Education Week - February 22, 2017 - 20

LESSONS FROM
A LEADER

Stay Calm
How leaders respond to
a crisis determines how
others will respond. Under
pressure, allow time to
make the right decisions.

Keep the Focus
on Teaching
Leaders must continue
to invest in teachers
and classrooms even
in a crisis. That's where
what we do for students
matters most.

Set Clear Goals
Relentlessly pursue the
priorities you've set with
your team even amid
challenging circumstances
you don't expect.

Students are in the midst of their second school
year relying on rationed bottled water, eating only
fruit they can peel, and avoiding tap water like the
plague.
Michigan's attorney general alleges that four former
Flint officials, two ex-city managers and two public
works administrators, conspired to operate the city's
water treatment plant when it wasn't safe to do so.
Judges have authorized criminal charges against them
and at least nine state-level employees as the state's
probe of the crisis continues.
Amid the confusion, Tawwab has worked furiously to
instill calm and confidence.
"You have all these eyes on you, and all these ears
are listening to what you're going to say," he says. "I
just learned to listen more and allow myself the time
to process and be able to say, 'Let me give that some
thought.'"

Chronic Problems
Since Flint turned off its taps in fall 2015, hundreds
of schools in dozens of districts have identified similar
problems. From coast to coast, lead-contaminated water
emerged as a problem aggravated by aging buildings and
plumbing, exacerbated by tight school repair budgets.
The toxic tapwater in Flint has only compounded the
challenges the city and its school system face.
Few urban centers were so thoroughly pummeled by
the forces of deindustrialization and urban decay as the
Vehicle City, a town once fueled by General Motors jobs.
Now many of those jobs are gone, poverty is pervasive,
and few cities are more violent per capita.
The school system flatlined financially as parents fled
in droves for suburban schools and charters, taking their
children and state per-pupil funding with them. At the
peak of the city's manufacturing boom, Flint had 54
school buildings and upwards of 40,000 students. Four
decades later, only 11 of those buildings remain open, and
enrollment has dipped below 5,000, dropping more than
60 percent in the past decade.
Barbara Markle has had a bird's-eye view of the fall of
the Flint schools for decades, first as a state education
department administrator and now as an assistant dean
at Michigan State University's college of education.
With $2 million in support from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Michigan State's office for K-12
outreach coordinates dozens of specialists and faculty
members who help out in Flint schools and the district's
central office, working on everything from improving teaching to helping the district meet its regulatory
requirements with the state.
Superintendent Tawwab "really inherited a district
that was in a state of disrepair," Markle says. "He's the
person who really held this together."
Struggling schools and challenging circumstances
are nothing new to Tawwab, 43. Prior to Flint, Markle
worked with Tawwab in his hometown of Detroit, where
he was an assistant superintendent, overseeing dozens of
priority schools-so-called because they're among the
bottom 5 percent academically in the state.

Education Week Leaders To Learn From 2017

Tawwab worked his way up through the ranks in Detroit with a reputation for a steady, data-driven approach
to boosting student achievement, says Jo Ann Andrees,
who works with Michigan State and the state education
department on school turnaround efforts..
Under Tawwab's watch, half the priority schools in Detroit came off the state's poorest-performing list within
18 months. While that number fluctuated over time, he
demanded that teachers give the students their best in
the classroom to counteract the challenges they faced
outside of school.
"We can't give excuses. Some people want to love on
these kids so much, and I get that part, but a part of me
says, 'Don't love on them so much that you decrease
expectations,'" Tawwab says.
He carried that approach 70 miles north on Interstate
75 to Flint, where he oversaw academics in his first year
as superintendent in Flint. This past fall, the district
stemmed the enrollment decline, losing fewer students
than anticipated, and posted modest gains for 3rd and

6th grade students on Measures of Academic Progress
tests.
"[Parents are] not giving us a pass. They're not giving
us an out," he says. "With the water crisis, it's probably
just a greater sense of urgency."
Tawwab, a long-distance runner, had his resolve and
stamina tested by the water crisis, and behind closed
doors, that veneer of confidence and calm was strained.
"He was in crisis mode for quite some time," says Flint
school board President Harold Woodson.
He often sent Andrees, his mentor and executive coach
through Michigan State, texts at 4 a.m., seeking advice.
Leenet Campbell-Williams, a former colleague in Detroit, remembers the late-night conversations where she
talked him through some "knee-buckling moments,"
when he felt the fate of the district-and its children-rested on his shoulders.
Campbell-Williams says his greatest strengths are his
willingness to listen and rely on others' help.

A Steady Hand
As fallout from the water crisis widened, federal agencies supplied funding to open more Head Start classrooms, to support children in special education, and to
staff more schools with nurses, counselors, and social
workers to deal with the repercussions from the lead.
Tawwab also developed a rapport with the Mott Foundation and other philanthropic organizations, churches,

Education Week - February 22, 2017

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