4
Nothing normal about public education these days,
but it has never been a more noble profession
By Dr. Steve Webb
IASA President
Organizational research specialist Margaret
Wheatley in 1999 stated “We live in a society that
believes it can define
normal
and then judge
everything against that fictitious standard.” She
added that our future lies in institutions based on
principles and relationships rather than simply rules.
As President of the Illinois Association of
School Administrators (IASA) for this past year and
over my 20 years as a school administrator, I have
witnessed countless
instances in our state
and nation that provide
ample evidence that we
as a society not only
believe we can define
normal – but we also
believe the calibration
of norms should
change in chaotic
fashion depending
largely on the ebb and
flow of voting polls and
what some might deem
“palatable” or even
“less unconstitutional.”
Although frustrating
and at times defeating,
I am always reminded
by my children that
school and the art of schooling is much more than
being willing to change with the times or even willing
to acquiesce to the ever-changing norms. Schooling
is about opening the doors to thousands of children
every day and greeting them with adults who have
pledged their life and their very being with providing
our next generation of politicians, educators,
engineers, and all other change agents a fighting
chance at success. Period.
Please allow all bureaucrats and negativists to
begin their rebuttal now, but it is what it is. As we
traverse the mountains of paperwork and canyons of
hollow promises, the doors stay open, the lights still
shine, and the students still learn.
In one of the graduate courses I teach as an
adjunct professor, I am constantly reminding aspiring
superintendents that proper program evaluation
techniques are essential in schools today not only for
the cost-benefit a particular program might present
(the types of program evaluations many of our
schools are currently forced to conduct), but most
importantly for the learning-benefit of our students --
as if I needed to remind them of the reasons we
chose the teaching profession in the first place.
In a recent class, one of my students asked, “So
how much benefit to a child is necessary for the costs
to be justified?” To this question, there is no
quantifiable answer. In my experiences as a school
administrator, I have often been involved with those
who look for some tangible way to quantify what we
do as teachers and
administrators in the name
of “accountability” when
there is no one single true
way to determine how
much benefit we are
providing to a child
because there is no single
design of inputs for us to
construct a means tested
evaluation of outputs.
That is what is so special
about what we do as
school leaders. We
develop programs and we
develop the educators to
administer those programs
to every single child no
matter what “inputs” they
carry with them when they
enter our doors. That is
why there is no such thing as a definition of “normal”
when it comes to helping kids. It is just what we do
and I am so proud to be a part of that process.
As I become the Past-President of this great
organization in July, please allow me to thank you all
for your words of encouragement and your support in
my tenure as your President. As we unveil the
framework for our “Vision 20/20” to help finally
provide the masses with true education leadership for
transformational change, I believe we have reached a
pinnacle of cooperation and collaboration across our
state that is truly unprecedented. I am proud of the
direction of this organization and the individuals we
have running the operation. I deeply appreciate you
welcoming me into your regions and your
communities and allowing me the opportunity to
represent you and the goals of this organization. It is
truly an honor.
