Superintendent candidate addresses questions, achievement gap at community forum

UPDATE: Dr. Jennifer Cheatham has been offered the position of Madison Metropolitan School District Superintendent.

Community members questioned Madison Metropolitan School District superintendent candidate Jennifer Cheatham about her plans to bridge the achievement gap during a public forum late afternoon on Thursday, Feb 7. Other questions ranged from her view of charter schools to her past relationships with teachers’ unions and the results of her previous work.

Jennifer CheathamThe forum was originally intended to introduce the two final candidates – Cheatham and Walter Milton, Jr. – to the public, but Milton withdrew his candidacy on Tuesday.

Cheatham, currently the Chief of Instruction for the Chicago Public Schools, faced the crowd alone.

Around 200 parents, teachers, and community members attended the event at Monona Terrace. Organizers had to open extra space in the back of the room to accommodate a group of students from the Boys and Girls Club.

One of the big topics was the achievement gap. Cheatham said that part of the issue is that teachers need to be culturally competent.

She named one problem in particular: the deficit point of view.

“Rather than talk about children’s strengths and the beautiful things that they bring to their classroom from their culture and building on those strengths, we’re always zeroing in directly on the deficits,” Cheatham said.

Part of the solution is that teachers need to know their students really well, including their cultural strengths, she said. They also need to be able to talk as professionals about “equity traps,” such as pretending to not see color.

Cheatham emphasized that the achievement gap cannot be solved easily.

“It’s about organizing your school around actual children, monitoring the heck out of what’s happening in the school to make sure that what you’re doing is actually working so you can make adjustments along the way, and that’s it. There’s no silver bullet.”

Thomas, an eighth grade student, asked how Cheatham would measure school proficiency other than with standardized tests, given their shortcomings.

She suggested “authentic performance tasks,” where students can demonstrate their ability to perform real-world tasks on top of standard multiple choice measures. She also proposed offering incentives for schools to cover areas like physical and mental health that aren’t emphasized by standardized tests.

Other topics explored Cheatham’s previous experience, especially to her time in Chicago.

Some attendees questioned her involvement with the teachers’ strike in Chicago last fall. She said that she was asked to come in to the negotiations as a guest partially because she had a “good, collaborative relationship with the leaders” of the teacher’s union.

She also reminded the audience that she used to be a teacher and a member of a union herself.

“I believe very strongly in teachers having a formal voice in decision making in the school district,” Cheatham said. “Negotiations can sometimes be challenging because we pit administrators against teachers, and I don’t think it has to be that way. We have so many common interests.”

Further than that, Cheatham insisted on the importance of getting public input before making major policy decisions, calling it a “major mistake” to move ahead without input.

As another important topic to the Madison community, charter schools briefly surfaced. She called herself “agnostic” toward them.

“I think that it’s important, at the base, for there to be high quality neighborhood schools and then some layer of – of options for parents who want something different,” Cheatham said. “And I’m agnostic about who – who provides them.”

She elaborated on her answer to reporters after the forum. “The most important thing is that we have a high quality school in every neighborhood,” she said. “That absolutely must happen and I’m committed to making sure that that happens in Madison.”

As to why she chose Madison, Cheatham said it had the components she was looking for in a community: diversity and a school district with strengths to build on, but that also presented a challenge when it came to bringing every child access to a high quality education.

“It is the opportunity of a lifetime for me to be able to make the deepest and broadest possible impact in a community that cares about making sure that every single child is successful,” she said. “That’s not true everywhere. I think that’s what makes this community special.”

The Madison School Board will soon make a decision whether to offer the superintendent position to Cheatham or reopen the search for additional candidates.