Mayor Kevin Johnson's Monday summit, "Education That Works: Ideas for Sacramento," set a much-needed tone of urgency about public education.
In his opening remarks to 200 education leaders and advocates, Johnson noted that in our city of five school districts and 150,000 students, a majority of the city's 237 schools are not meeting academic targets.
His aim is for Sacramento to be known for great public schools in every ZIP code – not just to have islands of excellence. To that end, the summit focused on three key areas:
• Accountability
Joel Klein, chancellor of the New York City public school system, framed the issue. For residents in his city, he asks: "Would you allow me to randomly assign your child to a New York City school?"
If not, the task is clear. At schools that are simply not performing, start over, as New York City has done. That means being fearless in closing some schools and reopening them with new staff and a new program. At schools that perform well, it means rewarding principals and teachers, as New York City also has done.
For Sacramento, accountability means measuring year-to-year progress at schools, having consequences if schools aren't getting kids up to grade level and rewarding high performing schools.
• Educator quality
Talent matters. The New Teacher Project, New Leaders for New Schools, High Tech High, and Teach for America all brought ideas for recruiting, alternative training pipelines and retaining teachers and principals. They stand ready to help in Sacramento.
But this isn't enough. School districts have to take on the issue of nonperformance. That means doing real evaluations – not rating 93 percent of teachers "superior" or "excellent" regardless of performance. Some teachers are burned out; others simply are ineffective.
As Michelle Rhee, chancellor of District of Columbia Public Schools, said: For too long, school systems have been "willing to turn a blind eye to achieve harmony among adults." That has to change.
• Options
Newark Mayor Cory Booker issued the challenge: In exploring new options, the aim is "not to be loyal to choices, but to excellence." School districts need to experiment, but they must also be willing to shut down bad programs.
The day's bottom line was encouraging: The stars are aligned for major improvements in public education, if Sacramento takes the opportunity.
President Obama has made education one of his top three priorities. With an education secretary drawn from Chicago, the push is on to tackle urban education. Sacramento could compete for up to $140 million in stimulus funds – if its five districts work together on an action plan.
For his part, Johnson has demonstrated that he cares deeply about education. Standing pat is not an option, especially when it comes to closing achievement gaps between lower-income students and their more affluent peers.
As one participant noted, this is an amazing moment. She asked, "What are we going to do with it?" This summit had the right people to get things moving, with one exception. While individual teachers attended, teachers union representatives were missing – and their participation is key to success. Monday's summit should be seen as a positive first step in seizing the opportunity to improve Sacramento public schools.
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