Young D.C. principal quits and tells why

[proud2BlibKansan]

Bill Kerlina won a plum assignment when he was hired away from Montgomery County in July 2009 to become a principal in Northwest Washington. Phoebe Hearst Elementary was a small, high-performing school, right across the street from Sidwell Friends.

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He said he is quitting a system that evaluates teachers but doesn’t support their growth, that knuckles under to unreasonable demands from parents, and that focuses excessively on recruiting neighborhood families to a school where most students come from outside the attendance zone.

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Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson said that she was surprised by Kerlina’s resignation and that it was the first she’d heard of his unhappiness. She also said she was disappointed that he didn’t air his grievances more fully before he made his decision. Working in the District, she acknowledged, poses challenges.

“I guess that we all know everything ain’t for everybody,” Henderson said. “DCPS is a work in progress. Not everybody is willing to lead under the circumstances we ask them to lead under, in a developing urban school district. It is much different than a place where things are completed and fully successful.”

more . . . http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/young-dc-principal-quits-and-tells-why/2011/06/19/AGfcP6kH_story.html

[KT2000]

1. Something I would like to see:

On Parent/Teacher night I wish that a picture of the parents and their child is taken. Parents should be required to state in writing what they think their obligations are with regard to their children's education.
That may describe for all to see what teachers are up against.
Then the teacher should distribute a memo to the parents explaining what is really expected of them.
Too many parents regard schools as free daycare.

[bluestateguy]

2. Indeed

Amid all of this chatter about accountability we hear very little about the parents responsibilities for education.

[NNN0LHI]

3. Too many parents regard schools as free daycare

I can tell you when that began.

It began when one paycheck from a factory job no longer was enough to support a family on. I can remember when it was enough by the way.

I watched the transition happen during my lifetime. Began during the 1980's. Lot of that was Reagans fault but not all of it.

I was laid off more during that decade than I was working. And you know what was happening around me? While I was laid off a lot of my neighbors began buying non-union or imported versions of the product I made. Lot of those people were union workers themselves.

Don

[Recursion]

4. I want somebody to do an expose on how students are recruited in DC

They mentioned it in the article but it's a huge problem. The "neighborhood" schools have a quota of city-wide open seats (in some cases, a majority) and there's all kinds of shenanigans about who gets those seats and how that decision is made. (One of the things parents say they like about charters is that the entry process is a lot more transparent -- that's pretty appalling.)

This line was particularly galling:

D.C. officials dispute that, pointing to mentors, instructional coaches and master educators who are available, along with professional development courses offered by the District and the Washington Teachers’ Union. Video clips of teachers who earned top ratings also will be made available in the coming school year.

Disingenuous at best. The master educators are there to evaluate, and are explicitly not there to remediate -- this is one of the biggest complaints teachers have.

On a final note: dear God, the last thing this region needs is yet another gourmet cupcake shop...

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. Good point

What's up with all these cupcake shops?

[Blue_Tires]

6. what a cluster****

Although I am surprised he left the relative safety and competence of Montgomery Co., I guess he had good intentions in his heart...But dealing with Rhee/Fenty, the transition to their successors, out-of-district residency, and its race/class tensions probably took a few years off of his life...

[msanthrope]

7. He is unstinting in his praise for Sidwell Friends. Suggests that DCPS be more like them.

Interesting OP.

[Jazz Ambassador]

8. I want to sell this guy some swampland in Florida, or maybe a bridge in NY

Seriously, he leaves the cushy confines of the Montgomery County school system and is surprised to discover that DCPS is dysfunctional, racism is rampant in DC, and fighting for the kids is hard work? WTF? Did he do any research before accepting his job offer? Hell, did he even read the newspaper in the year or so leading up to his appointment? He kind of reminds me of those soldiers around the time of Gulf War I who were shocked to discover they were being asked to fight in a war; why, the recruiter never even mentioned that possibility!

So now he's abandoning education as a calling and reinventing himself as a purveyor of yuppie baked goods, and admits that part of the problem is that his $94,000 salary (93rd percentile of US personal income, for those of you scoring at home) wasn't high enough. There's probably a lesson to be learned here, but it's got much more to do with Kerlina than with DC or its schools.