Once first, principal rated worst

Chicago Sun-Times
May 16, 2004
By Maudlyne Ihejirika

     A woman named principal of the year in 1988 now has scored as the worst principal in the Chicago Public Schools.

     A ''Principals Report Card'' survey by the Chicago Teachers Union planted Dyanne Dandridge-Alexander, of Best Practice High School, squarely at the bottom of the heap of 546 schools, with a grade average of 0.00, a flat "F,'' from her teachers.

     She also scored a total of 6 of 100 on leadership, discipline issues and budgeting.

     Her critics gripe about a misplaced $60,000 grant check. She's been picketed by parents who felt left out. Others say she refused to expel a student who held a letter opener to a student's throat. Parents and teachers complain she dawdled in providing special education plans for individual students. And teachers say she won't share control with them -- the very thing the school was founded to do.

     ''Best Practice is supposed to be a flagship, and under her, it is sinking,'' said Mike Meyers, chair of the Social Studies Department at the school, 2040 W. Adams. It is one of the city's first ''small schools,'' with 389 students. CPS has 37 small schools.

     ''I think we have a situation where we have a school leader who does not believe in the official mission of this school,'' said National-Louis University Professor Harvey Daniels, a school founder. ''It breaks my heart to see this terrible mismatch of philosophies acting itself out to the detriment of students.''

     It was a different story in 1988, when the Citizens School Committee named Dandridge-Alexander Principal of the Year for taking over Spencer Elementary School, 214 N. Lavergne, in 1985 and raising reading and math scores from the bottom 1 percent within three years.

     At Best Practice, though, ''she has created a chaotic, depressing environment, and extremely low morale,'' said science teacher Arthur Griffin, among the original staff when it opened as a small schools model in 1996 on a quiet boulevard in the gentrifying Near West Side, not far from the United Center.

     The idea of the school was to be a model of cooperation. Teachers would know every student's name. They would shape policy.

     Her critics admit Dandridge-Alexander had the sterling credentials to take on the job and say she talked a good game before the local school council gave her a four-year contract last year at a salary of $99,300. She also oversees Foundations Elementary and Nia Middle School housed in the fortresslike yellow brick building that once was Cregier High. She is the only CPS principal in charge of three schools.

     Council members now say she immediately switched to a traditional format, where the principal makes all decisions.

     Dandridge-Alexander declined several Chicago Sun-Times requests for an interview, but her supporters at the school blame the school's format for its problems. It wasn't working when she arrived, they said.

     ''Best Practice? The practices don't work. Next year, we will be on [academic] probation,'' said counselor Angela Cunningham. ''Ms. Alexander has done nothing to these teachers but require they do their job. Change is a problem. They don't want to accept it.''

     The principal's budget practices also are a sore subject. Discrepancies at Foundations led the LSC to request an audit in February after there was not enough money to pay for ISAT test study booklets. It showed the principal overdrew an account by $8,010.

     ''That's when parents became angry and picketed her,'' said Foundations LSC chair Beverly Gillon.

     On a cold March Monday morning, parents from Foundations showed up carrying signs and chanting, demanding answers. The school had 174 students in August. There are now 136.

     In another fiscal snafu, a misplaced $60,000 grant check made out to Best Practice on Sept. 20, 2003, also had to be stopped and reissued by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

     ''I kept asking her about the check. I finally called the foundation. It was never deposited. We were supposed to use that money for professional development activities throughout the year,'' said Mark Fertel, lead teacher at Best Practice.

     ''The check was reissued to National-Louis University ... on April 20, 2004,'' said Ernestine Key, program associate at the Chicago High School Redesign Initiative, in charge of doling out Gates Foundation money to small schools here.

     Students are suffering, parents say. Some complain their special education students don't get services required by state law. ''My 11-year-old was assessed eligible for special ed last May. But when I kept asking my baby 'What are they doing for you?' She said 'Nothing, Mama. They doing nothing,' " said Patricia Johnson, parent of a Foundations fifth-grader.

     In March, when a boy threatened to kill another boy with a steel letter opener and received only a 10-day suspension, it scared teachers.

     Dandridge-Alexander ''said the boy was just showing 'bravado' and refused to expel him until I filed a grievance. We met with a union rep last week, and she finally agreed'' to move toward expulsion, said English teacher Matt Feldman.

     The state of affairs is a disappointment to professors at National-Louis University who founded the school and are advisers still.

     ''We believed in shared decision making. She dismantled that. We believe in integrated instruction. She took that away. We believe in professional development opportunities for teachers. She disallowed that,'' charged National-Louis Professor Marilyn Bizar. ''I believe that she has to leave. She's obviously not the right fit.''

     Letters from parents and teachers have flooded the board all year. Only last week did officials step in to demand Dandridge-Alexander initiate a corrective action plan.

     ''Have we heard of difficulties since the school year began? Yes. Are corrective measures being taken? Yes,'' said Jeanne Nowaczewski, director of the Chicago Public Schools' Office of Small Schools. She said she wasn't at liberty to be more specific.

     The system should have moved sooner, said Michael Klonsky, director of the nonprofit Small Schools Workshop.

     ''This thing at the Cregier Multiplex has been brewing long before the teachers survey, and the board knew about it.''

     And while a battle rages at Best Practice and Foundations, Nia and its 116 students seem to stay out of the fray.

     ''We do know the problems here,'' said lead teacher Jacqueline Sanders. ''We just got an award for our scores going up again, and I'm attributing that to the diligence of the teachers that we have. It doesn't matter who our principal is.''

     Dandridge-Alexander's supporters at the school point out that low test scores at Best Practice preceded her.

     Last school year, only 15.6 percent of its students hit grade level on state tests, just enough to avoid the probation mark of 15 percent. Foundations and Nia are at risk this school year under new higher standards.

     ''Change is hard, but it needs to happen,'' said Mark Payne, a community member on the LSCs of all three schools. ''There's this thing about Best Practice being this really high learning place, and it's not. It's a mess over there. They need to sit down, fight it out, and come up with solutions.''

     Music teacher Lawrence Robinson says, ''Teachers are trying to hold on to the concept of 'teacher-led' school. Being teacher-led does not, however, give teachers the authority to circumvent the authority of a principal to make final decisions."

     All agree it's a tough job. ''The Dyanne I knew, her credentials were stellar. But whether or not she was the best match for the teachers and for that particular situation, or whether anybody can really do a stellar job in being principal of three schools at one time, is the question," said Klonsky of the Small Schools Workshop.