Steven Adamowski: Reform drive earned kudos from businesses, not teachers union
On his first day of school, he promised major changes in Cincinnati Public Schools. But even the strongest proponents for reform were surprised at how far Adamowski would go.
Under his direction, the district became the first in the state to run charter schools, and one of the first in the country to push a pay-for-performance system. The district was taken off the state's academic watch list when test scores and graduation rates jumped, turning critical business leaders into fans.
Adamowski became a rising star.
But his aggressive, no-nonsense style also generated anger from the teachers union and several board members, who found his CEO-style management too heavy-handed for the public sector.
"He really shook things up," said Jay Goldman, editor of School Administrator magazine. "He was a big favorite of the business community. He held people accountable. He was viewed as a very authoritative kind of leader."
Despite the reforms, Adamowski — who left last year to be assistant professor of educational leadership and policy studies at the University of Missouri in St. Louis — is known more for his drive than his polish. Even his supporters know little of his personal life.
"I don't think he is highly charismatic. He's not a John Stanford type," said Paul Houston, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators.
Adamowski was the associate secretary of education for the Delaware Department of Education when he applied in spring 1998 for the Cincinnati job, and carried a résumé of running smaller districts in the Midwest and Northeast.
The School Board voted 5-2 to hire him over nine other candidates, despite concerns that he didn't have enough experience running an urban school district, especially one that is nearly 70 percent African American.
But he earned the respect of his detractors and received high marks in his first evaluation, School Board members said. Drawing on his work as a fellow at an Indianapolis think tank, and with the help of a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Adamowski succeeded in breaking the district's five lowest-performing high schools into 12 smaller, specialized schools.
"He is an extremely intelligent person," said School Board member Florence Newell. "He keeps abreast of all the new practices and initiatives."
According to supporters and critics, Adamowski pushed a privatization agenda that showed some results. Privatization of office staff saved the district $65,000 a year, but the School Board declined to hire Edison Schools, the nation's largest for-profit operator of public schools, despite his support.
Adamowski forged close ties with Cincinnati businesses, in part because of the perception that he ran the district like a big-company chief executive by giving principals more authority. He convinced Cincinnati Bell CEO Jack Cassidy to install a $500,000 high-speed network in the district's most troubled inner-city high school.
"What Steve said to me was, 'If business is the ultimate end customer for high-school graduates, they really ought to have something to say about it,' " said Cassidy.
He said Adamowski's willingness to decentralize authority showed "a tremendous amount of self-confidence ... he allows people to make decisions, and holds them responsible for them."
The praise in Cincinnati was heard elsewhere. School officials in Nashville, Tenn., went after Adamowski, but business leaders pushed to keep him in town, and he withdrew his name. He said at his departure in Cincinnati last year that he had several other offers that he turned down.
But there was little praise from the district's teachers union. Amid his push for a teacher pay-for-performance program, his tenuous relationship with the union collapsed. The union filed an unfair-labor-practice charge against him after Adamowski distributed a flier that accused the union of sandbagging his proposal.
Adamowski's style "was my way or no way," said Sue Taylor, president of the teachers union.
She said Adamowski was a bright man with a strong grasp of teaching theory, but he showed contempt for a union-administration committee responsible for raising students' performance by never attending meetings. Others said he rarely visited schools.
"He is not a person who leads by building consensus among all stakeholders," Taylor said.
The School Board was split on his tenure, with a core of fans offset by members more sympathetic to the union.
"He was great at proposing reform, but he didn't want to be questioned," said School Board member Harriet Russell.
The timing of his departure, for the University of Missouri in June 2002, has left some bitter. The district was in the midst of a campaign for a $480 million bond to help pay for a huge construction plan that would build 35 new schools and renovate 31 others.
The measure failed, although it passed this year. And five months after he left, the district went back on "academic emergency" status, reversing one of Adamowski's most important accomplishments.
Russell said it was hard to sell the public on the bond without a leader. But Adamowski's supporters say the troubled district made huge gains during his tenure.
"We still have a long way to go, but he got it off to a good start," said Cassidy.
Tan Vinh: 206-515-5656 or tvinh@seattletimes.com
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