Sunday's Seattle Times had a "little tutorial" for Seattle's incoming Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson. It's a list of recommendations from familiar faces in the "public school community" who have spent the last several years applauding the school district into its current quagmire. A more informative tutorial would include recommendations from those who have already written off Seattle government schools as to how the new Superintendent might win the skeptics back.
Not that she could necessarily implement many of those recommendations, given that the Superintendent's job is a setup for failure.
But it would have been a more interesting article than the one that was published.
What do you say? What would the new Superintendent have to do to win your support? Or even get you to enroll your kids in Seattle public schools (if applicable)?
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at April 16, 2007 04:01 PM | Email This2) Make a Pledge that there are NO Sacred Cows...
that everything is on the chopping block...and she will demand a much higher level of productivity and accountability.
Of course neither of these will happen.
She will immediately be compromised by the existing Bureaucratic TUB OF GOO....they will quickly Circle The Wagons, giving each other awards & plaudits instead of critical analysis.
This Superintendent will be a Puppet for the current failed leadership?? and ineffective bureaucracy.
PERIOD!
Posted by: Mr. Cynical on April 16, 2007 04:32 PMExcrement runs downhill, as does the School District and Seattle in general...ie traffic, homeless, topless, brainless, car-less, childless......demographic and economic slow motion suicide. But, one great latte.....
In the 60's, our school district was in the top ten in the nation.
Today, wreckage.........
Posted by: Hank on April 16, 2007 05:10 PMOh, and fire the middle management. Sheer bloat.
Posted by: DaveJ on April 16, 2007 05:57 PM2. The institutional structure has to
change. A charter school district where
every school is a charter is probably the
best insitutional structure.
The fundamental bottomline: Are we raising workers or citizens? Charter Schools raise workers. They are a for profit model, at public expense. In contrast, Public Schools are charged with raising citizens who will participate in democracy and produce in the economy.
What needs to happen is for the School Board to get back to Board basics and actually govern the district.
It is the Board's responsibility to give clear direction to the Superintendent. Her success is defined by the Board.
Candidate, Seattle School Director, Pos. 2 (NP)
Lisa@StuebingForSchools.org
First you suggest that a school system has to make a choice between producing workers or citizens, as though the two are mutually exclusive. Then you say that Charter Schools output workers who, I guess, are not civic minded. And finally, you pronounce that public schools must produce people who are both citizens AND productve in the economy (which sounds a lot like workers to me) in violation of your opening remark.
I really don't see what point you are trying to make regarding citizenship and productivity. I do get it that you don't like Charter Schools.
Posted by: huckleberry on April 19, 2007 11:56 AM