Education Week - May 6, 2015 - 6

Chicago Schools Probe
Prompts AASA to End
Alliance With Firm
FBI investigating no-bid contract
By Denisa R. Superville
Aasa, the School Superintendents
Association, is moving to end its partnership
in a preparation program for
new schools chiefs that it runs jointly
with the supes Academy, the Illinoisbased
firm that's part of a federal investigation
in Chicago.
Daniel A. Domenech, the executive
director of aasa, said his organization
wants to run the still-nascent superintendent-training
program on its own,
given the cloud over the company.
"The bottom line is that I have no
complaints about the work they have
done for us," Mr. Domenech said, "but
the program that we are running requires
that it be beyond any type of
reproach, and thus the move on our
part to assume the management of
the program entirely."
The group's pullout is the latest
blow to the supes Academy since
news broke last month that federal
authorities are investigating the company,
along with the Chicago district
and others. The company provides
professional development to superintendents,
administrators, principals,
and teacher-leaders. The investigation
revolves around a $20.5 million
no-bid contract to train the district's
principals, according to local media
accounts. Neither the school system
nor the supes Academy will comment
on the scope of the investigation.
While no one has been accused
of wrongdoing, a federal subpoena
made public demanded that Chicago
school district officials provide records
of contracts, payments, and communications
between the company and
key leadership officials with the
school system, including Chief Executive
Officer Barbara Byrd-Bennett,
who worked for supes Academy as a
consultant before joining the school
district in 2012. The subpoena also
sought information about Gary Solomon,
the chief executive officer of the
supes Academy; Tom Vranas, the
company's president; and the Chicago
Public Education Fund, a wellconnected
nonprofit made up of civic,
academic, and business heavy-hitters,
some of whom have close ties to both
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner.
In the wake of the probe, Ms.
Byrd-Bennett has taken a leave of
absence, and the city's board of education
has suspended the district's
contract with the supes Academy.
A spokesman for the Chicago
school district did not respond to interview
requests.
Mixed Reviews
In addition to Chicago and aasa, the
supes Academy has worked on leadership
training with 14 school districts,
one charter network, and two state
departments of education, according
to the company's website. It also runs
superintendent-training programs for
aspiring and sitting schools chiefs.
The company's website features favorable
reviews from supes graduates,
and Mr. Domenech said that superintendents
who participated in the aasa
program found it valuable.
The supes Academy helps aasa
whittle down the candidates selected
to participate in the national
certification program and helps
choose the sitting superintendents
Barbara Byrd-Bennett, the
Chicago schools' CEO, is on a
leave of absence amid a federal
probe into a no-bid contract the
district awarded to a company
where she once consulted.
who provide the lectures, coaching,
and mentoring services, Mr.
Domenech said. The company also
helped develop the curriculum with
aasa leaders, Mr. Domenech said.
Mr. Domenech said aasa partnered
with the company because
of its extensive background in preparing
school leaders. The aasa program,
which started in the summer
of 2013, trains and provides support
to superintendents with less than
five years on the job.
Mr. Domenech said the program
has gotten strong evaluation results
from participants.
In Chicago, however, many principals
were less than impressed with
the company's work through the district's
Leadership Academy.
Clarice Berry, the president of the
Chicago Principals and Administrators
Association, said the program
received "uniformly negative" reviews
in the first year.
"Most principals thought the contents
of the workshops were completely
useless and of no value to
them," Ms. Berry said.
Ms. Berry heard two strands of
complaints: that content was not relevant
to the work Chicago principals
were engaged in, and that courses
were taught by educators from districts
too unlike Chicago and who did
not understand the city's unique local
school governance.
Ms. Berry said she took those
complaints to Ms. Byrd-Bennett,
and principals were allowed to sign
a waiver to opt out of the program.
Although there were rumors that
principals feared repercussions from
signing a waiver, Ms. Berry said she
had heard of no one facing blowback
for opting out or simply not going to
the sessions.
"I wasn't pleased with the supes
[Academy] when it came in," Ms.
Berry said. "We took it directly to
her, and without much consternation
on her part, she gave us the waiver
immediately. There was no sanctioning
or punishment or any issues."
Still, she said, the money spent on
the contract was not well spent.
"Any professional development
here for $20 million should have been
customized," Ms. Berry said. "That's a
lot of money for professional development
for principals to walk out of it
and say they got no value."
Defending Chicago Work
But Mr. Solomon, the ceo of the
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supes Academy, defended the work
in Chicago. Mr. Solomon said the
training was customized to the
city-as it would be for any district-and
lecturers were briefed on
the unique attributes of school governance
in Chicago.
When seeking lecturers, the comSIGN
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pany looked for school leaders with
a track record of success. It then
provided the names of possible
lecturers, with their backgrounds
and expertise, to district officials,
who approved the list of practitioners,
he said. Further, Mr. Solomon
said, the professional-development
program was created to address
needs that were articulated by
the district, and the programs
were tweaked throughout based
on feedback from participants and
the district.
For example, Mr. Solomon said, the
company added electives to the program
based on principals' feedback.
Those included a deeper dive into
student-based budgeting, staffing,
communication, time management,
and, at the time of the city's teachers'
strike and wave of school closures,
managing through "unsettled waters."
The courses covered personal
leadership, fostering buy-in and
support for a school's mission, vision,
and goals; parent and community
outreach; teacher evaluation;
common-core instruction; and
financial strategies.
Mr. Solomon said there was "constant
evaluation [of the curriculum]
to make sure that it's best aligned
to meet the needs of the practitioner
or end user, which, in a lot of places
was the principal."
He said there was a coaching component,
but acknowledged that some
relationships between principals and
coaches were stronger than others.
The feedback the company received
on the program was "quite flattering"
and "positive," he said.
"I am very proud of the work we
did in Chicago, and we have a long
working relationship with the district,
and we think that our work
has added value to the leaders that
we've been fortunate enough to
work with," Mr. Solomon said.
But Troy LaRaviere, an elementary
school principal and a frequent
critic of Chicago's city and
K-12 leadership, said he found the
courses lacking and that they did
not address the issues he thought
were necessary for Chicago principals.
Mr. LaRaviere said principals
need training in understanding
and implementing best practices as
identified by educational research;
improving school climate and culture;
improving students' soft skills;
and helping teachers improve their
instruction. Most importantly, he
said, the program lacked follow up.
Mr. LaRaviere wrote about his dissatisfying
experience with the supes
Academy on his blog, including a
marketing class he said was taught
by S. Dallas Dance, the superintendent
of the Baltimore County, Md.,
district. A request for comment to
Mr. Dance's office was forwarded to
the Baltimore County School's press
office, which declined to comment.
Mr. Dance, who had accepted the
consultancy with the supes Academy
at the same time his own district
had a contract with the company, is
no longer working with the firm, according
to The Baltimore Sun.
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Education Week - May 6, 2015

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