CarolinaCAN targets N.C. teacher pay, tenure

A national education-reform group is launching a North Carolina branch to push for changes in teacher pay, tenure and evaluations.

The N.C. Campaign for Achievement Now, or CarolinaCAN, is the seventh state spinoff from 50CAN, a national group trying to create like-minded organizations across the country. CarolinaCAN will formally debut today with an analysis of shortcomings in student achievement,  followed by a "Year of the Teacher" push for evaluations,  pay and layoffs to be linked to student results and other measures of effectiveness (find the issue brief at the CarolinaCAN web site above).

"Our state has an honored tradition of education leadership,"  the introduction says. "But there is so much more needed to support and leverage our great teachers. Three reforms will help us get there: improving our statewide teacher evaluation system, reforming the state’s outdated tenure and layoff systems, and creating meaningful rewards for excellence. This brief outlines the shortcomings of the current evaluation, tenure, layoff and compensation policies, and proposes reforms to re-position North Carolina as a national leader in teacher excellence."

Kowal

Julie Kowal,  a North Carolina native formerly with the education consulting firm Public Impact,  is the new group's executive director. Public Impact is working with the Charlotte-based Project LIFT to design new "opportunity culture" jobs that give highly effective classroom teachers higher pay for taking on more responsibility.

Figuring out how local this new group is takes some teasing out.  50CAN,  which originated in Connecticut,  has a plan to spend almost $7 million on education policy campaigns in the seven states (Rhode Island,  Minnesota,  Maryland,  New York,  Pennsylvania and New Jersey are the others).  That money comes from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,  the Walton Family Foundation and other major donors,  says Fiona Hoey,  the group's media and marketing director. So far the site lists no donors specific to North Carolina,  and the advisory board has yet to be named.

The CarolinaCAN site says the national group recruited "a group of independent, nonpartisan organizations dedicated to top-notch schooling to consider joining forces to help improve the education landscape" in North Carolina, with those organizations helping 50CAN  "and local partners" create CarolinaCAN and launch "The Year of the Teacher."  The N.C. founders,  in addition to Public Impact and Project LIFT, are  listed as KIPP charter schools in Charlotte and Gaston; the Charlotte office of New Leaders (recently joined by former CMS Chief Operating Officer Millard House);  Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina; and Teach For America offices in Charlotte and eastern North Carolina.. Teach For America President Matthew Kramer chairs the 50CAN board.

In other states,  including Minnesota and Rhode Island,  CAN political action groups have pumped money into state legislative and local school board campaigns.  Hoey says there's no plan for CarolinaCAN to get involved in this year's Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board race,  though she says she's not in a position to rule anything out for a group that's just getting off the ground.

Charlotte's Guckian has governor's ear

Eric Guckian, who has spent almost five years in charge of Charlotte's New Leaders principal recruitment program, has taken on an even more challenging task.  He's Gov. Pat McCrory's new senior education adviser,  at a time when game-changing education proposals are flying around Raleigh like Frisbees at a beach party.

Guckian (goo-CAN) got the job in May,  while I was on vacation.  He had met McCrory during his stint as Charlotte mayor,  but Guckian said the connection was made by John Lassiter,  a key member of the McCrory team and a board member of New Leaders.

"I'm a plumber's kid,"  Guckian said.  "When the governor calls, that's not a call you get every day."

When I finally caught up with Guckian late last week,  he wasn't ready to stake out positions on some of the more controversial issues in play,  such as vouchers for private school tuition and revising teacher pay.  So far he's talking about broad themes such as efficiency,  innovation,  workforce development and accountability. "We're still crafting an overall education agenda,"  he said.

McCrory doesn't have children.  But between Guickian and Lassiter,  a former Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools parent and school board member,  he'll surely get a deep knowledge of local issues. 

"If you want to know what I care about,  it's our highest-need kids in North Carolina,"  Guckian said.  That passion and knowledge comes not just from his work with New Leaders  (formerly New Leaders for New Schools)  and Teach For America,  but from his time as a Shamrock Gardens Elementary School parent.  Shamrock,  a high-poverty school in east Charlotte,  has spent years working to improve its academic performance and win the confidence of middle-class families who had avoided the school.

"You don't just flip a switch with this stuff,"  he said.  "It is really hard work."

Guckian will work with the newly revived Education Cabinet,  made up of officials who oversee prekindergarten programs, K-12 education, community colleges and the university system.  One of the governor's goals is building stronger connections between all the levels of education that get young people ready for successful adult lives,  he said.

New Leaders will celebrate Guckian's work at a reception next week.  They'll also have a retirement  send-off for Steve Hall,  a former CMS principal who led the aspiring principals program.

Stop waiting for Superman?

You don't know if school transformation has taken root until the third principal.

That's one of the intriguing statements Eric Guckian,  executive director of Charlotte's New Leaders office,  tossed out when he filled me in on the group's latest thinking.  He was quoting Jennifer Henry from the national office,  and the comment represents a shift in strategy for a group that was founded to recruit principals for urban schools.

We all know the  "heroic principal"  scenario, which is a staple of the reform movement:  A charismatic leader charges in to turn around a failing school.  Sometimes that person founders quickly and quietly departs.  But sometimes,  when all goes well,  that leader energizes the staff,  inspires the students and creates a  "beat the odds"  school.

Then,  inevitably,  the successful leader is promoted or moves on to a new job outside the system.  And almost as inevitably,  the school slips back toward mediocrity or worse.

Guckian

That's why Guckian says his group is shifting from what he calls  "the insurgent model"  --  an individual jumping in to shake up the school  --  to an approach based on  "flooding the zone" with a team of like-minded leaders committed to a long-term change. The Emerging Leaders program offers two years of leadership preparation for teachers who may go on to become principal interns,  academic facilitators or informal school leaders,  part of a school team designed to carry on a vision even if the principal departs.  Developing talent from within is now emphasized over finding stars from outside.

"We believe that the unit of change is the school,"  Guckian said.

Principals remain important to New Leaders' work with Project LIFT and other high-poverty Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools. But there's a growing acknowledgement that they can't do the work alone,  and that life-changing results don't come quickly.

CMS features prominently in a recent Wallace Foundation report on cultivating the kind of principals that urban schools need.  Much of the report reinforces the notion that there's more to the task than hiring an outstanding individual.  It outlines efforts in CMS and elsewhere to evaluate, coach and support principals.

"In successful schools, leadership and authority don’t reside in any single person or position," the report concludes.  "The most enduring improvements occur through the consistent, shared exercise
of leadership by many in the school community and the district central office."

But the Wallace Foundation report also uses bad information to support the "principal as savior" model,  citing an article that CMS Deputy Superintendent Ann Clark wrote on the CMS strategic staffing plan for the August School Administrator journal  --  a cover story illustrated by an image of principals literally parachuting in to save schools.  The Wallace report quotes Clark on the importance of a great leader,  and sums up strategic staffing: "The results so far: Nearly all 24 of the participating schools have been successfully turned around, with single-year state test scores up as much as 20 points."

It's just not true to say all,  or even most,  strategic staffing schools have been successfully transformed by the principals then-Superintendent Peter Gorman brought in for three-year turnaround efforts.  As I reported in August,  actual results are mixed and often discouraging.  Early gains have  proven tough to sustain,  especially after principals move on.

Three years seemed like a long time to wait when Gorman rolled out strategic staffing.  Now that he has left CMS and most of the original principals have moved on,  it's starting to look like the "three principals" standard might be the real test.