When Education Is But a Test Score

• Ed Week

I've come to think that a school superintendent's main mission today is to protect teachers and kids from the ideological madness around us. If I can keep education reform from "helping" them, I'll have achieved something.

In June, I'll complete my 41st year as a school or district head. For the last 16, I've been the superintendent in Scarsdale, N.Y., just north of New York City.

Scarsdale's schools have always marched a bit to their own drummer. Some would say that's a result of elitism: Median income here is somewhere in the nation's top 100, depending on which source you use. Over 80 percent of residents hold a bachelor's degree. Students are among the country's top performers.

But reality is more complicated than the stereotype. People are people, and Scarsdale residents display an encouraging range of views on almost every subject you can imagine. One thing they do agree on is the importance of education. The school district was a model of progressive practice in the early 1900s, and it's always cut somewhat against the grain.

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