Superintendent candidate would decentralize Boston schools

Tommy Chang, who currently oversees 115,000 students in 132 schools in Los Angeles, says moving BPS to the next level would require giving all schools far greater autonomy than most now have.

"All schools deserve levels of autonomy and should be doing innovative things," Chang told members of the School Committee today.

Chang is one of four finalists for superintendent being interviewed this week. The School Committee decides Tuesday whom to pick.

Chang cited Mayor Walsh's goal of launching innovation in every neighborhood and said all BPS schools part of that. Chang said that in his job as local superintendent for the Intensive Support and Innovation Center for the Los Angeles school system, he is proud of setting up a system in which schools select from a menu of educational systems and programs, rather than being forced to try to teach everything alike, and in which central administrators work more to support schools in their goals than just setting directives.

He said he oversees three types of schools: Schools that have consistently underperformed, pilot schools and schools that have "robust partnerships with outside organizations." Each school turnaround plan has to be unique because of each school's unique history and makeup, he said. Rather than coming up with a 200-page document that nobody reads, he said he and his team sit down with a school's teachers and parents and come up with two or three key strategies - with intensive support from central administration to help the school achieve that.

He said that over the past 2 1/2 years, graduation rates in the schools he oversees - part of a larger 600,000-student system - have increased 15%, to 70%, attendance is up and suspensions are down.

Chang said that if you Google teaching methods from the 1800s, 1900s and 2000s, not much has changed except for the technology and the greater use of color. But "it's such a different world" now and kids are getting content from everywhere. "That should be happening in our schools," and part of his job, he said, would be figuring out how to teach teachers in how to work with and deal with that.

In response to a question on how to increase school funding, Chang said one of the first things he would do as superintendent is to look at why Boston currently spends $16,000 per student - twice as much as Los Angeles. "I deeply want to understand why that is."

Chang, who came to the US from Taiwan at age 6, started out as a biology teacher at Compton High School. He recalled taking on the extra job of coaching the girl's softball team, which had never won a game - and which finally did in his third year as coach. And he said he took lessons from that experience that he still follows as an administrator:

"You have to be willing to invest in teams and you have to build team culture," he said. He said all of the members of his staff are given a "challenge coin" which they present to each other outside the office and, instead of sharing a drink as in the military, share complements. And "equal is not equitable" - each team member has his or her own unique needs and goals and needs to be coached differently.

Chang said he would tweak Boston's emphasis on early education to ensure a focus on early literacy. This, he said, would help with the issue of students coming into first grade doing well and then starting to fall behind in the third grade. And he said that while repairing Madison Park's vocational programs, he would also try to layer in some more traditional acadmic classes there - because in today's economy, voke students need certain academic programs as well to succeed.

Committee members asked him why in the world he would want to leave warm Los Angeles for frozen Boston.

"Hanley Ramirez did," he joked.

He said he's gained a national reputation for his work but had not applied for jobs anywhere else. "Boston matters," he said. "Boston is actually unique in the sense in that it really is a hub for culture and innovation that you don't find in some other areas. ... I'm psyched [to be considered]. This is the district I want."

Also see:
Change's Boston application.
School superintendent candidate saddened by what he sees in Boston.
Superintendent candidate knows Boston challenges first hand.
School superintendent candidate says Boston just too good an opportunity to pass up.