Yesterday's post presented evidence that Boston schools have steadily improved over the past ten years. Today I'll talk about six reasons for that steady improvement. These aren't the only reasons, and they may not even be the most important, but based on my own observations, I think these are key factors that could operate in any school system.
1. Stable leadership. Tom Payzant spent ten years as superintendent, and Carol Johnson, who succeeded him in 2007, has just signed onto another four-year contract. Such stability is almost unheard of in urban education, where mutual discontent between school committees and superintendents leads to an average tenure at the top of less than three years. Each time a new leader comes in, there's a period of adjustment. There are personnel changes. New priorities rise to the top. Some programs are dropped or starved of funds while others are launched. Time is lost and progress sputters.
One reason Boston superintendents can stay is that the school committee is appointed by the mayor, not elected. This makes it harder for one disgruntled or ambitious faction to undermine the superintendent's agenda. Some citizens view an appointed school committee as an insult to democracy, but voters have wisely approved it. They elect the mayor, let his choose his team, and hold him accountable for the results.
2. Steady outside pressure. To have an outside partner, sympathetic but demanding, examining your work can be infuriating but helpful. The Boston Plan for Excellence played this role in Boston. Ellen Guiney came to head the plan just as Tom Payzant arrived to lead the school district. They had worked together before, when Payzant was President Clinton's Assistant Secretary of Education and Guiney was Senator Kennedy's top education aide. They shared a dedication to kids and a deep interest in research.
Under Guiney, BPE kept a steady focus on the district's performance. The Plan pushed for changes in teacher hiring and how professional development money was spent. It pressed for closer attention to problems with special education. It advocated for new coaching programs.
Most of all, BPE pushed to increase the pace of reform. Bureaucracies tend to drag their feet, but BPE was a terrier nipping at the school district's heels.
3. Focus on instruction. BPE and the superintendent shared a belief that getting all kids to high levels meant big changes in how teachers taught in the classroom. Together, they carefully introduced new literacy programs, followed by new, more demanding math curriculum. BPE piloted and the district embraced a program of instructional coaching, where skilled coaches worked closely with teams of teachers inside the schools. Professional development became increasingly school-based, team, based, and focused on student work and the content teachers needed to address every day in the classroom.
Changing what and how teachers teach is slow, demanding work, but the Boston Public Schools now have some of the most coherent curriculum and most effective teachers in the state--teachers who can reach not only the eager, high-achieving kids but also the reluctant and confused.
Next time I'll talk about three more key factors behind Boston's steady improvement.
Showing posts with label Boston Plan for Excellence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Boston Plan for Excellence. Show all posts
Friday, June 10, 2011
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Ellen Guiney, tenacious education reformer
Ellen Guiney is retiring from her post leading the Boston Plan for Excellence, the local education fund and spur to reform which she has led for the past sixteen years. Yesterday I attended her goodbye reception at the top of the Bank of America building in downtown Boston, overlooking the glittering harbor. Bank presidents, superintendents, and the Massachusetts Secretary of Education all went over their allotted time to regale us with tales of how Ellen has inspired them, argued with them, prodded them, and never let them waver from their duty to the schoolchildren of Boston.
Founded in 1984 by First National Bank of Boston, the Boston Plan for Excellence or BPE began as a family of charitable funds donated by financial, legal, and insurance firms and devoted to special projects that carried the donor's name. When Ellen came in, she convinced the donors to pool their funds and focus on whole school change with a sharp focus on the quality of instruction in the schools. In partnership with superintendent Tom Payzant, she helped raise $100 million over ten years from foundations such as Annenberg, Carnegie, and Gates. The Plan and the district devoted the funds to setting up coaching models, professional learning communities, data systems, teams to look at how policies should change, and efforts to restructure high schools.
Ellen pulled together a fantastic team. She read and digested research, examined and displayed data, asked questions, doubted, and re-designed. She sat on the couch in her office surrounded by piles of paper and sparked ideas for her devoted staff to spin off. She incubated the Boston Teacher Residency Program, which has supplied 300 promising new teachers, many of them teachers of color, to the Boston Public Schools. According to yesterday's testimonials, she cornered people in the grocery store to talk to them about reform ideas. Sometimes she even laughed at herself.
BPE served as a laboratory for the Boston Public Schools and even the state. The district picked up BPE's successful coaching and data programs and implemented them district wide. When BPE developed an early warning system to identify middle school students at risk of dropping out or failure, the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education decided to spread its use to all 351 school districts.
There's so much more I could say. Ellen built dialogue among charter, parochial, Jewish Day, secular private, and public schools in Boston. She sought doggedly and not always successfully to maintain positive relations with the Boston Teachers Union. According to her staff, she lugs giant trash bags stuffed with recycling from the BPE office down to her truck to take home so they can be properly recycled, and does so with no smidgen of concern that she might be mistaken for a bag lady.
And all of this has paid off for the children of Boston. Tomorrow I'll share some data that demonstrates how, with steady, persistent, thoughtful attempts at improvement, urban school systems can come to serve all their students much better.
Ellen is small, slight, and easily embarrassed. She blushes easily, and she would rather stand at the back of the crowd. Yesterday her colleagues hauled her up front and made her listen. Once again, the real beneficiaries were all the rest of us. I walked away inspired by what one smart, dedicated, patriotic woman can do to change the lives around her.
Founded in 1984 by First National Bank of Boston, the Boston Plan for Excellence or BPE began as a family of charitable funds donated by financial, legal, and insurance firms and devoted to special projects that carried the donor's name. When Ellen came in, she convinced the donors to pool their funds and focus on whole school change with a sharp focus on the quality of instruction in the schools. In partnership with superintendent Tom Payzant, she helped raise $100 million over ten years from foundations such as Annenberg, Carnegie, and Gates. The Plan and the district devoted the funds to setting up coaching models, professional learning communities, data systems, teams to look at how policies should change, and efforts to restructure high schools.
Ellen pulled together a fantastic team. She read and digested research, examined and displayed data, asked questions, doubted, and re-designed. She sat on the couch in her office surrounded by piles of paper and sparked ideas for her devoted staff to spin off. She incubated the Boston Teacher Residency Program, which has supplied 300 promising new teachers, many of them teachers of color, to the Boston Public Schools. According to yesterday's testimonials, she cornered people in the grocery store to talk to them about reform ideas. Sometimes she even laughed at herself.
BPE served as a laboratory for the Boston Public Schools and even the state. The district picked up BPE's successful coaching and data programs and implemented them district wide. When BPE developed an early warning system to identify middle school students at risk of dropping out or failure, the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education decided to spread its use to all 351 school districts.
There's so much more I could say. Ellen built dialogue among charter, parochial, Jewish Day, secular private, and public schools in Boston. She sought doggedly and not always successfully to maintain positive relations with the Boston Teachers Union. According to her staff, she lugs giant trash bags stuffed with recycling from the BPE office down to her truck to take home so they can be properly recycled, and does so with no smidgen of concern that she might be mistaken for a bag lady.
And all of this has paid off for the children of Boston. Tomorrow I'll share some data that demonstrates how, with steady, persistent, thoughtful attempts at improvement, urban school systems can come to serve all their students much better.
Ellen is small, slight, and easily embarrassed. She blushes easily, and she would rather stand at the back of the crowd. Yesterday her colleagues hauled her up front and made her listen. Once again, the real beneficiaries were all the rest of us. I walked away inspired by what one smart, dedicated, patriotic woman can do to change the lives around her.
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