| 来源类型 | Article |
| 规范类型 | 评论 |
| Philadelphia Doesn’t Need Schools Superhero | |
| Frederick M. Hess; Robert Maranto | |
| 发表日期 | 2007-05-25 |
| 出版年 | 2007 |
| 语种 | 英语 |
| 摘要 | Next to crime, the biggest challenge facing presumptive mayor Michael Nutter is the sorry state of public education. For decades, political leaders viewed public schools in cities like Philadelphia as hopeless. Even when spending as much or more than nearby suburbs, city schools struggle under the weight of poverty, broken families, turgid bureaucracies, rigid contracts, depressing conditions, and low expectations. The result has been dismal performance. In Atlanta, Los Angeles, Cleveland and Washington, more than 50 percent of eighth graders were “below basic” in reading, and more than 60 percent were “below basic” in math in the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress. In none of 11 cities measured (not including Philadelphia) were even 70 percent of students at “basic” in either math or reading. The landscape for urban-school reformers, then, is immensely challenging, not just in Philadelphia, but everywhere. In decades past, urban-school superintendents relied upon cozy relationships with teachers unions, contractors and community leaders to see them through. In Philadelphia, former Superintendent Connie Clayton (1982-92) comes to mind. In the 1980s and 1990s, legislators, mayors and school boards increasingly realized that helping a superintendent thrive wasn’t necessarily the same thing as helping students do the same. Political leaders demanded action, and school chiefs gamely sought to give it to them. Big-city school chiefs routinely serve only a handful of years before leaping to a new job or going away at the behest of a new mayor or school board. Knowing this, urban superintendents learned to launch a slew of reforms early in their tenure, seeking to build a sense of momentum, shake up the system, and generate support as quickly as possible. It also meant that superintendents were typically on the move before any of their bright ideas had much chance to succeed or (more often) fail. Teachers and principals learned to wait out each superintendent’s new ideas, knowing that the savior of the hour and the newest set of innovations would soon be gone. Though he lasted a full five years and seemed more sincere than most, David Hornbeck, Philadelphia’s controversial superintendent of the 1990s, showed how little of permanence could be accomplished in even that amount of time – especially when one tosses dozens of balls in the air. Now, there’s a hot new paradigm: the Superman Superintendent. To stop the wheels on the school bus from simply spinning round and round, authorities give the keys to can-do drivers such as Joel Klein (New York), Paul Vallas (Chicago and Philadelphia), and Mark Roosevelt (Pittsburgh). The hope is that these hyper-competent outsiders will, sometimes through sheer force of personality and can-do spirit, find a way to turn troubled systems around. Superman Superintendents are dynamic, passionate and in control. They seek to bring accountability, efficiency and standardization to inept bureaucracies, by centralizing control of curriculum and professional development. But super-control can bring super-resentment from teachers, principals and irate parents. Pittsburgh schools still run big deficits, amid reports that Roosevelt’s “Accelerated Academies” have failed to meet expectations. Klein has been under fire practically from day one. Pressured by the School Reform Commission, Vallas is New Orleans-bound, leaving behind political battles over his interim replacement, even before the real job search starts. Like Klein and Roosevelt, Vallas shook things up, but he also made important strides. Were there missteps and mistakes? Absolutely, particularly Vallas’ reluctance to aggressively use parental choice and charter schools to shift power relationships and foster dynamic problem-solving. Even so, Vallas established clear direction, embraced accountability, and employed new and more sensible systems for hiring and assigning educators. The last thing that Philadelphia needs is to jump backward to where buzzwords and educational sizzle count for more than execution. Philadelphia doesn’t need another high-profile superhero, but a successor who will build on what Vallas started and who is willing to see his ideas through. The temptation is to seek another big persona who will promise dramatic change. What the city most needs is a leader with the discipline to leave the red cape in the closet. Frederick M. Hess is a resident scholar and director of education policy studies at AEI. Robert Maranto teaches political science at Villanova University. |
| 主题 | Education |
| 标签 | Cities ; school |
| URL | https://www.aei.org/articles/philadelphia-doesnt-need-schools-superhero/ |
| 来源智库 | American Enterprise Institute (United States) |
| 资源类型 | 智库出版物 |
| 条目标识符 | http://119.78.100.153/handle/2XGU8XDN/244008 |
| 推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714 | Frederick M. Hess,Robert Maranto. Philadelphia Doesn’t Need Schools Superhero. 2007. |
| 条目包含的文件 | 条目无相关文件。 | |||||
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