Network Schools – Wayne Gerseny to https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/04/03/magazine/thomas-piketty-interview u w B l.html?h I’ll smid=url-share the Is for

I confess that I felt a sense of de ja vu AND empathy when I read the NYPost headline and accompanying article chastising the decision to hire Meisha Ross Porter because she lacked classroom teaching experience.

The sense of de ja vu came because, like Ms. Porter, I had a series of breaks early in my career as an educator that enabled me to rise rapidly through the ranks. I won a Ford Fellowship after “barely teaching” (two years in a West Philadelphia HS) and then moving rapidly through the administrative ranks to become a Superintendent at the age of 33. I have mild regrets that I didn’t spend more time in the classroom or at the building level (where I served for 6 years), and in retrospect got OJT in my first few years as Superintendent… but when opportunities presented themselves for me— as they have for Ms. Porter— I seized them and never looked back.

BUT… the “lack of experience” criticism DID come into play early in my career whenever I assumed the leadership in increasingly large districts and whenever someone who disagreed with a decision wanted to ascribe blame. Whenever that occurred, though, I took the comment of a veteran Maine School Board member who assured one of his colleagues who expressed concern about my hiring since I had no experience as a Superintendent that I would solve that problem “one year at a time”. Sure enough, by the time I was hired for my final two jobs my “lack of experience” was no longer an issue.

I found the NYPost criticism of Ms. Porter particularly galling given their unqualified praise for the work done by Mayor Bloomberg’s appointee to the Chancellor: Joel Klein– an attorney with no experience whatsoever in public education. The fact that a white male who never set foot in a classroom was never questioned about his experience while an African American woman is “welcomed” with headline chastising her for “barely” teaching. The criticism was particularly galling given the content of the article that listed the many accomplishments Ms. Porter achieved in her years as an administrator. I wish her well… and hope that she continues to fight the good fight as she has done throughout her career. If she does well and the next mayor passes her over some district somewhere in the US will get a seasoned administrator with a good track record for turning around troubled schools.