This month, the Colorado Association of School Executives bestowed the honor of "state superintendent of the year" to a man named John Barry. People may be interested to know that John Barry, who leads the Aurora, Colorado schools, does not have a background in education. Barry -- General John Barry, that is -- is a distinguished retired two-star major general from the U.S. Air Force.
After serving our nation for 30 years, managing large organizations at the state, national and global levels and even leading the Space Shuttle Columbia accident investigation, Gen. Barry decided to serve his country in an equally important way, as a school superintendent. Barry's success today in leading his school district to accomplish its mission of raising student achievement, particularly for low-income students, has brought him his state's top superintendent honor.
Like the military sector, the business sector has produced great management talent. For example, Paula Dawning, AT&T's former vice president of sales, went on to lead one of the poorest and most chronically underperforming urban school systems in Michigan: Benton Harbor. Under her management, fourth grade reading test scores improved more than 100 percent in just two years, and the dropout rate decreased 20 percent. Like Barry, Dawning was also named state superintendent of the year.
As New Yorkers consider whether Cathie Black is qualified to run the New York City Department of Education, it is worth looking at why leaders without education backgrounds, like Barry and Dawning, have succeeded, and what leadership skills and experience are truly essential in order to see student gains.
At first glance, it seems strange to suggest that a leader outside of an industry is worthy of leading within that industry. However, many other nontraditional superintendents across the country have led their districts to raise student achievement -- among them: former Chicago Superintendent Arne Duncan, former Denver Superintendent Michael Bennet, and former San Diego Superintendent Alan Bersin.
So how is it that leaders without backgrounds in education have been able to guide public school districts to raise student achievement?
The answer lies in the fact that one of the main reasons that teachers and students today do not have the support they need to succeed in the classroom is because too many superintendents with expertise in teaching and learning unfortunately do not have the knowledge and experience necessary to efficiently and effectively run multi-million or billion dollar enterprises and deliver results.
In other words, what we have on our hands is a management problem. Without an outstanding manager at the top, teachers and students don't get the support they need. Managers are responsible for setting workplace policies under which teachers can succeed. Managers are responsible for negotiating contracts that create the conditions under which teachers can succeed. Managers are responsible for making sure that central office employees directly support what our military friends call the "front lines" in education -- teachers in the classroom.
Managers are responsible for making sure that student interests -- rather than vendor, contractor or political interests -- remain front and center in central office decisions. And managers are responsible for budgeting, tracking and efficiently allocating resources, across transportation, facilities, human resources, and operations, so as to push all possible dollars down to the classroom, so teachers can earn more and students have the learning opportunities they deserve.
We don't have to look far to find dozens of large city school districts nationwide that have been close to -- if not in -- bankruptcy in recent years, even before the recession. Without the strongest manager on top, millions of precious taxpayer dollars dedicated to educating our children have too often gone missing, unaccounted for or have fallen into the pockets of contractors. And what's left may or may not be spent on efforts likely to raise student achievement and close chronic income and ethnic achievement gaps, although that is our national goal.
For example, it took the Governor of Michigan appointing a leader outside of education, Robert Bobb, to discover that Detroit Public Schools had been distributing paychecks to hundreds of "people" who were deceased. Those paychecks were being cashed.
Another large city school district central office recently "managed" thousands of school buses by moving around colored string on the wall, even though a multi-million dollar piece of software designed to efficiently manage transportation lay unopened in the closet. Students and teachers surely could have benefited from having millions more in the classroom. And community members whose taxes funded that software surely would have preferred that it be efficiently applied toward efforts that directly served students.
This sad state of affairs is not the fault of teachers or parents -- it is the fault of management. Because of a lack of strong management, students, teachers and taxpayers in cities nationwide have been shortchanged.
To be successful, chancellors or superintendents must quickly learn from the greatest minds and research available on how to improve their organization's ability to engage all students at high academic levels, which is fundamental to setting strategy and producing results. And, they must be surrounded by outstanding experts in teaching and learning. The New York City Department of Education is fortunate to have such experts at the cabinet level.
But our experience shows that it is not necessary that superintendents themselves have backgrounds in education. A great education leader can learn the operations side, and a great business leader can learn the education side. But the most important thing is to get the best manager possible -- with a track record like Cathie Black -- in place while the opportunity exists.
Eli Broad, founder of The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundations, which funds The Broad Superintendents Academy.
Gary Anderson: Cathleen Black: Education's Sarah Palin?
Alan Singer: Fight for NYC Schools Is Just Beginning
What exactly should we be selling in schools in order to be like a for profit organization, and how do we process the raw material ( students) we have?
Please enlighten me on this....
Sign me:
Experienced in business and education.
At the ground level the Military provides structure and discipline for youths. At the ground level what does Hearst Magazine provide for young elementary school aged children? I can see if she transitioned from a business dealing with young adults. But most of Hearst Magazines target market for their various syndication are Adults.
It's not that she doesn't have Managerial experience, it's that her experience is I-R-R-E-L-E-V-A-N-T. (As in not pertaining to the position.)
Can I get a job in an auto shop if I don't have mechanical skills? Nope. So why should she get a job in the Education industry with ZERO education experience, whether it be personal or professional?
Even Oprah has more experience in that respect than she does!
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175022
"Fast Times at Recruitment High":
http://motherjones.com/politics/2009/08/fast-times-recruitment-high
"The Chicago Model of Militarizing Schools"
http://www.truth-out.org/062909T
and one of my favorites, General Tata, a Broad Academy graduate:
"Brigadier General Anthony J. Tata: ‘Going Rogue’ Reveals Palin’s Ready to Lead"
ttp://www.conservatives4palin.com/2009/12/brigadier-general-anthony-j-tata-going.html
"Brigadier General (R) Anthony J. Tata"
http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/author/ajtata/
Brigadier General Anthony J. Tata: ‘Going Rogue’ Reveals Palin’s Ready to Lead
http://www.conservatives4palin.com/2009/12/brigadier-general-anthony-j-tata-going.html
The Brigadier is a Broad Academy graduate.
I too am concerned with this focus on the military. It's like people who do not want to have their children or grandchildren do the dirty work of war are ready to train other people's children to do it for them.
See: http://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/2010/10/03/robert-bobb-the-sad-saga-continues/
and
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dora-taylor/so-who-will-take-over-the_b_761412.html
Foundation to Help Execute Teacher Effectiveness.
See The Lines of Influence:
http://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/2010/08/23/the-lines-of-influence-in-education-reform/
for information on where the money comes from and flows to.
- Randolph Ward (BSA '03) was so despised during his time in Oakland Unified that he felt the need to hire a body guard.
- Jean-Claude Brizard (BSA '07) discriminated against a high-ranking Rochester School District employee, according to the EEOC. Now he's helping his wife open a charter school in his district.
- Arnold “Woody” Carter (BSA '02) was fired by Capistrano Unified for double-billing the district for travel expenses, showing "disturbing disregard" for student confidentiality matters, violating school board policies and state laws, and deliberately working to undermine and embarrass the school board.
- John Q. Porter (BSA '06) resigned after being suspended by Oklahoma City Public Schools for financial mismanagement and poor job performance. The scandal resulted in an investigation by Montgomery County Public Schools which discovered that Porter had engaged in questionable spending and financial practices during his time there.
- Deborah Sims (BSA '05) received an unprecedented vote of no-confidence by 86% of the teachers and then resigned.
- John Deasy (BSA '06) was embroiled in a controversy about the legitimacy of his PhD. He resigned while it was being investigated and went to work for the Gates Foundation, after which it was arranged for him to work in LAUSD.
- Robert Bobb (BSA '07) and Maria Goodloe-Johnson (BSA '03) are widely despised as leaders, too.
Recently, her Broad number's guy was busted creating magical numbers to justify the superintendent's push towards ed reform.
See: http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/11/broad-alum-busted-in-seattle-public.html#comment-form
and
http://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/2010/11/23/oops-i-did-it-again/
if you dont learn to teach to the tests you will go bye bye.
you will now experience what the rest of americans working for corporations have experienced.
ge even got to the point of firing the bottom ten per cent each year.
fear will set in and cover you buns will be the new cry but the top ten per cent.
teacher will be put against teacher as each are rated against one another.
fear always has negative side effects but it appears to work early on.
pay for performance is based on fear of falling below that average line which half the teachers must fall below. managers/ administrators will be told to make sure at least half fall below that line. shape up or ship out will be the new order of the day.
be prepared to be dehumanized as the carrot and stick is coming your way.
look how well pay for performance worked for wall street, banks, home loans corps, and the big three. :-) yet we want more. profound ignorance.
now we submit our children to it. sad to watch. teachers study deming and find out why it does not work.
Remember the TARP money, anyone?
But keep it up give them another chance to perfect their incompetence and let our children suffer.
You fundamental logical flaw is in treating a highly complex, human endeavor as though a simple managerial intervention and the application of "business logic" might "fix" it. You reflect the prevailing philosophy in American culture, market-model fundamentalism, the idea that if we operate everything as though it were a business success is assured. It may be generations before we, as a society wake up to the flaws in this approach.
I have a Bachelors in Business Administration and a Masters in Education.
Currently, I'm working as a teacher and am considering a career move. May I respectfully submit my resume to you in order to be considered for the position of Chancellor of the NYC DOE? I believe that my experience and qualifications DO meet the requirements that you have set forth......
And, I wouldn't need to obtain an educational waiver in order to fulfill the needs of the job. Unlike the soon to be appointed Chancellor, I DO have permanent certification as an educator in NYS.