Where Will Enfield Go? We'll Know Soon

The Times is reporting that Dr. Enfield has been offered the superintendent job in Highline. The Bellevue School Board is scheduled to meet tonight to decide whether to skip a search and offer the job to Enfield.

She may have two offers in hand by the end of the day tomorrow and will likely need to make a decision by week's end.

Comments

David said…
Glad she is getting offers she might enjoy. Both of these offers are quite a bit less prestigious than running a major city like Seattle, but there is more to life than maximizing career, and it is good that Susan Enfield is going to find a position that suits her interests.
KG said…
Good riddance.
Anonymous said…
Please tell them there are no returns allowed.

Mr Ed
Anonymous said…
I for one will miss her. It truly is our loss.

Lian
Good Luck Dr E. said…
I'm not sure she had the street smarts for a complex district like SPS. She is a nice person and I wish her well. Let's look forward to getting a great new sup and improving the district for all citizens. Where is the search process at this point? Any names yet?
Anonymous said…
I like her, too. Sorry to see her go!!!!!!

- Look
I have mixed feelings.

She did a lot of what needed to be done after the crisis.

But, she didn't even seem to wait to see if she would be offered the job (which I think she would have been). I think she may have wanted a smaller more managable district all along.

Her record is not good at staying at a job for a long time. On the other hand, this is really her first "I'm the superintendent" job.

I wish her luck.
I have mixed feelings.

She did a lot of what needed to be done after the crisis.

But, she didn't even seem to wait to see if she would be offered the job (which I think she would have been). I think she may have wanted a smaller more managable district all along.

Her record is not good at staying at a job for a long time. On the other hand, this is really her first "I'm the superintendent" job.

I wish her luck.
anonymous said…
Yes, I agree with Lian. It is truly our loss. Good luck to Dr. Enfield, I will really miss her, and wish her the best in her new position.

rooster
dan dempsey said…
Hey this was not voting for Homecoming Queen ... "like her" does not pass for a reason to make her Superintendent.

Academics is way more important than "like her".

She failed to do adequate research and promoted irrational proposals and actions ... New Tech Network, backing Discovery/Inquiry math, Teach for America, No waivers, Slow to hire Mr. Chappelle at RBHS, etc.

To improve a system requires the intelligent application of relevant data.

Enfield pushed predetermined positions and went fishing for data later. Her belief in Centralized "Top Down" decision-making despite its expense and lack of results is indicative of her failure to "smell the coffee".

Auburn has shown what "Greater Autonomy" for elementary schools can do, with much better results for $2,600 per student per year less spending than Seattle.

Susan Enfield had yet to come up with a workable plan for High School math .... No HS math class offered below Algebra I was a complete failure ... and OSPI End of Course Assessments for students just completing Algebra I were very poor.

Sorry but a Harvard "Dr." is no substitute for results.
Anonymous said…
I'd suggest a few of rent a U-Haul to fill with the garbage "Discovering..." math texts, but

if she takes all her math coach snitches with her, they could just fill up their cars with the garbage texts!

EfficiencyIsGood
Anonymous said…
She doesn't want a smaller district. She wants a district where the criticism isn't so vocal and the supporters are even more supportive.

As a worker I appreciate that. As an SPS watcher, I don't. The superintendent is dead. Long live the superintendent.

DistrictWatcher
Anonymous said…
I thought she did a mediocre job here and am not sorry to se her go...

- SPS parent
Crownhill said…
Wow - the changed comment screen is hard to read with old eyes

As for Dr. Enfield - may she finally find a place the meets whatever it is all those other places she's been didn't have - she's the only one who knows what they were missing.

The comments on the Times are interesting - clearly the impression is Highline and Bellevue will be locked in a bidding war.

I'd rather think about what we've learned from her interim time in terms of a new Supe - I think thinking about the whys of someone applying is very important - personal career aspirations? Dedicated to improve education? Political animal (yes, there's a need for that - but where does it fit in their spectrum of behavior).
Po3 said…
Not sorry to see her go.
She is not honest and I cannot point to one change she made that had a positive impact on student outcomes in three years, unless you want to give her credit for the positive math outcomes at Mercer MS. Which leads me back to my first point, she is not honest.
Anonymous said…
Implementing the Ed Reform Agenda in Highline will be much easier than in Bellevue. Aside from Mt. Rainier (Des Moines/Normandy Park) parents, I don't foresee much push-back from the other communities in Highline. Evergreen (White Center/Burien), Highline (Burien) and Tyee (SeaTac) have demographics that align much better with the Ed Reformers, and they haven't been through the turmoil Seattle has. I hate to say Highline is easier pickings, but it is.

Smaller District, less opposition, less scrutiny, wider margin of error for certain ideas she embraces...Sure. Absolutely. Highline is an ideal fit for her.

I hope it works out for her. WSDWG
mirmac1 said…
It will be interesting if scores go DOWN because of the turmoil she'll stir up.
Anonymous said…
Yes and if the Highline scores go up, will this blog and its readers give credit where due to SE as the leader? Or will we hear.... crickets.

Lian
mirmac1 said…
I don't know where you live but I never hear crickets.

Lian, how 'bout you report back to us with those numbers. I'll bet Dan Dempsey already plans on tracking this.
Charlie Mas said…
Okay. Let's look at the numbers from Highline after Dr. Enfield has been there.

But not right away. It takes a few years for the impact of leadership to appear in the student test scores.

And we don't want to look at just one year of data.

I'd say that we should review about three years of data about six to eight years from now to determine what influence Dr. Enfield's leadership had on student outcomes in Highline.

Of course, we now know that attendance has the biggest influence on student achievement. It recently replaced teacher quality, which, I suppose, is still running a close second. Then there is also student motivation, family involvement, and poverty.

After we allocate attribution for outcomes to all of those other influences, I think we can still have a couple percentage points left to attribute to the work done by Dr. Enfield.

Yep. We'll look for that.
Anonymous said…
Ok then. You should be singing the praises of Raj Manhas.

Back in his day, when he took office, our WASL pass rates for 10th graders were:

Reading - 55%
Math - 38%
Writing - 54%

And now?

Reading - 80%
Math - 65%
Writing - 85%

Incredible improvement! CHeers all around.

He was there an average length of time for a superintendent, and 6 years after he left... we see the tremendous improvements.

Go Raj.

-observer
Charlie Mas said…
And what, exactly, did Mr. Manhas do to cause these scores to rise - other than re-classifying a large portion of the under-performing 10th grade students as 9th graders and holding them out of the test?

My point (and I'm surprised it wasn't clear) is that superintendents typically have no influence - positive or negative - on student outcomes. They are so far away from actual students and their learning that the influence of the superintendent isn't felt at all.

Also, remember all of the things that supposedly do play a role in determining student outcomes, such as teacher quality, attendance, and principal quality? After their role, how much is left for the influence of the superintendent? Not much if any.

So let's get real. The superintendent doesn't drive student test scores.

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