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Joel Klein's
'Principal' Challenge
by John C. Fager, January 25, 2003, Post Opinion
For more articles visit
www.bridges4kids.org.
Principals are retiring in record numbers, Schools Chancellor
Joel Klein is threatening to fire 50 of them and big
factory-like high schools and middle schools are being broken
up into numerous smaller schools, each with a principal in
charge. While all of this is going on, the frustrations of the
job have reached such a pitch that there are fewer and fewer
candidates and with thinner credentials.
Klein has announced that appointing a competent and
well-trained, if not experienced, principal to every school is
one of the keys to ending the educational failure in much of
the school system. But the dysfunction of the system
frustrates and ultimately drives out many experienced
principals and discourages people from even applying.
I first learned about the importance of principals, and about
their frustrations, from Naomi Hill, the principal of PS 87,
my children's elementary school. In 1982, my son entered
kindergarten at PS 87, a barely mediocre school on the Upper
West Side. Although Hill was only a second-year principal, my
wife and I and seven other families took a chance because we
were so impressed with her energy, toughness and educational
vision.
Hill transformed 87 into a nationally recognized school. The
teachers she hired who shared her vision played an important
role, as did the parents, but without Hill's leadership, the
transformation never would have happened.
Nine years later, angry at 110 Livingston for constantly
undermining her, Hill left for the suburbs. In an interview
she said she and other retiring principals were burnt out
because they had to work with their hands tied. Among her
complaints was her lack of authority to make decisions that
really matter, such as hiring and firing. She also railed
about her lack of control over the school custodian.
Another terrific principal, Carmen Farina, now superintendent
of Community School District 15, complained that as principal
she had little control over the school budget. She said if
there was money to buy books but the school needed computers
or microscopes, students and teachers had to do without. She
also described a book-purchasing system that was expensive and
limited choices.
In 1996, Jane Hand, Naomi Hill's successor at PS 87 and two
other wonderful principals in CSD 3 reluctantly left for the
suburbs. They, too, complained about the lack of authority to
hire, fire and control the budget and about massive,
duplicative and unnecessary paperwork imposed by 110
Livingston Street.
Jorge Izquierdo, formerly the principal of PS 163, now the
superintendent of CSD 6, detailed how difficult, if not
impossible, it was to remove an incompetent teacher. And Jinx
Perullo retired early from Stuyvesant High School in part
because she got tired of having to explain to parents
complaining about bad teaching - how half of the new ones came
in under system-wide seniority rules and not on merit.
Ruth Swinney, who helped turn around PS 165 and then retired
early, explained the system's "Alice in Wonderland" culture.
She said principals weren't given authority to manage, nor
were they held accountable. This culture, which serves the
interests of autocratic and incompetent principals, lives on;
since principals supposedly gave up tenure three years ago,
not one has been removed.
Attracting principals is going to be difficult. Training
programs have met with mixed results. And hacking away at
rules that undermine professionalism and accountability will
take time.
But there is one innovation that might pay quick dividends.
About 10 years ago, my children's middle school in East Harlem
was run by a "teacher/director." This made sense because the
school was small and relatively easy to run, you didn't have
to pay the same salary as someone running a 1,500-student
school and, most important, the pool of candidates included
80,000 teachers. Also, the selection process was much faster
and effective because teachers and parents knew who the good
teachers were and who had leadership skills.
Unfortunately, the principals union grieved the position out
of existence because teacher/directors weren't licensed
supervisors. Perhaps as part of contract negotiations Klein
could convince the union to drop its objection. Perhaps the
state could be convinced to grant temporary waivers.
Fortuitously, the state education department is rewriting its
school leadership regulations; it should create an apprentice
principal post for small alternative schools. Even this may be
difficult, but it makes sense to fight for something that
worked well in the past.
John C. Fager was education adviser to City Council President
Andrew Stein and an education columnist from 1995 to 1997.
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