Not so-super superintendents - The Jokers Who Run Our Schools

Washington Monthly, Sept, 1990 by Susan Ohanian

Not-So-Super Superintendents

The 121st convention of the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) in Orlando, Florida, had it all: appearances by Mickey Mouse and Shamu, racist jokes by one keynote speaker, and imitations of a cerebral palsy victim by another. For the 122nd convention, in San Francisco, the cast of characters changed slightly, but the message remained clear: If you want to get school administrators into the convention hall, you'd better have a sports figure. In 1989, George Steinbrenner, in 1990, Roger Staubach.

For card-carrying AASA members, the convention fee is $280, for nonmembers it's $380. Not that the prices mean much to the attendees--they're on the expense account all the way. To help justify that, the AASA calls the fee tuition.

When I phoned AASA headquarters for help in finding accommodations, a very pleasant person asked me if I wanted an inexpensive, moderate, or quality room. When I replied, "As cheap as possible," she sighed. "That's good. We're running out of the deluxe--$150 and up." When I expressed surprise, she let down her hair and said, "You should hear these guys. They phone up and say, 'I don't want to be stuck in some dump like the Radisson.'" Laughing, she said, "Who do they think they're kidding? Do you think they'd stay in a place as nice as the Radisson if it was coming out of their own pockets?"

For $70 you can get a one-day pass into the AASA exhibition hall, a stunning sight for a first-time visitor. When I walk into a room filled with buses and bleachers, I figure I'm in the wrong place and start to leave. Then I realize the buses are yellow, so I look around some more. I get so caught up in the stainless steel recessed handles for lockers (in 16 designer colors), circuit-training obstacle courses, and toilet paper dispensers promising 50 percent savings on tissue consumption, that it takes me quite a while to realize there are almost no books in the place.

Of the more than 250 exhibitors showing their wares, 53 are selling athletic equipment, bleachers, and gymnasium maintenance products; there are just three companies selling textbooks. Now that's not surprising, since superintendents don't choose school-books--that's usually done by teacher committees--but one look around the exhibition hall makes it clear that basketball salesmen think superintendents care a lot about basketballs.

On the other hand, Cliffs Notes is here. Judging by the "Exhibitor's Directory," AASA must believe Cliffs Notes does it all. The company's products are mentioned under Books, Magazines & Periodicals, Curricular Materials, Reference Books, Teaching Aids & Materials, and Textbooks.

License to sell

The AASA convention is a cheerful place. The 17,000-plus administrators gathered hee seem to be having a whole lot of fun looking at synthetic turf, choral risers, pre-portioned school lunches, cast vinyl multipurpose sport flooring, wrestling-mat holders, and electronic scoreboards.

But does any of this explain why a teacher must obtain a special license to be an administrator? Are there graduate courses in trench drain specifications? Courses in how to choose an intercom system? Lab classes providing training on selecting basketballs, file cabinets, and venetian blinds? Has anybody ever questioned why a school district needs to send its leader to Florida one year and San Francisco the next to look at toilet paper dispensers?

Somebody has to choose this stuff, you say. But should school districts be paying that somebody $80,000 a year--to select basketballs?

An examination of the "Job Bulletin" section of the AASA newspaper, Leadership News, raises certain questions about just what districts expect from their superintendents. The qualifications listed most often in job ads are "administrative experience" and "doctorate preferred." Despite superintendents' pivotal roles, I came across only one ad that asked for "thorough knowledge of curriculum/instruction, current research, and human growth development."

Scanning these listings reminded me of an interview I once had with a district superintendent for a job teaching remedial reading to inner-city seventh graders. The superintendent satisfied himself as to my qualifications by my affirmative reply to his question, "Would you be willing to teach colored kiddos?" Then he got down to important matters: deciding where I should be placed on the salary scale. It didn't faze him that my master's degree was in medieval literature or that I'd never had a course in how to teach reading.

As a longtime teacher, I am struck by how much higher the stakes are at AASA conventions than at the meetings designed for teachers. At the main annual meeting for reading teachers, educational consultant Lee Canter hawks his assertive discipline teacher guides for $7.95. But at the AASA conventiion, Canter's selling his video package, Assertive Discipline for Bus Drivers--for $349. There's also The Caring Administrator Positive Resource Guide, containing samples of such essentials as notices for teacher appreciation day, acknowledgement of a faculty member's marriage, and so forth. Price tag: $49.95.