The Administrator’s Favorite Color Was Five
In the Twin Cities and across the nation, public education has been plagued by what can only be described as passionate incompetence. This phrase captures the disconnect between good intentions and ineffective outcomes. Over the past five years, administrators have rolled out initiative after initiative, promising transformation: new literacy models, equity frameworks, technology rollouts, social-emotional curricula, and testing reforms. Each was championed with passion, urgency, and rhetoric about “student-centered change.” Yet, despite the energy and resources poured into these programs, the results are precise: proficiency rates remain stagnant, achievement gaps persist, and families, teachers, and communities continue to feel the weight of systems that do not deliver. Passion without competence is no solution, and the failures of these past half-decade reforms demonstrate that schools cannot afford more recycled promises dressed up as innovation. What is required now is competence,...