By Kathy Amoroso
June 28, 2010

"I want to start by thanking U.S. Conference of Mayors President Elizabeth Kautz along with CEO and Executive Director Tom Cochran for establishing the Mayors Task Force on Public Schools," said Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, Chair of the Task Force, in opening the Mayors- Special Education Forum in Oklahoma City on June 12.

"The purpose of the Task Force is to empower mayors to be effective leaders in public schools. This purpose can be broken down into three primary objectives: 1) Empower all mayors to become leaders in public schools; 2) Define the leadership pathways for mayors; and 3) Share best practices for leadership in each pathway.

The Forum's sponsor and featured speaker, NFocus Software President Ananda Roberts, was introduced as a valuable resource for mayors to tap into as they develop their leadership roles. As the primary outcome of the Education Forum and the Task Force, Johnson wants to ensure that all mayors see public school leadership as a key part of their role.

"Mayors cannot afford to sit on the sidelines when it comes to public schools," he said. "You are all here today because you are already convinced that this is true, but many mayors still see no role for themselves as leaders for public schools."

Depending on each city's governance structure and each mayor's personal priorities, mayoral involvement in public schools ranges along a spectrum. The spectrum covers three general pathways for leadership. In the first pathway, mayors align city services with schools—in particular, they explore joint use/facility agreements, public safety partnerships and out of school activities. In the second, mayors act as advocates for schools and develop private/public partnerships to improve student outcomes. In the third pathway, mayors go to the highest level of involvement and take full control of public schools.

The Education Forum examined each level of involvement on a mayoral panel including Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, Providence Mayor David Cicilline, and Charlotte (NC) Mayor Anthony Foxx.

"Education is key to a city's future," said Daley in outlining the full mayoral control model. "Those who are not educated are left behind. And you have to have charter schools — otherwise you have a monopoly. You also have to work with the unions, and parents have to organize."

"Mayoral control leads to accountability," he continued. "Residents know who to look to for results."

"Mayors have unique partnerships," said Cicilline in outlining the second mayoral pathway to school leadership. "After'school programs are key. Kids need experiential learning opportunities and they also need fun that contributes to their health and well-being — art, dance, movement, etc. We created the Providence After'school Alliance and created After-Zones — five of them. We created high quality standards with many partners, and now almost 50 percent of the kids participate at least 3 times a week."

"I have no control over my school system," joked Foxx in closing the panel. "But I can tell you the key elements that I think are important and that I do provide essential leadership on. The first is mentoring. We have 6,000 students who need tutoring and mentoring and I mentor one myself. The second is continuing and expanding support for quality after'school programming. The third is charter schools to create a competitor and make the whole system better. Fourth is pay-for-performance — tying teacher pay to their performance. Fifth is lifting standards; kids are still in an environment where the standards were set in the 1950's and 60's. And finally, get a handle on truancy."

To close the Forum, Roberts outlined ways in which communities are using hard data and newly accessible information to change outcomes for our nation's youth. "One of my challenges is getting people to crave data," she said. "Our tools give you the ability to target individual students who are at-risk, as well as provide a method of accountability, to help strengthen your after'school programs and make an important difference in children's lives," the ability to equip community providers with the tools to target individual students.