Roy F. McCampbell's Blog

This is a fascinating article from the Texas Observer that explores the myth of the hero superintendent, the popular delusion that one transformational leader can “save” a school district. The idea was shaped by the Rhee story, the TIME cover implying that she held the secret to “fixing America’s schools,” a myth that persists despite the absence of any objective evidence.

The focus of the article is the first year of Dallas superintendent Mike Miles, who arrived as a superstar and barely survived an effort to fire him a year later.

The good news in the story is that belief in the hero superintendent idea–the man or woman who rides in as a miracle-worker on a white horse–is fading. Common sense is slowly returning. Maybe.

Improving schools requires teamwork, collaboration, professionalism, and a steady course. Stars come and go. The builders are steady, reliable, consistent, persistent, dedicated to ideals greater…

Over the past decade or more, we have seen and heard a lot of duplicitous rhetoric about rhetoric: we have heard politicians speak about the importance of education as they cut the budget and increase class size and slash the jobs of teachers, librarians, social workers, and others. We have learned to live with cognitive dissonance as our “thought leaders” say one thing but mean something else, often the opposite..

Now it is happening to higher education. We hear that U.S. higher education is the best in the world, but the state and federal governments are demanding cuts that will affect the quality of education.

Timothy Pratt writes that “We Are Creating Walmarts of Higher Education.”

He writes:

“Universities in South Dakota, Nebraska, and other states have cut the number of credits students need to graduate. A proposal in Florida would let online courses forgo the usual higher-education accreditation process…

Montgomery County Schools Superintendent Joshua P. Starr.

The Washington Post reported yesterday that Obama’s Education Secretary Arne Duncan tried to pressure NY Mayor Bill De Blasio on his new school chancellor appointment.

Joshua Starr was on De Blasio’s short list.

Did Duncan overstep his duties in interfering in the De Blasio deliberation?

Of course.

Did Duncan have a good reason? Yes. Starr is everything Duncan is not. Duncan was simply echoing the views of his friends like right-winger Checker Finn.

Valerie Strauss posts award-winning school Principal Carol Burris, who has documented the problems with New York state’s new teacher evaluation system and talks about Starr and his history.

There are those who will ignore all of the elephants in the room—poverty, segregation, overcrowding, prejudice, inequitable learning opportunities, and watered-down curricula for some students. They will follow the reform playbook and shout “no excuses” at every turn.

Yet…

Please open the link and read Anthony Cody’s blog about Kenneth Ye, a high school student in Tennessee who spoke to his local school board in Knox County against Common Core, PARCC testing, Pearson, and standardization. Kenneth pointed out that he has aced all the tests that have come his way. He has extraordinary scores. But he sees no value in making the American system like the test-driven Chinese system.

He begins like this:

I am Kenneth Ye. I stand before you today as someone who has achieved within the mold of standardization. I speak as a student that has taken the tests and jumped through the hoops.

I’ve taken over 12 Honors courses and 18 AP courses so far in my high school career.

I’m a National Merit Semifinalist. A National AP Scholar. I scored a 35 on the ACT composite the first time I took it. And I…

First a disclaimer.

In order to pay for college for my two kids, like most but the 1%, we had to borrow money.

Educational Credit Management Services had a monopoly on the repayment of the debt. It’s not like a home loan where you can change who handles the mortgage.

ECMS was awful. Incompetent. You couldn’t talk to anybody. We had an automatic payment system so we never missed a payment. Never were late. Yet they would screw up our account numbers. Since we had two loans we had two accounts. They would credit all payments to one and none to the other.

Unraveling their mess was the essence of frustration.

Luckily we are done with them.

But we hate them.

The stories in today’s New York Times shows them to be hate-worthy.

Like this one.