Dr. Kelvin Adams Visits Classrooms

"Classroom visits stir action by new schools chief"

"St. Louis — He arrives unannounced, checks in with the principal and then slips into a random classroom to keenly observe the way children are being taught in the St. Louis Public Schools.

Kelvin Adams hopes the time he has allotted to evaluating teacher performance isn't construed as an example of a new district superintendent playing gotcha.

"I'm not trying to show anyone up," said Adams. "I just want to see what the kids see everyday.

"Adams gives mixed reviews to what he has seen in the 25 schools he has visited through two months on the job.

He rates teachers highly for structuring classrooms to promote orderly learning.

In Adams' estimation, the disconnect in the classes he has observed occurs in the actual process of conveying lessons to students.

"We can do a lot better," he said.

When classes resume in January, Adams will push teachers in that direction by assigning administrative staff from the district's downtown headquarters to act as scholastic monitors in every elementary and middle school in the district.

The monitoring program is one of several initiatives, some still in the discussion stage, advocated by Adams as he quietly puts his imprint on the 26,000 students in the city's school system.

Working closely with building principals, the monitors will use test-based data to help pinpoint the deficiencies and strengths of individual students.

Benchmark tests that measure student progress, along with past scores on the Missouri Assessment Program standardized tests, will provide principals and monitors with data that generally have been available but underused in the city.

The idea, based on education research, is designed to move the data from district administrative offices to classroom teachers.

"It's just not enough for it be on a computer," Adams said.

Aggressive, data-based intervention with low-performing students, Adams believes, is essential to the district reclaiming the state accreditation it lost 18 months ago.

"We have a lot of challenges to do things differently," said Adams. "And one of those is how to deliver instruction to students more effectively.

" Teachers will learn more about how to use the data through mandatory training sessions, he said.

Adams is a reform-minded administrator whom the Special Administrative Board brought in from New Orleans. He said the initiative in the elementary grades is the first step in the long process of reversing years of subpar performance in St. Louis.

At a meeting Monday, Adams asked that the board make a decision on several other items on his reform agenda after the first of the year.

The proposals include coordinating after-school programs with the district's academic objectives and setting aside available space in two schools with low enrollment to educate third- through fifth-graders who are discipline problems at their current schools.

Adams said in an interview last week that he plans to spend part of the winter break consulting with high school principals.

Responding to the district's 22 percent dropout rate last year, Adams hopes to turn much of the focus next school year to the social and academic support necessary to move ninth-graders into the 10th grade.

Studies show that student success in the ninth grade is the linchpin for graduation.

"I'm not sure what it will look like, but the devil is in the details," Adams said of the changes in store for first-year high school students.

He promised: "There will be a plan to address it." Courtesy of Steve Giegerich, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 12/23/2008.

Our Perspective: We applaud and support the superintendent's visits to classrooms. It shows all stakeholders, including principals and teachers, that he is a "hands-on" person. He takes time from amidst his busy schedule to visit where teaching and learning takes place-the classroom. Dr. Adams has hit the ground running. That is why this blog has been sharing his leadership qualities for the stakeholders to know him upfront. Please stay tuned for more.

Parents and Citizens of St. Louis City who Support the Superintendent, Teachers and Students of St. Louis Public Schools. Our slogan is "Support Destination Accreditation." Please pass this blog to others.