By Kathy McTaggart Santa Monica
No one is perfect. No educational leader is perfect. But the present effort to lay so much blame at the feet of Dr. Ilene Straus for the problems at Santa Monica High School is simplistic and just plain wrong. It is painful to see and ultimately not productive.
For the entire 15 years I worked at the district, much of it at or directing a program at Samohi, staff, students and parents have grumbled. It seems to be the nature of schools that elementary learning communities bubble with optimism, middle school communities have developed some skepticism, and high school learning communities are downright cynical and often negative. This is nothing new.
Several things should be taken into consideration when assessing the effectiveness of the current leadership. Much of what Dr. Straus has implemented at the high school, including the house system, she did, in part, because she believed in it but, as with many other changes in the district over the last five years, also because it was what she was directed to do by the superintendent. Now that it is in place, her own staff have not supported her. What is a general to do when so many of her troops mutiny? It seems absurd to blame this woman for the racial tension and divide when this same divide persists and is, perhaps, even widening throughout the nation.
The intense criticism seems to ignore her considerable accomplishments including: ■ Hiring some really outstanding staff, including staff of color, and encouraging them. ■ Raising achievement levels across the board and narrowing the famous achievement gap. No one in their right mind can believe that this gap can be closed overnight or that that the years before high school aren’t critical to doing so. ■ Developing a very effective college/career counseling model and program that has seen significantly increased movement of the vast majority of students to high caliber four-year colleges and other post-secondary education. ■ Implementation of academic and other programs to support struggling students to meet the ever more rigorous graduation requirements coming down from the state and federal governments.
And other accomplishments too many to mention. Dr. Straus has her skills, and they have served Santa Monica High School far better than many seem to realize. And, like you and me, she lacks certain other skills, one of which seems to have been the ability to unify the diverse groups voicing their concerns so passionately.
But the issues facing urban high schools in America are huge, beyond the abilities of any one person to solve — or fail at solving. Somehow, the discussion needs to refocus on the issues and away from the individual. Pushing Dr. Straus out isn’t the fix-all that some believe it would be. I would hope for a kinder, more mutually respectful, deeper and far broader discussion of the problems and what contribution all of us can make toward solving them.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 24, 2006. Read the original PDF.