'The system was in free fall' according to Mazany... Tribune reporting that Mazany is breaking with Huberman policies, major criticisms of predecessor
As Chicago school teachers and students woke up for the Pulaski Day holiday and the soon-to-be ending of winter, the Chicago Tribune is reporting that current "interim Chief Executive Officer" Terry Mazany is making a complete break with most of the major policies and initiatives of his predecessor, Ron Huberman.
Huberman was appointed by Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley in January 2009 after the former Chicago CEO, Arne Duncan, went to Washington to become U.S. Secretary of Education under President Barack Obama. Huberman resigned in November 2010 following the announcement that his lifetime patron, Richard M. Daley, would not run for re-election. Mazany took his seat as "Interim CEO" (appointed by Daley) in December 2010.
At his final meeting with the Chicago Board of Education (November 17, 2010, above), Ron Huberman presented a Power Point during which he continued to bash teachers and repeat the talking points he had been trying to utilize since his appointment by Mayor Richard M. Daley 22 months earlier. As usual, Huberman's points included a great deal of teacher bashing based on his so-called "Performance Management" program. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.
According to the March 7, 2011, Tribune article, Mazany will roll back the power of the area offices (which had become virtually autonomous school districts under Huberman), decrease reliance on standardized tests, and increase the use of veteran teachers in an attempt to replicate the successes of the school system's magnet schools. Manany present the Chicago Board of Education with a Power Point summary of his objectives at the Board's monthly meeting on February 23, 2011.
By the February 2011 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education, Terry Mazany was ready to present his approach to the school system with a Power Point which basically repudiated the complex "Performance Management" approach of Ron Huberman. Huberman's "Performance Management", which changed criteria for school success every month or two and which refused to admit the impact of Chicago's brutal racial segregation and child poverty on what takes place in schools and classrooms, was characterized even by some Huberman supporters as a bizarre Rube Goldberg that even Huberman couldn't explain coherently. Only the fact that Chicago's media had eliminated experienced education beat reporters enabled Huberman to get away with the twin numerical lies that undergirded his administration (a huge "deficit" that he was never required out outline; and "Performance Management"). Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.
In the Power Point, Mazany emphasized what he called the need for "global" education in Chicago. Mazany did not respond to criticisms about the fact that the Board of Education meets only monthly, behind a phalanx of security, at a location and time virtually impossible for the average teacher or parent to attend (in part because of the "bankers hours" timing of the Board meetings and in part because of the expense of public transportation or downtown parking).
Interim Chicago Public Schools Chief Executive Officer Terry Mazany attended his first meeting of the Chicago Board of Education on December 15, 2010 (above) and at the time observed a great deal and presented the Board and public with parts of his credentials and record. At the time, Mazany also postponed the expansion of the city's charter schools (although he approved most of those on the December 15 agenda one month later). Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.
Unlike Ron Huberman who holds neither educational experience nor credentials to work in a public school district in any capacity, Terry Mazany has extensive education experience and credentials. Mayor Richard M. Daley named Mazany to serve as the interim Chief Executive Officer to Chicago Public Schools.
Mazany, 54, who has served as the President and CEO of The Chicago Community Trust (CCT) since 2004, will replace Ron Huberman who resigned and will be leaving CPS at the end of November 2010.Mazany has a Masters in Business Administration, with an emphasis on organizational change, from the University of Arizona. Before joining The Chicago Community Trust, he worked in the Detroit Public Schools, and then in districts throughout the country including schools in Baltimore, Oakland, and San Francisco, as well as other smaller districts.
In addition to his work at the Trust, Mazany led the Chicago Recovery Partnership effort, which is an historic collaboration among the City, foundations, nonprofits, and businesses to maximize federal economic stimulus funding in the City.
Mazany’s leadership with the Recovery Partnership helped the City of Chicago secure an extraordinary $2.2 billion in federal grants, including $469 million in competitive funds.
http://mayor.cityofchicago.org/...
In contract to Terry Mazany's "instructional core", Ron Huberman's "Performance Management" rendered information (called "data" by Huberman and his supporters) virtually incoherent, as the above "Performance Management" wall chart shows. The chart above is posed on the wall of the 15th floor conference room where "Performance Management" sessions were held to further what Huberman called "Data Driven Management." Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.
Interim CPS chief plans for the long haul but hasn't talked to Rahm Emanuel... CPS chief Terry Mazany doesn't expect to be in charge long, but he's reversing predecessor Ron Huberman and leaving Rahm Emanuel a new education plan.
Mazany is advocating for eliminating many of the policies Huberman put into place, a move he says will create a more level playing field across the city and better prepare students for global competition.
Chicago Public Schools chief Terry Mazany will complete his 100th day in office this week, a milestone that has him reflecting on the school district's troubles and promoting a new vision to help fix what he considers the chaotic and fractious reign of his predecessor, Ron Huberman.
"The system was in free fall," Mazany said of the district after Huberman's departure in November. "There was plunging morale. Vacancies in key leadership positions. A balkanized organization structure where each unit was doing their own thing. And there was a loss in a unifying vision for education."
Over the last three months, Mazany said he has worked to repair some of the strained relationships between the central office and its employees and to bring his own "culture of calm" to a district that had seen three top executives in two years.
http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/...
"It would be a good idea for whoever is coming in to have a road map, somewhere to start, because it's a colossal mess right now," said Clarice Berry, president of the Chicago Principals Association. "Right now, CPS is all over the place. It's in a major state of dysfunction."
By the time Huberman resigned in November 2010, his "Chief Performance Management Officer" Sarah Kremsner (above center during the November meeting of the Chicago Board of Education) was in charge of a department that was costing more than $20 million and expanding. Like Kremsner herself, the people in the department (and in the area offices who worked as "Performance Management" experts) had no teaching experience in Chicago's public schools and, for the most part, no Illinois teaching or administrative credentials. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.
"I have great respect for Terry. This is just a philosophical difference of how you manage a school system like the Chicago Public Schools," Huberman said. "In order to drive accountability in the system, we had to empower people and allow them to make decisions.
"In my time as chief, we had to make some really hard decisions, and I stand by the decisions."
By the time Ron Huberman's so-called "Performance Management" program was in place at the beginning of the 2009 - 2010 school year, Substance was exposing both the professional absurdity and the enormous cost of the program. Chicago's other media refused to take a close and critical look at the Rube Goldberg "Performance Management" system, even when it was being used to destroy schools during the 2010 school closing hearings (at which five schools were declared "failing" and turned over the the Academy for Urban School Leadership for "Turnaround"). Substance graphic shows the front page of the September 2009 print edition of Substance.
The above article was posted on line by the Chicago Tribune at 12:01 a.m. March 7, 2011 and is supposed to appear in the print edition that morning. In typical Tribune fashion, the article quotes the chief of the Principals' association and a college professor, but leave out the President of the Chicago Teachers Union, Karen Lewis, all Chicago public school teachers, students, parents, and community activists whose growing protests against Huberman's policies (especially school closings) marked the tumultuous 19 months Huberman had power.
UPDATE: Tribune is giving Union Equal time
Firsthand experience on improving CPS
March 7, 2011
The Chicago Tribune editorial board recently offered up advice to Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel on negotiating the next teachers contract. The Tribune's suggestions missed the mark.
As president of the Chicago Teachers Union, representing 30,000 educators, I and the CTU membership would like to offer Emanuel some advice from the trenches.
First, what should guide education policy is the democratic principle that all children, no matter their income, race or circumstance, are guaranteed equal access to a high-quality education.
Fortunately, these words from Emanuel should give Chicagoans hope for a better day. "What Wisconsin's doing is Wisconsin and it's not what we want to do in Chicago because there's no respect, no sense of cooperation, no sense that we all have a vested interest in working something out."
We couldn't agree more.
I am sure a lot of people who are far removed from the classroom will try to advise Emanuel on improving classrooms. Many won't know much at all about education research or classroom realities, though.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/...
Karen Lewis, Chicago Teachers Union President
Firsthand experience on improving CPS
March 7, 2011
I am sure a lot of people who are far removed from the classroom will try to advise Emanuel on improving classrooms. Many won't know much at all about education research or classroom realities, though. For example, here are just a few of the Tribune's nuggets of advice:
Tribune: Pay teachers based on performance.
Union: This was called merit pay in the 1950s, dusted off and renamed bonus pay, and tested again and again — failing each time. Most recently, the National Center on Performance Incentives at Vanderbilt University stated in its September 2010 findings: "Does bonus pay alone improve student outcomes? We found that it does not."
Tribune: Fire the worst teachers.
Union: There's no epidemic of inferior teachers at Chicago Public Schools. Last summer CPS fired 1,289 teachers, ignoring their seniority — their years of experience — and said the firings were based on "performance." But only 40 had unsatisfactory ratings. The courts said it was illegal. Of course, CPS appealed, making the process longer and more expensive.
Tribune: Fire teachers faster.
Union: The Tribune claims that it can take two to five years for a teacher to be dismissed. Actually, the average is about one year. What the editorial board failed to mention is that once the teacher completes but still fails supervised remediation, that teacher is no longer in the classroom. Also unacknowledged is that CPS always appeals dismissal cases that are overturned by the Illinois State Board of Education, prolonging the process. That gets expensive when you factor in back pay for the years teachers are kept out of the classroom.
The real problem is that none of the Tribune's suggestions will actually increase student achievement. To do that — to better serve the children of Chicago — Emanuel should consider the following long-term improvements for all schools and the system. Some of the suggestions below are steeped in education research, some in the collective wisdom of teachers, parents and students. All have only one goal — to actually improve teaching and learning for decades to come.
•Provide safe schools and institute smaller class sizes that are fully staffed on Day 1. Focus first on neighborhood schools where nine of 10 students go.
•Limit standardized testing and restore art, music, physical education, computer and library classes. For that matter, provide libraries in the 160 schools currently without them.
•Invest in neighborhoods and their schools.
•Be a good employer. Empower every CPS employee with a fair, honest job evaluation system.
•Fund schools based on student need, not clout. Return the $250 million TIF (tax-increment financing district) money taken from schools each year and end Illinois' overreliance on property taxes.
•Provide smart, transparent and representative leadership through strong local school councils, an elected school board and a superintendent with an education background.
Not many know this, but 50 percent of teachers leave CPS within five years. In my 23 years of teaching, nine times out of 10 when I ask a teacher why she or he is leaving the answer is, "It's not the kids. It's the system."
We have to fix this system together and make Chicago Public Schools a magnet for the most innovative, progressive and caring career educators in the world.
Under the directives of Mayor Daley, Ron Huberman continued the destruction of public education in Chicago with the Renaissance 2010 Plan. Here is a short video from 2008 that explains the struggle against the dysfunctional polices that are now getting main stream media attention.
Cross Posted @
http://www.substancenews.net/...