Nothing more worthwhile than fighting for children

I read a great article today in the December 13, 2010 issue of Newsweek.  Michelle Rhee, former chancellor of the D.C. public school system wrote a very candid article about her achievements and challenges in turning around a chronically low performing district.  It was refreshing to read that she initially told her future boss that he wouldn't want to hire her because she would do what was right for the city's children, that it would upset the status quo, and she would become a political problem.  I am glad he hired her anyway, because during her tenure, D.C. went from being the worst performing on the NAEP exam, to leading the nation in gains in 4th and 8th grade reading and math.  For the first time in 41 years, the trend of declining enrollment reversed as families began choosing D.C. public schools again.  She also writes in an honest and straightforward manner about things she could have done differently during her tenure.  This is a woman who believes in doing what is right for our kids, and is willing to do what it takes to get it done.  She states that when working for change, we cannot shy away from conflict.  Ms. Rhee left her post in D.C. voluntarily and has founded StudentsFirst (http://www.studentsfirst.org/ ).  The home page of the website reads:

"The movement begins with you. To truly transform education in America, to create a system that puts students’ needs first, we need parents, teachers, administrators, politicians, and citizens from across the country to come together, recognize the problems in our system, and have the guts to overcome them."

 This is a non-partisan organization that has unlimited potential to initiate and sustain long term change in our schools.  I hope that you will visit this website.  This is really exciting stuff!

http://www.studentsfirst.org/

Excelling and Succeeding Against the Odds

Recently, I spent the weekend out of town with my family.  We returned on a cold December Sunday evening to discover that the furnace had been off all weekend, and our house was freezing.  It was a fairly easy fix for us.  Within a few hours, our house was back up to temperature.  But as I sat freezing, waiting for the house to heat up, I thought about students who are homeless, or whose family is unable to pay the heating bill.  These students will come to our schools with a need to learn and achieve at the same level as more affluent peers.  Those of us committed to the improvement and achievement of students in Title 1 schools have embraced a challenging endeavor.  Homelessness and poverty, language and cultural barriers, federally mandated sanctions, budgeting and reporting requirements, and compliance reviews are some things that our to-do lists have in common.  With a myriad of demands from so many different areas, collaboration and networking could easily be pushed to the back burner or removed from our list completely.  We look at the demands of our workload and conclude that we simply do not have time.  I would urge each of you to preserve time for collaboration and networking.  The ideas that we share, the information that we learn, and the momentum that we initiate, when we come together as a group of professionals dedicated to school improvement has the potential to transform education in our state.  None of us can accomplish everything by ourselves, but we have unlimited potential to initiate change as a united and collaborative group.  I very much look forward to our Summit on March 11th.

Happy Holidays.

Why do I Stay?

Our jobs are challenging.  Most of our students live in poverty and many of them do not speak English.  We work hard to provide them with a quality education and at times it seems that the law and the media take note of everything except the progress that is made each day in thousands of classrooms.  Those of  you who attended the 2010 Summit heard me ask the question, "Why do I stay?"  It is worth repeating here.  I stay because I believe in what we do each day, and I take it personally when I see federal dollars used in ways that are not the most beneficial for our students.  When a federal law requires that millions of dollars be spent on interventions that are not supported by data, all of us need to stay and work together for changes.  Until NCLB is amended, it is what we have.  Instead of leaving, let's collaborate to find the most beneficial and efficient uses of the federal law and dollars that we have.  That is why I stay.

What are the most significant issues facing Title 1 Schools in Improvement?

Welcome to the Blog for the 2011 School Improvement Superstars Summit.  Here is the place to share your ideas and issues.  We can serve all students better when we collaborate.