Analysis of a decision which was made without all of the variable
known.
An example of a bounded decision.
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.