August 3, 2004
Osage Beach
Note: Following is the edited text of a keynote address given by Commissioner King during the annual back-to-school conference for public school officials, sponsored by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. About 1,000 school superintendents and other administrators attended the meeting. Some of the data highlighted in his remarks are listed below; links to these charts are provided in the text.
The conference theme this year, "Strong Leadership Now More Than Ever," couldn’t be more appropriate today—election day. I am confident that many of you have already voted; I’m sure the rest of you will get home in time to do that. I’m not going to give you political advice today; nor am I going to take any because I’ve already made my decisions.
The outcome of the election today, and of November, will greatly impact our jobs. No value judgment there, just an observation that is 100% accurate. For good or ill, our jobs will be impacted by the outcome of the November election. As I reflect on past elections, I realize that education has always been on the agenda, sometimes not as visibly, or as loud, but it’s always been there. What goes on in schools is very important to the public and to our elected officials. As a result, it is always a high agenda item for candidates and citizens.
I don’t intend to give you a discourse on leadership this morning. I’ve taught that class. I’m not sure I did very well at it, but I think it’s important that you walk out of here today realizing how important you are to the 925,000 PreK-12 students in the 524 school districts in this state. You know, we’ve all heard the jokes about, "You are the leader whether you want to be or not?" Well, you are the leader, so you must think about what it means. I think we’ve talked enough about the importance of leadership. We know it’s important. It’s time we stepped up to the plate and exerted some of it to address some issues that we’ve probably not tackled as aggressively as we should have.
I want to tell you a little story about management because I want to differentiate between management and leadership. Lots of people are managers, but not every manager is a leader. The two are related, but I don’t think the two terms are synonyms.
A man in a hot air balloon was lost in southeast Missouri. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted, "Excuse me. Can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am." The woman replied, "You’re in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You’re between 36 and 37 degrees north latitude and between 89 and 90 degrees west longitude."
"You must be an accountant," said the balloonist.
"I am," replied the woman. "How did you know?"
"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct, but I’ve no idea what to make of your information. The fact is, I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help at all. If anything, you’ve delayed my trip."
The woman shouted back, "You must be in management."
"I am," replied the balloonist, "but how did you know?"
"Well," said the woman, "you don’t know where you are or where you’re going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise, which you’ve no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is, you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it’s my fault."
She said he was in management; she didn’t say he was a leader.
Two thousand and four (2004) is an important anniversary for several events—Lewis and Clark, the Brown verses Board of Education decision, the anniversary of the birth of rock and roll, our 40th wedding anniversary. You can be sure which is the most important to me, but I decided to focus on two of the others to frame my remarks about your role as school leaders. You can read any number of books about the traits of leadership, and all are similar. The first item nearly always mentioned is vision. What does it mean to have vision? This year is the 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. They set sail in St. Louis in early May, heading up the Missouri River bound for the Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean. The leadership that set them on their journey was based on the vision of Thomas Jefferson. There will always be debate about the ranking of our top presidents, but none ranks higher on my list than Thomas Jefferson. The vision of this country was captured when he penned the Declaration of Independence in that tavern in Philadelphia. See, good things can happen in a tavern.
His vision was for a country "across the continent." The vehicle he used to enable that to occur was largely provided by Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery Expedition that began in St. Louis in early May 1804. They were the vehicles, and they certainly demonstrated some of the true traits of leadership. They had courage. They had commitment. They had tenacity. They had passion. But the reason they got in the boat in the first place was because of the vision of Thomas Jefferson.
Thomas Jefferson had a vision, and he acted on that vision. It isn’t enough to envision things; we have to act to implement that vision. We, as school leaders, should have vision that we can educate all kids, that we can help all kids learn to their maximum capacity. But, do we act? Do we exercise that leadership?
We have a project getting under way this year to work with about 25 schools on "Closing the Achievement Gap." I get really frustrated with this issue because we, and others, want to talk about the "gap," analyze the gap, quantify the gap; but we don’t seem to be willing to put forth the energy that it takes to close the gap. It is hard work. We know there aren’t easy solutions. But I also know that having the vision is not enough. We have to get in the boat!
We, the administrators of the public schools of Missouri, have a unique opportunity from an historic standpoint. The vision has been laid out for us, the vision of No Child Left Behind, the vision of all children learning. Yesterday, we talked about No Child Left Behind with Ray Simon. I’m not sure that George Bush’s vision is very clear on lots of things, but I think the vision of No Child Left Behind is pretty clear. Can you embrace the vision? I think that is pretty easy. Can we get it done? That is a more challenging question. We have to insist that we have the resources to realize the vision.
By the same token, we can’t use a lack of resources as an excuse for not trying to make the vision of No Child Left Behind a reality for all of our kids.
Another noteworthy event that we celebrate this year is the 50th anniversary of the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling. This is a demonstration of someone having the courage of their convictions. The Brown case, along with the other lawsuits that were consolidated into the one the Supreme Court considered, opened the doors to provide kids opportunities. A tremendous amount of time and energy has been used, and misused, over the past 50 years. Certainly, opportunities have been lost; but I would argue that Brown vs. the Board of Education was a major victory for students of color because I believe the students in this country are definitely better off than they would have been without this decision. A great deal of courage was displayed by those kids and their families. That was not a popular thing to do. The courage that it took to confront the establishment was miraculous.
Taking risks, as Linda Brown and her parents did, is another characteristic of leadership. I thought about entitling my remarks, "Leadership: Lessons Learned from the Playground." I decided not to go there, but there are lots of lessons learned from kids about leadership. This past spring, the students of Clayton High School, (thanks, Don, for providing this example) walked out to protest the school board’s consideration of dropping out of the St. Louis area’s Voluntary Interdistrict Transfer Program for financial reasons. The kids of Clayton High School said, "We like the diversity we have. We want kids from St. Louis City to be a part of our school." The kids of Clayton had the courage to take the risk, and there was a risk. We don’t know what the final result of that discussion will be, because the Clayton school board has not made a decision yet, but the kids of Clayton High School demonstrated the traits of leadership that will serve them well as they have leadership roles in the future. Your kids, in every school district in this state, exemplify or display leadership. Some of it is on far less significant issues than this one, but they all do it. It makes us proud when it happens, and we can learn from them.
How courageous was it for Kayla to voluntarily help some challenged students in sixth grade art? The fact that she is my granddaughter doesn’t matter; she is still an adolescent, and they aren’t supposed to be very helpful. Kayla’s teacher shared this with me during the school year along with the statement, "She is amazing with these kids." Kayla ran the risk of negative reaction from her friends, but she had the courage to help others.
Taking risks takes courage. How courageous was it for Kim, a third grade girl from St. Louis, to ride the bus from St. Louis City to the Rockwood School District in the transfer program, from a home that was almost non-existent and ultimately became that way? This spring, ten years later, Kim graduated from high school in the Rockwood School District with a 3.5 GPA and a college scholarship. For the last few years, though, she rode three different buses every day to get to school as she traveled from the homeless shelter in the city in which she lived. How courageous is that?
Jill, another third grader, who was a resident of the Rockwood School District when Kim arrived, showed another kind of leadership. She befriended Kim and invited her into her home. What kind of courage, what kind of commitment to convictions did Jill, and her parents show by making Kim a part of their extended family for many things, and for helping her? See, we have examples of important life-changing actions every day. Kids demonstrate a lot of leadership traits. We’re involved in the greatest business in the world. You have the opportunity every day to make a difference for a Jill, or a Kim. Will we have the courage? Do we have the vision to enhance the educational program in this state so that kids can be better off?
An important part of leadership is telling the story, and I believe we can be optimistic about our current story. Let’s focus on the good news about Missouri education for a few minutes.
Missouri High School Dropout Rate
| 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All Public School Students | 4.8 | 4.5 | 4.2 | 3.7 | 3.4 |
| Black Students | 7.1 | 6.5 | 6.2 | 5.8 | 5.4 |
As you probably know, Missouri school districts have made remarkable progress in recent years in reducing the state’s overall dropout rate. As this chart shows, the dropout rate is now below 3.5 percent annually for all students. We have made even greater progress in reducing the dropout rate among African-American students. I am hopeful that the 2004 data will reflect a continuation of this impressive and important trend.
The dropout rate, of course, continues to be a challenge for many districts, but we have made a real dent in this problem over the past decade, due to the hard work of you and your colleagues. We focused attention on the dropout rate through the MSIP standards, and the state provided financial support for alternative programs and other dropout-prevention measures. We all focused on this issue, and it made a big difference. You have "moved the needle" sharply in a positive direction. I encourage you to share some of the individual "success stories" resulting from your district’s dropout-prevention efforts.
| 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 78.3 | 80.1 | 81.4 | 82.4 | 84.3 |
| Black | 63.9 | 66.4 | 69.8 | 72.3 | 74.7 |
This chart shows the other side the coin: the positive trend line in the state’s graduation rate. The graduation rate is an important indicator under No Child Left Behind, and it will be used in the 4th cycle of MSIP, so you need to be familiar with this statistic, and you need to look at it for each subgroup of students. You may not be able to see the actual numbers, but the red bars in this chart represent all students in the state. Our combined graduation rate has increased by six percentage points, to 84.3%, over the past five years. The graduation rate for black students, however, as shown by the blue bars, has improved nearly twice as much, or 11 percentage points. That is a big change in five years.
Something we all need to get better at is talking about "NAEP" scores, or the National Assessment of Educational Progress results. As a result of No Child Left Behind, the NAEP exams are going to be the national yardstick by which all states are measured and compared. And if recent NAEP results are a good indicator, Missouri should stack up pretty well. The public and most educators are not very familiar with NAEP, so it is important for you to become conversant with these statistics.
NAEP Trends
| Reading Grade 4 |
Reading Grade 8 |
Math Grade 4 |
Math Grade 8 |
Writing Grade 8 |
Science Grade 8 |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | 2003 | 1998 | 2003 | 1992 | 2003 | 1992 | 2003 | 1998 | 2002 | 1996 | 2000 |
| 30% | 34% | 28% | 34% | 19% | 30% | 20% | 28% | 17% | 27% | 28% | 33% |
This table shows that Missouri has made across-the-board gains in reading, math, writing and science according to the NAEP tests in grades 4 and 8 in recent years. These percentages are important because they represent the percentage of Missouri students who were "Proficient" or "Advanced." The NAEP exams are now required for all states and a sample of Missouri kids will be tested again in 2005.
Percent of Students Scoring Proficient and Above in Reading
This chart shows the percentage of our 4th graders who were proficient or above in reading in 2003 – 34 percent – compared to 30 percent for the nation. The blue bar shows how last year’s fourth-graders in Missouri scored the previous year on our third-grade reading assessment (39.2 percent).
Percent of Students Scoring Proficient and Above in Mathematics
This chart looks at NAEP scores for eighth-grade math. As you can see, Missouri kids (28 percent) were one percentage point above the national average (27 percent) in math last year. The "real news" here, however, is that the percentage of Missouri kids who scored proficient or above jumped sharply – by seven percentage points – since the last NAEP assessment in 2000. This is very positive news about the work of Missouri educators.
You can also see on this chart that only about 14 percent of Missouri eighth graders scored proficient or above on the MAP math test in 2003. This may indicate that our math exam is too tough or that it is just very different from the NAEP math assessment. We’ll be examining this closely as we develop the new grade level assessments.
I know some prefer to dwell on such things as AYP and let that control the conversation. My preference is to tell the positive story while working hard to make improvements in other areas.
I realize that the AYP story and other stories are not always as positive as we would like them to be. But I also realize that we have far more good stories to communicate than we have negative ones. Let’s accentuate the positive! Let’s be prepared to rebut those who only recite the negative statistics.
One of the real communications challenges for me over the past few months has been how to address the financial issues coming out of the last session of the General Assembly. I want to be positive and say that we received more money than we anticipated. I want to be appreciative of the efforts of many people who enabled that money to be appropriated to schools. On the other hand, I want to be realistic and make sure that people don’t conclude that the financial crisis of Missouri’s public schools has been resolved. It hasn’t.
True, more money was appropriated for 2004-2005 than we expected. Also, the money that had been withheld was released, and a lot of school districts passed levy increases. These are all good news items. You all know, though, that those tax levy issues are short-term solutions to our much larger problem. They gave many of you the opportunity to keep from going backwards; but, in very few cases, did you approach it with the idea that that was all you would need to fund educational programs for the students in your districts.
In January, approximately half of you filed a lawsuit against the state challenging the constitutionality of the foundation formula. That reflects a high level of frustration with the current financial situation. It demonstrates courage and leadership. I’m curious. How many of you were here 12 years ago, in the fall of 1992, when the first school finance lawsuit went to trial?
But let’s think about, for just a minute, a risk that accompanies this new lawsuit. It hasn’t been heard, will not be heard for several months, I expect. By the time it’s appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, I imagine we’re looking at two or three years. We must be cautious and not permit decision makers to use that lawsuit as an excuse not to address the overriding issue of the need for money. We have to be positive about the money that was appropriated by the General Assembly last year. We have every reason to be very positive about the tax levies that were passed by the patrons of the various school districts last year, and I know some of you are voting today.
But we must also be honest enough with the people to make certain that everyone knows that we do not have enough money in the state treasury to fund education to the level that our kids and young adults deserve.
Strong, positive communication about kids learning, about good things in your school district, is the right thing to do. Being positive is appropriate, being positive at the expense of being misleading is inappropriate. Good leadership means being positive and honest. Good leaders have to have the courage of their convictions. Back to Lewis and Clark--Jefferson had the vision; Lewis and Clark had the courage. They had the conviction to believe that the journey on which they embarked was the right one and would lead them where they were going, although no one else had been there.
As you know, we have a Task Force looking at the high school and what it can become. I don’t know what the recommendations of that task force will be. What I know is that the high school today is good for a lot of kids, but it’s not good enough for all kids. It needs to be better.
We know that high schools have changed. Today, we have many more kids earning Advanced Placement credit. We have many more kids who are dually enrolled in college classes. Yet, we still have many kids who, the leaders of business tell us, are not prepared for work. We hear from colleges that we have increasing numbers of kids who must take remedial classes. We hear from labor unions that we have significant numbers of kids who cannot apply the basics of geometry to their trades.
Some of these issues have been around a long time; but, collectively, we must address the issue. We owe it to the kids. We owe it to the communities. It appears to me that what people are really talking about is that kids need more rigor. Yeah, we run some risks with that. We could increase dropout rates, or we could create anxiety within our communities and within our kids. But I think, collectively, we have to address this issue in a positive way because, ultimately, our kids will benefit from a more rigorous secondary experience.
The high school is one of the most tradition-bound institutions in this country. When you tell the mom of a high school sophomore that you’re not going to sponsor a homecoming parade any more; and, then, you learn that she was the homecoming queen when she was in high school, you suddenly learn what’s important. That mom didn’t speak to me for several years. But "tradition" doesn’t mean "excellence." We have to provide the opportunity for kids to get better. So we’ll be updating you occasionally during the year about the Task Force on the High School. Ultimately, we will be asking you to help us as we figure out the right things to do that will cause our kids to be better prepared to take their places in the future.
As I think about our high schools and No Child Left Behind and the leadership you provide in schools, I’m reminded of an old story. The story is about a very successful ice cream maker who was a vocal critic of public schools. He frequently alleged that, if he managed his business like the public schools were managed, he’d go broke instead of being very successful in the ice cream business.
As the story went, during one of his speeches, a lady, stood up and calmly said, "It’s my understanding that you manage a company that makes very good ice cream."
The owner replied, "Best ice cream in America!"
The lady then said, "Is it rich and smooth?"
He said, "Sixteen percent butter fat," which is not something he would say today, by the way. "Premium ingredients!"
"Premium ingredients?" she asked.
"Super premium. Nothing but triple A quality," the owner said.
Then she dropped the bomb. "Sir," she said, "When you’re standing on your receiving dock, and you see an inferior shipment of blueberries arrive, what do you do?" Everyone got kind of quiet.
The owner said, "I send them back."
For the first time during the interchange, the lady, a teacher, got pretty loud. "That’s right, but we can never send back our blueberries. We take them big, small, rich, poor, gifted, exceptional, abused, frightened, confident, homeless, rude, and brilliant. We take them with ADHD, junior rheumatoid arthritis, and English as their second language. We take them all, everyone. And that, sir, is why it is not a business. It is a school."
I’m going to take a little liberty with that story and think about how we really do handle our blueberries. You see, there are a lot of differences in blueberries. The teacher was right. We don’t have the opportunity to send our blueberries back. The parents are sending us the very best they have. But what do we do with the blueberries when we get them? That’s the challenge. If you’re in the blueberry preserves business, you may look for a different kind of blueberries than for ice cream. You may even be a little more tolerant of what you’re going to accept in blueberries if you’re going to mash them all up and make preserves. If you’re going to put them in pies, you may be looking for a little better quality. If you’re going to put them in ice cream, I suspect you want something different.
So, let’s think about the blueberries that come to us for a minute and how we’re going to get all of those blueberries to be proficient. How are we going to get them all to the level that it’s okay to "let them be used?" If we receive a shipment of blueberries and find that they are not quite ripe, not quite ready, what do we do with them? It’s not enough to say, "They aren’t ready." We can’t afford that. We have to ask the next question, which is, "How do we get them ready?" You see, with blueberries, if they aren’t quite ripe, you probably can put them out in the sun. You may be able to leave them on the shelf a little longer. You may have to add a little more sugar. You won’t put them in the pie the way they are. You will wait until they’re ready to be used. We must do the same for kids. We should provide readiness programs for them. We should make sure we have in place the opportunity for early childhood programs to get those kids ready, to help ripen them, if you will, so they can deal with school and so school can deal with them. If we’re going to get all kids proficient, we’d better get them ready.
Good first grade teachers know how to do this really well. Kelsi, our favorite first grader last year, learned to read very early in the school year; but many of her classmates didn’t learn until much later in the year. There were lots of different types of blueberries in her class. At the end of the year, though, Kelsi reported that all of her classmates were reading, all except two who went to "special classes." The 23 blueberries in that class were rather different, and they were dealt with in different ways. We have to provide the professional learning opportunities for educators so they can become better at teaching so all kids are better at learning.
If you’re running a business, and the blueberries you receive are too ripe, it takes a different strategy. The berries are still good; but they’re too ripe for some uses. They’re more mature. What do you do? You use them quickly. You move them ahead of the ones that are not quite ready. Does that sound like school at all? Can’t we move those kids along if they’re really ready? Do we really need to try to get them all to the same place at the same time? Yeah, I know, we’re supposed to get them all proficient; but, if they are already proficient, can we move them along? See, there are some similarities between kids and blueberries. The difference is in how we handle the kids and the blueberries.
There are all different sizes and kinds of blueberries. Some are--juicy, good, sweet. Others are different shapes with different consistencies. We have some kids who are good and sweet; others who are challenged or challenging; so we deal with them differently. You see, I really do think that blueberries and kids have some similarities. I also know that, at some point, blueberries can get so bad that you throw them away. That’s where the similarities end. We can’t throw any student away. Remember, the parents are sending us their best. We’re going to work hard, make every effort to get all of those kids to meet those expectations.
The business and education models are different. But there are some things that can be learned from each. Just as we treat different blueberries differently, we need to treat different kids differently. There’s a difference between selling blueberries and educating. All kids, like all blueberries, are not created equally. The challenge that we face, that we must overcome, is to make sure that we understand those differences and deal with all those kids differently, just like the business person deals with the blueberries differently. This is today’s challenge of diversity that faces every school leader in this room. It’s today’s Brown vs. Board of Education. It’s still about black and white students, about poor and middle class kids, about Kim and Jill; but it is about much more today, and each of us must accept the challenge.
The leadership in this room has a lot more responsibility than using blueberries to make ice cream. We also have greater opportunities.
We can’t be flying around in hot air balloons looking for someone to blame. We are the leaders. Just as the kids we get are the best their parents have to send us, we are the best those kids are going to get! Let’s not disappoint them!
Thanks for being here! Have a great school year!