Former Denver Public Schools Superintendent Jerry Wartgow recently had a book published about his views of school reform. Since stepping down as superintendent in 2005, Wartgow, 65, has been serving on boards, traveling and working on his book, “Why School Reform Is Failing and What We Need To Do About It: 10 Lessons From the Trenches.”
Q: Why did you write a book?
A: My hope is by doing this, someone else can learn some of these lessons with a lot less pain.
Q: What is the book’s theme?
A: There are no silver bullets or quick fixes in school reform. . . . Reformers ought to read Aesop’s fable “The Tortoise and the Hare.” We need our policymakers to be a lot more tortoise-like when we move forward with reforms.
Q: But people say there should be a sense of urgency about the necessity of school reforms.
A: There is a sense of urgency. There was urgency when I was there, there was a sense of urgency in 1990 and 1980. My point is, yes, there is a sense of urgency. With all of the studies and reforms and legislation and regulations and billions of dollars, we have made no progress. We ought to stop and reflect upon what the real issues are before we just continue.
Q: What reforms do you think work?
A: I am convinced that it almost doesn’t make a difference about which one you select as long as you select one and stay with it.
Q: In Denver’s case, you are saying people should get behind the reforms and let them stay in place for a while?
A: Yes. My other big theme is the three Ls are strangling the three Rs. The three Ls are legislation, litigation and labor agreements. Those three combined have created such a bureaucratic mess that it is literally impossible for most schools to do a good job and carry out the responsibilities.
Q: Are you optimistic about Denver schools?
A: I am optimistic because of the leadership we have here. The mayor is huge. What bigger champion do we have for public education than John Hickenlooper? It was wonderful when we worked together.
Q: What is the main message of your book?
A: I hope this raises the awareness of how important reforming public education is and at the same time how complicated and complex it is, so that we don’t spend another 15 years and find out we are right back in the same place.
Jeremy P. Meyer: 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com
