Next HISD leader has shot at new beginning

Yogi Berra famously said, “If you reach a fork in the road, take it.” The Houston Independent School District is at a very serious fork in the road in its search for a new superintendent. The path that’s taken will impact the very future of Houston’s 213,000 students and their teachers.

Hard questions have to be asked: Does Houston pick someone who will continue with current education policies that are straight out of a handbook promoting market-driven, test-based policies, or does it go with someone who understands the needs of Houston’s students and educators and wants to pursue evidencebased ideas for improving teaching and learning?

Let’s step back a bit. Though there are pockets of success, for the most part, Houston’s public schools have been struggling mightily because superintendents for the past several years have adhered to misguided policies that have not boosted student performance and have accelerated teacher turnover. Testing has become the be-all and end-all, narrowing the curriculum.

Test scores have been used to unfairly and inaccurately evaluate teachers’ job performance, jeopardizing the careers of highly accomplished teachers. Instead of fixing schools with reforms that have succeeded in other urban districts, Houston has closed at least 18 neighborhood public schools. Those 18 schools were replaced partially by charter schools, leaving several neighborhoods without a local school that serves all students even though charter schools have done no better than democratically controlled public schools.

These misguided decisions have left teachers frustrated and racing for the exits. Massive turnover of teachers — and even principals and administrators — is about the most consistent feature we have in Houston schools.

The selection of a new superintendent provides the perfect opportunity for a midcourse correction to focus on what works. Our vision calls for giving Houston students a broad curriculum and program choices to meet their diverse needs.

We have to end the test-driven education policies that have sharply narrowed the curriculum to what’s on the standardized test. In this day and age, our kids need a truly well-rounded education that includes art, music, foreign languages and social studies. We should be working to improve collaboration with businesses and our community colleges to provide career and technical programs that give students an alternative pathway to high school graduation, good-paying jobs and higher education.

For disadvantaged students and their families, we should be developing community schools that provide wraparound health care, social and academic services to help counter the devastating effects of poverty. Community schools have been key to turning around student performance in low-income school districts in cities across the country and should be created here in Houston.

Collaboration, not conflict, makes a huge difference. A 2010 study by the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research showed that the most effective schools, based on test score improvement over time and after taking into account demographic factors, had developed an unusually high degree of “relational trust” among their stakeholders. That means teachers and parents are treated as true partners with principals and other administrators, and that their voices and input are respected.

The Houston Federation of Teachers held three community town hall meetings earlier this year to get a broad sense of the attributes Houstonians want in a superintendent. We heard over and over again sentiments such as: We need someone who knows the cultures within our city.

We need someone who will promote community schools as opposed to closing schools. We need someone who will change the top-down culture of intimidation. And we need someone who will use resources efficiently to focus on public, not charter, schools.

The superintendent search is in a very critical stage now and must proceed with the greatest of transparency and community input.

To that end, we strongly urge that an advisory board be established to include representatives of the various stakeholders — parents, educators, higher education and business leaders — to interview candidates and help select the best superintendent for our schools.

Listening to educators, parents and other community members and moving toward greater transparency and public accountability will ensure that our children get public schools that provide all kids with the knowledge, skills and preparation they need for college, career and life.