Ask the MPUSD superintendent

If you missed the latest (the second?) installment of "Ask the Superintendent," the electronic newsletter of the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District, I highly recommend it. You can find it here.

I like the tidbits about the food services department -- the largest restaurant in Monterey. I'd never thought about it that way. Pretty impressive, if you think about it. 

I also enjoyed the superintendent's video message. This is really a good way to give the public a look to what's going on behind the scenes, directly from the horse's mouth as it were. So the auditors are in town, huh? I can't wait to see their report. 

The fuzzy feeling and PK's willingness to become a transparent figure makes me doubt the results of a recent report by the The Brookings Institution. The report concludes that superintendents, while quite visible, appear to make no difference in student achievement. Superintendents stay on the job for a short period of time (we already knew that) but student achievement does not appear to improve the longer they stay on. If you want to take a look at the report, here it is.

Now, what the report does say is that "in the end, it is the system that promotes or hinders student achievement." And it is the system that both PK and Board President Jon Hill have been saying need to be changed.

Let's see how that goes.