For years, the Rochester school district has attempted to help students become more effective members of society. Despite the fact that its efforts have produced minimal results, the new superintendent search provides the district with a unique opportunity to create a completely new vision for educating students, by stating the superintendent's job description as transformative expectations.

The Coalition for Justice in Education recently submitted the following set of research-based expectations to the Board of Education for radically transforming the district into an exciting, effective organization that students, staff, and parents will be proud of: The superintendent will:

1) Implement plans to require growth and development of all students in 21st-century, higher-order thinking skills that include critical thinking, creative problem-solving, networking, writing, and speaking;

2) Implement plans for transforming the district from a "teach-to-the-test" culture to one that focuses on student needs, personal interests, and the problems of society;

3) Create and implement staff development for helping teachers and administrators become more effective instructional leaders in the following areas:

• Reading programs that emphasize understanding and joy;
• Great teaching through meeting student interests and personal needs;
• Bringing the arts into all classrooms;
• Designing student assessment systems using portfolios, demonstrations, and performances rather than standardized test results;
• Helping students become more accepting of people from different backgrounds;
• Recruitment of school volunteers;
• Helping students make healthy decisions involving relationships, nutrition, careers and voting; and
• Designing and using systems for sharing successes and failures among schools.

4) Actively work with local, state, and federal legislators, organizations, and businesses to combat poverty and its impact on students;

5) Model effective, creative teaching and learning strategies at meetings and presentations;

6) Regularly visit classrooms to gain insight and feedback;

7) Create and implement school-district evaluation systems encouraging feedback from all members of school communities;

8) Create and implement a system for more democratic selection of parents for school-based and district-wide decision-making;

9) Actively lobby with state and federal officials to:

• Radically increase urban school funding;
• Provide incentives for de-concentrating poverty and integrating city and suburban students;
• Obtain waivers from standardized testing requirements and permission to use performance-based assessments.

Can anyone honestly say that finding a superintendent candidate who passionately believes in this list of expectations, and is held accountable for following through, would not give Rochester school district students a better chance to succeed ?

DAN DRMACICH, WEBSTER

Drmacich chairs the Coalition for Justice in Education and is the retired principal of the Rochester school district's School Without Walls.