Re: Selecting a Superintendent

[dwhitney@moscow.com]

> I attended one of those high schools with 3,000 students. There was certainly 
no lack of individuality and the social stresses were far less than I have 
observed in much smaller schools across the nation attended by my five 
children. I say bring on the business model. It certainly can be no worse that 
the one created by the educators.

Doug Whitney
> ----------
> From: "William K. Medlin" <dev-plan@moscow.com>
> Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2002 17:41:25 -0800
> To: EN Holmes <ncmholmes@moscow.com>
> Subject: 2020 Message
> 
> MEMO TO:   Board of Trustees, Moscow School District, and All Citizens
> 
> InRe        :   Criteria for Selecting a School Superintendent
> 
>  Some voices call for a "business" model CEO to manage our
> school district as a few major metropolitan school systems have done.
> This echoes the trend around 1900 for a "business" model organization
> of schools in imitation of the factory system (called Taylorism),
> which led to junior and high schools with one to three thousand
> students, for "economies of scale" and "efficiency".  The trend
> continued throughout the 20th century, collecting masses of students
> into huge structures, creating a facade of "efficiency" but also a
> sense of anonymity, lack of individuality and often unmanageable
> social stress. America has paid a dear price for adopting such models
> alien to the needs of nurturing young people for responsible
> adulthood.  Almost every year some CEO, such as Intel's Craig
> Barrett, stigmatize our schools as ineffective and in need of
> managerial "overhaul" and more uniform standards.  Reforms are indeed
> needed, but what qualities of leadership should be called upon? What
> should talented teachers be paid in comparison with the other
> professions?
> 
>  These business-based perceptions are essentially invalid
> inasmuch as a nurturing institution is not conceived to "make a
> profit" from its assets but rather to manage them to benefit a broad
> range of different learners having a variety of academic and other
> social goals. Such management cannot perform in line with business
> ethics (assuming they really exist) and still deliver the kinds of
> programs, interpersonal relations, evaluation standards and
> "products"  called educated human beings that a civil society
> requires to sustain itself.  CEO's who typically set strict standards
> of performance, merge and un-merge units at will, shift fiscal and
> material resources around for presumed effectiveness, operate from an
> hierarchical command position, and "evaluate" according to harsh
> quantitative measures can hardly perform the roles that educators and
> parents expect of their school leaders. Standards, yes, but
> dictation, no.
> 
>  The chief school officer, like any top official of a complex
> organization, must first understand his  "raw material" -- in this
> instance,  children and their patterns of development, capacities of
> teaching personnel, and the functions of a great variety of
> instructional media, especially in a small district.  In large
> metropolitan districts perhaps less educational knowledge and more
> organizational abilities would be preferred.  Nonetheless, school
> administrators must be able to interpret relevant educational data,
> draw inferences, reach collaborative decisions, and execute in ways
> most beneficial to all levels and needs of the school system, no
> matter how "big" their turf is. To opt for any other administrative
> model would be to risk the overall quality and future of our schools.
> I base my views on over 40 years' experience in education, both in
> the US and abroad (where I have both taught and done research).
> Respectfully,
> 
>        W. Ken Medlin (PhD)
> 
> 


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