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Dr. Andres Alonso told The Baltimore Examiner that he "back[s} a plan Gov. Martin O’Malley suggested on the campaign trail that would give bonuses of $200,000 over four years to principals at 200 failing schools statewide." The full article is below.
Study: Principal turnover high in Baltimore City, Baltimore County
Kelsey Volkmann, The Baltimore Examiner (Dec. 14, 2007)
Schools in Baltimore City and Baltimore County suffer from “startling” turnover in principals who are then replaced with inexperienced successors, a new study shows.
More than one half of the schools examined experienced two changes in principals in the last five years, according to a report released Thursday by nonprofit Advocates for Children and Youth.
Only one-sixth of the replacements had previous experience as a principal, let alone a track record of fixing struggling schools, wrote Advocates, which studied the lowest-performing and poorest schools.
“Any organization needs to have a stable and consistent leader if you want to have results,” said Terrylynn Tyrell, the organization’s education director.
“Kids who are already impacted by poverty should have the best principal. If we are going to improve the achievement gap between students and their peers, it’s a good place to start.”
Half of the 10 schools studied in Baltimore City saw three or more principal changes in five years, while Baltimore County schools said goodbye to at least one principal in five of the 10 schools monitored over the same time span.
Baltimore City schools CEO Andres Alonso said principal turnover can be good and bad, because it weeds out lousy leaders but also hurts the system when talented administrators leave.
Advocates for Children and Youth applauded the state education department for reviving and expanding a program that rewards seasoned principals at low-performing schools with an extra $20,000 on top of their salaries for three years.
The nonprofit and Alonso back a plan Gov. Martin O’Malley suggested on the campaign trail that would give bonuses of $200,000 over four years to principals at 200 failing schools statewide.
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