The Contrast

Today was the last official day of registration for 2011-2012 Jefferson High students. Since today was designated for Seniors and Juniors I thought it would be a great time to come out and ask parents and students if they have seen a difference since the new administration has been established halfway through the previous school year.

I began by meeting Ms. Whited (Jefferson VP) at the front door as I walked in. She was greeting the parents, assisting with handing out forms and directing them through the process. I asked her how everything was going and she said that it is going much better than other years she has been involved in the process. “Last year there it wasn’t nearly as organized. Parents and students didn’t know where to go and we had a line going out the door into the heat.” She then handed me a simple but explanatory checklist that each student/parent was handed as they came in the door. They were then directed to follow the checkpoints (separate tables for each step on the checklist) going down the main hallway. The checkpoints covered everything from Immunizations to Schedules/Transfers to Lunch Applications to ID cards. There seemed to be no confused faces as I walked past each table. I witnessed no frustration on the faces of students or parents, and best of all, the staff were all smiles, as usual.

As I walked into the cafeteria, which held various organizations tables (i.e. Yearbook committee, Textbook returns, school t-shirts) I saw the PTSA table. I decided to go over and ask them their opinion of the operations at Jefferson High School and how things have changed in the past year. I sat with Jefferson PTSA officers Jose and Sylvia Villanueva and began to ask them questions regarding membership numbers, participation, support from admin as well as their board trustee. They informed me that the previous year they had over 125 paying PTSA members at Jefferson High. I asked them what the key is to developing an active and effective PTSA and their response was something that I had known all along. The PTSA’s teacher’s participation lies with the school administration and the PTSA’s community participation lies with the board trustee. They then began to praise the efforts and support of Principal Cockrell as well as Board Trustee Ed Garza and informed me that without them, the PTSA wouldn’t be nearly as productive. The PTSA at Jefferson has been very active in the past few years due to the support of Ed Garza, but it has improved even more with the additional leadership and support of Ms. Cockrell. Mr. and Mrs. Villanueva also had many kind words for Dr. Duron, SAISD Superintendent. It is rare to hear kind words for Dr. Duron since he has been villainized by many in recent years for proposed school closures. Mr. and Mrs. Villanueva thoughts on the issue pretty much revolved around the fact that it was the Board Trustees' responsibility to oversee the Superintendent and make whatever changes were needed. Fortunately Jefferson High has a stellar Board Trustee that fights for the best in his schools and as a result, Dr. Duron is able to well execute his duties over the Jefferson area schools. But I digress; the effectiveness of the school according to Mr. and Mrs. Villanueva has plenty to do with the community and parental participation, both of which are largely affected by the effectiveness of the PTSA.

After signing up and becoming a paying member of the Jefferson PTSA I walked outside to finally speak to parents and students as they left the building. I stopped several individuals and asked them how the registration process went. Without hesitation they responded with comparisons to previous years and informed me that this year was a drastic improvement from the chaos of registration periods in the past. I also asked the students if they noticed any change within the past year and they all responded with positive feedback. Much of their feedback revolved around the increased behavior of the students at Jefferson. Less fights, less distractions and less stress.

I was at the school for nearly three hours and out of all the individuals I questioned, not once did I get a negative response. Toward the end of my visit I was walking with Ms. Cockrell and I asked her, “Why don’t more people hate you? With this kind of effective leadership, there’s an expectation that students, parents and staff must get chills when you come around.” She simply responded with a smile and a wink as she put her hand on the shoulder of a staff member and said, “How’s everything going honey?”

The Hype

For the past couple of years I've researched education practices in San Antonio and searched for the exceptions to the rule of mediocrity that has lingered in most of our inner-city schools for decades. I looked for examples of leadership that could advance entire schools, not just individual classrooms or special magnet divisions. Leadership that could demonstrate change and improvement not only in a long-term process, but one that immediately took place and was visible to everyone involved and even many who were not.

For quite a while I was unable to find any existence of this kind of leadership (outside of charter schools such as KIPP SA). That was until I ran across a 2001 Time magazine article written by Andrew Goldstein about San Antonio's Fox Tech High School (my father's alma mater). The article was titled "High Schools Of The Year: From Worst To First" and it featured a story about a school that went from being the lowest ranked high school in the state of Texas to a National Blue Ribbon school in the span of four years. (click for article) That was when I first saw the name Joanne Cockrell. I immediately searched for more information on this extraordinary administrator, expecting the previous article to be a bunch of hype. I then came across a 2001 article written by Rogelio López del Bosque, Ph.D. on the Intercultural Development Research Association website. (click for article) The article was seven pages and outlined the massive amount of changes made by Principal Cockrell and the affect experienced by fellow, administrators, staff, students and community members. After reading the article I knew it could be done. The change I was so eagerly looking for could be done and done without the much feared request of increased funding. The hype was grasping tighter.

Less than a year after reading about Joanne Cockrell, I spoke with Mr. Ed Garza, the first-term SAISD Board Trustee for Jefferson High and it's feeder schools. He had heard me reference before that I was infatuated with this legendary administrator whom I had read about in what had to be the fiction section of Time magazine. During our meeting he informed me that Joanne Cockrell was going to be his new Principal at Jefferson High School in the 2010 school year. The hype was spreading.

February 2010, local news station KENS publishes a report entitled, "Mustang miracle resuscitates struggling Jefferson High". (click for article) The writer of the article spoke about Joanne Cockrell as if Jordan was coming out of retirement, "Ms. Cockrell was retired.  She began teaching in 1965 for SAISD. Could she be lured back? Could she turn around Jefferson? The answer is yes, on both questions." The article mentioned that Jefferson had a graduation rate of 67% in 2009, but was "poised to graduate almost all its students for 2010". The hype was becoming unavoidable.

Upon returning from a six-month stay in sunny Iraq earlier this year, I decided to find a new route to engage the education system in my hometown. For the past couple of years I had been on a mission to force change from the outside at Sam Houston High School (my alma mater). I tried to pressure the decision-makers into doing what is right for the students and the community. I spoke at board meetings, PTA meetings, Principal's Coffee meetings, local community meetings, District 2 town hall meetings and I even presented an enormous amount of data during the recent school board election at several candidate's forums. I blogged, e-mailed, called and Facebooked. I mentored and tutored at Sam Houston High School weekly throughout the 2009-2010 school year, and while I met many extraordinary individuals, I still hadn't made a dent in the defunct system.

I then reached out to Mr. Garza and asked him if he thought Principal Cockrell would allow me to shadow her throughout the 2011-2012 school year. He had no doubts that she would and sure enough, she happily agreed. I had met Joanne Cockrell only a few times before, but the hype of the past couple years had overtaken me so much to where I felt like groupie. Yes, I had become a school administrator groupie.

I was finally able to sit down with Principal Cockrell today to explain, in person, what it is that I wanted to accomplish with this project. I truly expected to be disappointed by a lackadaisical attitude and an arrogant demeanor, because it is what I had been presented by other administrators at other schools. Instead I was met with a huge smile and a sincere "Hey gorgeous! How are you Brian? Have a seat!". Those three seconds explained to me why this woman had such an unbelievable effect on anyone that she worked with. It's the type of spirit that causes you to want to stay in the office a little bit longer just because you feel one hundred times better about what you are doing. It's the type of attitude that could compel you to follow an individual onto a battlefield (educational or other). Yes, I just hyped up three seconds with an individual to what you would consider an entire speech by General Patton himself. But just as Patton's record holds true, so does Cockrell's.

Our meeting lasted only about 15 minutes, but I felt like I could take on the world when I walked out of her office. She was more than delighted to hear that I would be following her around once a week for an entire year. She even began to breakdown her structure and agenda for the upcoming school year. This was definitely that example of leadership that I had been looking for for years. The hype is real.

The Mission

Education - the knowledge and development resulting from an educational process.

Advocate - one that defends or maintains a cause or proposal.

The purpose of this blog is to defend and maintain an educational process which allows our students to obtain a superior quality of knowledge and development, regardless of where that student resides.

In the past I have observed, critiqued and attempted to provide solutions to a broken education system. I have confronted administrations, staff, students, community members, local government officials and local school board officials. I attempted change from the outside; from a community member's vantage point. Unfortunately, that vantage point is not so advantageous. I was rejected and pushed away as a faulty school system remained deficient in the qualities and practices that make an institution of learning a success. As a result, I have chosen to temporarily move away from the point of the 'activist' and instead claim the role of the 'apprentice'.

Throughout the 2011-2012 school year, I will be spending time in the halls of Jefferson High School, an inner-city high school on San Antonio's Northwest side. I will be shadowing the veteran administrator Joanne Cockrell as she begins her second year as Principal in a school that previously represented many of our inner-city high schools; neglected, below average and fairly contented with both qualities.

In addition to observing the administrative operations of Principal Cockrell, I will also be interacting with fellow administrators, school staff, students, parents, community members and Mr. Ed Garza, who is entering his third-year as SAISD Board Trustee for the Jefferson High School community and its subsequent feeder schools.

I look forward to the opportunity to watch an environment of adversity be taken to a level of triumph. I am excited to witness the interaction between the different components that make a great school successful. Most of all, I look forward to spreading what I learn to those who are willing to listen. I will surely apply the practices I learn throughout this school year to my own operations in the future, but to know that I have helped distribute those same principles to others is the ultimate goal of this project.