Baltimore City School's CEO: One Year On the Job BALTIMORE, MD (wypr) - This month, Baltimore schools chief Andres Alonso marked the end of his first 365 days on the job. He inaugurated reforms that include paying students to increase test scores, signing up 700 volunteers to work in schools, replacing about 45 principals and personally reviewing all student suspensions. WYPR's Melody Simmons filed this report.

Just over a year into his job, city school's C-E-O Andres Alonso sat in his office and ticked off large gains posted by elementary and middle students on the Maryland School Assessment, or M-S-A, exams. On average citywide, reading scores jumped nearly 11-percent and math scores 7.8-percent over last year, the highest scores since the test began in 2003.

Alonso readily conceded the strides started four years ago, while he was still a top administrator in the New York City school system. He described his role in Baltimore.

My goals are long-term. I won't be happy until 90-percent of the kids are at proficient and above. We are far from that number in many of our grades. We are getting there in others.

The image of certain city schools this past spring was rocky: An HBO documentary portrayed chaos at Frederick Douglass High School. YouTube footage of a high school student beating her teacher in the classroom made national headlines. Alonso recalled the fallout.

That's challenging. And it's challenging because whether it happens once, whether it happens ten times whether it happens 100 times, it should never happen and it takes all the discussion in the direction of how do we respond to a crisis, not necessarily in the direction of how do we make the system better.

Only hours after the MSA test scores were released, the Maryland State School Board labeled five Baltimore schools as persistently dangerous, a designation required under the federal No Child Left Behind law. In Maryland, a school is tagged dangerous if two-and-a-half percent of its students are suspended for arson, drugs, physical abuse, sexual abuse or firearms over three consecutive years.

The CEO said he is using teacher input to help improve classroom safety this fall. He cited that as a major part of his learning curve here.

I have learned the city. I have learned the schools. I have been tremendously focused in the midst of - you know, school systems are always pulled in all kinds of directions, I don't think I have swerved. And I think people understand that.

School Board Commissioner Robert Heck said the board is pleased with Alonso's performance thus far. The CEO has weathered the challenges because of strong communication with the board.

He provides us with the kind of hands-on leadership that can give us good data that can only make us better school board members.

Charlotte Jackson, principal of Alexander Hamilton Elementary School in west Baltimore said changes made by Alonso have benefited students and improved the climate at her school.

It's just a new way to do business, and I appreciate that.

The red brick school, located in a neighborhood plagued by drug dealing and gangs, was locked down two days in a row this spring because of shootings outside its doors. Despite those awful distractions, students at Alexander Hamilton buckled down on the books.
Their test scores reflected that. Reading scores for students in grades three through five increased from more than 50 percent last year to more than 70 percent this year. Math scores jumped, too, from 50 percent last year to more than 75 percent this year. Principal Jackson, who told students she would wear her pajamas to school if they raised their scores, said it's all about attitude.

What you do is you continue to imbue positivity all the time. It's sort of like you are making lemons out of lemonade, you're being Little Miss Sunshine.'

Jackson said she has heard from many teachers and parents about the school's strong MSA scores. It has given them a sense of pride for the coming school year, which begins Aug. 25. That is the spirit of optimism Alonso said he hopes to build on, too.

I'm Melody Simmons, reporting from school headquarters at North Avenue, for 88.1, WYPR.
© Copyright 2009, wypr