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Are You In a Pickle?

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Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......................................................................................xiINTRODUCTION..........................................................................................xiiiChapter 1 History.....................................................................................1Chapter 2 Creating Schools And Districts For Excellence...............................................17Chapter 3 Leadership And Professional Relationships...................................................69Chapter 4 Building External Partnerships To Support District Goals And Priorities.....................119Summary...............................................................................................142Chapter 5 Future Platforms For Education: Next Steps And Considerations...............................154Final Thoughts........................................................................................166Key Terms, Definitions and Concepts...................................................................168Bibliography..........................................................................................175About the Author......................................................................................187

Chapter One

"Reflect on the past, act on the present, and embrace the future." —Bill Dempsey Former Executive Vice President Abbott Laboratories

The information presented in this chapter is not intended to be comprehensive or detailed, but rather to provide a backdrop for current conditions, challenges, and opportunities. It is important to remember how we got to where we are. Knowing the hurdles and struggles that we have overcome leads to pride.

Evidence over time indicates that some students, schools, and communities continue to far exceed their counterparts. We all have our theories, research and opinions. As laid out in the pages of this chapter, history is less a matter of argument and more a matter of record. History defines our rights, but we determine our freedom.

Chapter Objectives

• Look at landmark studies related to student performance and achievement gaps.

• Help put current conditions, challenges and opportunities into perspective.

• Reflect on education policy from the past as a reference for making recommendations for the future.

According to President Obama, "As we raise the standards for today's workforce, we must consider, the percentage of young adults getting bachelor's degrees has risen steadily each decade, from around 16 percent in 1980 to almost 33 percent in 2009. At this defining moment in our history, preparing our children to compete in the global economy is one of the most urgent challenges we face" (Sam Dillion, The New York Times, January 31, 2010). As Arnie Duncan, Secretary of Education, proposes sweeping changes to the NCLB Act, he admits, "We can't sweep those huge disparities with outcomes between white children and Latino children and African American children under the rug ever again" (Sam Dillion, The New York Times, January 31, 2010).

The intent of this chapter is to serve as a reference point for what our leaders are saying today versus what has been said and done in the past. Our past has important lessons to offer. We are more likely to be successful if we continue to access lessons learned. Have you personally gained insight from reflecting on past events?

Historically, government has been involved ineducation, policy,, and cultural transformation. Therefore, the anxiety and debate that surround the issue of improving student performance and education reform are not new. Achieving excellence in education, as it relates to the strength of our nation, will always be a critical conversation and require ongoing debate. Education is the pipeline that directly impacts workforce development, competitive globalization, and self-actualization.

Under the leadership of Abraham Lincoln, our sixteenth president, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) was created on March 3, 1863. Today members of NAS serve as advisors to the nation on matters involving science, engineering, and medicine.

The Civil War ended on May 26, 1865, and it led to the Thirteenth Amendment. The Thirteenth Amendment confirmed and expanded the executive order, known as the Emancipation Proclamation, that freed the slaves, but the educational system was not addressed in the amendment.

As one of the Reconstruction Amendments, in 1868, The Fourteenth Amendment was adopted in 1868 and one of the Reconstruction Amendments. The citizenship clause in this amendment overruled the decision in the Dred Scott case (Scott v. Sandford, 1857), which held that slaves could not be citizens of the United States.

At the dawn of the twentieth century, Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) made provisions for the "separate but equal" doctrine. For more than half a century in the field of public education, this doctrine was argued in the courts; during this same era, the government instated free and mandatory public high schools.

In his 1933 book, The Mis-Education of the Negro, Carter G. Woodson said, "Negroes go to one-room rented hovels to be taught without equipment and by incompetent teachers educated scarcely beyond the eighth grade" (p. 4). He further stated that "Thousands and thousands of Negro children in this country are not permitted to use school books in which are printed the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution of the United States" (p. 830).

In 1949, W.E.B. Du Bois insisted, "Of all the civil rights for which the world has struggled and fought for 5,000 years, the right to learn is undoubtedly the most fundamental" (p. 230-231).

Brown v. Board of Education (1954) determined that minority children were being deprived of equal educational opportunities. In the eleven years following the Brown decision, more than 38,000 black teachers and administrators in seventeen southern and border states lost their jobs (Toppo 2004). Those who were able to secure employment found themselves as subordinates and no longer in administrative leadership positions.

The launch of the Sputnik satellite into space (1957) revealed that the United States was losing scientific and technological ground to its Soviet rival. This raised concerns that the Soviet school system was superior to America's. While schools were still segregated President Eisenhower directed educational reforms in science and engineering. Although there are countries, such as China, with larger populations, America has always been innovative, competitive, and a force to be reckoned with.

Brown v. Board of Education was a landmark decision in moving toward integration, but it did not impact institutional segregation to the greatest extent possible. In 1964, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, which sought to end racial segregation in schools and ensure equal rights for all citizens, including providing equal educational opportunity in all public schools. It was ordered that all students receive equal protection of the laws...