She has spent the last six years running St. Paul, Minn.’s public schools and spent two years before that expanding her education worldview in Washington, but Pat Harvey learned the art of politics in Chicago.
From convincing West Side drug dealers to back off her elementary school to negotiating major reform in the city’s sprawling district, Harvey – one of three finalists for the superintendent’s job in Denver – learned early how to overcome obstacles to improving urban education.
“A fair number of people know what to do technically, but they can’t pull it off in a superheated political environment like you have today,” says Marc Tucker, president of the Washington, D.C.-based National Center on Education and the Economy, where Harvey worked from 1997-99.
“That’s why it’s important that she grew up in Chicago. It’s a very tough system.”
Combining sharp elbows with what one former colleague calls “a smile in her voice,” Harvey, 58, has carved out a reputation for improving performance in schools beset by typical urban challenges like poverty, student mobility and language proficiency.
Although she withdrew from consideration earlier in the Denver interview process, Harvey reconsidered and jumped back into contention.
“Her personality is charming,” says Denise Little, who worked under Harvey in the early 1990s at Chicago’s Hefferan Elementary, “but yet she’s also a bull.”
Harvey has bumped her share of china over the years, but many who’ve worked with her give her good to excellent marks – sometimes grudgingly – for her impact on urban education.
In St. Paul, where she currently oversees the 41,000-student district, Harvey slammed into the status quo on the very first day of classes in 1999: She immediately designated 11 schools as being on “academic probation” for low test scores.
Some teachers felt blindsided and viewed the move as a way for Harvey to build political capital with tough talk – all at the expense of classroom teachers.
“People went ballistic,” recalls Roy Magnuson, a St. Paul social studies teacher and member of the teachers union board. “When all was said and done, people in the probation schools honestly felt they didn’t get the extra help they were promised, only negative publicity that hammered them.”
But some administrators figured that, despite the sting of the label, Harvey’s drastic step was basically on point. Elizabeth Heffernan, principal at Riverview West Side School of Excellence, set to work getting her K-3 program off probation.
“There was no conflict with the vision, but it’s always hard to be judged,” Heffernan says. “Once we got over that, everything went well. The proof is in the pudding here. Schools are doing exceeding well compared to what they had been doing.”
Harvey gets almost universally high marks for her staff development efforts and for surrounding herself with top-flight people. She also ended St. Paul’s policy of “social promotion” that moved students to the next grade before they were ready academically, and instead incorporated a “half-grade” after third, fifth and eighth grades to bring struggling kids up to speed.
But Harvey’s track record in transforming urban schools began in Chicago, where she worked a variety of jobs in the district’s central office dealing with desegregation, school funding, grant proposals and eventually school-based councils as the city’s reform efforts got underway.
She took a career detour to become principal at Hefferan Elementary on Chicago’s rough West Side, where she used her experience from the central office – and her knack for nurturing alliances – to turn around the underperforming school.
“We didn’t expect to get all the money from the district, so we created partnerships,” Harvey recalls. “One hospital at first just helped kids getting ready for the science fair. But then they moved to providing equipment, to training teachers, to putting together a science lab to feeling like, ‘We’re in this together.”‘
Even local drug dealers, with whom Harvey had crafted a hands-off-our-school understanding, tried to get into the act one year by offering students book bags and school supplies.
This gesture Harvey firmly – but politely – refused.
Eventually, Harvey returned to Chicago’s central office and became chief accountability officer in the midst of massive reform. While working on restructuring the city’s high schools, she got to know Tucker, the NCEE president whose Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit helps schools – including Denver’s – tailor curriculum to changing economic conditions.
Harvey embraced many of the organization’s ideas and eventually left Chicago to spend two years developing the NCEE’s America’s Choice school design, a package of “best practices” worldwide.
In St. Paul, many of Harvey’s colleagues agree that political savvy ranks among her top attributes.
“She sees where the wind is blowing and tries to play to both sides,” says Magnuson, who “grudgingly” gives her a solid B. “It can get messy in the middle.”
On the right, a Minnesota-based organization called EdWatch has sharply criticized her advocacy of “small learning communities” – a plan it views as part of a federal agenda to steer students prematurely onto specific career paths.
“She sees education as a waste of money, that you should just train kids for their station in the workplace,” says Michael Chapman, an education researcher at EdWatch. “We think it’s spooky that kids are taught that’s the best they can shoot for.”
On the left, political advocates have chided Harvey for getting too close to business. They contend she did little to advance a 2002 mill levy referendum because she didn’t want to offend chamber-of-commerce types.
“She’s supposed to be a champion of schools and she wasn’t that year,” says Ben Goldfarb, executive director of Progressive Minnesota, which spearheaded the referendum eventually approved by voters. “If we hadn’t passed it, they would have had to make huge cuts that absolutely would have impacted the classroom.”
Harvey remains committed to smaller groups of high school students that can more effectively tailor their coursework for life after high school, although she acknowledges logistical difficulties in the transition.
“This global economy has taken all bets off the table and put brand new ones on it,” she says. “It’s a renaissance, and we’re all trying to figure it out together.”
Her stance on the 2002 tax referendum campaign, she says, simply reflected her concern for all stakeholders – including business and seniors – whose support could be valuable in the long term.
“We cannot solve huge problems alone,” Harvey says. “Educators must reach out to every part of the community.”
About Pat Harvey
Pat Harvey, 58, has been superintendent of the 41,000-student St. Paul (Minn.) Public Schools since 1999. Her salary is about $170,000.
Prior to that, she worked two years as senior fellow and director of urban education at the National Center on Education and the Economy in Washington. She also worked for 30 years in several capacities with the the Chicago Public Schools, including chief accountability officer.
Education: Doctorate in curriculum and instruction from the University of Illinois; master’s degree in school administration from Roosevelt University in Chicago; bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Lincoln University in Missouri
Quote: “I don’t think you can care for kids if you don’t care for the people who work with them. I hold myself to a very high standard in terms of human relations. That sets the tone for what kind of environment you want for kids.”
Meet the candidate:
4:30 to 5:30 p.m.: Community reception today at the Denver Public Schools administration building, 900 Grant St.
5:30 to 7 p.m.: Community forum follows in the first-floor board room, 900 Grant St.
