IN OUR OPINION
DPS board, superintendent need to make their peace
August 13, 2008
The parallels are growing between the current Detroit Board of Education and some of the legendarily backward school boards of old.
This embarrassing situation will be made only worse if a board cabal follows through on a rumored plan to topple Superintendent Connie Calloway, who is to receive her one-year evaluation in a closed-door session tonight.
No one would speak Tuesday for the record, so maybe this is just another urban legend. City parents and taxpayers should hope so. And the board should publicly lay it to rest.
Already on economic and academic life support, the school district needs to move into its new academic year focused on students and finances, not consumed by the consequences of an ill-timed power play.
It would be foolish and fiscally irresponsible to dump Calloway now. At $280,000 a year, she earns more than Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and Gov. Jennifer Granholm, and has a contract that could ensure, depending on terms of dismissal, compensation through June 30, 2010.
Of course, the board, as Calloway's employer, has a right and, indeed, a duty to evaluate her performance. It's spelled out in a contract that also calls for an annual meeting with the board, "prior to May 1," to develop a list of academic, budget and financial priorities, including "the development of a five- and ten- year master plan."
In fact, there is little public evidence that this board and Calloway have worked together closely on any agenda and certainly not in a timely manner. That's a responsibility both sides share. In the same way that Calloway has been accountable to community stakeholders, she has to be more publicly savvy in communicating and partnering with the board and the Detroit Federation of Teachers. It would help to see her direct some of the candor she's shown about rampant fraud and mismanagement in the district toward her big-picture vision for DPS. It's well past time.
"She may have some academic prowess," said board member Tyrone Winfrey, an early Calloway supporter, who was also on the search committee that brought her to Detroit. "But her management and leadership style has rubbed against the board. I don't feel like going down the road of another superintendent search, but unless we can come together fast, the kids and these families in Detroit are more important to me than one person."
Calloway has to remember that she works for the board. The board has to remember that she was hired to do a job and needs to be empowered to get it done. The board also has to acknowledge that with all the district's problems, this is no time for a costly change in leadership based on personalities, not principles. This is about doing right by children and doing well by taxpayers. Calloway and the board have to be able to come together on that much; there are no sides to pick on those core issues.
Continuity in the superintendent's office sends an important message to the community. It starts with board members sticking to the call for reform and resisting the sad tradition of turning immediately on the leaders they themselves select. The last time the Detroit schools had a leadership crisis, the state abolished the elected school board for five-plus years. Is that what this board wants?
ROCHELLE RILEY
Put an end to feuding, just educate
BY ROCHELLE RILEY • FREE PRESS COLUMNIST • August 13, 2008
Hell froze over.
Instead of a boxing match, some Detroit school board members hope to use tonight's evaluation of Superintendent Connie Calloway's first year on the job to improve a relationship that has been volatile at worst, contentious at best and a detriment to the district, at least.
Board member Tyrone Winfrey, who has had mixed feelings about the superintendent, said Tuesday that the board and Calloway must "chart a new path" to work together to put children first.
"I'm realistically trying to say, 'Let's work together,' " he said. "It's been tough. Her demeanor and character makes it seem like she wants to control the board. But we're trying to work together here."
Calloway declined to comment.
Evaluation on the heels of rumors
Calloway's evaluation comes two days before the board heads to Port Huron for a two-day retreat. There, they will set district goals the board can approve and Calloway can achieve. Calloway also will be expected to outline her reinvention of schools in the area of the city with the densest student populations.
The evaluation also comes as rumors spread about the board buying the superintendent out of her contract. Board members denied that Tuesday.
"She's only been here for a year, and I think that a year is not long enough," said board member Annie Carter. "And I can't see us going through superintendent after superintendent. ... There are some school districts that have gone through five superintendents in six years. We can't do that.
"I think Dr. Calloway needs help. She needs to ask for help," Carter said.
Carter could not have said it better. A failing district that has lost half -- and graduates a third -- of its students can't afford to throw away a person whose harshest critics concede is a good educator.
No plans to remove Calloway
So what should the board and superintendent do?
Focus on the children. Communicate better, on both sides. Spend, as I've said before, less time on the business of educating children and more time educating children.
This city's schools are on the front lines of saving urban children before they are lost.
We are losing the war.
"We need to talk about her first year where we can improve our relations ... and come up with some strong things to spend our energy and very limited resources on," board president Carla Scott said.
Critics on the board said they have no plans to try to remove Calloway. Even Jimmy Womack, her harshest critic, said Tuesday: "I did not vote for Dr. Calloway to come, and I will not vote for her to leave. I need Dr. Calloway to do her job and the board to do its job."
Scott said she hopes board members are sincere about changing and working better with the super.
"I don't think people understand that when bad things are said about the superintendent, it reflects poorly on the board. And when bad things are said about the board, it reflects badly on the district."
Yes, it does.
Join the conversation about this column at www/freep.com/rochelleriley.
FROM OUR READERS
Students leaving elementary, middle schools need exit tests
August 13, 2008
If Michigan is really serious about installing one of the nation's toughest high school curriculums, here is a good place to start ("Test scores show need to get more help to students," Aug. 11). We absolutely need some kind of an exit exam before a student leaves elementary school and middle school. Or at the very least require mandatory summer school before promotion.
The present practice of "social promotions," where a student is promoted to the next grade, even when he/she flunks practically every subject, must be addressed. In many cases the students actually refuse to learn the subject matter. There are known strategies to deal with this effectively.
As a retired high school teacher, I've seen the total shock on many ninth-graders' faces when they get to high school and realize they actually have to do the work and pass the subject.
Why do we have to wait until high school to discover that a student is not worthy of a diploma? Shouldn't this be caught earlier? If a student doesn't understand math fundamentals, can't write a coherent sentence, or understand a short written paragraph, it is a recipe for failure in high school.
Daniel Dlugas
Temperance
More problems to consider
Your editorial on failing test scores and possible solutions does not even mention two serious problems in Michigan today.
The first problem can be fixed with money. In an attempt to get "more bang for their buck," even remedial classes are now at maximum capacity with 30 to 35 students. In large, crowded classes, teachers find it impossible to give struggling students the individualized help they need.
Furthermore, in large, crowded classrooms students feel ignored. They don't feel the teacher cares about them or knows them. Large classes lead to high dropout rates.
Consider that a high school teacher is expected to teach 30 students an hour for five hours a day -- perhaps 150 students. How does a teacher possibly individualize? How does a teacher read and evaluate all that writing? No wonder the writing scores are 40% in the state!
The second problem, however, cannot be fixed with money. Unfortunately, we have become a nation that expects learning to be fun. But like Olympic athletes, successful students learn at an early age that success in academics is no different than success in the sports world. They both require discipline, practice, and self- sacrifice. These are attitudes that must be developed in the home from an early age.
Debra Hoepfner
Macomb
Exams don't tell all
Singular reliance on Merit exams and other mass produced testing instruments is the true disappointment in education. It is alleged that the teens have failed and are struggling to meet expectations. How do you know this is true? A number produced and compared year over year demonstrates absolutely nothing except the blind ignorance of all those highly intelligent individuals who profess to be experts in educational assessment.
These are no doubt the same individuals who expect that all students will perform above average, all the time, and achieve 100% proficiency by 2014. Not!
Look around and observe what is working: small schools, integrated curriculums, performance of mastery, assessment over time using multiple methods, teachers and school buildings with local autonomy, variable school hours at the secondary level -- methods that provide opportunities for success and a desire for lifelong learning.
Chuck Fellows
South Lyon
Think of the wealth of talent that is being and has been squandered due to this system. How many people would have become the next great composer if they had been given just that little bit more leeway? How many people would have had the courage to write their own novel, because they wouldn’t have been told they ‘weren’t good enough’? How many people failed to ever recognise their own potential because they were too busy striving for the best grades possible? Only so they could get a ‘good’ job in an office, with a ‘good’ salary.