Relationship or Leadership

A very nice commentary in the October 27, 2010 edition of Education Week reports some excellent results involving an Ohio high school.

Laura Pappano writes about an aspect of the school turnaround conversation that it not being measured nor receiving the kind of attention it deserves. She says "it's about relationships."

The piece describes an inner-city Cincinnati high school that was transformed from an "...absolute failure by any measure..." to one that has been nominated for national Blue Ribbon School honors.

Apparently the school was assigned a new principal in 2001 by the name of Anthony G. Smith. The article goes on to describe how Mr. Smith engaged his staff, the community and business to forge "relationships" that obviously mattered.

The commentary makes the absolute correct statement that "At the heart of all reform efforts are the people who bring the strategies to life."

Together, the various interests have transformed this once "...dark and impersonal building..." into a campus of excellence.

That these kinds of results are achievable with an inner city school should not be surprising if the school has the right "leadership" at the helm.

Derrik Bell has said, when commenting on successful black schools "The common element among successful black schools was a strong principal willing to give priority to his or her vision of education even over policy directions coming from the central administration. To buck the system, the principal must have the strong support of the parents and the community, support that can come only if the school makes measurable progress with the students."

And herein lies my major point of contention with an otherwise excellent commentary. The winning characteristic observed in this turnaround is impeccable "leadership" that delivered "measurable" improvements.

There is nothing new about that combination. Whether in education, business, sports or almost any other arena. Great leadership will usually produce measurable results.

And yes, most, if not all great leaders, either know (or learn) how to establish, nurture, and leverage important relationships for the benefit of the enterprise.

That is why exceptional leadership by the principal combined with a highly qualified and motivated teacher in the classroom is an absolute must for any school to succeed.

D.C. Chancellor Deserves Much Praise

My hat's off to chancellor Michelle A. Rhee for her untiring and focused work to improve the D.C school system. From most outside and objective observers, she made significant improvements and laid a solid foundation for the future.

With the recent election results that saw Mayor Fenty lose, it is perhaps only a matter of time before Ms. Rhee moves on. And of course Ms. Rhee will be just fine. Her career is only just beginning. The real victims here are the children of the D.C school system.

It is past time for parents and community leaders truly interested in education excellence to wise up. Rhee and Fenty were not in a popularity contest. Grownups should have known the educational ship was sinking and it needed strong and sometimes bitter corrective action.

Good luck and best wishes to Ms. Rhee and may you never compromise your principles where a child's education is concerned.

Excerpts from Sen. Barack Obama's Speech to the NAACP

The selected excerpts track closely with the focus and philosophy of this site. However, Sen. Obama makes the points with such passion and precision. Now, Barack in his own words:


" ...the fight for social justice and economic justice begins in the classroom."



"But I'm not going to stop talking about it (personal responsibility). Because I believe that in the end, it doesn't matter how much money we invest in our communities, or how many 10-point plans we propose, or how many government programs we launch-none of it will make any difference if we don't seize more responsibility in our own lives."



"I know that Thurgood Marshall did not argue Brown versus Board of Education so that some of us could stop doing our jobs as parents. And I know that nine little children did not walk through a schoolhouse door in Little Rock so that we could stand by and let our children drop out of school and turn to gangs for the support they are no getting elsewhere.


"...we have to do more in our own lives, our own families, and our own communities. That starts with providing the guidance our children need, turning off the TV, and putting away the video games; attending those parent-teacher conferences, helping our children with their homework, and setting a good example."


"It starts with teaching our daughters to never allow images on television to tell them what they are worth; and teaching our sons to treat women with respect, and to realize that responsibility does not end at conception; that what makes them men is not the ability to have a child but the courage to raise one."

Our thanks to Sen. Obama for framing this issue so clearly.

The New Black Leader

As expressed by John McWhorter in his well presented book called Winning The Race (Beyond The Crisis In Black America), I quote his description of the new black leader.

It makes sense to me and should serve as a standard for those appointed to or assuming a leadership role in the black community going forward:

"Any black leader, political or writerly, who is to have any serious effect on black Americans' lives must openly and conclusively let the frameworks of the Great Society ideology, treating blacks as helpless victims of factory relocation, middle-class snobbery, buildings' heights, "segregation," and the rest, pass into history. To insist that this frame of mind is the only way to address our problems as humane, informed citizens is to, unwittingly, leave millions of people to languish in idleness, unfocused cynicism, and misery."

He goes on to say, "The work that remains to be done is dedicating ourselves to letting the "whitey has to pay" routine go, and filtering all of our race politics through a constant awareness of that, with a deeply felt moral urgency. We must open ourselves to this even though racism still lurks here and there and capitalism is a hard business."