 percent of the middle schools evaluated in Prince George's County had at least one change in principal, and one school went through five principals, in the five years.

Booker T. Washington Middle School in Baltimore had four principals during the study's period, while Golden Ring Middle School in Baltimore County has had three.

While some may quibble with whether bonuses are the answer, most everyone agrees that turning around a failing school takes energy and time --- and commitment. The bottom line, it seems, is that school systems need to give the leaders of its most challenging schools a reason to stick around long enough to make a difference.

Or, as Terrylynn Tyrell, the ACY's education director, put it:

"Its a matter of paying now, or paying later. The cost is so much smaller if we pay now."

Click here to read the ACY's full report.

What are your thoughts on this issue?

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Here are the first few lines of a press release I got yesterday from the Center for American Progress.

"PRESS CALL: Teacher Pay, Principle Pay -- A Promising Reform?

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Tomorrow, Tuesday December 4, at 1:00 PM EDT the Center for American Progress will host a conference call to discuss both teacher pay (see http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/11/teacher_pay_event.html) and principle pay and the forthcoming report from the Center for American Progress 'Principal Compensation – More Research Needed on a Promising Reform' and the connections between teacher pay and principal pay."

Principle pay?

A corrected version of the release was in my inbox this morning.

Posted by Sara Neufeld at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

On Thursday, I'll be heading up to Massachusetts for a couple days to attend a seminar for Harvard's Urban Superintendents Program, which prepares educators to become urban superintendents. (This is the program where Andres Alonso earned his doctorate.) I've been asked to speak on a media panel, talking to the current doctoral students about working with the press. On the second day of the seminar, I'll be participating in a "mock school board," interviewing these prospective superintendents as though they were applying for a job leading one of our nation's more challenging school systems. Which is why I'm posting this item... to solicit question ideas from all of you who are working (or have recently worked) in the trenches. What would you ask someone applying to be a superintendent or top-level central office administrator? What kind of answers would you want to hear?

UPDATE (Dec. 10): I just returned from the trip last night, just in time to beat some northeastern snow. There were several of us on the mock school board, so I only got to ask a few questions to each of the three candidates I interviewed. But I did ask all of them about what their mechanism would be to listen to staff and parent concerns. I got an interesting range of responses, including one who would have weekly office hours for people to come in and share their concerns. We had to ask at least some things from a list of real questions that interviewing superintendents have had to answer. A number of them were close to the questions submitted here (how to hold parents accountable, views on charter and magnet schools, etc.). Thanks again to all of you for your great suggestions.

Posted by Sara Neufeld at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

What does it take to be the state's Superintendent of the Year? 

The Harford County Public Schools announced that its superintendent, "Jackie Haas has been named the Maryland Superintendent of the Year!"

So how many other superintendents were vying for this esteemed state title? When the Sun contacted the Public School Superintendents Association of Maryland, the executive director, James L. Lupis Jr., was strangely mum.

"I can't divulge that.  We have countywide school systems in Maryland where we have 24 school systems and 24 superintendents."  The number of nominations varies year-to-year, he said.

"Was Dr. Haas the only one in the applicant pool this year?"

"No."

"Was it less than five?'

"Yes." 

Lupis wouldn't say the exact number of nominees for this year's Maryland Superintendent of the Year, although now we can narrow it down to two or three or four.

The award implies that  the superintendent is picked statewide, in the same fashion as the state's Teacher of the Year prize.  But the average number of nominees each year is less than five, Lupis said.   

Haas receives a traveling plaque with her name engraved along previous winners.  She will be one of the 50 superintendents vying for the title of National Superintendent of the Year awarded by the American Association of School Administrators (AASA).  Read the full two-page announcement here.

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Around 250 people gathered Monday night in the swanky Corinthian Room at the Tremont Grand Hotel to hear Andres Alonso, John Deasy and Nancy Grasmick talk about school leadership. The panel was organized by New Leaders for New Schools, a principal training program that's holding its national conference in Baltimore this week (with many of the participants from Baltimore and Prince George's County). A selection of the panelists' comments:

Deasy (the Prince George's superintendent): Called the principalship the "lonliest and most powerful position" in public education. He said great principals are "on the verge of insubordination" and "willing to make public acts of courage" on behalf of kids. Said principals must use the expertise on their faculty to educate themselves and build a team. But, firing ineffective teachers is "exactly part of the job." He asks his principals about their teachers: "Who are the bottom five percent and why are you keeping them? Who are the top five percent and what are you doing to keep them?" Said his job is to get out of the way of principals whose schools are performing well, but to give less autonomy to principals where students are not achieving.

Alonso (the city's new schools CEO): Echoed Deasy's call for insubordination. "It can't be about the rules," he said. "It has to be about pushing through the rules for the benefit of student achievement." Said the principalship is an intellectual, spiritual and emotional enterprise, but "good principals have great common sense... It's easy to see how often people lack common sense." Said school districts often fail principals by leaving them to sink or swim. He supports giving principals the authority to get rid of ineffective teachers -- but not simply to transfer them elsewhere. "The dance of lemons is taking place is many, many urban schools in the country," he said. But once teachers have tenure, it's "extraordinarily difficult" to get rid of them, and where he came from in New York City, the number of teachers denied tenure is "extraordinarily small." Disagreed with Deasy on the autonomy issue, saying that principals should all get autonomy and then be held accountable for the results, once clear metrics are established. In Baltimore, he said, "we will move toward autonomy when we're ready. We're not ready now."

Grasmick (the state superintendent): Said no other position in education is transforming like the principalship, and retaining good principals is one of the biggest problems in education. There must be a recognition that principals don't enter their jobs with all the requisite skills. "We've done a poor job of providing requisite skills for principals in higher education," she said.

Posted by Sara Neufeld at 7:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

Some interesting tidbits from "The State of the American School Superintendency," a report released this week by the American Association of School Administrators:

-- More than 20 percent of superintendents in 2006 were women, up from 16 percent in 2000 and 6.6 percent in 1992. 

-- A majority of superintendents believe that No Child Left Behind has had a negative effect on the nation's schools.

-- Mean tenure for superintendents is 5.5 years; median tenure is near six years.

Get more information on the study here.

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