"My Decision in My Own Words" By Carl A. Cohn

Carl A. Cohn, former Long Beach School Superintendent, has released an essay explaining his decision withdraw his candidacy for the DCPS superintendent position:

(click on Read More for the entire essay)

My Decision in My Own Words

By Carl A. Cohn

Last week, I withdrew as a candidate for superintendent of the DC Public Schools. I decided that I could not make the type of long-term commitment that is needed here to fix the schools and the district systems that are supposed to support them. Like all highly personal decisions, it was both agonizing and painful.

I first became interested in the plight of school children in the nation's capital several months ago while watching a Nightline special program on the murder of 14-year-old Princess Hansen in the Sursum Corda housing project. For all of us who grew up as Catholic altar boys in the 1950's, that phrase from the Latin mass has special meaning beyond the literal translation—"lift up your hearts." It's an expression that is joyful, forward-thinking, and above all, hopeful. And so, for someone who later spent nine years studying for the priesthood, I was filled with irony at the thought of such a horrible crime being committed in a place with a name like that.

And so I began to consider the prospect of coming here to help rescue other children like Princess by improving the schools that they attend. You see, I identified with Princess because my first home was a housing project and my mom, a victim of domestic violence, raised all six of us by herself with the help of Catholic social workers, not unlike those that founded Sursum Corda. I learned to read in the first grade without benefit of kindergarten because a woman named Sister Martin held me to the same high standards as the other children who came from more privileged backgrounds. I'm sure that Sister Martin, God rest her soul, would not meet today's NCLB teacher quality standards because she didn't have a Bachelor's degree or a credential. She knew discipline and she knew reading, and whatever educational success I have had in life is a direct result of her efforts so long ago.

In my career as superintendent in Long Beach, California, I was blessed with a supportive school board and parent community, as well as a talented staff, and we were able to do much to create bright futures for the poor kids there. Last fall, Long Beach was awarded the 2003 Broad Prize in Urban Education making it the best urban school system in America. And they won that award, not because of my efforts, but because of the work of the outstanding team that is in place there.

One of the most exciting things about urban education in America today is Los Angeles businessman Eli Broad's philanthropy and largesse, which is making it possible for all of us to learn more about what it takes to improve urban school systems. The Broad Prize winning and finalist districts all have common attributes such as adoption of high standards, superior professional development and a laser-like focus on data and assessment that tracks individual student performance. In addition, those districts have stable leadership at the superintendent level and a workable governance structure that allows elected officials to do their best work advocating for children.

I wanted to bring that same possibility to the District of Columbia Public Schools, but in the end, I could not commit to doing that for an extended period of time and the fault lies with me, not with the leaders of the city-school district collaborative that tried to recruit me.

I come away from this experience very impressed with Mayor Williams, Linda Cropp, Kevin Chavous, and Peggy Cooper-Cafritz. They all seemed to recognize the important fact that a successful school system is one of the key economic engines of any community and that fixing it will require extraordinary new levels of collaboration on their part. I want to publicly thank them for their visit to California during the week of my daughter's high school graduation. I thought it was a classy gesture that respected my commitment to family.

Some who have worked for me in the past have suggested that I'm all about ideas and not much on the details associated with them. I want to challenge the community and the leaders here in the nation's capital to follow through on my idea of an educational "summit" to address the many governmental oversights issues plaguing the DC Public Schools. Such an event will make it easier to recruit a stellar superintendent—one who can make this school system a future Broad Prize winner and a model for nation. The children deserve it.