Karl Springer named as Superintendent of OKC Public Schools

Karl Springer has been named to be the next superitendent of the Oklahoma City Public Schools. He has served as superintendent of the Mustang Public Schools. Mustang is a fairly affluent suburb of Oklahoma City. Mr. Springer fulfills at least part of what I believed to be a requirement for the next superitendent in that he is a local person. He is not what I call an "Insider." I am not certain at this time how much experience he has had with urban schools like those in OKC, nor do I know what kind of "blue water" experience he has had in the classroom.

All of that will come out soon, I'm sure.

My concern is that he knows that working in an urban school district won't be like working in a suburb like Mustang. One problem he will have is gaining the trust of teachers who have seen the superintendent's office become a revolving door. A lot of the attitude will be, "I've was a teacher before this guy came here, and I'll be a teacher after he has gone." He won't gain trust by simply ordering folks around. That's not how a democratic school system works.

from The Oklahoman Springer named OKC schools superintendent

Looking Ahead Part IV: Leading a democratic School District

What does it mean to lead an American school district? One of the chief considerations is that American public schools are by design democratic in nature. (Note the small "d") By this I mean that we have in no true sense of the term, a national school system as can be found in countries like Japan, Germany, or China, countries to which American school children are often unfavorably compared.

We do have a Federal Department of Education, but if the Secretary of Education were to say, "All elementary students in America must be taught phonics.", the thousands of school districts in this country would be free to ignore the mandate and set their own curriculum. Nor do we have any sort of national pass examination as is the case in Germany where students take exams to determine whether they will be allowed to go into the country's college prep schools (the "Gymnasium") or into one of the vocational schools (Hauptschule, Realschule). (Once we had a group of teachers from Germany visitng our school under an exchange program. One of them remarked to us, "I don't see how you can teach a class with students who have so many different levels of intelligence in it.")

States have more control over the schools than does the federal government since they provide more direct funding and can set standards like the school year, the graduation requirements, teacher certification requirements and so forth. However, the real power resides in the local school boards who set the curriculum, oversea the administration, make decisions on attendance zones and aprove all purchasing.

In America, we like this local control and the fact that we avoid "tracking" children. We like to feel as if any child can, if the child chooses, go onto college or technical training after high school. We like to feel that this reflects our values of individual initiative, free enterprise, and personal liberty. However, our methodology is not without cost.

For one, American schools try to give every child, regardless of aptitude or intelligence level, the equivalency of a college prep education. We try to make concessions to those who do not have the intelligence or the desire to go on to college through offering special education courses and vocational/technical training, but our core curriculum is geared towards college prep.

We are thus admonished to hold "high standards" in our teaching, but at the same time leave no child "behind" the others. To do this, we are told to account for "multiple intelligences" do "interventions" on behalf of struggling students, and allow for "grade recovery" for those in danger of failing. (This is a part of the many mixed messages teachers get from those outside the classroom. I will address this problem in a later post.)

The result often is a sort of school that resembles the procedure used by the Merchant Marines during World War II where a convoy of Liberty Ships could only go as fast as the slowest ship in the convey so it would not be, well, "Left Behind!" Teachers, for the most part, do not teach to the slowest student in their classes, but they cannot teach only for to the "brightest and best" because that would deny those at the botton to their right to a proper college prep curriculum.

Another problem associated with a democratic school district is that as the local boards are free to ignore the directions of the Secretary of Education (sometimes at the risk of losing Federal Government funding), administrators and teachers often ignore the directions of superintendents (sometimes at the risk of their positions). This is why those who would model schools after businesses make a false analogy. In public school systems, especially urban schools, there is often more attention paid to due process on the part of administrators, teachers, parents, and even the students themselves. Some superintendents try to ignore this factor, but they do not tend to stay around for very long. A well know teacher attitude is "I was teaching before this guy came to the district. I'll be teaching when they get enough of him, and he leaves." I think part of the reason for our "short tenured" superintendents can be traced to this fact.

The most effective superintendents appear to me to be the ones who use a kind of "carrot and stick" approach: equal parts of praise and admonishment. Perhaps I like this because it matches my own approach to teaching as I discussed in my post where I described the fact that I tend to be tough on myself at times and forgiving at others. However, this seems to me the kind of approach that works in a democratic school system. We cannot ignore the need for change, and this requires vision, direction, and, yes, a little "butt kicking." Yet one cannot be negative all the time. One must look for the good and praise it. There must be proding and healing from the same source.

To me, this provides an additional reason to hire an "Insider" as our next superintendent. That person must be able to understand just where we are and how much we need to do to get to where we hope to be. As I have discussed before, this is what rhetoricians term "Ethos" or credibility. And as Aristotle pointed out his book The Rhetoric, Ethos is primary to any attempt to persuade, to lead, and to change. Without credbility, change is nigh to impossible.

Looking Ahead: Part III, Can An "Insider" Be A Change Agent?

This is the third in a series of essays on the what the Oklahoma City School District should look for in a future superintendent for its schools. I have written that we might be well advised to look internally, inside our district, to find our next superintendent. This person I have termed an "Insider" as opposed to an "Outsider", someone whose has no prior connection to Oklahoma City Public Schools.

I would now like to deal with the problems that an Insider would have in bringing about real change in our district, something all agree is desperately needed if we are to do the job we know needs to be done for our students. In politics, it is often to one's advantage to be an "Outsider". Politicians tout the fact that they are "Outside the Beltway," or that they are going to bring real change to Washington or whatever state or city they want to reform because they have not been one those "Insiders" who have been messing things up for so long. Of course, once the "Outsider" becomes an "Insider," they suddenly proclaim the virtues of "experience" and the fact that they don't need "on the job training" and so it goes.

However, I must acknowledge that an Insider might have problems creating change. For one, if there are problems with the institution, the Insiders have in some small measure been part of it. They also may face resistance to change due to the fact that many of who were their colleagues are now their subordinates. Familiarity breeds contempt as well as jealousy. This will give some of them reason to resist change. Of course, there are no shortages of pretexts to excuse truculence. Whoever becomes the district's leader will have to deal with this one way or another.

I do believe that the Insider has some strengths which may work to this person's advantage. The Insider's familiarity with the people working in our district may allow this person to find means of motivation of which an Outsider may be unaware. The Insider may be aware of the many "landmines" or sensitive issues that have created obstacles to change. The Insider should at least be familiar with the various social and political forces at work in our district. The Insider should, if the right candidate is chosen, have established credibility, what the Greeks called ethos because this person will have worked with the same type of students in the same buildings, and dealt with the same frustrations as the rest of the district's employees. In the Navy this would be called "Blue Water" experience meaning that one has actually sailed the ships and fought the battles.

While this all may seem to those outside our district as so much "fuss and bother" when what is really needed is for someone to "go in and kick tails and take names," they are real concerns when one considers the true nature of a democratic school system such as we have in America. Schools are, after all, a reflection of the society and culture that produced them. Schools in America are different from those in Asia or Europe, for example. Schools in Oklahoma City are different from schools anywhere else in America. The same is true for any district. My plan is next to examine what is meant by a "democratic school system" and then apply that definition to the Oklahoma City Public Schools.

A Sign of the Apocalypse?

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by Albrecht Durer

An editorial in The Oklahoman newspaper today mirrored much that I have said so far about the fact that we should look internally for our next superintendent. Quoting part of the article:

It isn't unusual for urban districts to seek superintendents with experience leading urban schools — with good reason, because urban districts have some unusual challenges. But Oklahoma City's recent superintendent history shows the pitfalls of going beyond state borders to find a schools chief.

They make a particular recomendation to the school district to consider suburban school superintendents. I disagree with them there. If the candidate has not had considerable experience with the particular problems of urban schools, then s/he will lack the ethos needed to persuade the administrators, teachers, staff and patrons to follow his/her vision for the district.

I don't know if I should be concerned about the fact that the Oklahoman and I see this issue similarly. Perhaps this is more a case of common sense rising to the surface.

Looking Ahead--Part II: Change Agent

I would like to now look at some of the pitfalls that any new Superintendent will face in the Oklahoma City School District. Specifically, I wish to address the need we have in this district for an agent of change.

Obviously, we need a change of direction in this district. We have been known for a long time as the district that parents want to get their children away from. Actually, parents seem to be willing to have students go to Oklahoma City schools through the elementary years, for the most part. However, at least in my northside end of town, parents look for alternatives such as suburban, private, or charter schools, once their children leave the elementary years and venture into the middle and high school years. There are many reasons for this: a greater mixing of economic and demographic groups, an unruly learning environment, the problems associated with adolescence, loss of community and so on. Whatever the reason, performances take a big nosedive in the middle/high school grades.

Everyone has his/her favorite villain in all this: poor teaching, inconsistent discipline, intimidated administrators, poor parenting, poor classroom management. All fingers are pointed in every direction except back towards the pointer. But it is obvious, that we can keep doing what we are doing because it is not getting us what we need, and especially not getting our children what they need.

So the next superintendent must be change the direction of our journey. All change is uncomfortable and threatening. So the problem becomes how do we do this without having those who need to change feeling threatened and retreating into little "turf wars" that sabotage real, constructive change? To do this, I think that we must develop a dual attitude towards our educational practices: one that is at the same time both demanding and yet forgiving.

I can draw a personal example here as a classroom teacher. I attend professional development seminars, both voluntarily and under duress, where some super-successful teacher is brought to show us how we should be doing our work. Typically, these "Stars of Education" have taken miserable students in degrading environments and made academicians out of them. They have been given beaten up sows' ears and somehow turned them into beautiful silk purses. And as I sit in the audience, my temptation is to find all the reasons why these speakers would have bombed if they had my classes. I look the results of my own efforts and feel that they don't match what I am hearing. So I put on my own "Defense Shield" the missiles of Discouragement and Disappointment. Of course, I also shoot down any chance that I might be able to learn something good from the presenter, something I might be able to "take back to Jerusalem" the next time I face my students. I close myself off to the chance to change.

So instead, I adopt a different attitude in which I both demand excellence in my teaching and forgive those times where I don't quite get the results I hoped for. I find that I don't have to be defensive if I know I am trying to improve at all times. All humans and all human efforts are imperfect, but humans are also capable of improvement and achievement.

I think that a superintendent who can inspire this attitude in everyone associated with this glorious and yet often frustrating business of education will go a long ways towards breaking down the barriers to change. We should feel that we must improve, but at the same time acknowledge that this is not a condemnation of who we are right now.

My wife and I have a few family "mottoes". One of them is, "It's a Work in Progress. (We Hope!)" We use this whenever we try something new like home improvement or a new recipe. It recognizes that we may not get things right the first time, but that's no reason to give up. If we keep at it, we will learn how. After all, a doctor's work is called his/her "practice.” This is just as true for the work of a teacher.

Our Next Superintendent, Part I

Looking Ahead

It is time for us to begin to think about who we want as our next superintendent. Something we need to consider, especially in the light of our recent troubles, is whether or not we should find "one of our own" to take the job. The last two superintendents have been "outsiders" brought in to give us a new perspective. Dr. Moore brought in many people my colleagues termed "the Texas Mafia." To many of us, it seemed as though many consulting contracts and high, well-paying positions in the districts went to people previously associated with Dr. Moore. Perhaps this was just our perception, but, as in politics, perception is often reality in schools.

Dr. Porter did not last long, less than a year. However, many of his problems came about because he was unaware of district practice and policy. Perhaps he was cupable for his lack of knowledge, but he seemed to walk into a mine field from the moment he came here.

Before these two, we had William Weitzel who was from Oklahoma, but did not have a background in education. His problems seemed to stem from his attempt to apply a "business model" to schools, the dream of many outside the school system, but a very poor model in the real world of a democratic school system. He became frustrated when teacher and administrators did not respond like business employees and subordinates, and students could not be produced like canned fruit.

So perhaps we should consider the possiblity that the next superintendent of the OKCPS District needs to be someone familiar with the local territory and familiar how educational institutions work.

In future, posts, I will be examining the problems of inside promotion, the needs of the district, and anything else I think I want to write about.