New State Superintendent

Well I guess we should have all seen this coming.  Back in December at the Alliance Leadership Summit, Gov. Rauner was scheduled to speak.  Why not, this was a chance to speak to 600 school administrators on the eve of his budget address.  This group of people are community leaders and he would have the wonderful opportunity of reaching people who need answers in this time of financial uncertainty.  What happens instead is that he sent a staffer that had been on the job for two hours to speak to us.  I really just chalked that up to being new in town and the demand for his time being rather large but his next move confirmed my fear that he is not serious about the quality of education in Illinois.

 

On April 15th, the state board went through the difficult process of choosing Dr. Tony Smith to replace Dr. Chris Koch as the state superintendent of schools.  Difficult because the word on the street is that he was the only candidate.  Dr. Smith has never taught in a classroom.  In fact, the Oakland School District in which he last had a leadership position waived the required administrative certificate requirement for him to be hired there.  However, he did serve on the governor’s Chicago Public Education Fund's board and his transition team.  He has also been described as a stanch charter school supporter, union opponent and a poor fiscal manager.  Links below will also provide more negative aspects of his tenure in California.  One ISBE member was quoted as saying this is a poor move for the state board.

I support Vision 20/20 and public schools.  This was a purely political move that does not serve the best interests of the school districts of Illinois or their students.  If Gov. Rauner makes this move as his first big move for education, I think it is safe to say we are in for a huge storm.  To weather this storm we will need advocacy and support from school district leaders, parents, teachers and anybody that believes in common sense.  To borrow a line from my favorite fake president Andrew Shepard, “We have serious problems and need serious people to fix them.”  We need no other good reason now to grow the Vision 20/20 movement and make a stand for public schools.

 

http://www.isbe.net/news/2015/apr15.htm

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-state-board-of-education-superintendent-met-20150415-story.html#page=1

 

http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_22963622/oakland-unified-chief-tony-smith-resigns-be-family

Lead with your Values

If you live in an underground bunker, you probably have not yet heard about the religious liberty law passed by the Indiana legislature and signed by Gov. Mike Pence.  Essentially, a business could refuse service to any person that practices a lifestyle that is contrary to the business owner’s religious beliefs.  Gov. Pence stood by the enacting of this law despite its controversy and did all the press appearances affirming that this is what the people of Indiana wanted.  A short time later he asked law makers to revise the bill for “clarification” purposes.  The fact is that Indiana did not want this.  The law began to urge business leaders to take action but more importantly it did not match the values of the people in the state or across the nation.

This is a problem with elected leaders.  In their pursuit to secure voting blocks, they drive an agenda to that group of people while they ignore the common good and the values of the whole.  This story line is more common in politics than anywhere else.  It’s a shame that a person that is fortunate enough to get elected by the public does not use that gift to represent the whole.  People in my profession don’t always have much choice in the matter.  School administrators work with what they have and rarely have the ability, or gift, to directly reshape the community that they serve.  Many times radical changes to a school building are met with sharp opposition.

I learned very early on from very wise people that you have to lead with your values.  I work in a school district that is nearly 70% free and reduced lunch population.  This has been a positive for my leadership style.  I work well with the disadvantaged youth because I was a disadvantaged youth.  Leading with my values is easy because I’m just like many of them.  A vast majority of educators come from middle class backgrounds and they find it difficult to have a clear vision of how these kids are raised and how they can best reach them.  Some dismiss the effort all together.

As a former poor kid working with poor kids I have gathered my leadership values into a short list of my everyday practices.  Maybe it will help some lead the kids they serve.

1       Relationships matter!  The teachers I responded for as a kid were those that treated me like I was just like them.  No better, no worse.  We were there for the same purpose, not a power struggle.

2       Give second chances.  You will get burned on this one occasionally but it reinforces your relationships with kids.  You have to show that you are willing to invest in them.

3       Punish with logic and kindness.  When assigning a consequence for a negative action they have to know how much responsibility is theirs given the situation and how they could have prevented the predicament they were in.  Always be sure to tell them what they did right and praise them for it.  Poor kids often only live for moments and never see down the road.  This is a teachable moment.

4       Smile.  Everyone likes to see this.

5       If you know something about a kid, share it with your teachers.  This will help them make better connections with at-risk kids.

I know this is not some big fancy research driven set of guidelines but it has worked for me.  These are values I have either grown up with or learned working with kids.  As it turns out, it’s relevant for all of my students not just the at-risk ones.  Imagine that, something that works for everyone and not just a few.  Maybe our elected leaders should look at their own values and discover how they can serve all of their constituents.