Getting to Excellence

Today, in American public schools, we do not know all that we need to know to teach all of the children. By and large, the major reasons given for the failure to educate Black children from low-income families are of the “Blaming the Victim” type ideology. The day is gone when it is acceptable to blame the student and his or her background, lack of exposure, lack of parental involvement, etc. the school’s academic shortcomings. It is now incumbent upon educators to assure that the school is a place where instructors and leaders are held accountable for the effective instruction of students. A clear understanding of the natures and needs of the learning community in which educators practice is not an option: It is a necessity. Varied teaching strategies must be implemented to accommodate the varied learning styles and cultural strengths of learners. This concept was clearly exemplified in the leadership approach seen at the Willie Ray Smith, Sr. Science and Medical Technology Magnet Middle School during the early tenure of one of the previous principals. Teacher morale and effective lesson delivery prevailed during her early tenure. Proficient organization was expected. The desired result of excellent student performance obtained in every subject area. Over time, the Willie Ray Smith, Sr. Science and Medical Technology Magnet Middle School failed to properly prepare African American and Hispanic students in the areas of mathematics, reading, science, social studies, and writing. A new principal had been assigned; but the record shows that the new principal year may have inherited a campus with a climate reflective of a systemic decline in the level of cooperation and an increase in the level of complacency on the part of the teaching staff, attendance of faculty/staff and students, apathy, low daily expectations, lack of preparation, lack of support between administration and faculty, inappropriate behavior of students and faculty without adequate repercussions, and failure to attain unity for the vision and cohesiveness and collaboration in planning.
He was replaced, and the replacing principal had many “holes to plug” in a sinking ship. The school had received a TEA rating of Level I: Unsatisfactory Academic Performance, and many systems and sub-systems were either broken or did not exist. At a minimum these were specific to teacher morale and instructional performance, student morale and instructional performance, master scheduling of classes and processes/ procedures for the campus. Each one of these areas needed the utmost attention for the functioning of the school.
Getting to Excellence is about a journey with the Center for Strategic Alliance in Education for School and District Improvement with stakeholders in a school targeted for school improvement. This is a compelling journey which utilizes quantitative and qualitative data to take a critical look at the processes involved and the strategies used in America’s journey in the quest for excellence. The authors’ story is one of the pursuits of innovation, reinvention, equity, excellence and culturally relevant education experiences that inspire and reframe the discussion about “getting to excellence”. The book is replete with illustrations of weaknesses hidden in abstract policies, institutional persistence, and culturally void programs, methodologies and practices. It advocates a methodology for arriving at well-conceived processes for achieving acceptance and academic excellence through collaboration among those to whom education is important - the children and the communities where they live
Getting to Excellence serves as a paramedic, committed to stabilizing and ultimately saving the patient, public education, with state of the art educational triage, instrumentation, analyses and good counsel which formalize a treatment plan and trains new standards driven clinicians to render life saving and transforming diagnosis, academic success prognosis, theories of change and organic thinking that translates to realistic and attainable solutions for the reconstruction of schools, and culturally sound and literate teaching and learning practices . This outcome will lend itself to the creation of a community of educators and stakeholders committed and willing to invest in healthy teaching, learning, leading and educational resolve. If educators dare to be conscientious enough to embrace these pages, they then become the surgeons to help students to honor, value, celebrate, care for and respect themselves and transcend unacceptable labels migrating them to acceptable and exceptional educational outcomes.
All is not lost as the pages of this timely book reads like a Sanskrit mantra, systematic in its language, analytic in its research, melodic in its stories, detailing a concert of purpose and action moving from the abstract to concrete realities in its qualitative and quantitative content, comparisons and context. The authors are like a praise team and the book is like a gospel hymn, which constantly restates and recalls realities already digested and sung… but as with good gospel music , you cannot just hum, you really have to pay attention to the words for therein is the context for understanding and healing.
The book is a steadfast concert for distinguishing the abstract from the real, the important from the unimportant, for whom, and why. It emphasizes discrepancies in values, beliefs, paradigms and practice offering noteworthy observations of best practices and laudable solutions and outcomes, only if educators and school leadership dare to embrace edification. The authors clarify and dignify motives and objectives …and the righteous cause for a quality education with excellence as the centerpiece for ALL children, giving each child the confidence and a license to learn; allowing each to be inspired and excited about learning, free from the anxiety of standardized tests that measure only information and episodic events integrated and described on tests that bear little resemblance to the currency of life as they know and experience it or the dynamics of a changing world that they live in, where nothing, not even knowledge is held constant.
Getting to Excellence is a demonstration of the fact that a school once branded as Academically Unacceptable can, through the efforts of its stakeholders, provide an excellent education for all of the children of other people that it serves with profit and interest.