Re: Selecting a Superintendent

["Sue Hovey" <suehovey@moscow.com>]

I thought you homeschooled your children.

I've worked in both types--from my experience the business model was more a
factory model and those who didn't come off the assembly line in good shape
were simply rejected.  Well perhaps I oversimplify, but not by much.

Sue
-----Original Message-----
From: dwhitney@moscow.com <dwhitney@moscow.com>
To: Evan or Nancy Holmes <ncmholmes@moscow.com>; vision2020
<vision2020@moscow.com>
Date: Monday, March 04, 2002 7:51 AM
Subject: Re: Selecting a Superintendent


>> 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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