A school superintendent faced increasing criticism from various groups in the city because one community school consistently came out on the bottom of the rankings according to standardized testing.  Because of this political pressure, in the summer of 1999,  the principal of the school decided to take another job  leaving the superintendent with a major  and urgent decision.  The community demanded a drastic change of leadership in order to bring up the quality of instruction. In a matter of weeks, the superintendent needed to decide which candidate would best satisfy the school, the city, the school administration and the community.

The superintendent polled the principals who were already in the system to see whether he had a candidate from inside.  That gave him a list of twelve people. Most candidates didn’t have much experience or they had just moved to the school where they were serving.   From that list, he narrowed the choice to two candidates.  One was a hispanic woman and the other a white male.  Since the school had a population which was mainly minority, and mostly hispanic, the superintendent felt that the choice had to reflect the make-up of the school.  Also, the man who was interested in the position was near retirement and the school needed strong leadership for longer than he was willing to commit.   The superintendent wanted to open the position to candidates outside the system but he had less than three months before the start of school.  He felt that by the time the interviews of those who were  in the system were completed, there would be no time.  Also, the budget administrators told him that there would be no money to fly out of state candidates in for interviews.  So, the decision was made to hire  the principal of Mount Vernon Community School from within.

Mt. Vernon  is an old community school in the heart of a newly gentrified area.  In the past 10 years, the housing prices have doubled and much of the low-cost housing has been converted into upscale condominiums.  Surrounding these high-priced areas are pockets of poverty inhabited by very low and non-income earning families.   The new residents, whose children could walk to school, are predominantly white and middle class.  They want a neighborhood school for their children and so they petitioned the superintendent  starting in 1995 to take action to improve the quality of Mt Vernon school.  They suggested that Mt Vernon be turned into a magnet school for technology or for accelerated education.   They left the decision in the hands of the superintendent but warned that they would go to the school board  and the city council if nothing was done. By 1999 they were ready to carry through with their threats.

The superintendent had received criticism about Mt Vernon from diverse groups.  The African American residents in the area considered it a lost school and those who could afford it, sent their children to private school.   Representatives from the black community petitioned City Council to take action because the school was not serving their children. The hispanic community also complained to the City Council that Mt Vernon was being ignored because of the high non-English speaking population.  They felt that the immigrant population faced discrimination because they couldn’t defend themselves in English.  And as previously stated, whites wanted the school to not only be adequate but a school where their children could excel.  Faced with criticism on all sides, the superintendent decided to take a chance with the hispanic candidate who brought a strong background in bilingual education and who was also an author of a book on raising scores through raising self-esteem.  The superintendent felt that the decision to hire this hispanic educator from inside the system would  appease the administration and appeal to some vocal segments in the community.

During the interviews for the position of principal,  the candidate stressed that she was an educator for all children. She had a background in bilingual education but her priority was to make all children successful.  In her interviews with the community, she noticed that there were no hispanic representatives even though the school is 58% hispanic.  The interview committee representing the neighborhood was predominantly white but the school is 94% minority.   She realized at that point that a major problem was the lack of involvement of the minority, and especially the Spanish-speaking parent.  The candidate wanted to stress the importance of getting the hispanic parents into the school to make them feel a part of their children’s education.  But because of the make-up of the interviewing committee, she stressed the importance of creating a true community school and told how she would get to know the neighbors and encourage the parents within walking distance to use their community school.  The candidate downplayed the emphasis on the hispanic students because she felt it would not be to her advantage in the interview.

 Based on her background in bilingual education and that she was from an immigrant family, the superintendent assumed that she would appeal to the Spanish-speaking community.  With her experience in self-esteem training for students,  the superintendent and the community anticipated that that she would be successful in training students to value their achievement.  The superintendent felt confident that the principal would have a positive influence on the Spanish speaking students and hoped that  her influence would spill over to the white and black communities which lived in the school district.

The new principal’s  mission was to raise the test scores of all the children so that the school could be accredited by 2004.   The superintendent convinced the school board to grant her request of a three year ‘hands off’ policy.  During these three years, the principal could experiment with any program she believed would bring success to the children of her school and the superintendent would support her.  Her part of the bargain is that she would guarantee that the standardized test scores would go up by the end of the third year and that the school would be accredited in five years.

 The principal  energetically set to work with her mandate.  She decided that her school had to be a place where the hispanic community felt comfortable.  She started by making the school a place where Spanish was spoken freely.  Spanish-speaking office staff, social workers, family liaisons and paraprofessionals were hired.  Every kindergarten teacher  and every grade level has a Spanish-speaking assistant to assist the non-English speaking students and to communicate with the parents.  There are after school activities which are only in Spanish and there are parenting classes only in Spanish.  When hispanic parents walk into the school, they feel welcomed rather than inhibited.  As a result of these interventions  the standardized test scores of hispanic students have improved.

The  principal set higher standards for all students, ran workshops on improving self-esteem for teachers as well as students and furnished reading tutors to any student who fell behind academically.  She also required 100% attendance at parent conferences as a way of getting to know parents and to discuss their concerns.   As a result of this all out effort to let no child fall through the cracks, and to increase parent involvement,  Mt Vernon school almost reached full accreditation in two rather than the five year plan.

Everybody is happy.  But, should they be?  Was this a wise decision?  The test scores are improving for those students who have been in the school for years.  What about those who have entered since the principal took over?   The principal’s mission is to improve the academic  climate by focusing on the education of the hispanic children.  Through her background in bilingual education and her upbringing as a Mexican who was not permitted to speak Spanish in school, the principal has created a school which has removed the student’s need to learn English.   The school halls and classrooms are filled with Spanish.  The principal believes that concepts should be taught in the child’s first language and that the way to do this is through  a dual-language or a two-way bilingual program.  She started the dual language program in Kindergarten last year and it is now in Kindergarten and first grades.  In this program the Spanish speaking children learn for half of the day in Spanish and the other half in English.  But in the English part of the day, there is a Spanish speaker who translates for the children when they don’t understand.  As a result, the children learn in Spanish the entire day.  They do not practice the academic English needed to pass standardized tests.  The children who are learning in the dual language program have two more years before they are confronted with the SOL tests in third grade.  That will be the moment of truth for this principal.  The results of the standardized tests will either show that children can pass tests in English after learning in Spanish or it will show that the superintendent made a hasty choice which may have pleased some groups but it did not serve those who needed it most.