Feirsen's (Non) Fiction

I noticed not too long ago that there were several hits on a blog post I had written a long while back. It was called In Praise of True Educators. It highlighted the educational talents of the former assistant superintendent of curriculum who is now the superintendent of Northport Schools. I wondered what had prompted the recent reads. So I investigated my site and saw that someone had googled Dr. Marylou Mc Dermott with Thoughts from Karenland and my blog came up. I surmised that the “google-er” read my post and then forwarded it on to several others.

So I decided to google our own superintendent of schools, Robert Fiersen, curious if some of the blog posts I had written on him came up. But what popped up intrigued me even  more than my blog.  I was surprised to learn that Rob (as the inner circle likes to call him) had co-written a book.  Its copyright was in 2000  with a revised edition in 2004. At the time of the writing he was still in the employ of Manhasset as their Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum.

 I wondered if the book was about bettering educational practices. I knew full well that his published resume was heavy on curriculum and instruction---it’s why Garden City hired him. But the book was not about education at all.  The book was titled How to Get the Teaching Job You Want.

And now I was really curious.

I learned that the book was a guide on how to use key verbiage and educational jargon to pique the interest of a school district. It gave step by step instructions on how to write a resume and cover letter to match the criteria of the employer---how to appear qualified for the job post. And it also listed what questions to expect on the interview so that the interviewee could be prepared with snap answers.

The customer reviews were positive. Most felt the author’s job obtaining recipes guaranteed success—the persons who put his plans into action won their job seeking bake-off.

But the book did not deal in any way as to whether the job seekers could adequately fill the jobs they seeked. It was merely a detailed roadmap of all the things one should say and do to land the position—whether you were qualified or not.

And I thought wow---along with all the other things about this superintendent that challenges my moral compass, the topic matter of this book feels particularly disdainful. I wondered if Rob Feirsen had practiced what he preached when he applied for the superintendent position in Garden City. I wondered if the actualization of his own job-landing formula accounted for the disconnect between the man’s resume, so heavy on curriculum and instruction, and what we have seen day after day for the past 7 years in our schools. Had the district been the target of How to Get the Superintendent Job You Want?

And the fact that our national ranking has improved while Rob Feirsen has been in our employ is really not as stellar as it seems upon investigation. Our district’s ranking has climbed upward not because our SAT scores or AP scores have increased dramatically—i.e. our improved ranking is not based on increased academic achievement. But rather the elevation is based on an increased number and offering of AP courses without much academic restriction, beginning in the 10^th grade. We have increased two key pieces of the ranking formula—the ones most easily modified upward---without touching scores.

 It would seem our district’s resume has been tweaked to match the criteria of the rankings. Our district does not produce students that are any more academically qualified than they once were; it’s just that they appear more qualified.

Perhaps we have played a game of How to Get the Increased Ranking You Want, whether you improve education or not.

And all this made me think back to the days at Stewart School when Dr. Braccia would tell the parents how teaching to a standardized test, while tempting, is never the best educational practice for the child. It leads to false confidence in a student’s ability—it’s how children get left behind.

And education was designed to be about churning out highly qualified students; and not educators or school districts with well-spun resumes or straw rankings.