Better Leaders for America's Schools

Chester E. Finn, Jr. / May 22, 2003

Few deny that U.S. public schools and districts need better leaders than many of them now have - or that the pressure of NCLB's performance expectations plus the surge of retirements among principals and superintendents will inflame this need in the years ahead. But where to find such people? What to look for? How to prepare them? On what terms to employ them?

This week, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute (the Foundation's sister organization) and the Broad Foundation released a bipartisan "manifesto" that answers these urgent questions. Initially signed by 65 prominent educators and policymakers, Better Leaders for America's Schools calls for wholesale changes in how and where our schools and districts seek the leadership they need.

The boldest idea is to stop looking for school leaders only within the ranks of veteran educators. In today's environment, what matters most is that they be effective executives.

Bold, yes, but also commonsensical. The quest for leadership is not a function of ideology or politics but of supply and demand on the one hand, and organizational/regulatory arrangements on the other. The manifesto's signers come from many directions, including the education field, but they all agree that the schools and districts in greatest need of first-rate leadership are more apt to get it if they broaden the search.

We made a breakthrough two decades back when our idea of the principal's role evolved from "building manager" to "instructional leader." Today, however, we understand that, while

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Better Leaders for America's Schools

Crossing the Ideological Divide

Thomas J. Lasley / May 22, 2003

As Checker says, it's true that we need better school leadership to improve American K-12 education. With a large percentage of U.S. principals retiring within a decade and with a revolving door to many superintendents' offices, we need new solutions if we are going to recruit, prepare, and retain school leaders who can meet the challenges of these hugely demanding (and poorly compensated) professional positions.

The argument, however, is about exactly HOW to select and prepare those new, improved public-school administrators. Better Leaders for America's Schools: A Manifesto offers a now familiar conservative policy palliative: simplify entry requirements, introduce competition among training programs, and relax the terms of employment for school leaders.

As a confirmed member of the "education monopoly," the Manifesto's solutions seem familiar indeed, and in some respects threatening. Yet the Manifesto also contains important convergences with my own thinking. I stand on the opposite end of the policy spectrum from many ideas proposed by the Fordham Foundation, but as I read the Manifesto, I discovered many points of agreement:

*We agree that there is an urgent need for improved administrator quality. The demands of NCLB require not only highly qualified teachers in every classroom but also highly qualified leaders in every school.

*We agree that such leaders shoulder a huge responsibility and in far too many instances are under-compensated and over-worked.

*We agree that the communities in most need are the same ones desperately searching for school leaders who are capable of

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CA schools paid extra to do the minimum

May 22, 2003

A recent article in the Sacramento Bee uncovered a questionable education finance plan in California dating back to 1979 that forces the state to provide extra money to schools that meet bare minimum requirements for carrying out state mandates. Proposition 4 declared that, if the state imposed a new program or higher level of service on a local agency, it had to provide the additional funds to pay for it. Thirty years later this has been transformed into a system for paying schools to do even the most basic kinds of educational activities, such as "posting agendas for public meetings, keeping track of immunizations, [and] teaching science to sophomores." Unfortunately, there appears to be little accountability built into this program, as one consulting firm that works with hundreds of districts across the state was recently accused of falsifying information on these claims. While the firm denies the allegations, it did agree to a multi-million dollar settlement to avoid a drawn-out court battle, which the senior assistant attorney general says "speaks volumes." A reforming breeze seems to be blowing, however: last year, the governor provided an additional $1.6 million for new auditors and the legislature set limits on how much time districts have to submit claims after a law is passed. A better solution has also been proposed: eliminating the many separate mandates and funding streams in favor of a system of block grants that schools could use at their discretion.

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CA schools paid extra to do the minimum

Profile of Learning pitched in MN

May 22, 2003

After a five-year battle to replace Minnesota's disgraceful Profile of Learning standards with a more rigorous set of academic standards and accountability - a fight led by Governor Tim Pawlenty and education secretary Cheri Pearson Yecke-the state legislature finally reached a bipartisan agreement to repeal the standards minutes before the close of this year's session. [For the Gadfly's treatment of this ongoing struggle, go to http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=8#370 and http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=21#129.] This vote, according to Yecke, marks a shift "away from the project-oriented Profile to a more back-to-basics system of learning." Now that the initial battle has been won, of course, the challenge facing policy makers is to write new, more specific and rigorous standards in science, social studies, and art. (Math and language arts standards have already been completed).

"Profile of learning repealed," by Anthony Lonetree, The Star Tribune, May 20, 2003

"New standards win legislative OK on a bipartisan note," by John Welsh, St. Paul Pioneer Press, May 20, 2003

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Profile of Learning pitched in MN

Union strikes back in LA board election

May 22, 2003

On Tuesday, union-backed (and incumbent) Los Angeles Board of Education member David Tokofsky defeated challenger Nellie Rios-Parra in a key runoff election that shifted the board's balance of power back to the union. Four years ago, with the backing of the Coalition for Kids, a political action group led by financier Eli Broad and former mayor Richard Riordan, reform-minded candidates were able to win a majority on the school board. This year, the teachers' union outspent the Coalition and helped defeat two reformist incumbents in the general election in March, then provided Tokofsky with plenty of financial support to help him ensure victory in this runoff. [For more details on the general election, see http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=14#293.]

"Trustee Tokofsky reelected," by Cara Mia DiMassa, Duke Helfand, and Erika Hayasaki, Los Angeles Times, May 21, 2003

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Union strikes back in LA board election

Vouchers and the court, part II

May 22, 2003

Last year, in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that public money could cover tuition costs for children at private schools. Now, the Court is being asked to rule on whether tax dollars can cover scholarships, textbooks, and other types of aid for the study of religion in higher ed institutions. At stake is Washington state's "Promise Scholarships," which cover tuition and other costs for low-income, high-achieving high school graduates at Washington universities. Joshua Davey qualified for one, but was denied when he decided to study pastoral ministries at a religious college. State officials said that Washington law forbids public aid to religious schools, basing their decision on the state's "Blaine Amendment," one of a series passed in the late 19th century to force Catholic children into largely Protestant public schools. The setting for this case is college, but the ruling will have far-reaching implications for K-12 education, since Colorado's Blaine Amendment has already been invoked in a suit challenging their new voucher law and the outcome of that suit may determine whether other Blaine states will be able to pursue voucher programs. [For more on Colorado's program, go to http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=17#226.]

"Justices again asked to draw church-state line," by David G. Savage, Los Angeles Times, May 19, 2003

"Rights coalition files suit over Colorado vouchers law," by Michael A. Fletcher, The Washington Post, May 21, 2003

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Vouchers and the court, part II

Caps, Gowns, and Games: High School Graduates and NCLB

Chester E. Finn, Jr. / May 22, 2003

Christopher B. Swanson, The Urban Institute
May 2003

The Urban Institute's Education Policy Center has issued a policy brief entitled "Caps, Gowns, and Games: High School Graduates and NCLB," based on a long paper entitled "Counting High School Graduates when Graduates Count: Measuring Graduation Rates under the High Stakes of NCLB." The main point of both is that, at a time when Uncle Sam requires states and districts to use "the percentage of students graduating on time with a regular diploma" as a key indicator of their academic performance in connection with NCLB accountability demands, it matters hugely what method states use to calculate those rates and percentages. Analysts Duncan Chaplin and Christopher Swanson say the NCES method (which cannot even be used in many districts and states due to data gaps) yields rates about ten percent higher than are produced by two other calculations ("cumulative promotion index" [CPI method] and "adjusted completion ratio" [ACR method]). For example, Connecticut's public high school graduation rate in 2000 was 85 percent under the NCES methodology, 76 percent using CPI and 70 percent using ACR. So it matters quite a lot, and the Urban Institute's authors worry that, in an era of high-stakes accountability, states and districts may choose methods that make them look good but understate the extent of the dropout problem. You can find the policy brief at http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/310777_LearningCurve_1.pdf and the long paper at http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/410641_NCLB.pdf.

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Caps, Gowns, and Games: High School Graduates and NCLB

High Schools on a Human Scale: How Small Schools Can Transform American Education

Chester E. Finn, Jr. / May 22, 2003

Tom Toch, Beacon Press
2003

Veteran education journalist Tom Toch authored this 140-page book for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as part of the latter's effort to promote and support small schools. It profiles five small (or multi-part but small scale) schools in various parts of the country, several of them already famous in high-school reform circles (and two of them charter schools). This clear and nicely written volume offers a good introduction to the world of small high schools, though it's a tad boosterish and doesn't always make clear how difficult this is to do well. [To get a sense of the difficulty, see http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=21#136.] Toch's short epilogue ("Scaling Up"), however, is worth the price of admission, for it concisely sets forth some of the central challenges in turning small high schools from fad into a serious education improvement strategy and cautions those who may suppose that size is all that matters when it comes to high-school reform. The ISBN is 080703245X, the publisher is Beacon Press, and you can get more information at http://www.beacon.org/sp03cat/toch.html.

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High Schools on a Human Scale: How Small Schools Can Transform American Education

The ABC's of AYP: Raising Achievement for All Students

David L. House II / May 22, 2003

The Education Trust
Spring 2003

This concise report by the Education Trust provides a summary of NCLB's adequate yearly progress (AYP) requirements. It provides a clear explanation of AYP, clears up some common myths about what the requirements mean for schools and districts, and outlines some of the challenges that lay ahead. It's a clear and useful tool for practitioners and policy makers who want to make heads or tails of this often-confusing part of NCLB. To view the report, click http://www.edtrust.org/main/documents/ABCAYP.pdf.

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The ABC's of AYP: Raising Achievement for All Students

The Hidden Crisis in the High School Dropout Problems of Young Adults in the U.S.: Recent Trends in Overall School Dropout Rates and Gender Differences in Dropout Behavior

May 22, 2003

Andrew Sum and Paul Harrington, The Business Roundtable
May 2003

More than a year ago, the Manhattan Institute's Jay Greene alerted the nation to the fact that federal data on high school completions and dropouts are misleading - and far too cheerful. [http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/v01/gadfly26.html#reviews1] Greene showed that, if you discount GEDs and look simply at the number of Americans who get high school diplomas four years after they exit eighth grade, the on-time high school graduation rate is only about 71 percent for the country as a whole - and far lower in some states and among minority students.

Two recent reports from other sources now raise additional problems with the high school completion data supplied by the National Center on Education Statistics (NCES). A study by the Center for Labor Market Studies, commissioned by the Business Roundtable, says that (in addition to the GED issue) NCES excludes hundreds of thousands of youths in jails and other institutions, artificially deflates the dropout rate by including too many young people in the denominator, and draws an unrepresentative statistical sample of young people. After making these adjustments, analysts Andrew Sum and Paul Harrington (with many helpers) estimate that the correct high school graduation rate is about 70 percent - almost the same as Greene's figure. This paper can be found on the Roundtable's website at www.brtable.org./pdf/914.pdf.

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The Hidden Crisis in the High School Dropout Problems of Young Adults in the U.S.: Recent Trends in Overall School Dropout Rates and Gender Differences in Dropout Behavior

Trends in the Use of School Choice: 1993 to 1999

May 22, 2003

Stacey Bielick and Christopher Chapman, National Center for Education Statistics
May 2003

In this report, analysts at the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), confirm that more poor families are taking advantage of new opportunities in the education marketplace - and that they're happier when they do. Analyzing three cycles of the National Household Education Survey from 1993 to 1999, NCES reports that the percentage of children attending traditional "assigned" public schools dropped from 80 to 76% between1993 and 1999. That drop was almost completely the result of a three percent rise in the percentage of students in "chosen" public schools (magnets or charters), from 11 to 14 percent. More striking is the percentage of children from very poor families who attend traditional public schools; it fell from 83 to 74 percent, with most of those students switching to "chosen" public schools. Most telling of all are the higher levels of parental satisfaction when it comes to public school choice. Compared to parents whose kids are in traditional public schools, parents of youngsters in "chosen" public schools are more likely to say they're "very satisfied" with teacher quality, academic standards, order and discipline, and overall school quality. We look forward to the results of the most recent survey, taken in 2002, to see if these trends continue. In the meantime, look up the report at http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2003/2003031.pdf.

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Trends in the Use of School Choice: 1993 to 1999