After exploring charter schools and examining the opinions of school board members, we decided to find out the opinions of someone further distanced from HISD, namely, a private school administrator. Former headmaster of St. John’s School, Philip Cannon, provided this viewpoint in our interview on May 14th. He was not afraid to bring to light what others we have interviewed attempted to dodge or only mentioned indirectly.
His first major point was that “education loses efficiency in a direct relationship to scale.” The more students in a school or district, and the more diverse the group, the more difficult it is to efficiently teach. The “greater the homogeneity, the easier it is, in some ways” to run the school, because the mission and curriculum are easier to define, but that is not to say that this is the best way to teach. Mr. Cannon points out that “the more diverse the make-up, the richer the learning experience,” even though this “heterogeneity” may make operating the school more difficult.
Mr. Cannon also pointed out that “there are teachers in HISD that are a disgrace, that slow kids down, but there are also people that are inspiring.” HISD doesn’t do a good enough job removing those teachers that are underperforming and supporting those incredible teachers that they encounter. Mr. Cannon hired many teachers from the Houston and Alief school districts, arguably taking good teachers from these schools, but he does “not have any whit of guilt; everybody’s got to fend for themselves.” If HISD adequately supported these amazing teachers, they would have the necessary blocks to build incredible schools, but because they don’t adequately acknowledge excellence, they end up with a majority of bad teachers who actually slow kids down.
The administrative structure of a school “is almost like a fingerprint.” Some schools, like KIPP, incorporate every teacher into the administration and have a very “flat management” with everyone pitching in to run the school. According to Mr. Cannon, however, a lot of teachers hate the long meetings that accompany administrative duties, “so a lot depends on what the school’s make-up is.” KIPP believes that decentralized schools are more effective, giving teachers more independence, but this also means that teachers must devote more time to their jobs and could potentially infringe upon their teaching preparation.
“How do you make schools more efficient?” Well, the only way to significantly reduce the cost of education is to “pay teachers less or have larger classes” since 80% of the budget for most schools is devoted to salaries and benefits. While these undesirable actions would make schools more “efficient,” there would also be an accompanying reduction in the quality of the education received. Thus, making schools more “efficient” would probably also reduce educational quality and is not really a viable answer to current budget issues.
Mr. Cannon explicitly states that the most important traits that public schools should take from schools like St. John’s would be “a clear mission and a culture of excellence.” The clearer the mission, the more successful the school. KIPP is so successful because it focuses everything into college preparation and academic excellence. If every school, and society as a whole, accepted this “culture of excellence,” motivation and innovation would take hold in the education system.
According to Mr. Cannon, innovation in education has almost been non-existent for the last one hundred years. Classrooms have changed very little: except for air conditioning and better calculators, the basic concept remains the same. While education stagnates, students are constantly changing, and what used to work years ago is proving to be less than effective today. Without innovation, the system is doomed to mediocrity. The only way for the system to improve is to constantly re-evaluate and advance as new ideas and technologies become available. The most important aspect of improvement is not only to never be satisfied and stagnant, but also to never complain about something without taking action. If every issue were dealt with as it arose, with no consideration to politics and difficulties, the system would improve tremendously and quickly.
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