It's The Vision Thing--Effective Schools First Serve The Needs of Children

Where is the visionary leadership within public education?   Effective school leadership should be about doing what’s best for kids and making wise decisions that ensure a quality education for all children while at the same time protecting the taxpayers’ money—money they entrusted to schools to spend wisely.  Unfortunately,  many charter schools and public school districts around California appear not to always operate to serve the children’s best interests, but rather to serve the needs of the adults.  

This year, there is at least one high school in the San Francisco Bay area that required students to return their textbooks up to a week prior to sitting for final exams. If final exams are so important that they will account for up to 20% of a student's final grade, why complicate the process of preparation by taking away the primary resources that kids need? If the reason is concern that kids will not return their textbooks, there must be a more reasonable option than this.  There can be no "child-centered"  explanation as to why a school's leadership would make this decision.   The needs of adults take priority over the best interest of the students.  

At San Carlos Charter Learning Center, we enjoy a partnership with another public school educator who teaches Creative Writing at a local high school.   Students from this Creative Writing class do a special collaborative project each year.  They create a children's book which is then "published," then shared with one of our kindergarteners.  Finally, the books are then given as gifts to the young 5 year old readers.   I cannot explain how wonderful it is to see these 16 and 17 year old kids so engaged not only with the process of writing, but also with sharing their own stories with the younger learners.  This week, our youngest learners enjoyed this experience with their high school "buddy."  It was magical.  

I was notified yesterday that the high school will not be offering this class after this year.  To paraphrase one person connected with this story,  there are just "too many kids" interested in taking this class.  Since not every child is able take this class that wanted to take it, the school's leadership decided it was preferable to terminate the program entirely rather than try to find a creative way to allow more kids to take this creative writing class.  Another reason that was offered was that this is a popular class and rather than have students take a year of Creative Writing, all kids will have to take "English 4" and then Creative Writing will be reduced to just one small unit within the year.  How can seemingly rational school leaders make decisions like this and think this is what's best for kids?  The answer seems to be that the bureaucratization of California public education values "efficiency" over doing what is right for kids.  Sometimes doing the right thing is less efficient and sometimes it takes more work.   And, it is worth it for the kids.  

So, where is the accountability?  Working for a charitable organization like CLC does not absolve me of my responsibility to be accountable for the decisions I make.  Visionary leadership must champion accountability.  For example, why are so many teachers and principals that are evaluated as being “Excellent” or "High Performing"  work in schools that are literally failing our kids?  It is not unusual to find schools in California where only 15% of its students are performing at grade level yet, have 90% or more of its teachers in that same school having evaluations of "Above Average" or "Excellent."   That is a reality that defies explanation.  And it happens year after year.

A recent study by The New Teacher Project of twelve districts in four states revealed that more than 99 percent of teachers in districts using binary ratings were rated satisfactory whereas 94 percent received one of the top two ratings in districts using a broader range of ratings.[i]  As Secretary of Education Arne Duncan put it, “Today in our country, 99 percent of our teachers are above average.”[ii]  Where is the visionary leadership in education? 

School choice is at the heart of charter school education reform.  I believe that each and every school, whether a charter school or a school within a district, has its own unique community culture.   School communities are made up of a unique set of families and educators, neighbors, and children.  To not celebrate each school’s identity, to not allow each community to deal with its specific needs in a manner that works for them, to not allow each school community some measure of autonomy and independence so that more decision making can happen at the school site level, is leadership not acting in the best interest of its children.  Where is the visionary leadership?  

 A great example of visionary leadership can be found right here in California.  Don Shalvey, the former Superintendent of San Carlos, helped to start San Carlos Charter Learning Center almost twenty years ago.  He then went on to establish the Aspire Charter School Network that now has a presence throughout the state.  His vision back in 1998 was to create a network of charter schools devoted to improving the quality of public education in California's most dysfunctional school districts. Don was groundbreaking in the movement to improve teacher accountability and to establish statewide education standards that reflected real learning and not just rote memorization.  

Without Don Shalvey's hard work and belief that public school districts require fundamental and systemic change, parents would not have the kinds of choices we now have in California with the charter school reform movement.  Don Shalvey is now working with Bill Gates supporting education reform at the school level as well as education policy reform at both the state and national level.    Don Shalvey is a great example of an educational leader that posses that "Vision Thing."