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This is a 20 minute mini-documentary about the Rochester City School District Board of Education contracting with Ray & Associates, Inc.--an expensive, corporate superintendent search firm with ties to the Eli Broad Superintendents Academy--and the community's struggle and response to such attacks on public education. The piece begins with an explanation of the vote last month on October 27, 2011 and shows what happened this month at the November 28, 2011 Ad Hoc Superintendent Search Committee. Enjoy!

It's customary for superintendents to address principals before teachers return to classes for the start of the fall semester. Determining how much of the content is merely rhetoric is hard to tell. After all, superintendents want to be seen as inspirational leaders.

We appreciate the governor's wish to rein in spending - we supported his initial proposal for a cap. But the salary cap is beginning to result in a talent drain and is worth rethinking. During a recent meeting of the New Jersey Association of School Administrators, William DeFabiis, superintendent in South Hackensack, issued this dire warning: If the salary cap issue is not addressed, there soon will be people being hired as superintendents who "years ago wouldn't even be considered" for the job.

New Jersey school districts are seeing record turnover among superintendents. The state School Boards Association says nearly 3 in 10 districts changed superintendents during the past school year. That's the highest number in the 10 years the organization has monitored school chiefs' employment.

Times are tough at school districts across the country, but they're especially bad in California, where a multibillion-dollar budget deficit has educators protesting and scrambling for ways to avoid layoffs. Larry Powell, superintendent of the Fresno County school district, empathizes with his teachers' pain, which is why he's literally putting his money where his mouth is to help alleviate some of the pressures of this coming school year.

State Education Commissioner John B. King, Jr. told school superintendents from across the state that the education reforms adopted by the New York State Board of Regents will help make high school graduates in New York "college- and career- ready."  King, speaking at the New York State Council of School Superintendents 2011 Fall Leadership Summit in Saratoga Springs, said too many of New York State public high school graduates are not prepared for college and work.  He noted that roughly 40 percent of students entering community colleges across the state have to take remedial classes.

"In a direct challenge to New York's most high-profile education initiative, school superintendents from across the region are beginning an independent review of the accuracy of state-generated teacher ratings that are based on student test scores. The Lower Hudson Council of School Superintendents has hired a research center at the University of Wisconsin to study the state's first round of teacher scores, released last summer, and to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of New York's approach. At least 80 school districts in the Lower Hudson Valley and Long Island are turning over data on thousands of students and teachers - all anonymously - so that researchers can run the numbers."

This was written by John Kuhn, the superintendent of a small public school district in Texas.

Former state superintendent Paul Pastorek at least gave lip service to the idea that some traditional schools could be acceptable to the State Department of Education. Incoming superintendent White by contrast is a "one trick pony". He plans to tell the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board ( I suggest educators read this revealing Advocate article very carefully) that the one solution to improving schools is to convert as many low performing schools as possible into charters. Charters in White's mind are the be all and end all for improving schools.

The Connecticut classroom of the future may not be limited by a traditional school year, the four walls of a classroom, or even the standard progression of grades, based on a proposed packageof unusually bold changes that are being advanced by the state's school superintendents. Instead, the current system would be replaced by a "learner-centered" education program that would begin at age 3; offer parents a menu of options, including charter schools and magnet schools; and provide assessments when an individual child is ready to be tested, rather than having all children tested in a class at the same time.

Newark's new schools superintendent, Cami Anderson, outlined a broad plan on Friday to reshape the state's largest school system, including closing poorly performing schools and lifting standards for charters. Although many of the changes echoed similar efforts in New York City, Ms. Anderson cast the blueprint as one tailored to the needs of Newark, a district where some parents, teachers and other stakeholders have grown resentful and suspicious of outsiders after more than 15 years under state control. But in what was perhaps a sign of difficulties to come, her presentation before parents, teachers and residents at Rutgers-Newark on Friday evening was drowned out by shouts for her to return to New York City, where she worked as a superintendent under schools Chancellor Joel Klein.

"Pity the new district superintendent. Like any responsible educational leader, he'd like to be sure that his district's curricular materials and interventions are grounded in solid scientific research. But no sooner does he start talking with his staff, his teachers, and various and sundry "experts" than he finds that everything is "research-based," including approaches that are clearly very different from those employed by his teachers. Should he let well enough alone, or should he introduce programs that seemed to work fine in the last district he was in? Neither. Instead, he should go read Dan Willingham's ingenious new book, When Can You Trust the Experts? The book won't tell him which programs to use, but it will help him think through -- and, in some cases, see through -- the claims their creators make on their behalf. An accomplished cognitive psychologist at the University of Virginia and the author of the must-read Why Don't Students Like School? (as well as an NCTQ advisory board member), Willingham aims to make district superintendents, principals, teachers and parents into educated consumers of education research."

Last spring students, teachers and parents endured the outbreak of what we soon called "testing madness." On top of the regular state tests, teachers across Mecklenburg County were required to administer 52 new high-stakes standardized tests, part of then superintendent Peter Gorman's goal of testing every child in every subject every year. The tests were tied to a pay-for-performance scheme that was slated for rapid approval by the state legislature. We were racing down a fast track to nowhere. This year, however, the rush has slowed. The pay-for-performance legislation has stalled. Interim superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh announced recently that CMS was scrapping the 52 extra tests. For the moment, students and teachers can focus more on learning, and breathe a little easier. Why the change? People stood up for the kind of education they believe in.

"On the very eve of the weekend celebrating the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Newark's state-appointed superintendent showed the citizens of Newark that they have no votes and they have no voice when it comes to the fate of their schools."

"Joel Klein is a hoot. Klein, who served as Chancellor of the New York City Public Schools from 2002 to 2010, recently took to the opinion pages of The Washington Post to crown his friends and cronies the champions of education reform. Several alumni from the New York City Department of Education who presumably learned how to promote reform under Klein's direction have assumed prominent leadership positions: John White is the superintendent in New Orleans, Cami Anderson in Newark, Jean-Claude Brizard in Chicago, Andres Alonso in Baltimore, and Marcia Lyles in Delaware's Christina School District; similarly, Chris Cerf is the state commissioner of education in New Jersey. These names join others around the country, many trained by the Broad Superintendents Academy. "

Some may be put off by Superintendant John Kuhn of Texas calling out politicians directly, and flipping the notion of "failure" on its head. But he is right, and his conviction is inspiring.  (See the VIDEO of his speech BELOW.) His points reveal in a timely way an inconvenient truth in education and politics right now. NCLB, Race to the Top, and other policies that use high stakes tests to assign value to students, teachers and administrators do one thing really well: they create an even stronger disincentive for teaching in high needs schools than do the difficult working conditions that have always existed in underresourced schools--the imminent threat of being labelled unacceptable or ineffective by one narrow standradized test given on one day in a year, the results of which correspond more closely nation-wide to socio-economic status than any other factor. They create the same disincentive to learn for such students.

A week ago, a friend shared a video with me of a school superintendent giving a fiery speech at a Save Texas Schools rally. That is how I met the superintendent of Perrin-Whitt School District, John Kuhn.

Covington is a product of the Broad Superintendents Academy. Bill Gates wrote a commentary last March in which he argued: What should policymakers do? One approach is to get more students in front of top teachers by identifying the top 25 percent of teachers and asking them to take on four or five more students. Part of the savings could then be used to give the top teachers a raise. This appears to be the inspiration for Superintendent Covington's experiment.

Kansas City Schools Superintendent John Covington abruptly resigned Wednesday night.

Nearly three-quarters of New Jersey school superintendents said the state Education Department did not play an important role in helping districts raise students' achievement or prepare graduates for college and careers, according to a survey the department released Monday.