WHAT I WISH ONE SUPERINTENDENT CANDIDATE HAD SAID
“Some of our schools are going to be unsuccessful no matter what I do.”
It’s a harsh statement, isn’t it? It smacks of pessimism and defeatism. Who would want to hire a school district superintendent who would make such a pessimistic, defeatist remark? I would. Until we can admit openly that our schools are affected by more than the school system can control, we are doomed to failure. In fact, we are doomed to increasing failure.
We have adopted an “ignore what I can’t control” mentality and coupled it with a “keep working what I can control” mentality. Consider an analogy.
My car wouldn’t start this morning. Since I am the worst mechanic in modern history, I tried to fix it in the only way I know. I kept turning that key. In the back of my mind, I knew that it was probably an electrical problem. But I don’t know how to fix electrical problems. So I kept turning the key. Someone suggested that it could be a mechanical problem. But I don’t know how to fix mechanical problems. So I kept turning the key.
Eventually, the key broke. Our teachers and administrators are like that key. They are the things in our schools that do work. But because no one knows how to fix the real problems with our failing schools, we keep turning that key. Every year our teachers and administrators are bombarded with professional development training in an attempt to maximize their effectiveness; every year they are evaluated based on the performance of their students regardless of what is going on in those students’ lives.
Like that key, eventually, our teachers and administrators break. They retire or look for work elsewhere.
We all know that our failing schools are being overcome with socioeconomic problems. Our students in those schools live in fear of stray bullets. They are often responsible for looking after siblings so their parents can work a second job. Meals are not always guaranteed. The lure of easy street money competes with the promise of a better future.
These are not things that teachers or administrators can fix. These are not things that you can fix, Mr. Superintendent Candidate.
Don’t come in with a plan to keep turning that “key.” That’s not your solution.
“Some of our schools are going to be unsuccessful no matter what I do.”
Start off with that statement, Mr. Superintendent Candidate. Tell the Board of Education that those socioeconomic problems need to be addressed first. Tell them that you are not a “mechanic.”
And tell them that the schools aren’t the problem. They are the key.
Admit that some things are just beyond your control. Maybe if you can do that, our school board and Central Office could do the same. Maybe then our local government and our communities would follow suit.
Maybe once we can all openly admit that one simple statement, we can start making real change.
Maybe then, it wouldn’t be true.
Dennis Endicott, a teacher at Brown Middle School, previously taught at Howard High School and Tyner Middle School.