Dr. Enfield's Priorities for the Next Three Months

We now have a document from Dr. Enfield, Earning Public Confidence in Seattle Public Schools: Every Student Known, Challenged, Cared For, that lays out her priorities for the rest of the school year and her plan for restoring trust.

In this document she writes: "I know public confidence is earned through strong leadership". In that case she knows something I don't. I know that public confidence is earned through telling the truth and fulfilling commitments. She does go on - quite a bit - about transparency, openness, and collaboration. I appreciate the words, but I won't believe them until I see it happen. I won't dis-believe them - I'll just remain neutral.

One thing I really, really like about this document is right up front, her top priority:

1. Focusing on our core mission: providing every student with an excellent education

• Continuing our commitment to Excellence for All, our five-year strategic plan, with an eye to making adjustments in light of budget constraints.

• Supporting struggling students by involving principals and teachers in creating a comprehensive plan for increasing student achievement through high-quality instruction and interventions.

• Moving towards becoming a standards-based system that ensures high expectations and common outcomes for all students.

I can't tell you how refreshing it is to see someone at the district level talk about supporting struggling students. In addition, I like the talk about ensuring high expectations for all students. That should be the district's job - providing a quality assurance check on the schools.

I'm not that crazy about her commitment to MAP, but she seems to want it to be a useful tool for teachers rather than a revenue stream for NWEA.

I'm curious about her reference to "Building partnerships between central office and school staff to better meet the needs of all students." I'm not sure what she envisions. Perhaps more "consulting teacher" or "teacher coach" type work, perhaps not.

She writes about a "culture of transparency and accountability" and she provides a couple examples but I don't think that either of them actually speak to transparency or accountability. Certainly not accountability.

Her Listening and Engagement Plan says: "As Interim Superintendent, I vow to be honest and transparent with our budget, our policies and our programs." She "vows"? That's probably not a good idea. She shouldn't raise the stakes like that because she's not going to keep that vow. Maybe should should just "hope" to be honest or "intend" to be transparent with the programs. It would be a shame for her to break a vow when she didn't really mean it. Maybe I just take that word too seriously.

I can't help thinking that she is going to regret this document when she isn't able to live up to the high ideals expressed here.