Lessons from improvement efforts
Five takeaways — it works for writing about sports events. What about eight years leading a school improvement organization?
Abby Andrietsch stepped down June 29 as executive director of Schools That Can Milwaukee, an organization she co-founded.
In my book, Andrietsch was an effective, dedicated advocate for more kids succeeding in Milwaukee, and I respected the organization, which provided coaching and other help to leaders of schools that took the idea of changing for the better seriously. While some considered it a provoucher or charter group, I disagreed. The Schools That Can record was non-partisan and “crosssector” collaboration was one of its hallmarks.
I asked Andrietsch what she learned. Her email response began, “There is reason to be hopeful about the future of education in Milwaukee. There is also reason to be frustrated, impatient and angry.”
She offered five lessons. I’m not endorsing everything she says, but anyone alarmed by the overall lack of improvement in student success in Milwaukee (count me in that group) should seriously consider what she says.
“We need to put kids first. We must put the interests of children ahead of the interests of adults, every time. If we are to have any hope of meaningful change, this principle must be our organizing philosophy.
“Every school, school district, and school network needs to clearly decide whether its fundamental role is to educate children, or to provide jobs for adults.
“We must treat the adults — teachers, classroom aides, cafeteria workers, school leaders, etc. — with dignity and respect. Exploitative wages and working conditions are wrong in any setting, and when educators are exploited or demonized, students suffer. But too often, our decisions err on the side of advantaging adults at the expense of kids.”
“We need a comprehensive plan. When it comes to education, no one is leading our city. A few spheres of influence shape the dialogue, make policy and direct funding, but there is no unifying voice to set an agenda, highlight bright spots and call out bad actors across all types of schools.
“We need to build a comprehensive plan to support our schools and students, with the entire community working together toward a common vision.”
“We need fair, equal, and transparent accountability for all types of publicly funded schools. Every school receiving public funds should be subject to the same basic level of transparency and performance accountability.
“Significant progress has already been made to ensure the public has access to key data from every school spending our tax dollars. Information about enrollment, demographics, attendance, graduation, state test achievement and more can be viewed online for all traditional district schools, charter schools, and private schools that accept vouchers. After years of waiting, there is finally a common state report card that provides a means of comparing all types of schools on a variety of indicators. The report card is not perfect. But it is a good starting point.
“Now, we must use this information to do something about persistently failing schools. There are far too many schools in our city — MPS, charter and voucher — where not one child can read or do math at grade level. At many more, fewer than 10% are rated proficient year after year after year. This level of abject failure is reprehensible. Persistently underperforming schools should be barred from continuing to receive public dollars.”
“We need to make school choice easier for parents. It is an understatement to say that Milwaukee has an abundance of education options for families. However, ‘choice’ for its own sake has proven to be of limited value. Currently, there is no single place for parents to find ... information about every school in the city.
“The school enrollment process is arcane and varies significantly by school and school type. Student transportation — where it exists — is inefficient, confusing and sometimes unsafe. As a result, persistently bad schools are shielded from competition while excellent schools have impossibly long wait-lists, and other strong schools struggle to enroll enough students to survive.
“We need to make it easy and convenient for parents to learn about school options; to enroll their child in the school they choose; and ensure their child gets to school. There are several cities across the country that have made this happen. We need to learn from them and join them.”
“We need more investment in school leadership. As with any highfunctioning organization, a school thrives — or fails — on the quality of its leader. Great leaders set a strong vision, foster a healthy culture for adults and students, and recruit, retain, and develop excellent teachers for every classroom. One of the strongest investments we can make in education is to invest in recruiting, training, developing and retaining excellent school principals.”
With a family that includes two young daughters, Andrietsch said she stepped away to “rebalance” her life.
I referred to Schools That Can Milwaukee in the past tense because it and another long-time Milwaukee education non-profit, known as PAVE, are merging. Plans for the merged organization are expected to be unveiled in coming months. There have been hints that some major players in town want a new approach to encouraging school improvement. Will the new organization be a vehicle for that? Keep an eye on this.
Andrietsch concluded, “Today our community is not providing children with the education they deserve. If all we do is more of the same, we can expect more of the same results.
“Still, I believe there is cause for optimism. … I know from first-hand experience, our city is filled with committed individuals and educators working hard on behalf of children. The decisions we need to make are clear. Now, will we make them?”
Alan J. Borsuk is senior fellow in law and public policy at Marquette Law School. Reach him at alan.borsuk@ marquette.edu.