“What should be of concern to the parents of the district is how the students were able to quickly find this information while the district was completely ignorant…”
I am not a fan of the college education system. I believe that it is a complete and total waste of time for the majority of those in attendance. In fact, while I was a lieutenant, I talked several of my soldiers out of attending college when they left the Army. Why is this? These young people spend four years (or more, depending on who is paying the bill) working toward receiving a document that states they have a very fundamental and rudimentary understanding of their studied field with absolutely no practical application. Unless you plan on going into a white-collar field, you can spend a quarter of the time in a certification program at a fraction of the cost. So, while I may not be a huge supporter of the mainstream four-year accredited system, I am a staunch believer in post-high school education and would love to see a nationwide expansion of vocational/technical schools.
While I may not be a believer in the old mantra of a college degree equating success, I do understand that there are some fields of study that require degrees. A perfect example would be a doctor or lawyer. Obviously, no one would want someone operating on them if they had not spent years studying human anatomy and how all the systems in the body function. Same thing with a lawyer; there is the expectation that they can explain all that legal jargon. Educators would fall into the same category.
Most people look at teachers and think, “I can do that. All they do is stand up and tell kids what to do. Anyone can teach.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Being an educator is in no way a simple job. Aside from the planning and preparation, there is the unwritten requirement of being a counselor, doctor, investigator, parent, mentor, and friend, all while keeping a professional distance. What about principals? Should they fall into the same category? I would say probably even more so. In addition to needing to understand the role of the teacher for evaluation purposes, they need to be able to forecast and plan training, manage budgets, coordinate schedules for limited resources, etc. It is for this reason that most schools require their principals to have graduate degrees and go through a supposed rigorous evaluation process prior to their hiring.
I say “supposed” due to the hiring of Amy Robertson, incoming principal for Pittsburg High School. She was approved and hired by the Pittsburg Community Schools Board of Education after presenting her impressive credentials, including a master’s and doctorate from Corllins University. The problem is that it appears that Corllins University is nothing but a papermill. For those who are unfamiliar with this term, it essentially means that it is a school that allows students to simply pay for their degree based upon evaluated life experience.
What makes this situation truly abhorrent isn’t the fact that she was hired with degrees from a non-accredited college, but the fact that this discovery was made by the very students who were to be in her charge. These journalism students should be proud of their investigative skills, especially as part of a generation that has grown up believing everything they hear or read must be true. The entire process started out when the journalism students decided to do an article welcoming the new principal to the school. Given that Robertson was coming from Dubai, United Arab Emirates and had no ties to the area, doing such a piece made complete sense.
The district, in their background search, stated that Robertson had “gained leadership and management experience at the international equivalence of a building administrator and superintendent.” However, when the students started looking, they quickly discovered some potentially questionable items. Primary among these concerns was an article published by Gulf News. In this article, published September 17, 2012, the school she was the principal for was being shut down. As stated by the article, “KHDA has been working with the school to resolve its problems since the inspections rated it as unsatisfactory, Abdul Rahman Nasser said. ‘There were major health and safety issues, discrepancies in student attendance and illegal hiring of teachers.’”
What should be of concern to the parents of the district is how the students were able to quickly find this information while the district was completely ignorant. I am in no way stating that Robertson is not fully qualified, but shouldn’t such an article demand answers during the interview process? After all, she was not hired to some minor position with minimal responsibility and student interaction; the district was giving her control of an entire school.
Superintendent Destry Brown stated, “Our goal is to find the best person to be our principal that we can find,” and, “I do feel it is my responsibility. As superintendent I feel like I let the teachers and the students down. I publicly admit that.” This is a good start in correcting a clear issue in the hiring process. I would recommend hiring the journalism team to conduct background checks. They seem to have the process down.
Matthew Wadler is a Senior OpsLens Contributor and U.S. Army veteran. Matt served in the Army for 20 years as both enlisted and officer before retiring. His service includes time as Military Police, Field Artillery, Adjutant General, and Recruiting. His deployments include Somalia and two tours to Afghanistan. His formal education includes a master’s degree in HR Management. He is a strong supporter of the constitution and advocate for the military and veteran communities. Follow Matthew on Twitter @MatthewWadler.
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