San Francisco Schools Chief Arlene Ackerman sounds like one stubborn individual - but she's got the test scores to back up her methods:
Five months ago, San Francisco schools chief Arlene Ackerman had one foot out the door...Now, Ackerman happily boasts a new contract extension through 2007 and a goal to stay on the job until she retires...
Though Ackerman's outlook has changed, her core values have remained firm since becoming the San Francisco Unified School District's first African American and first female superintendent in 2000. She is a nuts-and bolts educator who believes in teaching the basics -- reading, writing and arithmetic -- and using testing to measure student achievement and teacher effectiveness...
...during her "State of the Schools" address at Marina Middle School, she'll announce her "Dream Schools" initiative, intended to bring rigorous academics to neighborhoods that haven't traditionally had them, starting with Bayview this fall. Three schools will be remade to include longer schedules, college prep course work, student uniforms and contracts signed by parents pledging cooperation.
Sounds great! Of course, she has her detractors:
Lori Moreen, a fifth-grade teacher at Bret Harte in Bayview, says she appreciates Ackerman's vision of improving the lowest-performing schools, but the pressure takes its toll. Bret Harte saw a 50 percent turnover among teachers last year, Moreen said.
Okay. That's not necessarily a cause for concern, not if the teachers who left were not doing their job well.
District-wide...Ackerman can point to year-to-year improvement in standardized test scores since she took over as proof she's getting results.
Mark Sanchez, one of three school board critics of Ackerman, says she doesn't understand that the superintendent works for the elected board and not the other way around.
He says Ackerman fails to respond to resolutions passed even on 7-0 votes. In the past year, he says, she has ignored board mandates to examine alternatives to standardized testing; to renegotiate a memorandum of understanding with the Police Department regarding cops on campus; and to compute the dollars spent at some schools in the district versus others.
Interesting. Given that she supports testing, I'm not surprised she's not interested in finding alternatives to testing. Why is the board passing resolutions that are so at odds with the methods of the Schools Chief?
"Guess what? Nothing's happened," Sanchez said. "It kind of begs the question what is a school board for if we're spending a lot of time and energy and thought to try to come up with the ideas to serve our kids best, and the superintendent just says, 'Well, I'm not going to do it.' "
Yes, it does beg the question of what good the school board is, when it's the superintendent's vision that seems to be having a positive impact on the children under her commend
Ackerman says the board makes too many demands and concentrates too much on ideology instead of education. "It's like a gnat - you just want to be, 'Go away!' '' she said of the social justice theme of many board discussions. "They're right, I'm not interested in it."
Heh. Here's an interview with Ackerman from last year:
What do you see as the job of the superintendent?
I think the primary job of the superintendent is to clear all of the obstacles so that those who are closest to the students — teachers and principals — can focus on teaching and learning. So my job is to be a champion for them, to get the resources, to make sure there are no barriers.
Let me guess - she considers that pesky school board to be one of those "barriers."
Posted by kswygert at January 21, 2004 08:26 PM