When Dr. Philip Hickman was chosen to lead the Columbus Municipal School District and its 4,300 students in August, he had a large task in front of him.
The district carried a “D” rating from the state Department of Education, had a dropout rate around 30 percent and more than 90 percent of students qualified for financial assistance on school meals.
The role of superintendent at CMSD has been surrounded with mishaps and controversy in recent years.
Edna McGill was named interim superintendent in the summer of 2013, after the school board fired Martha Liddell under mounting evidence that she misused district funds. Ten days before Hickman was hired, the school board approved around $500,000 worth of district text books at McGill’s request. When Hickman came on board he requested different text books at a similar cost.
Six months since his hiring, Hickman, who makes $175,000 a year, has been criticized and praised for decisions he has made at the helm of city schools, but feels his goals are long term.
“It’s going to take time, it’s not going to happen in one month, two months,” Hickman said in an interview with The Dispatch last week.
Hickman is moving forward with a new educational plan for CMSD students: “Pathways to Graduation.” The new plan will put a greater emphasis on science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) and allow high schoolers to choose personal fields of study, which the district calls endorsements. These endorsements, which students can switch throughout high school, are similar to a college major.
Middle school students will build on the skills taught at their respective magnet elementary schools, according to Hickman.
Sixth graders will take a year-long course that covers each of the different elementary schools’ magnet specialty in seven weeks. In seventh and eighth grades, students will begin to meet with counselors and teachers to decide on an endorsement path.
Throughout middle and elementary schools, students will build upon their knowledge and compete with one another in academic competitions testing their skills.
He said the goal is to be a “school of choice,” in which students have opportunities to be successful in their strengths and interests. Hickman consulted committees of parents, teachers and principals while developing Pathways.
The program also stems from Hickman’s interpretation of state laws. Mississippi requires each student to have an individual career and academic plan that is personalized to meet his or her educational and career goals.
“Right now, the teachers are real excited,” Hickman said. “The parents who have been exposed are excited. Now the focus is on getting the word out…so, everybody’s on the edge of their seats.”
The emphasis of the Pathways program is increased personalization of students’ K-12 careers.
“Along the way, we’re talking from kindergarten, they’re gonna have a personal graduation plan,” Hickman said.
That personal graduation plan will allow the district to use a program called Naviance that tracks a child’s progress. Anytime a child is at risk of not staying on their graduation plan, the program will raise flags, at which point Hickman said the district will work with parents to conduct an “intervention” with the student. If by sophomore year, the student and his or her parents feel they need to, they can opt for a 21-credit graduation that will be enough to qualify the student for enrollment at a community college. GED programs will be an option, too. This approach will help kids stay in school, Hickman said.
“It has to be personalized,” he said. “The reason why kids drop out is because they feel disengaged, they don’t feel connected to the school system, they don’t feel they have a purpose — those are some to the top reasons.”
Closing gaps
Meeting kids where they’re at has been Hickman’s philosophy when it comes to reading in elementary schools, too.
The superintendent has faced criticism for going back to remedial levels of reading instruction, but Hickman said his plan targets the reading level — not the age — of individual students.
“The data actually shows that we’re growing kids, which we didn’t do before as a district,” Hickman said. “We’re filling in the gaps for kids who are low, and we’re increasing kids who are higher.”
According numbers presented at last months’ CMSD board meeting, the number of students testing at grade reading level rose 10 percent — from the low 30 percent to the low 40 percent rate — for third, fourth and fifth graders in the district. Even with that improvement, there is a long way to go.
“What people don’t understand is that kids were grouped according to their ability, and it was fluid,” Hickman said. “The problem is if you have a fifth grader reading at the kindergarten level, it’s going to be basic for that youngster. But, our goal is to increase and close the gap and…by the end of their fifth grade year they’re at a third or fourth grade level. Then the next year we have a smaller gap to close to get that youngster at grade level.”
When he arrived, Hickman was struck by the lack of technology in the district, which he said is a problem. He wants to increase student accessibility for technology, something the Pathways program will emphasize. He said failing to provide technology access is failure to educate the students.
“If you go across the country, we are behind in terms of exposing our kids to technology, in terms of preparing them for a global society,” Hickman said. “The misconception is they’re going to graduate and compete for jobs with people who are local, and they’re going to be competing with a global society. When you start to predict the populations who are moving in because of our industries, and we already know we haven’t been producing kids to fill those jobs — who do you think is going to fill them?”
Prioritizing needs
Hickman’s personnel decisions have come under the most scrutiny.
In July, the newly named superintendent recommended his wife’s uncle, Leslie Smith, a Chicago-based educator, to be the district’s director of schools. The position, created by Hickman, would have paid $70,000. The board approved Smith, but he was never added to the district’s staff, and Hickman later said he had not intended to go through with the hire.
In the past month, CMSD has parted ways with two principals. Jill Savely left Columbus High School to take the educator-in-residence position, one which will transition into principal, at the new Early College High School on East Mississippi Community College’s Golden Triangle campus. Patricia Overstreet resigned as principal at Franklin Academy Elementary School in February.
Hickman said he will employ a town hall type process to the selection of the permanent successors for both principal vacancies. He said students, parents and teachers will all have a voice in the process. The goal is to find educators who will most impact students.
“Just like any career, the education system is not an employment agency,” Hickman said. “Our first job is to put forth the best people for kids. So, part of my job is to evaluate whether we have the right people, in the right seats, on the right bus, and so those things do happen.”
He said he tries to make sure departing faculty go off on a positive note with the district, and to ensure their careers can continue.
“My job is to never put forth the needs of an adult over the needs of kids,” Hickman said.
Settling in
Hickman’s office at Brandon Central services is large and cozy, but he said it’s rare to find him there.
“I make it a point to visit the schools daily,” he said.
He meets with district principals formally once a month, and informally on near daily basis.
Hickman was a outside linebacker for the University of Missouri in college. His walls and shelves are adorned with Mizzou banners, magazine covers and mini-football helmets. There is a Jacksonville Jaguars signed helmet in his office, earned through a stint with the Jags farm league during which Hickman fractured his neck and ended his playing days. You can still hear his athletic background in his approach to education: the Pathways program holds constant academic project competitions K-12 and he talks about getting students as many “touches” as possible with technology throughout their education.
Amidst the jock gear are research books on education methods, pictures of Hickman’s son, who attends CMSD schools, and photos of him and the school board, who he said he has gotten along with better than he had anticipated.
“I’ve actually been very happy with the support of the board,” Hickman said. “These people are really excellent leaders, and they lend good advice.”
Hickman is living in a home in Columbus, but he hasn’t bought yet. Hickman and his wife wanted to rent for the first year, but they are enjoying their new home.
“I think this is a very good and accepting community, you’d be surprised how many people have reached out and supported my family,” he said.
The biggest surprise for Hickman in his new position is the lack of student problems. Coming from districts in Houston, Chicago and East St. Louis, he had been accustomed to poor districts fraught with violence and acting out.
“We really don’t have student behaviors that are just so abnormal and so unsafe that I wouldn’t send my own kid here,” he said.
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