SBE Weekly Reader Oct. 23, 2009
Effective Leaders
Here are some rock star superintendents you wouldn’t recognize on the street.
Andres Alonso, the superintendent in Baltimore has been working hard to change the leadership culture by giving principals power of the purse. And the student performance in Baltimore is steadily and consistently improving.
Under the old staffing model, principals would “inflate their numbers to get more money,” but still had virtually no say over what programs were in their buildings, said Matthew Hornbeck, the principal of Hampstead Hill Academy, a pre-K-8 charter school that until 2004 had been a traditional district school. “It was a game everyone played, and it was wrong and unfair,” said Mr. Hornbeck, who helped Mr. Alonso lead the effort to change the funding formula.
While many principals have embraced their new budgeting powers, the reality at times has been rocky, Mr. Alonso said. If a school gets a bill for a $150,000 textbook order, for example, it has to have the money to pay for it.
“That is a major culture change,” the CEO said.
Effective Teachers
Secretary Duncan, in a speech at Columbia University calls for overhaul of teacher preparation programs.
Many teachers are turning to online school jobs in the face of layoffs.
Rigorous, Relevant Curriculum
Even as the use of value-added data spreads from coast to coast, it causes controversy. This article in the Los Angeles Times refers specifically to Williamson County and Tennessee.
In an effort to ascertain the causes of the need for remedial classes, UNLV is now requiring freshman to “reverse-engineer” their academic upbringing.
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