| Urgent Open Letter to Charleston County School District Trustees seeking to do like Atlanta
26 April 2019
Board of Trustees
Charleston County School District
75 Calhoun Street
Charleston SC 29401
Rev. Dr. Eric Mack, Chair
Eric_Mack@charleston.k12.sc.us
Mrs. Kate Darby, Vice Chair
kate_darby@charleston.k12.sc.us
Mrs. Cindy Bohn Coats
cindy_bohn-coats@charleston.k12.sc.us
Rev. Chris Collins
chris_collins@charleston.k12.sc.us
Mr. Todd Garrett
todd_garrett@charleston.k12.sc.us
Mr. Kevin Hollinshead
kevin_hollinshead@charleston.k12.sc.us
Ms. Priscilla Jeffery
priscilla_jeffery@charleston.k12.sc.us
Ms. Joyce Green
joyce_green@charleston.k12.sc.us
Mr. Chris Fraser
chris_fraser@charleston.k12.sc.us
Dr. Gerrita Postlewait, Superintendent
superintendent@charleston.k12.sc.us
Dear Charleston County School District Trustees:
Please, don’t do it.
Please don’t look to Atlanta Public Schools as a model. More specifically and correctly, please do not look to the Atlanta Board of Education and the APS superintendency as embodying a model of quality public education leadership worthy of emulation.
As regards academic outcomes for especially children labeled “black,” please understand that the leadership of APS continually show they know only to steer the district to experience change after change after change, but never improvement.
Also please understand that the leadership of APS imbibe and entangle private interests, free-market ideology, behaviorism, racialism, and other regressive traits of today’s school reform movement and charter schools, not unlike yesteryear’s institution of slavery.
Since the “school turnaround” strategy they implemented just over four years ago is starting to show signs of failure—predictably so, by the way—the APS leadership are now trying to get ahead of that looming failure by steering the district to change yet again. However, their change this time portends the most egregious, inherently unethical, anti-public education, and anti-democracy change ever.
Now the APS leadership are actively driving the district to become a free market-styled “portfolio of schools.” As such, it will be required to manage district schools as one would manage a portfolio of stocks—viz., continually assess performance, keep the top performers, sell off the lowest performers—and even as eighteenth century planters managed portfolios and schedules of “hands” on their plantations (see Accounting for Slavery: Masters and Management).
Deceitfully marketed as “Creating a System of Excellent Schools,” APS, as a portfolio of schools, will serve the interests of charter school operators and other private actors known to contribute to destroying public education as a public good fundamental to sustaining and advancing democratic practice ever closer to democratic ideals.
So, with that said, if you, Charleston County School District Board of Trustees, are honestly and genuinely interested to learn what authentic education system improvement looks like, academically and otherwise, consider visiting and learning from public school districts that have “walked the walk” and not merely “talked the talk”—districts such:
- Iredell-Statesville Schools, Statesville, North Carolina; 2008 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Recipient
- Montgomery County Public Schools, Rockville, Maryland; 2010 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Recipient
- Leander Independent School District, Leander Texas; a textbook case of a never-ending journey of continual improvement “The Deming Way”
- Mission Hill K-8 School, a pilot public school founded by famed progressive educator Deborah Meier, operating with Ayla Gavins as principal, and journeying on the mission “to help parents raise youngsters who will maintain and nurture the best habits of a democratic society be smart, caring, strong, resilient, imaginative and thoughtful.”
Moreover, in case you have yet to know it, the destructive wave of education reform much as the APS leadership know it and have practiced it, especially during the last five years, is beginning to subside and crash.
Even a leading charter schools proponent admits as much:
- “The era of the nontraditional ‘no excuses’ urban superintendents is finished. Michelle Rhee, Joel Klein, and Tom Boasberg have all moved on. There are few comparable replacements. The vision of a radically transformed public education system with virtual schools, new charter models, and online personalization has crashed on the shores of reality.” —Van Schoales
Surely, you, the leadership of the Charleston County School District, do not wish to drive your district back to the trailing edge of the now subsiding wave only to have public education in Charleston County eventually crash along with where the leadership of Atlanta Public Schools is driving public education in Atlanta to crash.
Kindly set me straight if I am wrong about what you want to accomplish for the Charleston County School District. Ed Johnson
Advocate for Quality in Public Education
Atlanta GA | (404) 505-8176 | edwjohnson@aol.com
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
Cant talk about Atlanta without acknowledging this: “The longest and most expensive trial in the history of the state of Georgia had nothing to do with robbery, rape or murder. It involved teachers, erasers and a whole lot of history. Today on the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll talk to one of the teachers convicted in the scandal.”
https://www.wamc.org/post/best-our-knowledge-1492-untold-story-atlanta-cheating-scandal
TELLING words: “most expensive…”
How refreshing to read a reference to Deming.
Anyone unfamiliar with his 14 points should take a moment to review them.
They are applicable as ever to schools and systems (not a system of schools but a school working as a system).
The portfolio model begs a simple question: If this new approach is so good, why are the school districts using that model already?
One answer is in Deming’s principles – which schools and districts could / should use.
Again – why aren’t “good” districts using this approach?
The simple answer is: They are! Define “best” schools and districts anyway you want – sadly predominantly in the suburbs – and they have flexibility and”autonomy;” quality leaders and teachers; involved parents and communities,;decision making in budget, staffing, hiring and adapting curriculum and yes, probably better funding. And, they have unions that are as unions should be – willing to sit at the table and bargain for what is professional and works.
Why aren’t Atlanta, Indianapolis, Denver and the others just doing that instead of turning their schools over to outside consultants and thinking that a school can write its own curriculum and lead itself absent a supportive, service oriented district office?
The only difference between these schools and charter schools is, well, they are not charter schools. But the principles and governance are the same so each one is yet another small business with no system support destined down the same path.
W. Edwards Deming’s 14 Points
Create constancy of purpose for improving products and services.
Adopt the new philosophy.
Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality.
End the practice of awarding business on price alone; instead, minimize total cost by working with a single supplier.
Improve constantly and forever every process for planning, production and service.
Institute training on the job.
Adopt and institute leadership.
Drive out fear.
Break down barriers between staff areas.
Eliminate slogans, exhortations and targets for the workforce.
Eliminate numerical quotas for the workforce and numerical goals for management.
Remove barriers that rob people of pride of workmanship, and eliminate the annual rating or merit system.
Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement for everyone.
Put everybody in the company to work accomplishing the transformation.
source: https://asq.org/quality-resources/total-quality-management/deming-points
Poor Atlanta.
Has any city (outside of maybe Detroit) suffered through as many ed reform experiments as Atlanta?
Did they do anything to address the problems with ed reform that were exposed in the insane “cheating trials”? Or do they just paper over all that and pretend it never happened? That’s how it goes in Detroit. The prior reforms disappear and are never mentioned again when they new experiment is started. There has to be some kind of layering effect, I would think. One on top of the next, with the problems with the prior one never remedied.