Schools back in session here in Des Moines, Iowa. My wife and I split time between Des Moines and Montpelier, Vermont, so I take an interest in what is happening with the largest K-12 public school system in Iowa.
Back in July, the Des Moines Register published an article reflecting on Ian Roberts’s first year as Des Moines Public School’s superintendent. Here are excerpts from that article:
“Within the first few months of his first year as superintendent, Ian Roberts managed to visit every school in the Des Moines school district.”
Des Moines has 64 public schools.
“It was a feat some longtime school board members have not accomplished.”
“The visit were part of a vow Roberts made to work with students and staff as he stepped into the role as the district’s 15th superintendent.”
“’There’s so much that has caused me and inspired me to just think about this question around ‘Why am I here?’ he told the Des Moines Register. ‘And I’m talking about the experiences that include just inheriting an amazing group of adults who are either in leadership or teaching and serving students in schools that demonstrate every single day their commitment to provide our students with a quality public education.’”
…
“Roberts’ 2023 appointment was called ‘historic’ by many because he is the first person of color to lead Des Moines Public Schools in its 117-year history. More than half of the district’s 30,000-plus students identify as people of color.”
“’I certainly recognize the historical moment when I was selected as being the first person of color to lead Des Moines Public Schools,’ Roberts said. ‘All my interactions with students, with their families – certainly the time that I spent in classrooms – looking at how students respond to me, the conversations, the questions that they asked really reinforces to me now that representation really does matter.’”
“While student academics have yet to hit benchmarks set by the school board – particularly for Black male students – Des Moines officials say Roberts has done what he promised: leading the district with compassion and becoming a bridge between school officials and community members.”
“Roberts and his team mingled with students and staff at each school, read to classes and listened to people’s thoughts and concerns.”
…
“Some of Roberts’ successes have been attributed to his visibility in the schools and community during the school year.”
“That has been important as the district begins to look at its finances and the state of education in Iowa and nationally, said School Board Chair Jackie Norris.”
“’I think just in general, the traditional model of education is being reviewed,’ Norris said. ‘And it’s really imperative that DMPS does that. In addition, we’ve seen repeated budget cuts by the state and also some enrollment impacts because of open enrollment. And all of these you can look at them as challenges or opportunities.’”
“Roberts and his staff have been looking at these issues and others in a thoughtful and strategic manner, she said.”
…
“For years, Des Moines Public Schools officials have worked to improve student achievement and offer a more equitable education. The focus in recent years has been on Black male student achievement in math and reading.”
“Ahead of the next school year, the school board has added Hispanic male student achievement as part of this initiative.”
“The change in focus is because of the district’s growing Hispanic and Black populations, Roberts said. About 21% of the district’s students are Black and almost 33% are Hispanic.”
“’We certainly grounded our establishment of interim goals and interim guardrails based on the data that is before us and so when we’ve looked at the data, for example, our students in grades six through eight, we have seen some sort of disparities around achievement between our all-student groups versus our Black and Latinx males,’ Roberts said.”
“We decided to focus on ways to provide appropriate intervention to those students so that they can also get caught up.”
It’s early, but Roberts’s strategies haven’t worked yet. And all one has to do is google “Des Moines Public Schools 9th grade African-American male math scores” and a litany of articles will pop up announcing the district’s historic failure when it comes to meeting the needs of this one particular group of young learners.
Don’t get me wrong, having a superintendent be visible inside their schools is great. When I was a region superintendent in Texas, I visited a school every day.
But the superintendent, as the instructional leader of a learning organization, – in this case the Des Moines Public School – must do more than just “show up.” Improving black and brown learner’s problem-solving abilities takes time and support. It requires commitment – from the superintendent to the classroom teacher to the significant adults in the out of school life of the young learner.
Before Ian Roberts was hired here in the Des Moines Public Schools, I attended to focus group asking the Des Moines community what they wanted to see in their superintendent. I was the only community member who showed up to the meeting. But, this is what I said:
You must find a leader who will look at the present data for black and brown male learners in your district and proclaim – “This is unacceptable, and it must change.” Maybe Des Moines found that person. Maybe they didn’t.
Finally, what’s important to note here is that thousands of superintendents are just like Ian Roberts, and thousands of school districts are just like the Des Moines Public Schools – they are trying to find a solution to a problem that isn’t getting any better in many of their schools. So what’s the solution to that?
Til tomorrow. SVB
A Better Path to Learning 
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