Education researcher Paul Hill (of the Hoover Institution and U of Wash Center for Reinventing Public Education) writes in today's Seattle Times that the jobs of public school superintendent and school board member, as currently defined, are "setups", designed to ensure failure. His solution:
The key to making superintendent and school-board jobs doable is to refine the excessive powers and duties to the few that matter, such as focusing on charter schools rather than hiring teachers, holding schools accountable for children's learning instead of dealing with grievances, sending dollars to the schools that parents choose in place of fiddling with centrally administered budgets, withdrawing support from schools that do not teach effectively, developing new schools to replace failed ones, and letting parents choose among schools rather than trying to make the best of a bad family-school match.Basic common sense, really, but just try to get it past the teacher unions.
Paul Hill is a researcher on school issues. He knows them inside out. And he learns from the data to be supportive of vouchers (somewhat) and charter schools - totally. But he just publishes; he won't push anything. When people here have been trying to push a charter school law or initiative he sits on the side line. It might just be the kind of person he is. Or it might have to do with his funding sources.
Posted by: Ron on January 4, 2004 02:32 PM