The new interim president of Auburn University is a former K-12 superintendent with a controversial reputation:
[Ed] Richardson, prickly on his best days, comes to Auburn much as he came into the state superintendency in 1995 - as essentially an outsider bent on shaking things up. What he saw in 1995 was an establishment content with poorly performing schools and averse to holding schools accountable.
Now, 99 months later, Richardson leaves what he called his dream job with feelings of pride and frustration.
He is proud of many accomplishments - requiring students to take tougher courses, lowering class sizes and raising standardized test scores above the national average, reducing dropout rates to all-time lows, reinstituting a competency exam for college students training to be teachers, and holding school systems accountable for spending.
But he is frustrated over what he considers his greatest failure - persuading taxpayers to pay more for education. The overwhelming September 2003 vote rejecting Gov. Bob Riley's $1.2 billion tax and accountability plan left Richardson convinced his effectiveness as superintendent was over.
With those accomplishments, wonder why he was considered so controversial?
In 1998, Jefferson County Schools Superintendent Bruce Wright said Richardson was guided by a management style that followed the principle that "beatings will continue until morale improves."
Oh my.
Richardson was particularly tough on groups he saw as anti-public education. In late 1998, he charged that the Christian Right was fundamentally anti-public schools. He later gave a qualified apology but still sees the Christian Right as a foe of public schools...
Among his critics, Richardson's legacy is mixed at best.
Stephanie Bell of the state Board of Education said Richardson created tension among many groups who tried to move education forward. "We're not as far along as we should be because Ed too often wanted to pick a fight instead of solve a problem," Bell said...
Marie Harbison of Pinson, past president of the Alabama PTA, praised Richardson for raising public awareness of school problems. She also said his style and attitude got in the way of his effectiveness.
"He can come across like a bull in the china shop," she said. "I think sometimes people felt he did not really listen to their side.
Sounds like he was a blunt officiator who was less willing to "hear all the voices" than to make decisions and stand behind them.
For his part, Richardson offered one piece of advice to the K-12 establishment he leaves behind after 40-plus years in it.
"High quality standards, higher accountability in the public schools is obviously going to take longer than I had hoped," he said.
"But if we keep moving the bar up, my hope is voters will eventually respond in a way I could not convince them to."
Posted by kswygert at January 25, 2004 09:51 PM