Who Will Be Driving the (School) Bus?

I haven't blogged for quite some time.  Mostly due to something else taking priority on my ever growing to-do list.  So, I apologize, or you are welcome...  Really, that is not a good excuse and I know it.  But reading an article in our local paper got me fired up enough to put this subject at the top of my list.  I live in the wonderful state of Nebraska. Omaha to be specific.  I know, it's where most people fly-over, but that's another topic for another day. 

An article in our local paper (the Omaha World-Herald) caught my attention quickly.  Titled "Should non teachers be superintendents?",  the article is about a new bill being introduced in the Nebraska Legislature (LB 539) under which the state could not require superintendents, principals and other school administrators to have teaching experience.  REALLY???

There is some irony for me in that one of my future blog topics was to write about how out of touch so many school administrators become with what happens in the classrooms. 

First, let me state how much respect I have for the office of any school administrator, especially that of a school principal position.  I am in year twenty of my teaching career and have never had the desire to be a school administrator.  But, I have made it a point along the way to spend time shadowing and interviewing school principals over the years to see as much as I can from their perspective.  THOSE JOBS HAVE MY RESPECT!  But, I cannot say I have the same respect for so many of the people in those positions.

The only time in the past six or seven years I see an administrator in my classroom is when they HAVE to do an evaluation or there is an urgent problem regarding a student or parent.  So many principals and superintendents around the country have either very little experience in the classroom or have been away from actually teaching for years or decades.  And now some feel they should never even have to have that experience. 

I want to see things changed from the other extreme.  I don't think a person should be able to be a school administrator until they have taught at least ten years.  And after that, once every five years they have to teach class for at least a semester.  This could fall under the heading of school administrators professional growth requirements. 

I keep reading and hearing that school leaders need to run it like a business.  Again, REALLY?  I have heard the analogy on many occasions that students are the products and it's our job as educators to put out a great product, hence the "brilliant" concept of "No Child Left Behind".  Here is the major flaw in that thinking.  We cannot discontinue a product just because it is not doing well.  For example, what happened to New Coke?  They didn't keep working with it until it was a successful product.  They simply discontinued the product.  They left it behind.

I know that administrators are under the gun to produce these unrealistic standardized test results in order to keep their job, which pushes them even further from the classroom.  It's not working...for anyone. 

Education does not need to be reformed.  EDUCATION NEEDS TO BE TRANSFORMED!