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Sheila
Evans-Tranumn: Associate Commissioner of Education
By
Joan Baum, Ph.D.
An
interview with Sheila Evans-Tranumn, Associate Commissioner for
the New York State Education Department and a New Yorker with
solid roots in the public school system, could not be more timely.
The big word in her challenging professional life is “accountability”
– the very “A” word Mayor Mike Bloomberg was invoking in his annual
address on the state of the city on January 30th. “We
must have mayoral accountability in education,” he said, adding
that his interest is “not about power. This is about accountability
in education.” He’s all for “more opportunities for parents to
participate in our educational system,” but he doesn’t think a
central board or the continuing system of local school boards
is the answer. The Commissioner, charged with statewide responsibility
for “School Accountability” across the board– from schools performing
way above standard to those “furthest from the standard” says
her first priority is to ensure that all children improve by holding
all adults involved in the state’s educational plans “accountable.”
Though Ms. Evans-Tranumn points out that the State Commissioner
and Regents have yet to issue a policy statement regarding the
Mayor’s criticisms, she does indicate that the wider sense of
who is accountable for student performance, as measured by exams
mandated at the federal level, has already made a difference in
the city for the poorest performing schools. She is proud to point
out in talks around the country that New York State annually takes
18 schools off its probationary list, 12 of them in the city.
She wants to keep the momentum going and of course succeed even
more. What’s the trick? There is none, only hard work under a
program called “extended time” where teachers work 15% longer
(for pay) and cover more ground, proving that students can indeed
learn, even under dire conditions. The results grew from the “privatization”
initiative, which she credits with moving accountability to the
forefront.
When the for-profits came along and said, we can do the job and
you can hold us accountable for the results, she sensed the challenge,
the model for the public schools here and nationwide.
Commissioner Tranumn is clear, however, about separating private
schools from the privatization of public schools, a movement that
in some ways resembles the institution of charter schools. In
response to the Mayor’s general declaration that disruptive children
must be removed from the schools, she says that, indeed, some
youngsters do need to be pulled away, but she adds that some need
only suspension while others can be turned around by a rigorous
academic program. The challenge is particularly hers since she
is charged with overseeing state efforts at school improvement
and developing action plans for a number of programs, including
SURR (Schools Under Registration Review), New York State Pre-kindergarten,
Community Schools, Extended Day, Improving Pupil Performance,
Categorical Reading, Early Grade Intervention, Homeless Youth,
Parent Involvement, Reading Excellence, Title I Compensatory Education
and the Early Grade Class Size Reduction Program. Though she says
she feels confident that disruptive incidents do not occur in
schools that are strong in administration and curricula, she is
supportive of the three-years-and-you’re-closed-down policy that
now applies to failing schools. Local officials have the power
to remove 50% of teachers in a poor school and start anew or reconfigure.
In the past only students were held accountable, she notes. Now
it is the “adults.”
Ms. Evans-Tranumn, who is a graduate of North Carolina Central
University, has a Masters from Long Island University and is working
toward her doctorate at NYU, has been with the State Education
Department since 1993. She is the recipient of numerous awards
for excellence in education and is listed in various Who’s Whos
for prominent educators, women, black Americans and urban leaders.
She can be seen on Channel 25 (WNYE-TV) hosting the weekly television
program, Education Dialogue, airing Mondays 5:30-6:00. But Sheila
Evans-Tranumn has always known who she is, if not always what
she would become. Impressed in the 80s with a principal in the
city who really got parents involved in schools by requiring them
to put in service hours, the Commissioner says that it was this
dynamic woman– Adelaide Sanford– who inspired her to move into
education. Earlier, a wonderful teacher at Erasmus Hall High School
had made her fall in love with Shakespeare and she became an English
teacher, with a double major in English and Math. She muses, originally,
she had wanted to be a “brain surgeon.” Ah, but she is, though
she works at her profession with a heart.#
Education Update, Inc., P.O. Box 20005, New York, NY 10001. Tel:
(212) 481-5519. Fax: (212) 481-3919. Email: ednews1@aol.com.
All material is copyrighted and may not be printed without express consent of
the publisher. © 2001.
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