Abstract
As New Orleans becomes an important reform model, many have been attracted to the simplistic logic of decentralized, market-based educational reforms that assume easily articulated and quantified goals and rational actors. In an effort to reclaim a role for social justice in such an environment, this chapter assumes the position that educational leadership for social justice must prioritize community engagement, indeed community leadership, if it is to be both sustainable and just. Guided by scholarship on the ethic of community (Furman GC, J Educ Admin 42(2):215–235, 2004; Furman GC, Shields C, Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, 2003; Shields CM, Seltzer PA Educ Admin Q 33(4):413–439, 1997), it begins with a history of the Morris Jeff Community School, followed by a series of cantankerous contradictions which highlight points of conflict between community leadership and many features of the currently popular market-based reforms (heroic vs. democratic leadership, competition vs. systemic improvement, state vs. localized goals, and teacher leadership vs. teacher churn). The analysis concludes that urban schools need leaders with expertise rather than expertism and that the development of adult leadership within our urban communities may provide the best hope of reconnecting social justice to the work of educational leaders.
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Notes
- 1.
As this chapter goes to press, the vacant and storm-damaged building was recently sold at auction by the Orleans Parish School Board to CCNO Development for $980,000. It is likely to be converted to multifamily housing.
- 2.
See the Plessy School (http://www.plessyschool.org) and Bricolage Academy (http://bricolageacademy.wordpress.com).
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Appendix A: Job Advertisement for Morris Jeff Community School’s Founding Principal
Appendix A: Job Advertisement for Morris Jeff Community School’s Founding Principal
Founding Principal, Morris Jeff Community School (Elementary)
Position: Founding Principal
School: Morris Jeff Community School (Elementary)
Salary: Competitive salary and benefits package
Background
The Morris Jeff School Steering Committee seeks a founding principal to help build and lead what will become one of the most innovative and successful public elementary schools in the country.
The new Morris Jeff Community School will open as an “autonomous public school,” officially under the Recovery School District, but with full authority over budgeting, hiring of staff and curriculum devolved to the Morris Jeff Community Board and the school leadership team. Morris Jeff Community School will open first as an incubator school with 60–80 early elementary students (pre-K through 1st grade), growing over the next few years into a full-scale elementary school.
The school will be in a temporary location in the Mid-City area of New Orleans for 3 years, before moving to a new $19 million, custom-built facility.
The principal will work with a community board with extensive contacts throughout New Orleans to build a top-flight elementary school from the ground up. This will involve engaging with parents’ and community’s vision for the school, recruiting and mentoring top-quality teachers and other staff, budgeting, and working in an ongoing way with board, staff, and community to develop the school’s pedagogic philosophy and curriculum.
The school has the approval to open in the fall of 2009, if a top-rate school leadership team and founding staff are identified in time. Otherwise, the school will open in the fall of 2010.
Experience, Background, and Qualifications
The successful candidate will have expertise and leadership experience in an elementary setting; familiarity with the developmental, behavioral, social, and academic needs of students in the early childhood years; and a concrete record of success. The candidate should have strong organizational skills and be able to create an organizational culture that engages and inspires teachers, parents, students, and community members in a rigorous dedication to teaching and learning. The candidate should be a creative and flexible thinker, with a strong focus on identifying and cultivating teachers of the highest quality. Experience teaching at-risk students in an urban school district is important.
We are looking for a school leader with the vision to push beyond the traditional structure and narrow expectations that too often limit the potential of public education.
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Beabout, B.R. (2014). Community Leadership: Seeking Social Justice While Re-creating Public Schools in Post-Katrina New Orleans. In: Bogotch, I., Shields, C. (eds) International Handbook of Educational Leadership and Social (In)Justice. Springer International Handbooks of Education, vol 29. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6555-9_30
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