The SNIFF Test?

Some advice for the Detroit Public Schools

December 23, 2008
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Now that Connie Calloway has been ousted as superintendent by the Detroit school board that hired her less than two years ago, a group of prominent local citizens is offering the DPS board some unsolicited advice about finding a good successor.

It won’t be easy, given the mess the district is in and especially given the board’s reputation as an employer and the state’s impending appointment of a powerful financial manager to get the DPS books in order. Here’s the text of a letter the group sent Tuesday to DPS Board President Carla Scott. The names of the signers are at the bottom.

Dear Honorable Carla D Scott, M.D.

We are united in a fervent belief that a dynamic public education system is both imperative and possible here in Detroit. Because of that belief and our commitment to public education, we have conducted extensive research, both individually and collectively, to identify the dynamics that have enabled other urban districts to achieve turnarounds in the education they provide their students.

Clearly, a cornerstone of any successful school district, large or small, is aneffective superintendent who is focused on improving achievement scores, graduation rates and other critical indicators of performance.

Our kids need all of us working together to fix a broken system. Including these criteria in your selection process can help assure that we are working together with the single focus of improving the education that our children receive.

Our next superintendent needs to have a quality schools agenda which addresses failing schools, promotes and advances high performing schools and initiates research based innovations that are responsive to the academic needs of students.

Specifically, experience in urban school districts across this country has shown that successful urban school superintendents:

1. Can articulate a clear vision of how the district should look in three to five years. This vision would include, but not be limited to, identifying the desired size of schools and classes, goals for improving academic performance, goals for improved graduation rates and goals for improved student retention rates.

2. Can identify a specific process through which these goals can be achieved.

3. Have demonstrated the ability to effectively manage a large school district budget.

4. Should have a record of establishing a professional development system that builds the competencies of district teachers, principals and other staff.

5. Have demonstrated the ability to right-size the district in a manner that maximizes student academic performance and preserves high performing school teams.

6. Have the ability to effectively engage and work collaboratively with board members, district staff and their unions; parents/caregivers and community partners in a manner that advances student academic performance.

7. Must have knowledge and understanding of current academic research and best practices regarding successful strategies to advance student academic performance in urban school districts.

8. Must have a track record showing the ability and commitment to initiating a community engagement campaign that builds public will for quality schools and encourages the community support.

In addition, to assure community confidence in the board’s selection process and to assure broad community support for the new superintendent, it will be critical that the selection process be conducted in full compliance with all open meetings requirements. This would necessitate a full public review of the qualifications of each final candidate, including public interviews of all final candidates prior to any selection.

Clearly, at this critical time in Detroit’s history, we cannot afford an interim, caretaker superintendent or another superintendent whose term is cut short for whatever reason. We must identify the right candidate with the right qualifications and experience and then work as a united community to assure that the new superintendent has the sustained support that we all must provide if they are to succeed.

Your selection of a superintendent is critical, as is your support of the candidate you choose. We are very confident that this district can turn around when our elected board and superintendent are unified and working together toward a common goal of providing the young people the quality education they must have to compete in the 21st Century job market.

We look forward to assisting the board in any way possible as you conduct this search that is so critical to Detroit Public Schools and the City of Detroit.

Sincerely,

Shirley Stancato, President and CEO of New Detroit, Inc.
Carol Goss, President and CEO of the Skillman Foundation
Kevin Magin, Interim Deputy Superintendent of Wayne RESA
Penny Bailer, Executive Director of City Year Detroit
Michael J. Brennan, President and CEO of United Way for Southeastern
Michigan Ruby J. Newbold, President of the Detroit Association of Educational Office Employees Phil Schloop, International Vice President, International Union of Operating Engineers
N. Charles Anderson, President and CEO, Detroit Urban League
Alice Thompson, CEO of Black Family Development
Sharlonda Buckman, Executive Director of the Detroit Parent Network
David Hecker, President of the AFT of Michigan Virginia Cantrell, President of the Detroit Federation of Teachers.