Ms Ohanian lists articles published in major newspapers, and lists them under the title "Atrocities"VA Governor Tells Educators Program is "Radical Notion."
Ohanian Comment: Would that be Enron business skills to cook books?

CHARLOTTESVILLE - Gov. Mark R. Warner gave a pep talk yesterday to 10 school leaders being trained at the University of Virginia to use business skills to turn problem schools around.

Warner called the idea a "very, very important experiment."

"We're trying to create a whole new category of educators, a person who can come into a struggling school and turn it around. . . . We're trying to break the mold, to create the turnaround principal," he said.

Warner said: "I came here to let you know how important this is to me. . . . I'll be watching."

The turnaround specialist is widely used in business to identify and correct problems to make a faltering company profitable.

"I do believe aspects from the business world can be used in government and education, too," said Warner, who sat in briefly at a class at the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration with the 10 educators who were learning the principals of business leadership.

Warner, who was an entrepreneur and venture capitalist before becoming governor, said there was a "squishiness" in education that is not found in the business world.

But he said the "hard-nosed discipline" of the business world could be successfully combined with the compassion of educators to raise student achievement.

"My hope is you're going to come out of this program so ready to be that powerful change agent, it will allow us the possibility of increased compensation - because you pay more for people who produce results. . . . We're talking about a radical notion, more than lip service to empower leadership at our troubled schools."

The program is called the Virginia School Turnaround Specialists Program and is being taught through the Darden School and U.Va.'s Curry School of Education.

"We commend the governor for his forward thinking of what is a critical leadership issue - raising student achievement," said Tierney Fairchild, executive director of the Darden/Curry Partnership.

"Our partnership looks forward to getting under way with a model that combines business and education strategies with on-site coaching and a results-oriented credential to reverse the decline in low-performing schools."

The 10 educators, principals of elementary and middle schools, were chosen for the program after showing success at their struggling schools.

The educators also were chosen, as are business turnaround specialists, for their leadership skills and their results-oriented commitment to their schools.

The educators were in their second day of the five-day residential program, where they are studying characteristics of high-performing organizations, analyzing low-performing schools and coming up with a plan to make schools successful.

The educators will also receive on-site coaching during the coming school year, as well as other training. Another group of 10 educators will enter the program next year.

Melvin Rose, who just completed his first year as principal of Chandler Middle School in Richmond, is one of the 10 principals.

"We've been really going at it. It's been a challenge ever since I got out of the car," he said.

"We want to develop an attitude in education that it's about performance," Rose said. "It's up to us to make it work."

Contact Carlos Santos at (434) 295-9542 or csantos@timesdispatch.com

- Carlos Santos
Times Dispatch
2004-06-22
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