[Mpls] Peebles & City Pages (The Grinch who stole recess)

[Michael Atherton]

Doug Mann wrote:
 
> It sounds like Peebles is doing to the system what a bull 
> does in a china shop. Ms. Peebles hasn't been in her job long 
> enough to intelligently make any changes in the system. At 
> Minnesota Public Radio's town hall meeting about the 
> achievement gap last Tuesday (in St. Paul), Ms. Peebles said 
> she was still working on a strategic plan to bring to the 
> school board. If one wants to improve the quality of a service 
> that an organization provides, one has to figure out how things 
> work the way they do, and why, before making any changes. And one 
> must have a plan with some clear goals and implementation strategies.

>From what I could gleam from the City Pages article, Ms. Peebles
has not made any major reforms yet and is still in the information
gathering stage.  Which I'm sure, if she is asking the right
questions, would be enough to alienate a lot of people in 
Minneapolis.  

I don't believe that Ms. Peebles should be judged by how many
people she alienates, or even on which reforms she chooses.  
I think that she should be evaluated on how effective
her reforms are.  I was not thrilled with the selection of
Ms. Peebles and while I have an opinion about which reforms
would be more effective, all I care about is results that will
benefit students.  I would accept a 99.9% turnover rate if we
could see 95% of our students graduate in four years and 
if 100% of our graduates are literate and employable.  No
MPS superintendent is going to achieve that goal without
alienating teachers, administrators, and parents.  Whether 
Ms. Peebles is the superintendent who will be able to come close 
to that goal remains to be seen, but it isn't fair to cut her off 
at the knees before she starts to walk the walk. Unless of course,
you have a commitment to failure and the status quo.

Michael Atherton
Prospect Park