In the newspapers and on television there has been a great deal of coverage of the latest “motion” to improve schools.

Let’s fire the principal; he/she has to be the reason for this failure! The presumption is that a different principal will, operating under the same rules, be able to radically improve the school!

Does the term “Musical Chairs” come to mind here? It does for me.

If we look at the schools designated as the most serious failures, I think we will find a great deal of commonalities among them.

1. They tend to be in low income and low levels of adult education communities.

2. They tend to have little parent participation in the operation of the schools.

3. Most also are in school districts with very defined rigid work rules and hierarchies.

I believe it was Einstein who said, “Continued, repeated actions with an expectation of different results is a definition of insanity.”

If this is the case the replacement of the principal, or a group of teachers, may simply be an attempt to distract us from the real issue of actual gain in the body of knowledge that students know.

If firing the Principal isn’t the right answer what is? I am not sure that I know, but here are some pretty good guesses.

1. Recently the Washington Policy Center invited the Principal of Manuel High School in Denver to address them on the remarkable changes he has made to a Denver High School that was considered to be the worst in Colorado. It was clear from his remarks that he has a much different arrangement with his employees, than the negotiated agreements that our principals are required to observe. The employees at Manuel are responsible to the Principal, not the work rules of the District.

If we are going to fire principals and simply replace them with another face, we are meeting the definition of insanity that Mr. Einstein suggests.

2. It would appear that schools need to do a much better job on educating parents about what schools can, and cannot, do to assist, not complete, the education of their children. This is particularly true in those families that educators like to call, “From a different Culture.” These parents will tell you, as most parents will, that they want the “Best Education” for their children. Where schools seem to have failed is that they have suggested that they can do this, and not suggested that this will not happen without the support of the parents.

If we were to just change these two parameters, I would suggest that many schools would move very quickly off the bottom of the list.

A friend of mine brought me an Arizona paper the other day that had an excellent article on the plight of Arizona’s schools and students. It suggested that educators were a complicit part of the achievement problem when they report “false progress” to parents. I believe that this is often the case, and I have seen examples of this in our district. The Arizona paper then put together a matrix of possible ways to change this.

Their first suggestion was, “Hold back third graders who still cannot read, and eight graders who cannot read and do math at grade level.” They then listed the “Pain” that they thought would be felt. “Parents would be livid, students would be embarrassed and principals and teachers would come under public scrutiny in schools where fewer kids would move forward”

Bingo! What we need is all of these parties, Parents, Principals, and Teachers to share a common concern about the achievement of the children! “No Parent Left Behind!” “No Student Left Behind!” Livid parents and embarrassed students are a significant part of the solution. Instead of feeding them sleeping pills to placate, move to prodding with a cattle prod!

One of the more successful reform programs in modern times has been the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) that is now in 88 schools throughout the country. They have found out that they are not welcome in Washington. These schools form a strong alliance between parents and teachers and are very serious about education. The motto is “Work hard and be nice!” Evidently what they have shown just wouldn’t be acceptable in the Northwest.

In Oregon a school district is proposing to fine parents who fail to send their kids to school. It is amazing the responses this has prompted. Many parents are saying that “School has to be more interesting!” A national poll a few years ago suggested that parents wanted their children to be “Satisfied” with their schools! I believe we have to break this “Child Centered” approach to education.

When we go to the Doctor and he suggests a medicine that tastes bad, do we let children balk at taking it? Not if we want them to improve. Isn’t education the same?

The Arizona paper points out that the employment outlook for high school drop-outs, and those who “Finished High School” (Whatever that means) is very bleak.

I don’t see much difference between Arizona and Washington. Firing Principals may seem like a “Change” but it is, in most cases, just moving the goal posts!