A New Kind of Principal's Office
by admin ~ October 13th, 2009
Author: Patricia Gray, Executive Director, Leadership and Equity Initiative for the San Francisco Unified School District
When I transferred to Balboa High School (which I'll always call BAL) in September 1996 as a Head Counselor/Dean, I never thought that I would spend more than a decade there, with ten years as principal. Like the late Don Hewitt, it was my life. And what a school! With grown children out of the nest, Balboa’s success became my passion, followed by a little gardening – when I had the time.
And yes, that garden grew when the days at school were challenging. Every challenging day resulted in a new plant from one of the local gardening centers, a friend, or mail order. Perennials became my coping mechanism. What better than a lovely plant that, after the enjoyment of its flowers, it could be planted and enjoyed again the next season.
Advice to emerging school leaders: gardening, or some other diversion, is absolutely critical to one’s sanity when turning a school around. You too must be joyful in the job, having a genuine smile for every student, always doing the right thing for your students and staff (in that order). Sorry if I offend anyone, but the students are our customers. Have a sense of urgency about what the students and staff need, give them what they need, explain the reasons when you can’t (That’s the Geometry teacher in me), and life is good for all of us! Oh, and don’t forget to listen to everyone; you will make allies and also know what is happening in your school.
Everyone is as important to the success of the school as you are. You can not do all of it yourself. Your greatest allies are the teachers and the parents because, if students are to learn, at school, it begins in the classroom; and all parents will support anyone who works to make their offspring successful. Assume good intentions, even when you disagree with someone in the school community. Only then will mutual respect emerge in the collegial effort to reach a common goal – student success. Lastly, be the best that you can be at being an instructional leader. The lives of children, their futures, are in your hands.
This year, I've taken the position as the Executive Director, Leadership and Equity Initiative for the San Francisco Unified School District, pushing, pressing, and supporting principals to be the best that they can be in creating positive change, equity and access for all students; intentionally diminishing the power of demographics for children who may not have had the opportunities of more affluent families or of dominant ethnic groups; and supporting principals who have the difficult conversations that cause discourse in their communities.
This position is the result of civic-minded people and their civic-minded organization investing their resources where there was once only talk. They are putting the talk into action; and I am grateful for the opportunity to use my 45 years of experience in public, private, and private industry education (I started young!) to help move San Francisco Public Schools closer to access and equity for all.
Now it's your turn: what is effective and inspirational school leadership? What do you want to see in your school leaders?
October 15th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
The district has spent millions developing, training for and implementing the Balanced Scorecard (BSC). Many of the goals elucidated in Mrs. Grey's post are those of the BSC. Her obvious dedication and concern for the welfare of children goes without question. She has done the real work in the school on a daily basis. But in her new leadership role in the implementation of BSC, questions remain for the SFUSD public - what exactly is the Balanced Scorecard and how is it helping our children? How are we spending our dwindling financial resources and what benefits are derived from the high cost of the BSC? Is the BSC's focus on equity the right stuff?
The Strategic Plan entitled, "Beyond the Talk: Taking Action to Educate Every Student Now" provides a basic understanding of the BSC purpose. But it is hard to read it through without coming away with the feeling that something is missing. It sounds good, but what happens next? Technically, the individual school scorecards are the next step - a legally mandated process known as the Single Plan For Student Achievement (or BSC in SFUSD), that has for decades been an arcane and irrelevant sideshow on the road to student achievement. Teachers and other staff know that school plans are only pieces of paper or file documents required by law that rarely see the light of day - and that the real work of education happens on a daily basis in the individual classrooms.
Simply ask any parent if they have ever read a school plan. I guarantee that you will find few who have ever done so and most won't even know what you are taking about. How many have accessed these plans on the district website? SFUSD doesn't even bother to explain how these plans may be accessed. So why are we investing so much in a process that seems removed from the real work of education?
The fundamental question to ask about this Balanced Scorecard effort is this: What is the primary goal of an educational agency? Is it to promote equity or student achievement? The District would say that equity and student achievement are one and the same and I agree with that for how can students succeed if they do no get equal access? The District wants to make this schoolplanning effort more up front and center (even if they are failing to) in order to push its equity agenda, which is also politically expedient in San Francisco. But I believe it genuinely wants to create a paradigm shift in the way we think about equity and to infuse it into the fabric of public school life.
But here is the rub - students often get equal access or more and they do not succeed, which leads us to believe what is already universally known, that equity is only one of many factors that influence the ultimate goal of student achievement, though certainly without it students are less likely to succeed and it is, therefore, a worthy goal. But should it be the primary goal? Does the BSC refocused our efforts away from student achievement? I believe it does.
If we focus our efforts on equity we really need to understand what equity is and what it is not, where it exists and where it doesn't. When is equity an issue and when is it not an issue in student achievement? I don't believe the District's Strategic Plan has adequately answered these questions. It wants to reduce the "historical power of demographics", but it doesn't provide any specific solutions as to how to do so or how equity plays a role in the context of all the other factors at play and why it is the most important, if that is indeed so.
There is no magic bullet to end the achievement gap. As a "change agent" the BSC is destined to come up short. Only hard work and dedication will remedy the achievement gap. But that is just a little too obvious and doesn't much excite. I oppose the Balanced Scorecard iniative because I believe it is out of focus and off topic. The real question for schools, students, parents and staff is this - What does it take to raise student achievement? Even with full and equal access (equity) to programming, teacher staffing and teacher quality and instructional materials, there will be uneven educational outcome. This is primarily due to the fact that students themselves are the final arbiters of their own education. If SFUSD believes that high student achievement is the true goal than shouldn't student achievement be the primary focus of its policy?
October 16th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Thanks for your post.
In short, this site exists to bring together our community to support public education. During this time of budget crisis, we have to do everything we can to protect our most important, fundamental resource: our children. To build this site, nearly two dozen community organizations are working together to create a place for San Franciscans to come together to support our schools.
So what do we want you to DO? The site supports three main areas of activity: first, we encourage you to take action to support public schools- by volunteering, by donating, and by encouraging others to do the same. Please see the "Take Action" tab for more information.
Secondly, this site exists for San Franciscans to have the opportunity to discuss and consider the most important issues in public education. Every week, a guest blogger posts a topic of discussion related to one of the "new rules", and everyone is invited to join the conversation by posting a reply to blogs, inviting friends by sending an ecard, taking a quiz to test your knowledge of the schools, and engaging in the conversation through social media like twitter and facebook.
Finally, this portal is intedend to help us all see what IS possible in our public schools, and to come together to make that vision a reality. Our coalition has worked together to support and maintain this site, with the goal of more and more individuals and groups joining us to support our schools over the long term.
Thank you for taking part, and hope you will help us spread the word!
October 17th, 2009 at 1:37 am
There are many ways to support public education in addition to volunteerism and donation. Activism is also essential. For example, without the efforts of those who worked to hold district representatives accountable, we would not know of the recent revelations of corporate credit card waste and abuse of scant education dollars.
Such disgrace heaped upon the district is not very becoming to the perception of public education. The District is not in the public relations business, but the education business and the public deserves to know how its money is spent. If this website can help to foster accountability in addition to volunteerism and donations it will be doing the children of San Francisco's public schools an additional service, not only in sageguarding the public trust, but in providing the children of San Francisco a model of democracy and freedom of speech.
We can hope that Your SF Public Schools true purpose is to serve the children of our city and is not just an arm of the current administration. Given the administration's aversion to any public outcry, we will see if open and free discussion is allowed on take place here.
I call on the District to panswer the charges of waste and abuse that have surfaced recently. Let's hear what Ms. Maufas and Ms. Sanchez have to say for themselves.
October 19th, 2009 at 2:43 am
The best way to change the achievement gap is to convince parents of what they need to do to raise their kids better and make family life a focus. Schools can do a lot, but DC spends double what our schools do and have far worse results, so no amount of money can overcome poor home lives and a lack of support and emphasis from parents. One parent cannot do as well as two, so encouraging families working together is one key. Any parent who puts their own romantic personal life ahead of their child's is sending a message that they are more important to themselves than their children are to them. I say this with no bias, I'm all for adoptive gay and lesbian families, just know it's an absolute fact that one parent can't do as well as two. Family values are important. I say this as an atheist, but one who believes in putting our children as a highest priority as they are our future. Selfish parents raise kids who do worse on tests, as TV is a huge problem; studies show that kids who watch less than 7 hours a week of Television do the best in school and on the SAT. Reading from a young age, parents spending time reading to their kids instead of using the TV as a babysitter, teaching kids from a young age that education is very important and that it is crucial they treat school as very important and be competitive and focused about grades and STAR Test scores is key. Making learning fun and interesting is also a key. Learning with your kids is important. Using TV and video games to babysit kids leads to bad results, and parents say, gee, for some reason my kid isn't the type to do well in school. Maybe they weren't taught by their parents to focus and care about how they did in school. It's not genetics. Studies show children of single parents have far lower grades and college graduation rates, but no study has ever shown they have worse genetics, so it's nurture, not nature. We need to nurture our children better.
Yes, teachers can do a lot and for the most part are excellent. I have 2 chilren at Alamo and 1 at Presidio. Bill Cosby has said it, and other leaders have, you must emulate those who achieve the most. Asian Americans have done an amazing job, really teach their kids that it is crucial to do well in school, help their kids with homework, ensure their kids are studying the needed 20+ hours a week outside of school, and teach their kids what they need to do to compete. Of course this is a stereotype and not 100% true, but on average if you go to a public library on Saturday, you'll see more Asian kids their in proportion to their population, from here to San Diego to Seattle, anywhere. It's consistent. If you give up your Saturdays to study hard and another kid relaxes on Saturday, who will achieve more in the STAR test? If a teacher teaches both equally, the kid who studies more and feels school is crucial will do better than the child who studies less and feels school isn't important. The focus on the gap implies teachers should put more effort into the kid that is doing worse, which isn't fair to the kids and parents who do the right thing and study during the Summer, on Saturday, and evenings and turn off the TV, as Obama advises us all to do. Sure, maybe they are the most ambitious from their nations, but students from China, Russia, India, African and Middle Eastern and other various nations do excellently despite linguistic challenges because they put education as the highest priority and make personal sacrifices others are usually unwilling to make, such as dedicating Saturdays and Summer time to learning. Any child who spends more time reading and studying will see better grades than they would have if they ignore school all Summer, relax all weekend, and watch TV each evening.
The gap doesn't come from the schools. San Francisco's worst schools get the most money per pupil. It comes from the home and the emphasis. How do we fix that? We all learn to be better parents, to follow what works, and to put our children's education ahead of our own free time, our rest and relaxation, and other goals. We get rid of the taboo against talking about parenting and beating around the bush. Asian Americans outnumber whites in the 2 best UC Schools, UCLA and UC Berkeley. There are 4 white kids for every Asian kid in the State. This isn't new, people in the '80s said we should learn from this and adjust our family lives accordingly. Families that thrive will emphasize supporting their kids, teaching them, reading, low TV, studying, and pride in grades and test scores. Those who fail will show their kids that short-term personal gain is more important than long-term achievement (divorce, running off with a new wife, similar to saying ah, who cares if I get a B or a C, I'd rather watch this show than study for the test tomorrow). Families that thrive will teach their kids in the Summer and ensure they are stimulated, not just relaxing all Summer. Reading, studying, and focusing. Many kids fall behind each Summer, others move ahead. We need to stop being afraid to give credit where credit is due and instead learn from those who achieve the most what we can do to be more like them and help our kids achieve more.
Should children have other activities, absolutely. Should they play, absolutely. However, some kids watch TV 30-40 hours a week, and others 5, and there is no proven value, well-roundedness, or anything positive that comes from so much TV. Parents have to buy into this and an effort should be made to teach parents what works. We can change this, but we need to integrate and listen to each other and really learn from each other, not go to school together but separate socially, but all interact and learn from each other and put our children as the #1 priority. Right now, this just isn't the highest priority in many parents' lives. If you make the right decision, your kids can succeed. Everyone's afraid to say this as it's not PC, but the facts are there. Harry Edwards entered college nearly illiterate, functionally illiterate, but his daughter had top SAT Scores in the best 1% of all test takers. How, because he taught them from a young age, as babies, a love of learning. We must look into the mirror, look at what we're doing, and change to what helps our kids. Every child has great potential and can achieve more. We must admire and reward children who excel on the STAR test, not only athletes and popular kids and the like. We must not blame others for our failures but focus on what we can do better, each parent in SF. Everyone could do something better.
We also need to prioritize neighborhoods in school assignment. Parents who would volunteer instead drive from afar or put kids in private schools, which causes more segregation by class. We would reduce traffic and get more money from the state if more parents used public schools, and thousands of kids would go if they could go to school close to home. In each case, this would cause money to come to us from the State and the parents to have the tuition money to spend on other things in San Francisco, which would help businesses, employment, and traffic, as well as give parents and kids more time to study together and less time driving in traffic, which inevitably will improve scores. The only one who would lose would be Exxon. Those who use private school, if brought into the public school system, would help raise the average score and would help interact with other parents, maybe foster a discussion, instead of going to private school which encourages class segregation as well as racial segregation. We need to bring everyone in and learn from each other, have kids of all races and backgrounds hold hands and feel free at last and also learn from each child what works. Every child can be special with the right support and dedicating the right amount of time to achievement. It is a tragedy when each child achieves less and a great step forward when a child's life is improved by loving and dedicated parents.
The focus on race is a distraction. Often whites and Asians are told to send their kids to an awful school and go to Private School, which hurts the district by depriving it of local parents who would love to be involved. Often schools are integrated and kids are friends, but parents ignore each other and don't learn from each other. To really integrate, parents must talk to parents of all races and learn from each other. Integration means talking to each other, eating together, learning from one another.
Let's face it, anyone can show up at a party once in a while and look like parent of the year, but only a truly dedicated parent who prioritizes the children can teach a kid to get a great SAT Score or great grades. It takes a change in emphasis and values. Education must be priority. For many kids and many parents, it is not. Schools should hold seminars to teach parents the facts about what works best and what doesn't. Teachers should tell parents the stats about what works best and what doesn't. Teachers should notice the differences in the top students' parents and the bottom, and help teach the bottom student's parents how to raise their kids more like the top students' parents. This seems so obvious, but it isn't happening, and thus we have an achievement gap. If we are humble and interactive and open-minded as to what works best we will do better than if we all ignore each other (segregation), pay to avoid interacting with people different from ourselves (private school), and close our minds to the possibility we could be better parents (don't even consider the fact that many poor people in SF do great in school and try to learn what they're doing right). We've been trying this for 30 years. Let's try a new way. Let's learn from each other, no holds barred, and change our home lives. We can do better, but it will take personal sacrifice and dedication, diligence and hard work.
This is the elephant in the room no one will talk about. However, if we do talk about it and open our minds and change based on the facts, the achievement will disappear. I guarantee you SF Teachers are not racists. They really care about all their students. The biggest part of the achievement gap is the number of hours studying and the help from parents, as well as how important a child feels education is.
October 20th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
what do you have to say about a organization so bad that it can't pass a federal audit for school lunches?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/20/BAJ41A6MFO.DTL&feed=rss.news
October 30th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
Im encouraged reading this article about this woman that is obviously incredible dedicated, talented and asset to out school system.
The trouble I'm having is the stark contrast between the obviously white 'desirable' schools and the obviously not white 'not-so-desirable' schools-and at my recent parents for public schools meeting when I brought up this blatant segration-I was shut down immediately-by a stuttering, nervous facilatator that dismissed my question as far too big a topic to go over and not the place for it.
Several other non white parents approached me after the conference, saying they couldnt believe how quickly she had shut me down-
I wasnt, and still am not imaging this segreation. Look into it yourself. Find the top 10 pre-K thru 5th grade public schools and look into the demographics-then do the same for the lowest rated on test scores-and notice the difference in whose kids attend these schools.
I went so far to ask the facilator after the meeting-and her answer was that friends all tell friends where their children go, and then these same parents do their best to get their children enrolled in the schools there friends do. I.E. only the wealthy or non white families care to have their kids in a decently rated school.
And...most non-white, maybe not so well to do parent wants to send their kids to the crappy schools-because their friends do.
This isnt a clique in high School. Give us a little more credit that we're just slightly smarter than that.
But its a random lottery.
Doesnt seem believable.
Im not buying it. And something has to be done. What a bunch of crap-for lack of a more eloquent term...
Jessie
November 10th, 2009 at 1:20 am
The segregation is mostly by choice. Any child who has parents in public housing, on food stamps, on free lunch, basically who are poor, can go to any school they want, but there are few buses. I saw several black kids start the year at Alamo, then drop out because the parents chose to go to a school closer to home. At Presidio, the black percentage in 6th grade is higher than that in 8th. Many change their mind. Most don't choose to drive an hour a day extra, who would? It's devastating to one's life and causes traffic and causes parents not to be able to be at the school and volunteer. Most whites and Asians don't wish to either, but the stress of not knowing you can send yoru kid to school near home drives some away and into private schools, which in my view is not in keeping with our liberal values as a community but is a sad result of excessive social engineering by the board. The Sunset and Richmond and Marina have many of the top schools, and few blacks live in these communities, plus blacks are now only 6% of SF and used to be over 17%. The people who do go to these schools from afar are mostly white and Asian. However, in the worst schools, there are kids who are poor, mostly Asian, and doing well. But we don't learn from each other and ignore each other.
Integration shouldn't be an obsession. No school will be one race in SF. We need to focus on teaching all kids how to develop study skills. You hurt kids when you put them in a car an hour a day. You hurt traffic, take parents away from their children's schools, make them less likely to attend conferences with teachers and hurt parents.
They should take time out once in a while and have seminars where teachers tell kids the statistics on the SAT, how the kids who do the best watch less than 7 hours a week and study 20-30 hours a week, read and learn over the Summer, and are passionate. How the more you study, the more opportunities you'll have. That is the main thing that is sinking in. Teachers are afraid to make this point for fear of offending someone and prefer to imply that the achievement gap is due to racism of teachers, racism in society, or something else. We all hold the power to do better in school and all parents have the power to help their kids do better in school. You have tremendous power as a parent and should really think about how you're spending your evenings and weekends and how this is or is not contributing to your child's grades.
We should integrate more. Everyone should ask parents of all races whose kids are doing well how they did it. To me it's pretty obvious, kids need to spend more time studying, less watching TV, have 2 parents and be encouraged to take school seriously and pay attention. I don't know what the solution is, maybe tearing down some public housing in the Southeastern part of the City and selling it to the highest bidder while simultaneously adding low income housing to open land in the Outer Sunset and Richmond areas? Maybe tear down a gold course to integrate the City more?
However, like I said, integration only helps if people who didn't do well in school are humble enough to realize just parenting by instinct probably won't lead to their kid getting into a UC and high grades. It requires as a parent, stepping outside your world and learning from those whose kids are successful, maybe some but less from those whose kids are mostly successful because their parents are educated and help their kids with homework than from the immigrants who are in blue collar jobs yet teach their kids to value education above all else and raise kids to go to UC Berkeley and UCLA and other great colleges. There are great examples in all communities, but Asians now outnumber whites at UC Berkeley and UCLA with a quarter the population in the State, a tremendous achievement we should all learn from. Too often children are not universally admired in their communities for getting great grades and are made to feel like they are doing something wrong, acting white. We can all do better, but the school district is doing everything it can short of spending hundreds of millions on busing and taking that away from teaching. I think they're doing too much and depriving the school district of kids and parents who can't take spending 90 minutes a day driving their kid to and from Treasure Island, parents who would volunteer and donate and help make the school they go to better.
I know parents who really wanted to go to a public school but didn't only becasue they were sent to one far away and they simply didn't have the time.
So the SFUSD could do things, but many of the parents of kids not doing well could do things as well and make a real effort to learn how to be better parents. Good parents read with their kids and keep the TV off, don't ignore their children and move away, and dedicate lots of time to helping their kids be dedicated, diligent students.
November 12th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
I agree with Justin. Yes, teachers are afraid of saying things to offend parents. Why? On the second day of school I spoke with a parent whose child has difficulty keeping his hands, feet and body to himself. There is documentation of such behavior since kindergarten, including 2 Student Success Team meetings to address this concern. Yet, the parent took offense and went to the superintendent's office, twice. It's absurd to suggest that teachers tell parents how to raise their children; most won't be receptive to having their parenting skills questioned. There should be a Parent Liaison at every site to deal with this sensitive issue. No one wants to be the messenger when it's about disrespectful or irresponsible behavior. Every site should have a Parent Liaison, not just the low-performing schools.