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Six steps for post-Alonso school progress
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 | | Dr. Alonso speaks at a school construction funding rally earlier this year |
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In an op-ed published in today's Baltimore Sun, two of BCF's board members and our president laid out a six-step process to continue Baltimore's public school improvement after Dr. Andres Alonso leaves his post later this year.
Diane Bell-McKoy, president & CEO of Associated Black Charities Inc., Laura Gamble, Maryland president for PNC Bank, and Tom Wilcox stated, "While Baltimore schools CEO Andrés Alonso deserves thanks for six game-changing years in Baltimore, the transformation he presided over owes as much to the vision and resolve of a city school board that insisted on fostering choice and accountability while also investing more in the schools. The board must now stay the course on institutional reform and move forward with an even sharper focus on academic achievement."
Read a short excerpt of the op-ed below, and click here to read it in full on the Baltimore Sun's website.
First, it should maintain a strict focus on the core principles of our turnaround: school choice and the "fair student funding" that undergirds this market-oriented approach to opening and closing schools.
In recent years, we have gone from five to 56 "schools of choice" that are open to all students - perhaps the largest such growth of any system in the country. Baltimore has also shown the way by closing 26 underperforming schools and preparing to close 26 more as the board and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake implement a bold $1.1 billion bond financing and reconstruction program. In all, Baltimore will have closed more than 50 of its 200 schools and replaced them with schools that families are choosing.
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Second, those choice schools will only be as effective as their principals, and Interim CEO Tisha Edwards - herself a former principal with experience across the system - should focus her efforts on giving school leaders the tools to manage effectively, replacing a culture of "command and control" with a collaboratively developed approach to the autonomy and support necessary to excellence. The system made progress in this direction under Mr. Alonso, but it needs to go farther.
The 200 principals who lead our schools must believe that North Avenue is there for them, setting clear standards to which they might aspire, ready to support daily needs and never wasting their time with "administrivia" or unnecessary compliance. Ms. Edwards needs to ensure that those who work directly with principals understand and support the need for autonomy. Too many good principals have left Baltimore in favor of systems that support individual leadership.
Next, we must be sure that our choice-based system ensures that students and parents are making informed decisions as they state their preferences about middle and high schools...
Click here to continue reading.
We believe Baltimore's economic vitality depends upon successful schools and successful students. For more on our work in education, click here.
For more on our advocacy efforts, made possible by our Civic Leadership Fund, click here.
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