I had lunch today with Chris King the superintendent of the Boulder Valley School District (BVSD). The discussion ranged over a lot of topics - yes Columbine Elementary was one of them but by no means the major item.
So what do we get with Chris? There was no common message in what he said, but yet out of all of that what consistently struck me was that he is just trying to do his job well. He's not on some crusade to remake education. He lives with the limitations of the system. He knows he can't do everything at once.
It was interesting listening to this as he laid out his approach in each area and the limitations he must work within. Our public education system is so screwed up and has been stuck in place forever and so on the one hand you want someone who will storm the ramparts an effect major positive change. On the flip side, many have tried and all have failed to do this and so small improvements within the system may be the best approach.
In the case of Columbine he discussed how they went in assuming the parents understood how bad the situation was and would be thankful for the effort to rebuild the system there. Instead they had parents upset that they wanted to change things. What does this tell us?
First, that Chris King blew it here. He should have gotten a feel for the parent's views and then realized he needed to walk them gently through the school's status so they would see that significant change is needed.
Second, it shows one of the reasons that effecting change in a public school is so hard. By every measure Columbine is a disaster. And that disaster is sentencing those children to a life of economic poverty because without a College degree nowadays - forget it. And yet the parents...
Chris was also surprisingly honest about the major problems he faces and the limitations he has on addressing those. I think that honesty serves him well in the job because without honestly facing your problems, you can't resolve them.
He returned numerous times to the issue that many teachers, and all of their representatives, discuss what's best for the teachers. The question of what is best for the students never comes up. Never. This makes improving things for the students difficult because the point that it will help the kids is irrelevant to getting change.
In terms of replacing a lousy teacher he was very positive about teachers that are mediocre but want to improve. On the plus side they have a lot of assistance to help a teacher improve. And as he said, it's not rocket science and so most can learn to do better. And on the negative side, if a teacher wants to do better and just can't learn to teach well - they will usually leave because they know they aren't cutting it.
Now those teachers that know they suck and are just putting in the time... He said the bottom line is their job protection is such that they cannot be fired. So the district just has to carry them. And at the district level there is nothing that can be done because the teacher job security is in state law.
With that said, he does think this is going to change. The political demand for requiring competence from teachers is growing from what he has seen. He says at present all eyes are on the D.C. school system to see if the new superintendent there is able to get merit pay in and keep it as part of the system. He thinks she will lose because the unions see it as a battle they must win to keep absolute job security, but the battle is being fought.
He brought up Greeley and Pueblo as districts that are doing better with poor kids and they have studied each (and have a group going up to Greeley shortly) and are copying the ideas there that they think make sense.
He also discussed BVSD successes with improving schools, primarily the ones out in Lafayette where they have made a concerted effort and seen a significant improvement in results. Of interesting note is that Lafayette is not that different from Columbine demographically.
He also talked about a number of ways they are measuring how schools are doing, how teachers are doing, and how students are doing. He says the ability to track this now is far beyond what they had even 10 years ago. They have a clear measure and can use that to figure out what needs to be worked on.
This information is available on a per-school basis. They are trying to figure out how to make it public on a per-teacher basis but there are privacy concerns because some teachers have zero kids at proficient and that then makes public that every student in that class is below proficient.
But while all this information is being used internally so that BVSD can figure out how best to improve the system. It's not being used to educate the public. I think this may be Chris' biggest weakness - that he is not talking the public through what the status is, how they are addressing it, and where they expect to be next year and thereafter.
I don't think Chris ever mentioned parents aside from how the ones at Columbine don't realize how bad it is there. He reports to the board, works with the staff and teachers, and the kids are his charge. So parents have no official role. But they hold the most political power when they choose to wield it. And if they are ignored most of the time, then how they react when riled up is anyone's guess.
Yes most districts ignore the parents as much as possible, and are terribly dismissive of them in most conversations. But it is our kid's future that the district has in their hands and as such - we have arguably the most skin in the game. Chris (and all superintendent ) would probably find that they can accomplish more if they put in the effort to report what they are doing and why and get feedback from the parents. And put in the effort to reach significant numbers of parents. If you sell the mom network on something, then you have tremendous politcal firepower.
With all that said, Chris' focus is exactly what you want. Because the one phrase he kept repeating was that he wants to increase the number of kids they graduate who are ready for college. If I had to pick a single concrete goal for a superintendent, I can't think of a better one.
