Going from High School Teacher to District Superintendent: a Political Odyssey

After teaching high school social studies for fourteen years, I wanted to be an urban superintendent. To do that, I had to get a doctorate. Accepted at Stanford University as a middle-aged graduate student, I arrived in 1972 with family in tow. The two years I spent at Stanford turned into a powerful intellectual experience. I had told historian David Tyack, my adviser then, (years later my teaching colleague, co-author, and dear friend) that I wanted to get a degree swiftly and. then find a superintendency. With an abiding interest in history, I pursued courses that Tyack taught in history of education but also studied political science, organizational sociology, and the economics of education. If motivation and readiness are prerequisites for learning, I had them in excess. Moving from being a veteran teacher in Cleveland and Washington, D.C. to becoming a graduate student, I had to embrace learning to do research over teaching daily, making generalizations rather than storing…