In which I somewhat praise Mark North

Disclosure: My wife is a KIPP employee. I was a KIPP employee three years ago. Obviously, we have close connections to the entire school.

A few weeks ago, N and I attended a school board meeting. This was the meeting where Mark North went in to beast mode on KIPP's charter application for a middle school in Whites Creek. He cited poor science and reading scores and convinced the other board members to deny, for now. 7-0 against (two board members went on vacation during charter approval time, apparently).

Some things I know:

• KIPP's scores in some subjects weren't great for the 2010-2011 school year. The information that North cited was correct. I won't discuss the "taken out of context" issue for now, as it's not germane to the point I want to make.

• Many factors caused those scores to not be so great.

• KIPP's overall record over student growth is very good. It isn't excellent and it isn't average. The average student achieves much more in a given year than in attending their zoned school. This was true in 2010-2011, as well as most every other year.

• KIPP's scores for 2011-2012 are vastly improved from 2010-2011, particularly in the problematic subjects. Mark North had access to this information when he spoke against KIPP's charter application.

• Many factors caused the rise in scores. Among others, KIPP brought in many new teachers and several new support staff that dealt with coaching teachers and better processing student data. All teachers finished the school year.

Some things I don't know:

• Mark North's motives

• Mark North's heart

• Mark North's previous interactions with KIPP -- whether he's visited the school, whether he previously aired his concerns vis a vis student achievement with KIPP's leaders/board of directors

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Since I don't know North's motives or heart, I will take what he did at face value.

Most of what he did is what I would like to see from all school board members. Namely, aggressive oversight of public schools, particularly in regards to student achievement. School board members should do more in holding district administrators and principals accountable for student achievement. At least part of this should be a public process. Parents should be able to get the full picture of where their child's school is and what its plan is for improving achievement.

Public schools, district and charter alike, are funded by public dollars and are accountable to the public. Mark North, as an elected representative of the public, has not only the right, but the obligation to diligently oversee all of MNPS' schools on their raison d'etre: student achievement.

Each school, not just ones applying for a new charter, should be held to a high standard. Especially in a district that has record of struggling in student achievement, this should be what every MNPS employee at every school thinks about morning, noon, and night. They should be doing that because the elected board responsible for MNPS should be putting incredible pressure on them to do so.

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Now, there is some question about the timing of this presentation. It strikes me that at the end of the charter approval process is a rather auspicious time to raise a bunch of supposed red flags. If North felt so strongly that KIPP is a terrible school, why didn't he raise these concerns with KIPP when he first had access to the scores, which was at least a year ago?

OK, maybe he was busy then. Perhaps the result of one school -- that, to be fair, wasn't in his district -- was lost in the sea of test scores from eighty-some-odd other schools (many of which had far worse scores). Did he raise these concerns when KIPP initially applied? Throughout the review process? (The process which, it should be noted, resulted in KIPP getting one of the few recommendations for approval.) He is, after all, an elected supervisor of all things Metro Nashville Public Schools. He could've aired his concerns much earlier if he wanted to make sure that KIPP was making the big changes necessary to increase student achievement.

North, to my knowledge, did not do that. Nor did any other school board member. (Please let me know if I'm misinformed on this point.) North gets my attention on this point, as he did chose to bring all of this up at the charter approval hearing.

North's actions are analogous to driving by a burning house, driving by it again, wondering if you should take a walk near the house, reading about the burnt house in the newspaper next day, then calling the owner of the house to inform that his house burned down.

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KIPP did what a school should do when it gets test scores that are the educational equivalent of a house on fire. New teachers were brought in. Processes were re-examined, particularly those that focused on supporting teachers and improving student achievement. The schools faculty and staff (trust me on this) put a lot of pressure on themselves to improve.

And they did. Drastically. It's one of the best turnaround stories in the district -- and probably the state, too.

While these scores weren't available to the general public (they are now), North had access to them as soon as they were available. He chose not to include the most recent data in his presentation. The other board members, including board chair Gracie Porter, in whose district KIPP resides, chose to present no additional information. Instead, they voted with North.

(N.B. KIPP's second-in-command was sitting next to me in the audience that day. All of board members knew he was there because earlier, when discussing a different topic, they had asked if representatives of the different charter organizations were in attendance. Why North, nor any of the board members, chose not to invite Rick to speak is something else to ponder.)

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The meeting demonstrated that a school board member can focus a great deal of attention on student achievement, when motivated to do so.

Therefore, it matters a great deal who is on the board.

It would be useful to have people on the board who use their position to keep student achievement at the forefront of every decision the district makes.

It would be even more useful to have school board members who acted early enough to make a significant impact on student achievement.