Here is another brave superintendent.
Dr. Vickie Markavitch, the superintendent of the Oakland, Michigan, schools created a video to protest the state’s designation of so-called “focus” schools. She said this was part of a political agenda to mislabel and discourage successful schools. The state’s system is labeling higher achieving schools as under achieving to advance its political agenda.
In her accompanying letter, she decried the attack on public schools by their own state education department.
Now we know of two superintendents who were courageous enough to stand up to the rightwing assault on public education by their state’s leaders. There is one in Brunswick, Maine, and now another in Oakland, Michigan.
Do you know of any others?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
John Kuhn of Texas!
Yes! How could I have failed to mention John. Will write him up.
I would make the case for Joshua Starr in Montgomery County, MD. He has maintained the PAR and Teacher Evaluation program started under Jerry Weast. He has not applied for RttT funds. Sometimes actions speak louder than words.
We’re in MoCo MD and I’m very very hopeful based on what I’ve seen of Josh Starr. He seems very accessible and I’m actually trying to work up the nerve to open a direct dialog with him as a parent and former teacher who is very hesitant about re-entering the field after an absence to have my kids and get them to school age. So far I’ve seen a huge emphasis on testing in my kids’ own school, and I’m waiting to see what happens this school year.
Love it! I also teach in Michigan in a “focus school” that is actually (using the same data) in the top 5% of schools in the state. Here is my take on this nonsense: http://mrpullen.wordpress.com/2012/08/02/closing-the-gap-should-not-be-the-goal/
Thank you for posting this, Diane! Dr. Markavitch is my hero! I teach 8th grade mathematics in a “focus school” in a large suburban district in Wayne County. My middle school houses the district’s Talented and Gifted program; they comprise about 25% of the school’s population. These are kids that generally score in the top 5% on nationally normed tests, like the EXPLORE test, and are accelerated two years in math, sometimes three. I teach them geometry, or more specifically, Honors Geometry. They are easy to teach – I expose them to the concept, they learn it. Quickly.
Our non-TAG population draws heavily from the poorer parts of our district. We don’t quite qualify for Title 1, but we do get the state equivalent, 31A money. In the general education 8th grade classes that I teach, many of the students come from backgrounds that are not conducive to being able and ready to learn.
When I heard about this ridiculous concept of “focus schools”, I was livid! I do a lot for my students to help them succeed, but there is absolutely NOTHING I can do to close the gap between those two student populations. I can only work to close the gap between where a student is and where he or she needs to be.
Dr. Markavitch hit the nail on the head.
No disrespect intended to Dr. Markavitch, but I see this as a bit self-serving especially since many of the Oakland County schools get far more funding for their kids than schools serving the urban poor minority communities. I have previously blogged on this at my “Rebel 6 Ramblings” site including a comparison of Oakland and Kent Counties in Michigan.
Guess the latter are the only schools that deserve the “failing” label. Heaven forbid we drag down our affluent suburban schools into the muck with those, those, those poor kids. I’m not buying it because most if not all of these superintendents are doing absolutely nothing to stand up and help with the inequitable funding of schools serving more difficult populations. Even our MASA association does nothing. And besides, it’s these folks in the affluent suburbs who have elected the morons in Lansing that are currently running the show and making these decisions.
Isn’t it ridiculous that we argue over whether our schools should be labeled as failing? If we accept that test scores should be used for making such draconian decisions, which is a big “if,” we have been rewarding schools that do not need extra help and denying resources to those schools who desperately need them. As long as we allow the debate to be framed in the terms of the “reformers,” we will end up fighting each other. Dr. Markavitch is correct that the new labeling system in Michigan defies even the old reformer logic unless the sole goal is to privatize education regardless of its current effectiveness. We should not celebrate the state dismantling of effective schools because less effective schools are getting a temporary reprieve. They will be back in the next round, and it will be easier to dismantle struggling schools when high performing schools have already been privatized. If we agree on the value of public school system, then we all have to work together to save it.
Has anyone followed the superintendent in New England taking on his governor?
yes, indeed. I wrote a post about the superintendent of Brunswick, Maine.