"'Take risks for kids.'
That advice from a parent a week into my job as superintendent of the Sacramento City Unified School District remains one of the most profound things I learned during my first 100 days.
After 100 days of listening and learning, visiting 83 schools, meeting with hundreds of students, parents, teachers, and community members, it's clear to me we urgently need to take risks for kids in Sacramento. We must take bold steps to improve learning."
That advice from a parent a week into my job as superintendent of the Sacramento City Unified School District remains one of the most profound things I learned during my first 100 days.After 100 days of listening and learning, visiting 83 schools, meeting with hundreds of students, parents, teachers, and community members, it's clear to me we urgently need to take risks for kids in Sacramento. We must take bold steps to improve learning."
I have learned that SCUSD has some great programs and people serving children and neighborhoods. But while we have schools that do a good job, at other schools, learning sometimes occurs by happenstance. We have random rather than system-wide excellence.
Many districts across America share the same dilemma. We are too complacent about struggling schools that don't do a good enough job of educating children, especially those classified for three years or more as failing under the federal "No Child Left Behind" law.
While student academic performance has improved in recent years, large gaps in achievement remain between white pupils and students of color, between English learners and native English speakers, between poor kids and children from more prosperous homes, between regular education students and those with special needs.
I am concerned that despite many wonderful people who support our schools and want to see them do well, too many adults remain indifferent or resigned to believing no significant progress will occur in our district – as though struggling schools, like poverty, will always be with us. It is a pernicious and morally reprehensible belief system that holds some kids can't learn. It can, and must, be rejected. In the coming days, those serving the district who subscribe to this unacceptable belief system will either change their behavior or they will no longer work in our schools.
The good news is the district has administrators, teachers and staff who care deeply about students. Those educators have created pockets of success that can and should be expanded and replicated. As U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan observed, "There are great schools out there, and nobody pays them any attention. There are great teachers, and nobody pays them any attention. We need to fundamentally change that."
Earlier this month, I was visiting American Legion High School, a continuation campus. A teacher showed students pictures of a lion and gazelle. He told his students that each animal knows it needs to run faster every day – the lion because it wanted lunch and the gazelle because it didn't want to be lunch. The teacher explained that students need to keep getting better and "running faster" because life is challenging, changing and competitive. The teacher asked his pupils what they wanted to do with their lives and their plans for achieving those goals. This teacher reached out to his students and made them think beyond current circumstances to envision what they desire. He connected; they learned something – and there was magic. Adults need a plan, too, for what we want to see in our schools.
I have presented to our board of education a framework for making Sacramento City Unified a strong, high-performing school district.
Leadership is critical. Our plans calls for a strong principal in every school – someone who can recruit and keep effective teachers, motivate and inspire students and staff, bring in new resources and connect their school to the neighborhood. We must also have an effective teacher in every classroom – a teacher who meets the needs of diverse students with different needs and learning styles. We must take information about each child's academic performance and use it to improve how we teach, and how we intervene and help when children are not learning.
And our school district must engage parents and community. Schools are better when they invite the community – the "outside" – in. This invitation must include activities and services that support students and families – parent centers, clinics, afterschool programs, adult classes,recreational and sports programs. Schools cannot exist as islands adrift from their communities.
During his first 100 days in office, President Franklin D. Roosevelt fundamentally changed the nation's direction to save it from the throes of the Depression. Our job here today in Sacramento is just as important to our children. We must bring genuine improvement to every school and continue the listening and learning.
I pledge to aggressively seek our community's input and involvement in key decisions. This was your school district long before I arrived, and critical decisions must be made with your involvement and counsel. In January we will gather information and recommendations from the public and our employees as we develop a strategic plan, deal with our budget shortfall and make other important decisions. Our work will be transparent, genuine and effective.
What we do together after this first hundred days will shape our community for the next hundred years. Our children are ready. Let's not keep them waiting.
