Lessons from Long Beach

BY MICHAEL DOUGLAS
Beacon Journal associate editor

Carl Cohn sat at one end of the cafeteria in Central-Hower High School, microphone in hand, before an audience of interested parents, educators and students, brought together by the Summit Education Initiative, all eager, on Thursday evening, to catch a glimpse of how he has done it. Done what? Nothing less than bring striking progress to a large urban school district.

For the past nine years (an eternity in education), Cohn has been the superintendent of the Long Beach, Calif., Unified School District. A miracle worker? That suggestion doesn't seem entirely far-fetched once you fill out the picture at Central-Hower. Cohn was flanked by a panel of Akron stakeholders in school reform, those whose lives and livelihoods will turn, in ways large and small, on whatever course is taken.

Mayor Don Plusquellic, Linda Kersker, the president of the Akron school board, Dan Colantone, the president of the Akron Regional Development Board, Cynthia Blake, a parent, Bill Siegferth, the president of the Akron Education Association, and the Rev. Ronald Fowler, pastor of the Arlington Church of God and a former school board member. Their presence highlighted the complexity of improving schools. It seems so simple. Use common sense is the universal advice. Then, you try to get teachers, administrators, city leaders, business leaders, church leaders, parents and students all on the same page.

That is what Cohn has done. No wonder he travels the country, visiting schools, greeted with the deepest respect, followed as if by doing so you might find a magic coin or two that had slipped from his pocket.

Cohn doesn't lose perspective. He explained that if test scores have risen sharply, and attendance improved, and dropout rates declined, Long Beach hasn't overcome all of its difficulties. Severe problems remain in the district of 94,000 students, large parts Hispanic, black, white and Asian. What success has been achieved, and it is real and substantial, has been the result of hard work, school by school, classroom by classroom, student by student, stakeholder by stakeholder.

Almost everyone nods at the need for various groups to work together. We do it frequently in Akron. Cohn has turned the salutes into action. Long Beach touts what it calls a "seamless education," from kindergarten through college, academic standards and curriculum aligned, accountability measures in place. That seamlessness can be found in the community, too, contributing to what Cohn calls "the larger components of reform."

The school board must be unanimous in its commitment to improving the schools. Duh? Well, the reality often departs from the platitude. The practical benefit of consensus? Cohn stressed that school officials can more easily focus on the first priority, the classroom. They aren't scurrying from one meeting to another, handling a succession of messes, messes, he stressed, that are invariably adult-made.

Collaboration must include teachers and their union leadership. The mayor and other city leaders must be brought on board. And they aren't ordered to do so, or persuaded by school officials and their talk about kids. Trust fuels relationships. Cohn recalled his skepticism when the head of the teachers union proposed that they visit schools together. He took the plunge, listened and actually acted on union suggestions.

Another convert to the cause was won. Count the mayor among the nabbed. The mayor complained about the lack of community access to schools. (Sound familiar?) Cohn addressed the concern. He noted that it wasn't just a coincidence that, in 1999, 71 percent of voters approved a $295 million bond issue to repair and construct school buildings.

Count the business community, too. Cohn presses the dialogue. It matters that 180 business leaders spend time in the schools, participating in the ``principal for a day'' program.

Local universities are the final piece. Cohn admitted the battles over turf continue, but the main hurdle was long ago cleared. The curriculum of the teaching schools has been matched more closely to the job in the classroom. The conversation between superintendent and university president is constant. (How often do local university presidents talk with Brian Williams, the superintendent of the Akron schools?) The result is reinforcing support with an eye fixed on improving the performance of students.

At one point, 1,500 budding teachers from nearby universities poured into the Long Beach schools to bolster the efforts of those on the front lines.

Yes, "victory is in the classroom," the words of John Stanford, the late superintendent of the Seattle schools, repeated approvingly by Cohn. And success arrives along two tracks, essentially, investing in high-quality professional development, in teachers and principals, and directing students to spend more time on core subjects. 

Long Beach has tried many vehicles to get there. It requires all students from kindergarten to eighth grade to wear uniforms. It demands that any third-grader reading below grade level attend summer school. Eighth-graders who receive more than one F must attend a preparatory school for a year before entering high school.

The school day has been extended. Financial incentives draw the better teachers to difficult assignments. Coaches aid young teachers. Alternative schools separate those who regularly misbehave from those eager to learn. (Roughly 700 high school students attend an alternative school.)

Things haven't always turned out as planned. Neither has the district tried whatever it could, willy-nilly, in hope of finding something that works. Cohn insists on accountability. That is part of the collaboration. District officials willing to act decisively and deliver results earn the trust of their partners. Public confidence builds.

Cohn tells a story, about his own education, one of six children, the son of a mother on welfare and a father in prison, who encountered a nun determined to give a young student the tools he needed to succeed. You can even be discouraged listening to him, figuring what a rare bird, something of the exception that proves the rule of struggling urban schools.

Then, you return to the point of his story. You dwell on the principle that he has carried forward from his earliest school days: Every child can learn. Long Beach has achieved what it has because it has been truly determined to give children the tools they need.

Is Akron?

Douglas is the Beacon Journal associate editor. He can be reached at 330-996-3514 or e-mailed at mdouglas@thebeaconjournal.com