0.3 Peck, c., & Mullen, c. a. (april 2010). “feet to the fire”:

Background

In this discussion, we focus on the topic of rhetoric and symbols of urban principal accountability in the United States. Over the past decade, urban district administrators have initiated principal accountability systems as a strategy for effecting change in schools (Ouchi, 2003, 2009; Shipps&White, 2009). Through media-disseminated rhetoric and symbols attendant to these policy actions, city school district and reform leaders have positioned principals as fundamentally important to and ultimately responsible for school improvement and student achievement. The rhetoric and symbols of urban principal accountability appear in various media forms, particularly news reports, Web pages, press releases, and organizational documents. These media forms serve as the basis of our exploration and analysis.

We begin with a relevant media scenario: A national television news report (Merrow, 2007) featuring Chancellor of District of Columbia Public Schools Michelle Rhee illustrates the current rhetoric and symbols of urban principal accountability. (District of Columbia and New York City schools refer to their district chiefs as “chancellor” instead of “superintendent,” but the organizational role is equivalent.) As the news report began, the reporter explained that Chancellor Rhee had met one-on-one with all 156 principals in the system at the start of the year. This fact symbolized the important role principals would come to play in her reform efforts. The camera view then focused on Chancellor Rhee as she stated (in a professional, matter-of-fact tone) to a person who was off camera, “No, I am terminating your principalship now” (Merrow, p. 1). Chancellor Rhee’s willingness to be filmed while dismissing a principal may have signified a “get-tough” approach to improving her district, school-by-school and leader-by-leader. Similarly, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (2007) may have intended to reflect a no-compromises educational leadership stance when, in a State of the City Address, he explained: