This is a rhetorical question. After many years studying education, I will tell you my view: Superintendents should be educators.
Superintendents should be experienced educators who understand teaching and learning, curriculum and special education. There is much more, of course, but the starting point is to understand education and students.
We are always looking wistfully to other nations and asking what they do that we don’t do.
They put their schools in the hands of educators, not businessmen or retired military or lawyers.
So what brought on this rant? Tampa is about to pick a new school superintendent and one of my friends in Florida sent this article.
One of the candidates is a faithful cog in the Bush family machine. The other is an educator. Can you guess which is which?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The answer is yes. In NY it used to be that to get administrative certification, you had to teach for 5 years. That rule should be reinstated.
i taught in NYS during those days, and did my admin certificate as well. the quality of school administrators was pretty good in NY when i lived there, and much better than i’ve seen in states that don’t have this common-sense requirement.
more than anything i see this as acknowledgement of the lack of respect for education as a profession, and a lack of self-esteem we have among ourselves as a profession.
“more than anything i see this as acknowledgement of the lack of respect for education as a profession, and a lack of self-esteem we have among ourselves as a profession.” Yes! And of course, 5 weeks of summer training to be a classroom teacher. Everyone went to school so everyone is qualified to teach!
There would be a lot fewer administrators if that was true. Put it back!
Here are rhetorical follow-up questions: should state and national secretaries of education be educators? On what planet is Arne Duncan qualified to be the Secretary of Education for the most powerful nation on it?
HE’S NOT! That is the one thing (other than tearing up the older cars) that I disagree with President Obama about. In fact I wrote to the Department of Education about it very early in his term. And I would not support President Obama as Superintendent, principal or even a teacher, either, even as much as I like him.
And when Bobby Jindal started saying on the news that teachers didn’t need to bother to get a Masters or National Certification early in his first term because advanced degrees and experience did not increase test scores, I wrote to the Advocate (Baton Rouge’s newspaper) that he and the State Supt at the time, Paul Pastorek, travel a few miles from the Capitol and enroll in the College of Education at LSU, take some methods courses and get some classroom experience.
Teachers got rid of a governor in Georgia for badmouthing teachers on TV, ending tenure and firing the paraprofessionals in regular education! But Louisiana is so laid back, naive and conservative that they will elect a green parakeet if he says he’s “pro-life”. It also has a larger percentage of kids going to parochial schools than any other state. Maybe when they realize what Bobby is doing to the schools, that their children, whom they love dearly, are not getting a good education, they will come out of the coma. I hope we don’t lose a whole generation to illiteracy, creationism as science and re-written history before we do.
Ms. Burris, really? Why is actual teaching experience important? You mean people like Messrs Gates, Walton & Broad would not want me to come in and repair something that was wrong with their houses? Or repair their cars?
Let’s follow this “anyone can superintend, be a principal, or teach logic” to its end.
Since Ms. X made a profit at Widgets, Inc. for the last 7 years so she is hired as Chief of Surgery for Gotham Hospital because the profits from surgeries has remained flat for 5 years. You need an emergency surgery on your heart. She can make all your medical decisions because she knows how to cut costs and increase profits, right?
Or let’s say you are wrongfully arrested, in jail, face serious charges that could land you in jail for a long time, and you need to hire a lawyer. Why not hire Coach Billy Bob from State U? He has a winning record that goes back years. If he can win at football then he should be able to represent you and defend you in court, right?
Let’s say you have a business that is booming. You need to hire an accountant to do your books and handle your taxes. Let’s go for hiring Rev. Deal since he has increased the weekly giving at his church for 10 years through his good sermons. What could go wrong with the IRS, right?
If your tooth hurts then you should call up Mrs. Doe because she hasn’t had a cavity her whole life. She raised 3 kids with good teeth too so she must be an expert at dental care. She can handle your root canal, right?
Uh oh, your car died on the freeway. You should hire Joe down the street because he is an accomplished commercial artist that has made a living doing technical drawings for medical companies. He doesn’t know anything about engines but he’s a success at what he does so he must be good at car repair too, right?
Any old successful person from any business or who graduates from a top-tier business school can run anything. Knowing nothing about teaching, learning, curriculum, assessment, NCLB, RTTT, RTI, IDEA, Least Restrictive Environment, Title I, Title IX, tax levies, the FDA, local/state/federal regulations, psychology, social work, homelessness, child development, college entrance requirements, etc. should be no impediment to them exercising their awesome skills on schools, right?
Being born on third base or showing some kind of expertise in business and profit-making, even when you are corrupt, is all that matters in today’s America. If you can make money you own the world, baby! You can do anything, especially related to public education!
If we are so enamored of the idea that because one is successful at one thing ergo they are qualified to do everything then let’s try this social experiment and see how it goes. Who wants to go first?
Love this comment you articulate teacher you!
when Bill Gates hires someone with no computer knowledge or experience to be the head of programming at Microsoft–when Eli Broad hires someone with no business experience to be CEO of one of his companies–when Mr. Walton hires a non-family member–then I’ll agree that superintendents don’t need teaching experience.
everyone went to school, therefore anyone can be a teacher, or a superintendent.
Or even Sec. of Education!
Minimum teaching experience to be an administrator should be set at 10 years, no less. Hell, I’ve got administrators that are over twenty years my younger with no real experience in the work world outside or education, and although the current batch means well, they are just educrats enforcing all the top down mandates without question. Oh, they may agree with you in private that the policies aren’t right and are harmful but do they fight against these things? No, they certainly know who butters their bread.
this is a real problem, and not just with young admins. aside from a group of principals on Long Island in NY (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/28/education/principals-protest-increased-use-of-test-scores-to-evaluate-educators.html?pagewanted=all), i’ve not heard of many school leaders (except for Dr. Burris) who are speaking out on behalf of teachers.
i understand that school leaders aren’t empowered to make decisions unilaterally, and are subject to board of ed approvals, but it would be nice to see more principals stand up for what they know is right instead of merely implementing policies that they know are not good for education, kids or teachers.
one wonders if the influx of principals and superintendents without teaching experience is playing a role in this development?
Like those fat salaries too! A lot of folks keep their mouths closed for financial security. That’s why teachers get in trouble. A lot of us don’t. There was a special ed. teacher at a charter a few years ago who got into it with the principal because state and federal regs required him to have a paraprofessional. Principal refused to hire one. Couldn’t see why a small class needed two people. Teacher quit and went back to the Board schools. Shortly after he left a couple kids in that class got caught having sex in the classroom. You don’t leave self contained special ed kids alone in a classroom! That is part of why you have a para.
Administrators who are not teachers feel threatened by teachers who speak out. Some regular ed. administrators who are teachers but have moved up based on who they know and not what they know feel threatened by special ed teachers. We have a real strong tendency to speak out. Teachers are not fired because they are lousy teachers. But there was an assistant principal who loved me because he was the father of a deaf child and a teacher.Sat in on IEPS and everything. Principal showed respect. He was both a teacher and a special ed. child himself.
Yes I believe that the Superintendent should be an educator but I believe that he or she should also have some business courses/experience as well. Experiences in the classroom and a solid understanding of children with special needs make a positive difference when formulating educational strategies. The application of core business principles is necessary in reviewing and creating appropriate school budgets.
Education is not a business. You have people working for you as sup who are CPAs, chief financial officers, and the like to advise on budgets. By your “logic,” principals should be MBAs, which is what Eli Broad believes.
Donna there are accountants, lawyers, etc. who work for the school board that handle the technicalities that they are good at. They advise the superintendent just as President Obama’s cabinet members advise him. But the role of the superintendent is ensuring quality education. He or she is expected to be the INSTRUCTIONAL LEADER for the system.
Louisiana often hires non-teachers as superintendents. But there is a law in Louisiana that says, if you do, you have to hire a professional educator, a teacher, to serve as the associate superintendent over the aspects of the system that involve actual education. This makes the superintendent something of a figurehead or a mouthpiece for the policies. This is probably why some systems have blowhards for superintendents. However, the teacher hired as the assistant is paid at or close to the same salary as the superintendent. But if the superintendent is a teacher they don’t have to fill this second very expensive (over $200,000 per year) position to do the most important part of the superintendent’s job. SO WHY NOT GET A TEACHER IN THE FIRST PLACE AND USE THE EXTRA MONEY TO HIRE MORE TEACHERS, BUY SUPPLIES AND EQUIPMENT OR TO ENSURE THAT THE KIDS GO ON SEVERAL FIELD TRIPS EACH YEAR. Since the school boards are also often filled with politicians and preachers, you would think that someone who knew what he or she was doing would be the most appropriate superintendent.
I disagree that understanding business principles is essential to the job of a superintendent. That is what trusted advisors are for and a superintendent can learn enough on the job. A school or system is not a business. It is a human service organization. If school was a business every child who was anything but average would be kicked out, including both the gifted (too expensive to provide the challenges they require) and the cognitive/learning disabled (same reason). States were not required to educate special needs children until 1975 with PL94-142.
(Look at what Forrest Gump’s mama had to do to get her slow learner/mildly retarded son into school. At that time the cut off IQ in Alabama to be called retarded was 80, not the 70 that is common today.) If they were educated at all it was at parent expense unless they were locked up in an institution which many perfectly functional human beings were. But school was only for kids who were “normal”. And if we go to charters and privates with privatization/corporatization that will happen again. Public schools will only get the kids no one else will take. Interesting population gifted, gay, special ed, religious minorities, immigrants, foster and homeless kids and the ones the charters kick out.
And that is why businessmen have no business running the schools!
Absolutely Superintendents should have minimum of 5 years in the classroom.
Two years ago in my middle school, we had our CORE leadership shared-decision making team meet with our superintendent and three school board members. I brought up the show “Undercover Boss”, which I knew the premise of, but never had actually watched(reality TV kills brain cells ). I stated that we need to get our principals and upper level administrators in the classroom actually teaching on occasion. I told the group that sometimes educational decisions are made that make no sense on the ground, ala “FUBAR” in the military. I suggested that each principal and upper level administrator teach one day per month. Teachers are often pulled for staff development, workshops and IEP writing,so why don’t we have administrators fill in on some of those days. I stated this would be a win-win for the district. We would save money on substitutes and administrators would stay in touch with what is going on in the classroom, thereby giving them valuable experience to help with their decisions as the boss. Everyone politely laughed and smiled, and of course my idea was completely ignored.
I’ve long believed that the principals should teach one course per year in order to keep the “teachers” perspective alive in them.
The Broadies represent corporate/DoEd’s shift of education out from under the auspices of professional educators and into the open, deregulated education market. They do not believe teaching is a profession that requires years of practice to become an expert.
Just last month, Duncan’s DoEd issued regulations that apply the same failed policies of NCLB evaluation standards to higher education teacher preparation. In short, colleges of education are being set up to fail and suffer sanctions- opening up the market for students entering into unaccountable alt licensing programs (TfA, Online certification, privatized ‘graduate schools of education’ ).This is anti-intellectual, antediluvian crazy talk.
Here’s the concern statement from Higher Education Task Force on Teacher preparation:
“Following is a summary of our concerns:
The proposed regulations apply tenets of No Child Left Behind to higher education. The regulations would require states to rate every teacher preparation program on a 1-4 rating scale and to use criteria that have not been determined to be valid and reliable for this purpose. There is no statutory authority for either requirement.
o Criteria such as value-added scores of K-12 students of program graduates, job placement rates, and job retention rates are problematic.
These criteria have not been documented by research to be valid and reliable measures of preparation program effectiveness.
Multiple factors outside of graduates’ preparation have an impact on their ability to find a job and their decisions to remain in or leave the teaching workforce.
Multiple factors influence K-12 student performance beyond the teacher’s preparation, such as school working conditions, school leadership, and school resources.
o The criteria represent federal overreach and may violate state laws. Proposals provide waiver authority to the secretary even though there is no statutory authority to do so.
The proposed regulations present several workability challenges. Although many states are building data systems, few of these systems are developed enough to follow graduates into the workforce, as would be required by the proposed regulations. Linking programs’ ratings to their eligibility for TEACH grant participation would cause unpredictability each year as to which programs are TEACH grant eligible. Such changeable status would confuse students, significantly increase the workload of student financial aid offices, and impede programs’ abilities to recruit and retain teacher candidates in high-need preparation fields. “
I’ve mentioned elsewhere that WCSD in Nevada has hired somebody with utterly no teaching experience whatsoever, Pedro Martinez, to be superintendent. This appointment was an outright slap in the face to career educators. It’s also in direct violation of Nevada statutes which require sups to have at least three years of classroom experience. Martinez was actually a deputy sup of INSTRUCTION in Clark County (coming from Washoe as a deputy sup brought in by former sup Heath Morrison) despite no experience in the classroom. He merely hired layer upon layer of administrators to cover up the fact he didn’t know anything. Washoe County is now in the ditch and will get worse under Martinez.
Oh, he’s a CPA, so he’s trained to cook the books when necessary, and he is Eli Broad Academy and a crony Arne Duncan’s when Martinez worked in Chicago. Those are his “qualifications.”
Louisiana’s Supt. John White does not have the qualifications that are listed as requirements to be the state’s education leader. Yet, because he, I guess, is a Broad alum, a former Duputy Chancellor of NYC and a friend of former Supt. Paul Pastorek, newly appointed to the Broad Board, makes him qualified. Go figure! Guess anything can be waived now days!
I have two words – Kathy Black. Need I say more?
NYS Commissioner of Education: John King, Jr. : a couple of years as a charter school teacher.
We can top that…CT commissioner Pryor has not prior teaching experience ever. Yale lawyer who started a charter school and a charter management company..Amistad and Achievement First.
Those are the new requirements for Ed leaders….the less time spent in a classroom the better.
Duncan and King together didn’t have the necessary classroom experience to be Assistant Principals in NY until the regents lowered the bar three years ago.
One day a month in a classroom would be a piece of cake…make it a year every six years in an inner city school. Better yet, make it in a school district at least twenty five miles from the one where they “Administrate”.
Ten years in the classroom should be the minimum.( Ideally being the parent of a few teenagers would be a real asset. They supply Humility!)
While we’re at it, I think Generals and Admirals should never have to ever have experience as a soldier or sailor.
Hey, my friends and family say that I prepare food that takes them to new flavor heights. Put me in the cockpit of a 747 and let’s see what happens.
“Should Superintendents Be Educators?”
Of course!
Isn’t it ridiculous we even have to ask this question?
Thanks, Diane, for the chance to weigh-in.
It’s bad enough that “Broad-trained” pinheads are being hired as superintendents, but in the deep south we have a problem just as bad, if not worse – almost every single administrator down here is a former coach. Most spent 3 – 5 years coaching football, and now they are supposed to be able to handle the comp[lex organizations that are public schools? Yeah, right! Most of these geniuses have the classroom “experience” of “teaching” health or driver’s education, and for maybe two class periods per day.
Here’s what I would like to see – NO ONE is allowed to apply for a princiapl position unless they have 15 years continuous classroom teaching experience – coaching athletics DOES NOT COUNT. At all. They must have at least a Specialist’s Degree. To be a superintendent, minimum of 15 years continuous classroom experience, PLUS a doctorate from a REAL accredited institution – NO online or “limited residency” bullcrap “programs” *cough – NOVA- cough-cough*
Education must be managed and controlled by EDUCATORS, not economists, or accountants, or ESPECIALLY former coaches.
If it sounds like I have an axe to grind with this post – congratulations, you are correct. I am sick and tired of taking orders and “directives” from people with lesser intelligence who only got their “jobs” because of the “good ol’ boy” system.
Yep! and that experience needs to include at least one year teaching special needs students. In Georgia the coaches had to also teach academics. Many taught social studies and they had to be certified teachers. But in a rural district, Paulding County, they taught special education. The head basketball coach was the Department Chair. Fortunately he was certified in special ed and a sweet man and seemed to be a good teacher. But he was also out of the classroom a lot during basketball season.
The coaches bitched and complained during departmental meetings and threatened to quit if they didn’t get a “real class”, however. (And they would never have had it so good anywhere else with Georgia teacher pay and also a coaching supplement.)Especially the soccer coach. But the wrestling coach loved his work and planned to get a Masters in special ed. But he was family.. He had a brother with Down Syndrome and had worked at camps for handicapped kids for years.
Unfortunately, here in New Jersey our State Board of Education has already relaxed superintendent hiring requirements to allow non-educators to lead certain districts with “failing” schools. So the students most in need of an experienced education professional at the helm may instead become subjects in a management experiment.
As a rationale, State Board VP Ian Plawker noted that he had no education experience when he joined his local school board (of course, as a lay member on a team of local residents, Plawker never had to use his considerable non-education experience to conduct a formal observation of a teacher, either). To me, Plawker’s most striking comment was this one: “Our end goal is a business product — getting our kids through school and ready for work or college.” A business product? That’s not the term I would use when referring to the social, emotional and academic growth of my students.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/07/nj_board_of_ed_votes_to_open_s.html
It would be real interesting to put one of the non-educator politicians anonymously in the schools for a week as a teacher. Bet most of them would walk out at noon on the first day. I would like to see that as a litmus test they had to go through to qualify—actually 2 weeks, one on a nice overcrowded regular education class and one in a self contained special education class.
Florida still elects its superintendents??? EEW!
Mr. Browning disqualified himself with 5 little words, “This district is a business”.
Children’s lives are not a business. Children are not a product or a service that can be discontinued if it does not make a profit. Schools are human service organizations. They are infrastructure. Quality public schools make the community and state a better place to live. They are not about business.
And why is it that education is the only profession where it is considered “visionary” to make someone who is not a member of the profession its leader. Is it part of the War on Women since we are one of the few professions that is predominantly female? I am talking professions as in requiring (until this spring in Louisiana) a college education to enter and specific skills and experience in that profession? How about letting the American Medical Association be headed up by a teacher? The American Bar Association by a plumber? Think that would work?
And speaking of visionaries, I would much rather have an administrator who could and would teach reading if the teacher was out, who understood why changing diapers is sometimes part of a teacher’s job and who treated all faculty and staff with respect. And one who knows what an IEP is. That’s real important. And someone who knew intrinsically that kids with food in their stomachs do better work than hungry ones and would pull some graham crackers and peanut butter out of his or her desk drawer for just such a situation. I would rather have a worker bee than a queen bee over my school system. I don’t care about a vision. The legendary Hosea Williams called himself the “Workhorse of the Movement”. Dr. Martin Luther King was a visionary, but he could not do the job of creating equal rights without help from his workhorse.
To get the schools out of the messes they are in from the years of not-teachers, scripted lessons, watered down curricula and teaching to the test we need a big strong, faithful workhorse, a Budweiser Clydesdale who gladly pulls a heavy wagon, not a fragile boned, beautiful, nervous stallion who is more concerned about how big his paycheck is than if the teachers have notebooks and, pencils and that all the hungry children get lunch.
Not only should superintendents be educators, they also should not be paid obscenely large salaries, compared to those who are still teaching. “Administrative bloat” is a nationwide problem which is destroying our schools. Having had quite enough of this, we are now petitioning Congress to cut their pay. Please read our petition. If you agree with it, please sign it, and spread it to everyone you know. The petition itself contains many more details. http://www.change.org/petitions/the-c-a-p-education-reform-proposal-save-america-s-schools-by-cutting-administrators-pay-with-federal-legislation