Monthly Archives: June 2015

Superintendent Green Reflects Back On Kansas City Schools

Posted on June 8, 2015 by | Comments Off on Superintendent Green Reflects Back On Kansas City Schools

KCUR-FM is the NPR affiliate station in Kansas City and is operated by the University of Missouri-Kansas City.  Steve Kraske is an associate teaching professor of journalism at UMKC and a host on KCUR-FM.

Incoming DeKalb Schools Superintendent Stephen Green spoke with Steve Kraske and reflected on his tenure with Kansas City Public Schools.  This post was extracted from pieces of that interview and subsequent article written by Julia Szabo.  You can read and listen to the complete article and interview here.
Stephen Green became interim superintendent of the Kansas City Public School District in September 2011, then superintendent in April 2012. Green has led the district through the loss of accreditation and the threat of a state takeover. He has brought stability back to the district with his focus on curriculum, instruction and student achievement.
On the loss of accreditation in 2012
It was very dark, I mean, it was very disheartening in some regards but also, like a lot of athletes you use that as a trigger for fight and for inspiration and for — you use it to mobilize your troops as a general would and he you have a common target you need to reach and you have a hill or a mountain that you gotta climb and you go for it.
On what he did to rebuild after the accreditation loss
I mean, I knew from within, looking from the district from inside out what the potential was. It’s just like you see in individuals. A coach sees it in a kid, a teacher sees it in a child, I saw it as the leader of the Kansas City Public Schools — this district has great potential. It’s just not realized that potential and it’s up to me as a leader to bring that forth.
It meant having hard conversations inside about how we’re going to do things, sometimes it meant me being very prescriptive about the way we’re going to approach things, sometimes it meant having hard discussions about what’s the best strategy here.
On his focus on curriculum and student achievement
We began to assess and reallocate resources to the classroom. We focused on students first. We made the sacrifices, we took from some areas that we didn’t think were necessarily directly focused directly on what needed to happen in the classroom. We redid the curriculum. First thing we did, I think it was the Spring of 2012, we brought in a team of 20-25 folks from the state department to do a curricular audit, very much like you do your finances. How much are we aligned to the state standards? Where are there gaps in articulation between one class and the next class? Etcetera, and we just redid the curriculum.
And so it’s about accountability, it’s about a structure that you implement with fidelity, and you stay with it and we’ve been refining it for the last three years and every year we’ve gotten not just a little better but a lot better. It still needs some work it’s still not a perfect structure. But it’s a structure that is sound and solid, that it can be built upon and enhanced.
>> Read The Full Story Here

Comments Off on Superintendent Green Reflects Back On Kansas City Schools

Posted in Stephen Green

Superintendent Stephen Green – Resume

Posted on June 4, 2015 by | Comments Off on Superintendent Stephen Green – Resume

Better Know DeKalb County Schools
.pdf link icon Superintendent Stephen Green’s Resume
 Employment Contract
Bio

Pioneering, deeply committed mission- and metric-driven educator, reformer, and humanitarian providing bold, visionary leadership grounded in reality while setting heightened expectations and building a reputation for providing motivational leadership to educational corporations, nonprofit organizations, and public education institutions, and achieving academic excellence at the college and high school levels for over 25 years.

Professional Experience
KANSAS CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS, (KCPS) Kansas City, MO
CEO and Superintendent                    2011 – Present
I was named the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Superintendent of the Kansas City Public Schools by a unanimous vote of its Board of Directors in April 2012, after serving as interim superintendent since August 2011. Under my leadership, KCPS made unprecedented gains in its 2013 MAP scores and achievement data. After doubling its scoring in the state’s accreditation rating system in just 12 months. I have lead the process of stabilizing district in the midst of tumultuous change and have helped maintain focus on its principles and priorities. As a result, KCPS has qualitied for provisional accreditation based on a vision that includes innovative classroom instruction, engaging programs, highly qualified employees, and an involved and well-informed community.
Key Metrics:

  1. Three consecutive years of perfect financial audits
  2. In 2013, 56.5 point gain in the State’s Annual Performance Report (APR), from 27.5 to 84 points, from
    19.6% to 60%, eligible for provisional accreditation, (70 points or 50%)
  3. In 2014, increased in the State’s and additional 8.5 points. In response, Missouri’s Board of Education
    recognized the gains made by the school district by granting KCPS provisional accreditation. Attendance
    also increased by 7.5%.

KAUFFMAN SCHOLARS, INC. (KSI), Kansas City, MO
President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO)                    2005 – 2011
•  Successfully actualized the legacy and vision ofthe founder to foster the pursuit and achievement of higher education for young people of Kansas City
•  Presided over long-term strategy and operations to fulfill mission of increasing college enrollment and graduation rates for urban and low-income students
•  Established reputation for building institution as a nationally recognized and emulated model for achieving the mission for at-risk populations, delivering on commitment to attain top level performance and test results, and 100% compliance with regulatory bodies
•  Assumed command in second year after program stumbled out of the gate after the first class of 198 in 2003, stabilized, redesigned and re-Iaunched the program, positioning among the top college access programs in the US, mapping out a 5-Year Operational Plan and presenting to the Kauffman Foundation Board of Trustees
•  Made significant inroads in a number of standard benchmarks for educational success, easily besting national averages showing 50% offirst-generation, low-income students dropping out after first year of college and 25% in second year, while 125 of KSl’s first class of 131 gained college entry (95%) and 122 (93%)
will complete their second year of college this spring.
•  Achieved desired recognition and classification from the IRS”as a school and attracted a caliber of people who have made it the success that it is
•  Developed targeted, forward-looking educational program strategies to meet a broad variety of goals impacting diverse populations
•  Noted industry spokesperson with extensive history of delivering presentations, authoring articles for publication, offering quotes and being profiled in industry, print and broadcast media
•  Authored whitepapers, articles, and marketing materials for dissemination or publication within the education industry ”
•  Cultivated and leveraged an extensive nationwide network of educational contacts of alliances and partners, as well as regional college & university partnerships
NEW YORK CITY BOARD OF EDUCATION, New York City, NY
Superintendent, Community School District 28                  2003 – 2005
Local Instructional Superintendent, Region 3
•  Led the largest urban school district in the US during the historic, revolutionary School Reform plan spearheaded by Mayor Bloomberg, and attracted national attention for achieving significant gains in reading and math scores, signaling the plan’s success
•  In a combustible environment stained by gang and drug-related violence, worked famously with a school board divided among professionals and the working poor, facilitating understanding of one another’s unique perspectives, backgrounds and needs
•  Identified and championed educational and operational best practices for district-wide adoption and led the regional rollout of instructional best practices
•  Appointed school principals and served as rating officer, reviewing and approving decisions on teacher tenure and school budgets
•  Served as the face of the district, i.e. spokesperson for all media and parent associations and liaison to the Community Education Councils (CECs)
THE COllEGE BOARD, New York City, NY                     1995 – 2003
National Executive Director – College Ed Program
National Executive Director – School-level Services
National Director – Pacesetter Program
Associate Director – Pacesetter Planning and Development
Director of New York Outreach
•  Earned fast-track promotions through four positions within seven years based on significant improvements in performance in each assigned area
•  Key participant in the authorship and launch of Pacesetter™ program, later named Spring Board™, which helped teachers improve effectiveness in the classroom with a wide assortment of learning types, a program trademarked by The College Board
•  Led the Nationwide 10-Year Equity 2000 Project to its successful conclusion, demonstrating that low-level track classes set expectations too low which suppressed student motivation, and that with ongoing support urban students can and do rise to heightened expectations in all subjects
•  Enhanced The College Board’s Upward Bound Program based in Washington, DC involving a three-way partnership ofThe College Board, the DC Public Schools, and American University
•  Designed, developed, and launched The College Board’s CollegeEd™ Program modeled after driver’s education but focused on helping student “steer” their way to college.
METROPOLITAN SCHOOL DISTRICT OF LAWRENCE TOWNSHIP, Indianapolis, IN
Assistant Superintendent, 1991-1995
Assistant Principal, lawrence North High School, 1989-1991
Assistant Principal, Belzer Middle School, 1987-1989

Teaching
INDIANA UNIVERSITY ADVANCED COLLEGE PROJECT (ACP)
Adjunct Professor of College Composition          1985 – 1987
METROPOLITAN SCHOOL DISTRICT OF PIKE TOWNSHIP and WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, Indianapolis, IN
English Instructor, Pike High School I ~nglish Instructor, North Central High School                   1981 – 1988
BUTLER UNIVERSITY
Adjunct Professor of African-American Literature and Director of Minority Student Affairs                             1981 – 1988
INDIANA UNIVERSITY 
Danforth Fellow and Associate Instructor of English and African-American Literature                             1978 – 1983
BALL STATE UNIVERSITY
Associate Instructor of English                  1976 – 1978
MUNCIE COMMUNITY SCHOOLS, Muncie, IN 
Instructor of English and Physical Education, Muncie Central High School
1976 – 1978

Education
INDIANA UNIVERSITY
Doctor of Education (D.Ed.) 1995
Dual Majors: Curriculum & Instruction, Education Administration
INDIANA UNIVERSITY
Specialist in Education Degree 1995
Dual Majors: Curriculum & Instruction, Education Administration: Superintendent’s License
BUTLER UNIVERSITY
Master of Arts in Education (MA) 1988
Education Administration
INDIANA UNIVERSITY
Danforth Fellowship Sabbatical 1978-1981
BALL STATE UNIVERSITY
Master of Arts (MA) 1978
Major: English Literature. Masters Thesis: The Anatomy of the Conceit in John Donne’s Songs and Sonnets
BALL STATE UNIVERSITY
Bachelor of Science (BS) 1976
Major: English Literature and Composition. Minor: Physical Education

Comments Off on Superintendent Stephen Green – Resume

Posted in Better Know DeKalb County Schools, Stephen Green, Superintendent Search