SPOTLIGHT: INTERVIEW

Good Afternoon

This is Denis Doyle, SchoolNet Co-founder and Chief Academic Officer; with me is my guest Towson University Professor Mike Hickey. Mike is a former school superintendent, most recently in Howard CO MD, and he joins us today in the second of a series of Friday Web-enabled electronic Seminars. Edited transcripts will appear here at thedoylereport.com and the SchoolNet Web site. We’re here to discuss topics of current interest to the education reform community.

Transcripts:

Today we’re going to talk about one overarching concept – Accountability is Cheap, School Improvement is Expensive – as it is revealed in three interlocking ideas, about which Mike is one of the nation’s acknowledged experts. I have begun to think of them as Hickey’s Laws:

1.     School Accountability and School Improvement are NOT one and the same.

2.    Classroom assessment of learning and classroom assessment for learning are NOT one and the same.

3.    Strategic planning and professional learning communities are NOT one and the same.

Stay with us and you will soon learn why we call these Hickey’s Laws and why Mike is known for the epigram, accountability is cheap, school improvement is expensive.

We have the good fortune today to have as our guest a man who can speak authoritatively to these topics. A native son of the State of Washington, after three years in the Marine Corps, Mike earned three degrees from the University of Washington. He worked his way up the ranks of the Seattle School District where Mike and I first met nearly three decades ago, moving on the become Superintendent of St. Louis Park Minnesota, capping his career with an unblemished record in Howard CO MD.

• To set the stage, could you say a few words about your views on education leadership, in particular the ways in which leadership responsibilities are diffused throughout the school?
  
• You and I have been in the education business for a long time – since the last century in fact -- how have things changed since your first assignment?
  
• You have a number of provocative, even counter-intuitive ideas. Let’s start with one in particular: School Accountability and School Improvement are NOT one and the same.
  
• Let’s turn to the second of Hickey’s rules: Classroom assessment of learning and classroom assessment for learning are NOT one and the same
  
• Can you say a few words about disaggregated data as a tool to increase academic achievement across the board; in particular, tell us how it can help close the achievement gap.
  
• Before we close, can you turn to your third law? Strategic planning and professional learning communities are NOT one and the same.
  
• As you know, SchoolNet is hosting the EduStat Summit June 10 and 11 in NY, which you will be attending. We kick off with NCLB architect Sandy Kress and NY School’s Chancellor Joel Kline. Can you close with some words of wisdom for participants and panelists? For example, how do you see NCLB developing over time?

Our session is now over and I’ll return the session back to Carlo Marchione

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