Stressing accountability, Ackerman shakes things up a bit

by Dale Mezzacappa

Photo: Harvey Finkle

Superintendent Arlene Ackerman

Philadelphia is used to new school leaders coming to town and doing things their way. Arlene Ackerman is certainly continuing that tradition.

In her first few months, Ackerman has revamped the District’s leadership, increased the number of regions, and reorganized the central office. She has brought in many of her own people to top jobs, some familiar to Philadelphia but others brand-new to the city (See leadership team).

In her public pronouncements, she has made it clear that she intends to stress accountability for adults, equity for children, and outreach to parents. Rhetorically, she has pulled no punches.

“It makes me sick that far too many of our children come to our public schools and are locked into … environments where some adults have decided that they have little or no chance to succeed,” she told an assembly of principals in August.

To boost parental engagement, she has started hiring more than 100 “parent ombudsmen,” including one to serve in each of 85 low-performing schools. She is setting up an office for translation, and interpreters are now available at School Reform Commission meetings. And she has decreed that the central office remain open from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., requiring hundreds of central office workers to alter their schedules and causing some grumbling.

Ackerman takes over the District as it still struggles with balancing its budget while coping with the growing needs of students and families in an economic downturn. Philadelphia’s school year started with more than 150 teacher vacancies and no teacher contract.

The first career educator to run the District on a permanent basis since 1993, Ackerman is no stranger to controversy, which dogged her in both her previous superintendencies in San Francisco and Washington, DC. Hard-charging and unapologetic for stepping on toes, Ackerman has emphasized since her arrival that she didn’t take on the often thankless job of running a big urban school system a third time to dawdle and accept the status quo.

“Even though we celebrated six years of increased student achievement … all is not well with all of our children,” she told Philadelphia principals.

She followed with a series of appalling statistics, including that half of Black males and 59 percent of Latino males don’t graduate within six years. She admonished that the achievement gap between Whites and Asians on the one hand and Blacks and Latinos on the other is glaringly evident even in the high-performing schools.

She plans to hold each school and region to a new performance standard that will include not only academic achievement, but five areas, including operational efficiency and parental, teacher, and student satisfaction. The indicators, modeled on those used in other districts including New York and Chicago, are still being worked out but will be “realistic,” and targets will be tailored to each school. Schools will have some flexibility in choosing particular goals, such as success with Advanced Placement tests or a reduction in the achievement gap.

Ackerman increased the number of regions from eight to 11, re-establishing the recently eliminated Southwest and Central East regions and creating offices for comprehensive high schools and for alternative schools.