Abominable Administrators - the unacknowledged bane of teaching in LAUSD.

Those of us on the frontlines in the battle surrounding public education are most often trumpeting the big issues. We know about the efforts of Corporate America to privatize public education. We understand the implications. We know how they are doing it. If anyone needs more education on the subject, plenty has already been written. Here’s a link to what one British observer has to say which fairly summarizes the situation:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/feb/04/usdomesticpolicy-schools

 Diane Ravitch is correct to lay the blame for underperformance on the conditions that spring out of poverty. I’ve always maintained that it makes absolutely no difference what kind of method you might use for instruction. If the kid doesn’t want to learn, he’s not going to learn – for whatever reasons that lack of desire might arise.

There’s more to be said, however.

Not enough is said concerning the negative effects of incompetent, negligent, and downright abusive school administrators. After almost 12 years at Huntington Park High School, I firmly believe that administration has played no small role in the dysfunction of the high school from which I and so many of my colleagues have been dismissed under the provisions of NCLB. The problem is how do I discuss this in any meaningful detail without naming names and exposing the guilty parties? I am going to try to categorize administrators in an abstract way so that my fellow teachers will know who and what I am talking about and the guilty parties will certainly not wish to acknowledge the generalizations as applying to themselves.

 We’ve had no more than three, possibly four, decent administrators at my former high school.  A decent administrator understands that he or she is there for the benefit of the school, not the other way around. The decent administrator sees himself or herself as a first among equals, not afraid of genuine discussion or disagreement, not superior, but the person who must ultimately take responsibility for decisions. The decent administrator will genuinely hear people, but at times will say, I have to do what I feel is necessary despite our disagreements. The decent administrator will have plenty of classroom experience from which to glean valuable insights in the decision making process. The decent administrator is the captain of a cohesive team, not a feudal lord or third world dictator with visions of grandeur.

 

The Ornamental School Administrator.

An ornamental administrator is there for the show and the paycheck. The O.A. knows nothing or very little about administration or about education.  He or she will not do anything on their own, but immediately call a mini-district supervisor or the principal for instructions. They are often snazzy dressers and strut the grounds of a school with walkie-talkies and big smiles on their faces. Beaudry Offices have hundreds of cubicles filled with these know-nothing, do-nothing inhabitants drinking coffee and following instructions all day. Memos disappear from their desks and fall into bureaucratic “black-holes.” They parrot catch phrases and educational buzz-words like hecklers at a baseball game, but they are utterly ineffective and worthless. Yet, they make no waves and bow to anything and everything that comes from the top of the Ed food chain down the line.

 

The Kitty Litter Administrator.

The administrator who covers up and deodorizes problems rather than tackling them and attempting to work with teachers and other staff members to eliminate them is an administrator who functions like kitty litter.  The K.L. administrator is a step or two above the ornamental one because he or she can see a problem. He or she can see a fire in progress and throw water on it, but will most often ignore the root causes of the fire and thereby set themselves up for a repeat of the conflagration. They take the quick and easy road to deal with problems.  They can acknowledge their own inadequacies, but they learn how to gloss these over well. Words on paper or over the intercom can be used to gloss over tough situations. They know that a quick, superficial solution can forestall consequences. These kinds of remedies are often short-sighted and make the situation worse in the long run, but then again, you can always blame the teachers when you run out of other explanations.

 

The Father Confessor School Adminstrator.

 Or Mother, if you will – this is the true ideologue with a naïve and imposing agenda. Remember that a Father Confessor in the old style Catholic Church was a priest entrusted with the spiritual well being of a few individuals, offering them advice and absolution after penance. Transfer this concept to the world of education and educational theories and you will see what I’m talking about. This is the administrator who has come into a school from outside believing that he or she can save it with new ideas and faith commitments to these ideas on the part of its staff and faculty. This administrator has usually spent very little time as a classroom teacher, but is still painfully condescending and paternalistic. A five minute observation of one’s classroom can result in a 40 minute “debriefing” session in this administrator’s office during which the only appropriate response is deemed to be a bowed head and a contrite heart.  Regardless of the fact that this administrator has largely borrowed his or her ideas subliminally from the prevailing Ed fad of the day or the encyclical letters of the superintendent at a some subconscious level, this Father Confessor will seek to evangelize his or her faculty with head games and intimidation tactics because this is what the bad teachers need. Once again when things don’t entirely work out to his or her liking, the blame can fall on the unrepentant teachers.

 

Mommie Dearest.

 Finally, I must list the pathological category. The administrator who is not a blind ideologue, but sees ideology as a tool like everything else at HIS or HER school that exists to serve his advancement is the one I would label with this phrase from the movie and book about the life and legacy of Ms. Joan Crawford. Remember that the main character in the movie was never content with the abuse she leveled against Christine, but insisted that Christine respond with , “yes, Mommie Dearest.” The M.D. administrator knows exactly what the game is about and why he or she is playing it. One might assume that this is the very worst category, but no I think the blind ideologue is more dangerous. The M.D. administrator is so vain and egotistical that he or she can easily get sloppy and misinformed.  You can trip up the M.D. administrator with some careful planning and then the maniac can be sent on the lemon trail to another school.

 At Huntington Park High School, we have had our share of incompetents, condescending ideologues, and pathological egotists. We have had administrators who arrived at their position through the “casting couch.” We have had others who were dropped on us as a result of other scandals at other schools. We have had out-of-classroom coordinators who stepped all over their colleagues in order to jump on the administrative ladder. We have been kicked and given contradictory orders. We have been ignored and dismissed and then reproved because we weren’t “team players” in this school game.

When I hear John Deasy talk about giving local principals more power in hiring and firing teachers I cringe and groan. I don’t know the man well enough to guess at what’s going on inside of him, but if he is sincere in his wish list, then he is displaying himself as a newbie, totally clueless about the inner workings of LAUSD. 

 

Comments

[Mat Taylor]

I couldn't agree with you more! Yes the big issues of privatization and Dr. Dizzy's agenda are big picture, mediocre or corrupt administrators are the day-to-day reality in most inner city schools. What teachers and students have to put up with is criminal. And really, the big picture won't get better until we take care of key local, site-based issues.

[ItAintOver]

It is common knowledge that administrators were sent to pasture at HPHS for years. Admins ready to retire were housed at the placid, non-threatening campus where little was expected of them and few demands were placed upon them. Then young, inexperienced administrators without mentors replaced them wholesale.
The school suffered, teachers lacked guidance, students became lawless, and any coherent programs elaborated by teachers were dropped in the blink of an eye. Where is Deasy's data collection for that historical piece?

[fremontwatch]

And then of course teachers were blamed for everything