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12/10/07 How Much Worse
and for How Much Longer? |
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The past couple of
weeks have not been good for DISD Superintendent Hinojosa. No matter
how much the business community has given him tremendous support to
transform
Dallas schools, he does not appear to be up to the job. Here are
the recent headlines:
Granted, not all of the
above headlines are were of
Dr. H's making, but his leadership in resolving these issues
appear to have fallen far, far short of bringing the type of
accountability and effective/efficient management that taxpayers and
parents should be able to expect.
What are his shortcomings? Here are just a few that one can surmise
from reading the headlines and from speaking to DISD employees and
parents:
- Head in the
Sand: Dr. Hinojosa is
reactive versus proactive. He is told about policy violations,
mismanagement, etc.
What does he do? He ignores the violations and the mismanagement until
it hits the press, then he reacts. Examples: P-card,
Donovan Collins, South Oak Cliff principal and coach involved in illegal
grade changing, nepotism by his transformation guru, illegal
desegregation at
Preston Hollow Elementary School -- just to name a few. If these
illegalities had not been in the media, they would probably still be
occurring with no accountability and no corrective action. As
it is, little has been done to recoup
fraudulently spent P-card dollars.
-
The Grinch: Dr. H's
reorganization of central offices caused much ill will. The manner in
which he carried out the reorganization has caused employee morale to
tank. Because of low employee morale, employees are not inspired to
give their best, which impacts
what happens in the classroom. I had expected this
result by Spring when students are again tested,
but here we are, before the full impact of low employee morale is
felt, and under the superintendent's leadership, only 35%
of student improvement goals have been met, down from 50%
the prior year. It appears that
Dr. H is taking a head in the sand approach to employee morale.
Nothing, zip, nada is taking place to help
improve employee morale.
- Pie in the
Sky: Dr. H set goals that he now
admits were probably too high. It's as if he's setting the stage for no
mea culpa. In other words, how can he be
blamed for aiming too high?
Doesn't sound leadership call for
being able to
achieve success?
What would be wrong with setting achievable goals to give students,
teachers, parents, staff, the community at large a true sense of
accomplishment, achievement and triumph?
Once those goals are achieved, then set the
bar higher -- repeat that pattern, meet those goals and once again set
the bar higher, all the while building success upon success.
Instead, Dr. H
set his goals unreasonably high from the
get-go, and this superintendent is building
failure upon failure.
Our children deserve better. Parents deserve better. Taxpayers deserve
better. We all deserve better. The
Board should assure we get results and not
rationalizations.
-
Excluding Parents:
The superintendent has banked on keeping the
support of the downtown business community. They are
wise to invest in having an outstanding public school system, but they
should also make sure they have the right leader in place to accomplish
this.
In all of Dr. H's transformation
schemes, it is remarkable that he (with the downtown business
community's support) and the
Dallas Achieves Commission have totally excluded the parents.
There is no engagement of parents to explain to them the goals of
Dallas Achieves and how they are needed to help accomplish the
goals.
There used to be Parent Academies that took place in the DISD where
parents were engaged and informed. I attended a few of them myself.
There has been no word of Parent Academies this year. That would not
present a problem if some other forum were in place to engage and inform
parents, but I have talked with parents
who have heard nothing, zip, nada about
how they can participate in this
transformation effort. When you exclude the largest group of
stakeholders in your plans for transforming the district, it stands
to reason that you won't get your intended
results.
With a larger failure in meeting student improvement goals this year
(35%) than last year (50%), it's
pretty certain Dr. H's goals will not be met. The business
community can take you only so far. Parents
are a key component and
must be included. Study after study bears this out.
Unfortunately, this superintendent thinks the
downtown business community is his ticket to success.
Dallas Achieves Speaks: Quote: Added co-chairman
J. McDonald "Don" Williams, founder/chairman of the Foundation for
Community Empowerment and former chief executive and chairman of
Trammell Crow: "In large-scale turnarounds, normally things get worse
before they get better."
Dallas
schools raise passing rate but fall short of many goals
...
(TAWNELL D. HOBBS
/ DallasNws.com, 12/05/07).
This comment by Mr. Williams should cause DISD parents and
taxpayers to pose the following question to him and to the
Dallas Achieves Commission: How much worse and for how much
longer?
We don't have the luxury of wholesale experiments in our schools when
the education of our children is at stake. They are not guinea pigs.
They are living, breathing, bright, capable children who have every
capacity to learn. They are our future workforce who need to receive
the best education possible. That is not happening under the leadership
of this superintendent, nor under the leadership of J. McDonald
"Don" Williams and
Dallas Achieves thus far.
So again, we must ask: How much worse and for how much longer?
Gehrig Saldaņa
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