Water-Boarding High School Principals [html][img=/assets/blog/200712/waterboarding_2_water_boarding_torture_interrogation_above_the_law_blog.jpg F:R]Just about two weeks after they were first mentioned here, WBEZ's Jay Field has a segment on the "Comstat" meetings that have been taking place downtown with all high school principals, including principal Norman from Senn saying he was OK with the process and Clarice Berry from the principals' association saying that many others weren't so happy being "interrogated." (Interesting. Do you think they're allowed to water-board?) Anyway, you can listen to or read the transcript <a href ="http://wbez.org/Content.aspx?audioID=16391>here</a>. I've heard from a variety of folks about the mixed value of the process, which has been tried in several other cities. But I haven't yet seen the document that every principal had to submit or the list of data that was being used to measure school performance -- and we'll have to see whether the meetings result in real (and effective) changes at schools. Anyone been in one of those meetings who wants to comment (or email me) about what it was like? Anyone heard from their principal that "things are going to change" as a result? Here's the [url=http://www.catalyst-chicago.org/RUSSO/index.php/entry/353/]previous comments[/url] about the process, which I originally called "Walk-Throughs For Principals."[/html] UPDATE: Sorry. The correct link is here: http://wbez.org/Content.aspx?audioID=16391
Digg
Del.icio.us
Wed Dec 12, 2007 at 4:15 PM
Water-Boarding High School Principals
I found this take on the story from DailyKos:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/12/12/135025/45
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/12/12/135025/45
Wed Dec 12, 2007 at 6:02 PM
Water-Boarding High School Principals
The link you have is to Catalyst, not the transcript.
Wed Dec 12, 2007 at 11:36 PM
Water-Boarding High School Principals
sorry -- i don't know what's wrong with the software:
http://wbez.org/Content.aspx?audioID=16391
http://wbez.org/Content.aspx?audioID=16391
Thu Dec 13, 2007 at 3:53 PM
Water-Boarding High School Principals
Aside from using a grotesquely silly metaphor and graphic (water boarding has been torture since the time of the Spanish Inquisition, and this is an example of where apparently clever metaphors are stupid, inappropriate, and probably arrogantly wrong), the question should be asked about the details of the procedure itself. For all the hubub, WBEZ offers the usual fatuous cliches, rather than some descriptives, in presenting the story.
The underlying assumption that WBEZ shares with Arne Duncan is that a set of data and a bullying atmosphere are right, and the victim is wrong. (In this, the waterboarding analogy holds up, but only if you think like the scriptwriters from "24").
The process of bullying is aided and abetted by (a) a victim who hasn't been briefed on what's coming and (b) a group of overlords who have rehearsed their scripts, good cop/bad cop style. The key is to set the agenda, be relentless against the principal, and establish an atmosphere where any appeal to reality is not considered professional.
The principal in turn is supposed to return to the school and bully the teachers and other staff, either one by one or in groups.
That's called "data driven management".
Instead of using the CIA analogy, we recommend a thorough reading of Naomi Klein's masterpiece, "The Shock Doctrine." At least if you've read Klein (or our lengthy review of Klein in the October Substance), you'll know to laugh a little when you go in in front of Arne's "team" for the CPS version of COMPSTAT.
Is it true that the team is being headed by Arne's new $150,000 "Chief of Staff" Bryan Samuels? If true, that's a real hoot, and every principal should at least giggle after the self-important bullying is over. Samuels? You've got to be kidding. Even Arne Duncan knows more about educational praxis than that guy.
The underlying assumption that WBEZ shares with Arne Duncan is that a set of data and a bullying atmosphere are right, and the victim is wrong. (In this, the waterboarding analogy holds up, but only if you think like the scriptwriters from "24").
The process of bullying is aided and abetted by (a) a victim who hasn't been briefed on what's coming and (b) a group of overlords who have rehearsed their scripts, good cop/bad cop style. The key is to set the agenda, be relentless against the principal, and establish an atmosphere where any appeal to reality is not considered professional.
The principal in turn is supposed to return to the school and bully the teachers and other staff, either one by one or in groups.
That's called "data driven management".
Instead of using the CIA analogy, we recommend a thorough reading of Naomi Klein's masterpiece, "The Shock Doctrine." At least if you've read Klein (or our lengthy review of Klein in the October Substance), you'll know to laugh a little when you go in in front of Arne's "team" for the CPS version of COMPSTAT.
Is it true that the team is being headed by Arne's new $150,000 "Chief of Staff" Bryan Samuels? If true, that's a real hoot, and every principal should at least giggle after the self-important bullying is over. Samuels? You've got to be kidding. Even Arne Duncan knows more about educational praxis than that guy.
Sat Dec 15, 2007 at 6:45 AM
Water-Boarding High School Principals
Why haven't any principals weighed in here on COMPSTAT? Duncan's people have been very busy with it, principals are vexed, many are turning the guns on their teachers when they get back to the schools after being worked over, and ...
Silence...
Three additional questions:
1. Do you think anyone will mention COMPSTAT at the Wednesday meeting of the Chicago Board of Education? Or does Clarice Berry only complain to here CPS paymasters when principals' pay raises are being threatened.
2. Why hasn't CPS released anything official about this project, which has major implications for every school in the city eventually. You know: Press Releases; media events; Arne mumbling about another Great Leap Forward for the children of Chicago.
3. How is COMPSTAT being implemented in the charter schools? Do Josh and Jeanie go out with their COMPSTAT data sets like is happening to the CPS real school principals, or is COMPSTAT only for real schools, while the kiddies playing deregulated Sim School get to happily flop around in their sandboxes unregulated and un-COMPSTATED?
COMPSTAT is based on a widely discredited management theory that is already sinking (and quite fast) in CEO land thanks to the messes created by it. These messes extend as far back as the "Dot com" cons and most recently up to the "Sub prime" messes.
While it's generally true that CPS -- for generations -- has always been just in time with the last discredited management theory, this one has the power to do more stupid damage more quickly than "Management by Objectives" (1980s flavor of the months and years) or the "Deming Method(s)" (the flavors of the 1990s even through the first couple of years of the Daley Dictatorship). (If you want to know the Next Big Thing CPS will be using in "management" it's best to get back issues of some of the Harvard MBA materials; ten years back or more for Chicago's future).
But COMPSTAT in Chicago in 2007 is as real as a root canal. If either the geniuses who head the CPAA or the geniuses who head the CTU understood it, they'd be screaming and filing grievances, since what it will produce will impact (pun intended) every classroom in the real public schools of Chicago.
Bad theory leads to the worst praxis, as we've only seen too often in this town, no matter what we call the top dog in the system (CEO or superintendent) and no matter who's really in charge (the mayor or the mayor).
COMPSTAT inevitably leads to rigged data and massive screwups. That's the record, from New York on.
Besides, Arne Duncan is quite capable of rigged data and massive screwups without bringing in a gimmick identified with Rudolph Guilliana and the Jack Welch crowd. After all, under Duncanian management theories, we went from "High School Intervention" to "High School Transformation" and to IMPACT and "People Soft." Only the boss's son (or a total toady) could survive in an executive job with a record like that.
Silence...
Three additional questions:
1. Do you think anyone will mention COMPSTAT at the Wednesday meeting of the Chicago Board of Education? Or does Clarice Berry only complain to here CPS paymasters when principals' pay raises are being threatened.
2. Why hasn't CPS released anything official about this project, which has major implications for every school in the city eventually. You know: Press Releases; media events; Arne mumbling about another Great Leap Forward for the children of Chicago.
3. How is COMPSTAT being implemented in the charter schools? Do Josh and Jeanie go out with their COMPSTAT data sets like is happening to the CPS real school principals, or is COMPSTAT only for real schools, while the kiddies playing deregulated Sim School get to happily flop around in their sandboxes unregulated and un-COMPSTATED?
COMPSTAT is based on a widely discredited management theory that is already sinking (and quite fast) in CEO land thanks to the messes created by it. These messes extend as far back as the "Dot com" cons and most recently up to the "Sub prime" messes.
While it's generally true that CPS -- for generations -- has always been just in time with the last discredited management theory, this one has the power to do more stupid damage more quickly than "Management by Objectives" (1980s flavor of the months and years) or the "Deming Method(s)" (the flavors of the 1990s even through the first couple of years of the Daley Dictatorship). (If you want to know the Next Big Thing CPS will be using in "management" it's best to get back issues of some of the Harvard MBA materials; ten years back or more for Chicago's future).
But COMPSTAT in Chicago in 2007 is as real as a root canal. If either the geniuses who head the CPAA or the geniuses who head the CTU understood it, they'd be screaming and filing grievances, since what it will produce will impact (pun intended) every classroom in the real public schools of Chicago.
Bad theory leads to the worst praxis, as we've only seen too often in this town, no matter what we call the top dog in the system (CEO or superintendent) and no matter who's really in charge (the mayor or the mayor).
COMPSTAT inevitably leads to rigged data and massive screwups. That's the record, from New York on.
Besides, Arne Duncan is quite capable of rigged data and massive screwups without bringing in a gimmick identified with Rudolph Guilliana and the Jack Welch crowd. After all, under Duncanian management theories, we went from "High School Intervention" to "High School Transformation" and to IMPACT and "People Soft." Only the boss's son (or a total toady) could survive in an executive job with a record like that.
Sun Dec 16, 2007 at 8:44 PM
Water-Boarding High School Principals
I think CPS could really use Deming: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming#Deming.27s_14_points . Especially that "drive out fear" part. What approach does the new head of high schools use?
Mon Dec 17, 2007 at 7:39 AM
Water-Boarding High School Principals
After looking at it further, my conclusion is that COMPSTAT is just another privatization gimmick. This CPS thingy has little in common with the successful versions of COMPSTAT that have been used in police work in several large cities (where the amount of data virtually requires something like COMPSTAT) or with anything else that would improve the schools using reliable data, reasonably offered.
Instead, COMPSTAT - CHICAGO CPS looks like a bullying gimmick to force principals into another Duncan privatization corner, then slander anyone who fights back. COMPSTAT CHICAGO is part off the privatization corner of "High School Transformation" and more of the same direct instruction nonsense. The whole idea that COMPSTAT CHICAGO has anything to do with either improving real schools in the real world or doing some of the things that the real COMPSTAT did is silly.
This is another one of those gimmicks to feed "facts" to the media the next time Duncan decides to humiliate schools, staffs, students and principals. It's been going on since Arne took over and began attacking schools for privatization (whole or partial) with the closing of Dodge, Terrell and Williams in 2002.
One of the most impressive things about the real COMPSTAT (the police version) is that it gives commanders a way of deploying additional resources to areas which show a verifiable spike in certain types of crimes. Despite all the controversy over COMPSTAT when it was utilized in its early days in New York City, it is beginning to sound like the program has values in the other cities that have been adopting it.
Now to the CPS version of COMPSTAT.
Who decided that a police data base could be utilized to monitor high schools in a vast school system?
How was the data system modified to comply with the actual real world requirements of the original? How many teachers and principals were even asked about it before it was pooped on principals' heads the past 90 days by the as usual clueless top dogs at CPS?
With all its messiness, at least IMPACT is providing the public with information about itself, including that interesting newsletter. Even where reality differs radically from the PR, IMPACT slogs along.
Yet COMPSTAT promises to have at least as great a long-term impact (pun intended) as IMPACT, and there is no way to get any honest information from CPS about COMPSTAT.
WHY...
Could it be because the CPS version of COMPSTAT is really a way to bully general high schools into providing "direct instruction" (from one politically wired vendor) without having anything to do with either improving the schools or even doing the jobs the original police model has been trying to do?
Yes, given the holistic reality of Deming, it would be interesting to see it tried. Last time (under Ted Kimbrough) it was too gimmicky in Chicago to have much impact, and short staffed.
But it would certainly be better than the current system, which seems to be a combination of MBB (Management by Bullying) and MBI (Management by Incompetence) from the central office all the way through the areas.
Instead, COMPSTAT - CHICAGO CPS looks like a bullying gimmick to force principals into another Duncan privatization corner, then slander anyone who fights back. COMPSTAT CHICAGO is part off the privatization corner of "High School Transformation" and more of the same direct instruction nonsense. The whole idea that COMPSTAT CHICAGO has anything to do with either improving real schools in the real world or doing some of the things that the real COMPSTAT did is silly.
This is another one of those gimmicks to feed "facts" to the media the next time Duncan decides to humiliate schools, staffs, students and principals. It's been going on since Arne took over and began attacking schools for privatization (whole or partial) with the closing of Dodge, Terrell and Williams in 2002.
One of the most impressive things about the real COMPSTAT (the police version) is that it gives commanders a way of deploying additional resources to areas which show a verifiable spike in certain types of crimes. Despite all the controversy over COMPSTAT when it was utilized in its early days in New York City, it is beginning to sound like the program has values in the other cities that have been adopting it.
Now to the CPS version of COMPSTAT.
Who decided that a police data base could be utilized to monitor high schools in a vast school system?
How was the data system modified to comply with the actual real world requirements of the original? How many teachers and principals were even asked about it before it was pooped on principals' heads the past 90 days by the as usual clueless top dogs at CPS?
With all its messiness, at least IMPACT is providing the public with information about itself, including that interesting newsletter. Even where reality differs radically from the PR, IMPACT slogs along.
Yet COMPSTAT promises to have at least as great a long-term impact (pun intended) as IMPACT, and there is no way to get any honest information from CPS about COMPSTAT.
WHY...
Could it be because the CPS version of COMPSTAT is really a way to bully general high schools into providing "direct instruction" (from one politically wired vendor) without having anything to do with either improving the schools or even doing the jobs the original police model has been trying to do?
Yes, given the holistic reality of Deming, it would be interesting to see it tried. Last time (under Ted Kimbrough) it was too gimmicky in Chicago to have much impact, and short staffed.
But it would certainly be better than the current system, which seems to be a combination of MBB (Management by Bullying) and MBI (Management by Incompetence) from the central office all the way through the areas.
Thu Dec 20, 2007 at 2:38 AM
Water-Boarding High School Principals
There's a rumor that COMPSTAT is just the foreplay to force "transformation" high schools to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars per school on another super duper sure fire can't miss "instructional" program (of course, vendored from the outside, without competitive bidding).
Anyone hear same same?
Anyone hear same same?
By using this service you agree not to post material that is obscene, harassing, defamatory, or otherwise objectionable. District 299 reserves the right to delete or move any material that it deems to be in violation of this rule, and to ban anyone who violates this rule. Reader comments are limited to 500 words.
