True believer

Diana Lam faces the challenge of transforming Providence's schools

by Ian Donnis

Although Operation Plunder Dome has dominated headlines since it was unveiled in April, the fate of Providence's beleaguered public schools holds even greater significance for the future of the city and Rhode Island as a whole. The situation bears directly on economic competitiveness, not to mention the state's willingness to educate a disadvantaged body of 26,000 students that is overwhelmingly Latino, black and Asian. And when it comes to upgrading the schools, Providence Mayor Vincent A. "Buddy" Cianci Jr. acknowledges that the accomplishments that have made the city a symbol of urban rejuvenation were a piece of cake by comparison.

Problems with the schools can be seen in the abysmal performance by students on standardized tests, and rates higher than the statewide average for student absences, teacher grievances, high school drop-outs and other troubling indicators, according to Information Works!, a report by the state Department of Education.

But while no one has illusions about the difficulty of making improvements, genuine progress has started to unfold in recent years: Education reform is on the statewide agenda; a critical mass of business leaders, community groups and interested parents has gained strength in Providence; a heightened degree of cooperation has been struck between the administration and the Providence Teachers Union; and although the district remains sorely underfunded, state support for Providence schools has almost doubled since fiscal 1994, to $125 million.

The responsibility for making the most of limited resources and transforming the culture of learning now belongs to Diana Lam, 51, who started work August 1 as Providence's school superintendent. The daughter of a truck driver and a seamstress, Lam was inculcated with the value of education as she grew up in Lima, Peru, and pursued it as a career after coming to Minnesota, and then Massachusetts, to go to college.

Lam worked for10 years in the Boston public schools before becoming the first superintendent, from 1989-91, during Boston University's oversight of the schools in Chelsea, Massachusetts. She went on to serve as superintendent in Dubuque, Iowa, and, from 1994-98, in San Antonio, Texas. In San Antonio, Lam was credited with significantly improving the schools, but she lacked support on the school committee, and last year received a $781,000 buyout for the 31/2-year remainder of her contract.

Lam spoke with the Phoenix this week in her third-floor office at the school department's administrative offices on Westminster Street, across from Classical High School.

Q: You've got an initial three-year contract. How would you like the educational landscape to be different three years from now? What are your primary goals for what you hope to accomplish?

A: I think there are three primary goals that will emerge. One is to improve student achievement, and I think everybody wants that to happen -- our teachers, our administrators, our community. The second major goal would be to create the kind of learning organization where all adults are also learning, because I propose the adults cannot teach unless they are learning, that they are setting the right connection there. I would like that to be a major goal. And the third major goal would be the public engagement piece, whether it's working with parents, with community, with agencies, with other institutions in the city. So in three years, I don't know how much can be accomplished, but I think we will be able to see progress in those three areas.

Q: There are many students in Providence who have been unable to achieve academic success because of poverty, broken families and many other reasons. How do you intend to go about changing this, particularly for the many poor and at-risk students?

A: I think you are assuming that [poverty] is the reason why they have not been able to achieve, and I think that's a big assumption. I think that's a factor that obviously we need to be aware of, and we need to collaborate with community agencies, government agencies, to deal with issues of poverty. So obviously it's important, but I refuse to believe that that's the reason why our children are not learning. I think that there are other pieces within our control as a school district that we have not done to really increase the achievement of the students.

In fact, there's a large body of evidence now that what matters most is the quality of teaching, and if a student has three years of poor teaching it may be irreparable. Although I want to deal with issues of poverty, with family issues in the community, and I'm committed to that, I don't want to be distracted. I want to focus on the quality of teaching and administration that we have within the school district. That's where we have the most control.

Q: What specifically will you do to raise the quality of education and the quality of teaching?

A: We need to focus on literacy, at least to start with. We need to be very clear about our standards and expectations for all of our students, and of course, we have to be very strong in our commitment to increase the capacity of our teachers and administrators. And also to increase the capacity of parents and the community to understand issues of teaching and learning.

It's an organizing effort much as you would do to engage people. In San Antonio, we went right to the homes of parents and we conducted a number of home meetings, as opposed to sending a little note to a parent, saying come to school . . . You have to do it at times when it's convenient for parents, in a language that they understand and offer them all kinds of support. Many of our parents there, and I imagine it may be true here, too, have not particularly had good experiences even as students, so there's that kind of distrust of the system.

Q: Why did you decide to become an educator?

It wasn't conscious at first. I had my first teaching job when I was going to school with younger family members and neighbors . . . Then I had my first official teaching job when I was a 5th grader, when I would tutor younger students in English and mathematics . . . I knew I was in committed in very strong ways to improving the fortunes of people, children in particular. It was also only after attending college that I went more in the traditional track of teaching. The major reason is that I want to be able to provide the opportunities that I was provided with as a young child . . . I think by offering good teaching and learning opportunities, that's how things become true. I identify quite a bit with that student that's in need of good teaching and that needs the support that may not always be found at home.

Q: Getting back to my earlier question, you're saying it's really the expectations and educational culture that are much more important when it comes to the quality of education that students receive, rather than their socioeconomic background. Given that, why are the public schools in Providence and other large American cities in such rough shape?

A: Because we don't believe that children can learn. When we talk among educators, and it goes at all levels -- I'm not talking about any particular group -- we're always suggesting that we can really not do our jobs well because there are a hundred other reasons why we can't, and that we really cannot trust that our students can learn.

And we have a set of beliefs that at one point in time were pretty much the norm -- in terms of it's aptitude, as opposed to effort [that most matters]. And now we have this counterpoint of we really believe all children can learn. And so, we're very good right now at the verbal. We are not as good yet -- although I think we are becoming better -- at implementing programs that will address the learning of everybody.

Q: Providence ranks 31st out of 36 school districts in the state in terms of per-pupil spending on general education. How important is increased financial support for what you want to accomplish?

A: The major challenge is to build an infrastructure that will support whatever it is that we need to do. Money is not always the answer, but money is important. For example, if we really wanted to invest -- and I think we should -- in early childhood education, there is no way we can do that with our present budget, even if we were to reallocate resources. The whole issue of technology, for example, and having it updateable and well-used by all students -- that's a very expensive operation, too. If we are talking about how we teach mathematics, then I think there is potential for reallocating our already existing resources.

Q: What do you mean when you talk about building an infrastructure?

A: Let's say that one of our goals for the district is to increase the capacity of teachers and administrators to work more effectively, to really get the results that we're all looking for. I would consider setting up an infrastructure to deal with issues such as time; how are we going to handle time? Because whenever we say that we want to increase the capacity of our people, we have to deal with time. We need to deal with resources -- how we are going to pay for this, whether it's new money or a reallocation of resources.

Another infrastructure piece is once we embark on raising the capacity of all the adults within the organization, how are we going to ensure that what's learned actually translates into practice? Because that has been one of the problems with building capacity or professional development programs. Yeah, we can all go to a conference or we can all go to a workshop. We can all be very excited. We may come back and try something, but when you try something, most of the time, it doesn't work right away. Then you get discouraged, don't do it, and it really doesn't matter. So I would want to pay close attention to how we want to provide on-site assistance, so that everything is aligned and we don't give up too quickly when things become difficult.

Q: In San Antonio, you were praised for turning around the schools, but also criticized for overwhelming some teachers with the pace of change and not fully communicating your vision. What will you to do avoid facing the same situation here?

A: I think in terms of the pace of change, it's very subjective. Some people thought the pace of change was slow. I come to this job with a realization that I'm not going to make everybody happy, and that's not what the job calls for anyway. The job calls to provide leadership to get the student outcomes that we're looking for. Having said that, I do think we need a good process by which we support our teachers and our administrators in reaching their goals. But to me, the pace depends a lot on where our kids are. You know, who is thinking about the children? Who is thinking about the kids that can't read and that will go on to the next grade and still not read, and on the next grade and still not read? In terms of a process, it seems to me that we can't wait forever.

It doesn't mean that we do it tomorrow, either, because we do not want to set anybody up for failure. But certainly we do not want to continue the culture of failure that has permeated the school district and which you alluded to.

In terms of the communications piece . . . I think that what you hear from San Antonio or some of the criticism, that's also part of the rhetoric. Because anybody, in any place, can tell you, oh, there's not enough communication and there's not enough inclusivity. That doesn't mean I think I did the very best job. I think I can always improve. My hope here in Providence is to be mindful of that, but I think the accountability has to go beyond the superintendent.

Q: There were some members of the community here who were very opposed to the selection of someone from outside of Providence as the superintendent. What have you been doing to overcome that opposition and build bridges with these people?

A: I basically have come in here with a clean book and I am giving everyone an opportunity to also start a clean book with me. What I have been doing . . . is to try to be very accessible to all the different groups, established and less established groups. I have been very accessible to meet with anybody and I've met with groups of parents, I've had community forums, I've met with some of the organizations in the community . . . The welcome has not been unfriendly, so if there was a large number of community people who did not want me to be here, I have certainly not heard from them. I could not pinpoint who they are. My strategy has been broad appeal. I need to meet with everybody. I typically would not want to meet just with those people who have opposed me, but with everybody, and provide opportunities for that kind of interaction. We have done that and we'll continue to have our community forums and meet with parent groups.

Q: What are the most important lessons you took from your experience in Chelsea [where Lam, as the first superintendent after Boston University assumed oversight of the school system, had to answer to two boards, and the BU oversight was the subject of two lawsuits]?

A: I think the most important lesson that I learned is although there may be different groups with good agendas, that as a superintendent I needed to be very focused on children, because everybody else's agenda may not be about children. And I was not willing to sacrifice a whole generation of students to the political agendas of whoever was a player at that time in Chelsea, and that has been true through my jobs that followed that one.

In San Antonio, for example, I did not find any particular group that advocated for the right that children have to learn. I've told this story before, but the first time that we gave the end of course algebra test in San Antonio, there were only three students that passed it. Not one voice was raised by anybody, not from within the district, not from outside the district, not from any organization. It's like, so what? I mean, I just kind of felt devastated. There were no picket lines. There was nobody saying, you haven't been doing your job. There's never been any accountability for the learning that our children do or don't do.

In Providence, I can't tell yet. If I do an audit and I hope to do that . . . Of all the external partners that we have -- there are probably over 300 -- but it's no one's job to coordinate those efforts. When you have so many partners, with so many different agendas, but supposedly focusing on children, you also dilute the power of the advocacy role. At this point anyway, I feel compelled to focus on children, to be kind of the major advocate for children, because it would be interesting to see the people who supposedly did not want me to come here. Have they ever expressed dissatisfaction with the level of achievement of our students? I mean, I don't know. Maybe they have. So who complains about what is very telling.

Given the results that we have here in Providence, we should almost have a revolution, right? There are schools where zero kids have met the standard. That tells me that there is a lot of work to be done and we can really not waste a lot of it. We need to be focused and to have a plan, and a paced plan, but one that says learning is a non-negotiable piece here.

Q: As evidenced by the introduction of site-based management at only two schools in Providence, changes in some aspects of the educational culture have been slow, almost glacial. What will you do to diffuse authority away from the central administration and speed other aspects of educational reform?

A: Well, I think that for educational reform to work you need to have both -- You need to have top-down and you need to have bottom-up. Because under educational reform, any school under site-based management can do their own thing, and then there will be no continuity, no real standards or accountability. I think that we need to have both. Having said that, I am surprised there are only two schools, and it tells me a whole lot about the process, and I believe it's a management-union piece that needs to be examined. I included myself in a committee that will be talking to the union about this.

Informal feedback that I've received

from some of the principals is that they think the process is too lengthy, too bureaucratic, too everything. They just rather have nothing than go through that process, and they claim it's too political. I don't know that first-hand. I want to have the opportunity to meet with union leadership and to discuss these issues candidly and

see how we promote a level of authority

at the school level that perhaps we have

not wanted to see there. With the authority, of course, comes the accountability,

and that's kind of the other side of the coin. So I'm wondering how many of

our principals would really be ready for that right now.

I believe that now from the conversations that I've had, and now I've actually spoken to many people, that people are hungry for some strong central leadership. For example, with the standard. Can standards at least be uniform? Can we have a set of assessments that are really consistent from school to school? And so we need to have that balance. I also feel that a central office is always responsible for the equity issues, because we can see the big picture.

Q: Speaking of equity, the teaching staff is approximately 85 percent white, and the student body is approximately 76 percent Latino, black and Asian. What is being done to develop an educational staff that more closely resembles the student body?

A: I don't think anything has been done or we wouldn't be where we are. I think what needs to happen is we need to have better recruitment, hiring, supporting and maintaining of teachers in the school district. I believe the area of how you get hired, and who gets hired to do what jobs, is very telling. We need to look at that carefully, and create a different kind of human resources department.

Q: How do you plan to build accountability into the educational process?

A: If you are a teacher, you will know what are the expectations of what you should be doing, of what the kids should be able to do. This is going to be a tremendous help. Once you have the standards, we certainly want to offer the support that teachers and other staff may need to ensure that all children are also meeting a standard. I want to review what's happening in our schools from the point of view of teaching and learning.

I can't say everyone's going to be accountable because it means nothing. You know, everyone has always said that everybody should be accountable, but obviously we haven't been. I kind of need to prepare the principals and the teachers and the community for a change in culture, and a change in belief that we can really make a difference. Once we do that, I need to provide very concrete support. And then I want to visit every school and every classroom.

Q: I think there are many people, particularly in suburban communities, who really view public education in American cities as being broken, possibly beyond repair. What would you say to the people who hold that view?

A: I think we can go to many urban school districts and see pockets of excellence, but we are still not able to see whole districts where every school is a pocket of excellence, so that's the challenge. In Texas, there are some schools where it's like 100 percent minority and 100 percent poor, where the kids are taking AP [advanced placement] calculus in large numbers and passing the test. So I would say that there are plenty of examples across the nation that can help to pave the way. What we need to do is to create it in every school in a district.

In San Antonio, when I went there, we had so many schools in the single digits, and now 70 percent or more of our students in all grade levels have reached the standards in the disciplines where we test -- a tremendous difference. It took a few years. Now there are other challenges, because it's not only doing well on the test, but it's are you really well educated?

Ian Donnis can be reached at idonnis[a]phx.com.