Get out of Your Office

Leticia Rodriguez Rosario is the superintendent of District 9 in the Bronx.  She has 51 elementary and middle schools for which she is responsible. 8 of them are Renewal Schools, meaning the students are performing measurably worse than their peers elsewhere in the city, and the state is threatening to take them over and have someone else manage them (what’s the chance of that succeeding?).

Rodriguez-Rosario has done a couple of things really early on that have been very impressive. 

• First, she has met more than once with a parent advocacy group and has sought to ally with them in their desire to improve the schools their kids attend, rather than see them as the enemy. 
• Second, she moved her office out of  a separate building and into one of her elementary schools, so she could be near the action. It’s a symbolic move that sends a powerful message. 
• Third, she has spent a bunch of time visiting schools and walking them with principals. She acts there as a coach, prodding the principals about what they see, how they can improve the schools and following the plan they have just developed for improvement.

To me, her job sounds overwhelming.  I love what she seems to be doing, and look forward to reading more about how well it works.

Here’s the link to the Chalkbeat article.  

Jared Gellert is the Executive Director of CITE.

CITE is the Center for Integrated Training and Education . For over 25 years, CITE has and continues to train TEACHERS (Early Childhood, Literacy, Special Ed, Grad Courses, DASA); COUNSELORS (School, Mental Health Masters, Advanced Certificate); and ADMINISTRATORS (SBL, SDL, Public Admin, Online PhD) in all five boroughs of NYC, Yonkers, and Long Island.

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