Reapply or Say Goodbye

The Baltimore Sun reports that Annapolis superintendent Kevin Maxwell is making the entire staff of Annapolis High School reapply for their jobs. The school is chronically low-performing and will face intervention next year if something's not done to improve student achievement. Teachers are feeling scapegoated (most amusing quote of the Sun article: "Where is the proof that teachers were to blame for this...Do you blame your doctor if you have cancer? Is it Giant Food's fault if I'm fat?").

And people are wondering... is this a desperate step, or a real strategy for change?

Maxwell might look to what superintendent Jesse Register did in Chattanooga five years ago with nine of the worst elementary schools in Tennessee. Register led a major overhaul of the teaching staff and principal leadership in an effort to turn these schools around. It seems to have worked–these eight schools have consistently improved their performance every year. But it wasn't just re-staffing that made the difference.

The Benwood Initiative, as it is called because of $5 million funding from the Chattanooga-based Benwood Foundation (added to $2.5 million more from Chattanooga's Public Education Foundation), involved a comprehensive plan for change. Teacher performance was evaluated by a fairly unique and objective measure. Teachers who were rehired, or who started anew, received intense training in reading instruction. Reading specialists and teaching coaches were hired, and incentives were set up to attract and keep good teachers (including performance bonuses, housing incentives and a free master's program). A parent involvement coordinator was also hired, along with extra staff for after-school and summer programs.

So take note, Annapolis. TN's was an expensive and comprehensive approach to reconstituting schools (and it still wasn't easy). Yours better be too if you want to see real change.