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CAN URBAN SCHOOLS BE "TAMED?" Today the New York Times hails the new superintendent of the New Orleans Recovery School District, Paul G. Vallas. He has some good, basic ideas about what high poverty kids need from their schools; namely, what they aren't getting at home. That includes three square meals a day, eye and dental exams, and daily personal attention. Class sizes have shrunk at some schools from 50 students to 10.
But the article is typical of the rather spurious "new superintendent is a godsend" genre. Lauding Vallas as a "veteran tamer of hard-case schools in Chicago and Philadelphia," there is no real assessment of his successes and failures in those districts. In Philadelphia, smaller class sizes across the board never materialized, although elementary school test scores did improve. Vallas also presided there over a controversial plan that turned the management of some public schools over to for-profit companies. In Chicago, some public education advocates criticized what they saw as Vallas' obsession with standardized test scores at the expense of children's well-being.
It would be impossible to adjudicate between so many differing visions of Vallas, but isn't it better to present a reformer as a human being instead of a fix-all?
--Dana Goldstein
COMMENTS (7)
"tamer"?
That seems *both* apt *and* inoffensive.
(/sarcasm)
Posted by: Chris | September 24, 2007 12:47 PM
I'm no education policy expert, but as a Chicago resident it's fair to say that Vallas did a hell of a job at getting the CPS back on track, and laid some important groundwork that current chief Arne Duncan is building upon quite well.
Posted by: Colin | September 24, 2007 1:28 PM
I've long thought that schools in high poverty areas needed to have an office of Social Services in the building so they could be in better contact with the children and their parents who most need their help.
Posted by: beb | September 24, 2007 1:30 PM
I remember similarly hopeful articles about Robin Jarvis -- you know, last year's NOLA superintendent, the one who isn't even mentioned in the Times article. I'll be much more interested to read about Vallas's ideas once they're actually in place. Until then, I'm skeptical of anyone with plans to save the day in New Orleans, given the pervasive dysfunction and lack of public support that Jarvis said drove her off, and in general I don't see the point of lauding school officials in their first days on the job.
I also don't think "tame" was a word journalists used to describe Jarvis's intentions. That mantle, which Vallas has accepted for himself, seems pretty clearly loaded with racism to me.
Posted by: Philissa | September 24, 2007 1:55 PM
You are correct in your assessment. You can follow a number of superintendents who were "miracle" workers in one system, and then moved on to the next- usually before the long range test scores came in. Rudy Crew in Sacramento, NYC, and now Miami. Valles. Ronald Paige. Rojas in S.F, Cortinez in S.F, and Los Angeles. It is a route they travel. And, almost always, leave before the data gets strong.
Posted by: Duane Campbell | September 25, 2007 12:28 AM
My recollection is that Vallas did not start the privatization of Philadelphia public schools. That started when Tom Ridge was still Pennsylvania's governor and was basically going to hand the whole thing over to Edison. Vallas at least tried to keep the privatization in check. He held them to standards and closed charters that weren't performing, something that rarely happens. In New Orleans, he is inheriting an even bigger mix of privately-run public schools than in Philadelphia.
Posted by: Charles | September 25, 2007 3:24 AM
I'm skeptical of anyone with plans to save the day in New Orleans, given the pervasive dysfunction and lack of public support that Jarvis said drove her off, and in general I don't see the point of lauding school officials in their first days on the job.
Posted by: tower defense | April 25, 2009 3:42 AM