Palmer Events Center
Forgione Puff Piece
RECEIVED Tue., May 26, 2009
Dear Editor:
In the May 22 Chronicle, Michael King sums up retiring Austin ISD superintendent Pat Forgione in glowing terms [“Point Austin,” News]. "He did the job he was hired to do, and on those standards, he's certainly been an enormous success." Some might feel that the ex-superintendent's major success was facilitating Austin's gentrification initiative with sometimes Machiavellian genius: disguising warehousing institutions as frontline schools in the battle against minority failure; claiming magnet schools to enhance at-risk students’ motivation when they often appear to have done just the opposite; applying zero-tolerance policy differently according to a school’s demographic. Mr. King might want to interview the Reverend Sterling Lands, head of the Eastside Social Action Coalition, and Susana Almanza, director of PODER, for their views of Forgione's tenure.
A few years ago, an AISD official asked me to witness a new initiative for helping at-risk students. Before observing the special program, I asked to roam the hallways of the high school offering it. Less than a third of the students were on task. The rest played cards, listened to radios, talked. Those on task did fill-in-the-blank worksheets or other unchallenging seat-work. Teacher-student interaction was minimal. I observed no group work, lab work, or lectures. A month earlier I had observed classes at an AISD school serving an opposite demographic. Group work, lab work, and lectures were the norm. Tasks were challenging and off-task behavior discouraged. To bring these two schools to the same level might be difficult, but presenting the former as a success based on a special program serving two students and shortchanging hundreds hardly contributes to that end. And this suggests only the tip of the iceberg that deserves far better treatment than King's puff piece.
In the May 22 Chronicle, Michael King sums up retiring Austin ISD superintendent Pat Forgione in glowing terms [“Point Austin,” News]. "He did the job he was hired to do, and on those standards, he's certainly been an enormous success." Some might feel that the ex-superintendent's major success was facilitating Austin's gentrification initiative with sometimes Machiavellian genius: disguising warehousing institutions as frontline schools in the battle against minority failure; claiming magnet schools to enhance at-risk students’ motivation when they often appear to have done just the opposite; applying zero-tolerance policy differently according to a school’s demographic. Mr. King might want to interview the Reverend Sterling Lands, head of the Eastside Social Action Coalition, and Susana Almanza, director of PODER, for their views of Forgione's tenure.
A few years ago, an AISD official asked me to witness a new initiative for helping at-risk students. Before observing the special program, I asked to roam the hallways of the high school offering it. Less than a third of the students were on task. The rest played cards, listened to radios, talked. Those on task did fill-in-the-blank worksheets or other unchallenging seat-work. Teacher-student interaction was minimal. I observed no group work, lab work, or lectures. A month earlier I had observed classes at an AISD school serving an opposite demographic. Group work, lab work, and lectures were the norm. Tasks were challenging and off-task behavior discouraged. To bring these two schools to the same level might be difficult, but presenting the former as a success based on a special program serving two students and shortchanging hundreds hardly contributes to that end. And this suggests only the tip of the iceberg that deserves far better treatment than King's puff piece.
David Weiner
Professor of sociology
Professor of sociology