Feb. 26, 1997. The Superintendent Contradiction By Larry Cuban Facing the myths and dilemmas surrounding school chiefs' role in reform. The contradiction in expecting urban superintendents who serve, on average, around three years to totally reform a school system has seldom been confronted openly. It is about time to do so.
Persistent conflicts create enduring dilemmas.
Without a practical understanding of these dilemmas and myths, expecting superintendents to reform schools will be little more than expecting sand castles to last beyond the incoming tide. A concrete example of these genetically encoded dilemmas might help. Her school board has been pressed by activist parents to raise high school scores in reading and math that have fallen from the 70th percentile range to the mid-20s. She does not believe that these standardized achievement-test scores reflect the hard work and creativity that students have demonstrated in drama, music, varsity athletics, and securing jobs in local businesses through the district's vocational education program. Nor do the scores capture the increasing numbers of minority students entering community colleges and earning scholarships to nearby universities.