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Uselman takes over Bismarck schools at critical time

By   /   September 25, 2011  /   1 Comment

Walking through the hallway that leads to Tamara Uselman’s office, it’s hard not to notice the framed pictures of all the men who held her position in years past.

Uselman, the new superintendent of the Bismarck Public School District is strong, determined and ready to work. She began the school year as the first woman to lead the district in Bismarck’s history.

(Photo by Michelle Farnsworth) Tamara Uselman took over as superintendent of the Bismarck Public School District this year after moving here from Minnesota.

Before moving to Bismarck, Uselman was school superintendent in Perham, Minn., for eight years. Prior to that, she held a variety of education-related positions in New York Mills, Minn., her hometown.

Uselman has a bachelor’s degree in language arts from Minnesota Statue University in Moorhead and a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of St. Thomas. She earned teacher credentials from Bemidji State University and a specialist degree from Tri-College University. And she’s working on a doctorate at the University of North Dakota.

Uselman met with the ~Great Plains Examiner~ to discuss her new role and reveal what’s on her mind, her goals and a little bit about the woman behind the big desk.

A teacher commented to me recently that the Bismarck Public School District has always had male superintendants, but you’re the first one to actually have balls. How do you feel about that “compliment?”

I have no comment about my predecessors whatsoever (laughing). But I can tell you that I just think the job of leadership is to be unpopular if that’s what it takes to drive improvement. Not change, but improvement. And that does take some chutzpa (still laughing). That’s true.

Now, about you. Who are you? Where did you come from? Why make such a big move at this stage in your career?

I grew up in New York Mills, Minn. I am one of nine children in a very large Finnish family. My parents spoke Finnish before they spoke English. New York Mills at one time was a real enclave for Finnish families. We tend to be kind of a clannish people, I think.

I’m in the older half of the family. I’m the fourth from the top. I have five brothers and three sisters.

I went to school in New York Mills and graduated from there. I had an English degree and I was married and living in the area and had an opportunity to long-term substitute in the high school. So I did long-term sub and then I was asked to finish my social studies license so I could stay employed there, so I did that, too. After that, I taught eighth-graders, juniors and seniors primarily in English and social studies.

The high school principal, a man and educator that I respect so deeply, he retired and my superintendant asked me if I would consider applying for the high school principal position. So I did that for four years. A high school principal job, I always say, if you do it well is like holding 100 firecrackers – lit. Get a couple out, and a couple more light. That’s just what the job is.

And so you’re really busy and you work with great teachers for the most part. And if they’re not great, that’s sort of your fault because your job is to make certain they are learning and growing and getting better at their job.

I really think I could’ve done that for a decade, but then I got a letter from a neighboring district to consider being an applicant for their superintendant position.

I recycled it because I was so darn busy and didn’t have time to think about putting together a file.

My former principal, that I replaced, said don’t close your options. Just think about some of your options and do what you want to do, but never say “no” too quickly.

I did apply in Perham, and was their superintendant for eight years.

So I had 18 years in New York Mills, and that was the school I graduated from. I was a principal of an awful lot of teachers who had taught me. And also I was a teacher of some of my brothers and sisters and my own children.

Tell me about your children.

Tim and I have three children – two daughters and a son. So I have three grown children and two grandkids.

What did they think about your moving here?

They were excited. They know I really liked Perham, but knew I was ready to go into a bigger system. I was probably over-ready. I get really attached to people, and the people there are so good. I don’t know in my lifetime if I’ll work with a team like that, so that was my worry, and that’s why I hung around for quite awhile.

So you had a great team.

We were a high-functioning team. We weren’t that when we began. But we really learned how to be that. So I was always worried; would I ever find that again?

As I’ve started working her now for two months, yeah, you build it. You find it. You find that synergy and that energy, and you start finding out where the distrust is, and you just keep trying to build on that trust. Build. Build. Build.

I’ve been told the people in Perham were not happy to see you go and are jealous of us.

Well, I’ll tell you, it was a long shot because Bismarck is a premiere system, and I come into it incredibly humbled. But there are some improvements we need to make.

You asked me who I am? Well, I think I am this Finnish woman who just thinks you have to work hard and be humble.

Tell me about your goals and priorities for Bismarck schools for your first year. What have you been thinking and talking about?

Very first goal is that before we set any goals we’re going to look at what the data tells us. So we are just going to go back to the data – and what does it say?

The other goal is to become more unified in district philosophy. So, for instance, you and I have talked about bullying. We need a district-wide response to that, so it’s the same and consistent no matter which school building your child is in. That’s a big deal to me.

Right out of the shoot, we’re working really hard at allergies and getting the same kind of consistent response policy, procedures to allergy issues. Some kids have allergy toxins. And I think buildings have been trying to address that on their own, as they get a child with those issues who comes through, and we really need a consistent district philosophy.

At the September board retreat we’re going to set some strong goals for the superintendant and the district. The results will be very public.

Now for a question that many people in this area discuss and argue over. What is your opinion of staring school after Labor Day?

My opinion is that whenever you start school, it has to work for the community.

Minnesota has been fighting to start school before Labor Day and has been so jealous of North Dakota, that you guys can start before Labor Day. And Minnesota says it’s just common sense. Your kids are back from camps, they’re in football practice, the pools are closed; they’re ready to come back in and get to work. And the longer you wait to start, the bigger the gap; the more loss of learning. So they’ve begged and pleaded: Why can’t we be like North Dakota?

And we are complaining – why can’t we be like Minnesota?

Calendars are interesting to try and work with (laughing). I think people feel that Labor Day is kind of a sacred marker. It is in Minnesota. Many schools have petitioned to say that this is nuts. It isn’t so much about Labor Day or not Labor Day; it’s that when you start after Labor Day, you now have so many days you have to get in before the end of May. So then you have a shorter Christmas break and have fewer breaks during the school year and you compress that calendar so tightly.

Something I thought of as principal, it sure would be nice if we didn’t announce the last day of school. And then on that day you come on the intercom and say, “In five minutes we’re done. Turn in your books.” Because there’s so much shutdown, shutdown, shutdown.

Tell me about No Child Left Behind. Can you give a simple definition? And is this what you were referring to as the “data” to be looked at?

No Child Left Behind is structured so it’s the fault of the school and operators of the school if the kids aren’t achieving. And then here’s a letter to you parents, just so you know, that the school your kid is in is not achieving the way it should. And you have the right to go to a different school.

No Child Left Behind assumes that all the learning, that the whole value of learning is measured by one score, on one test, on one day. So we have this one-shot measure, and that becomes the measure of the whole school. And the AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) letter makes you look like the whole school isn’t performing.

No Child Left Behind, if you think of it as 14 steps on a stair, up to 2014, the law says every year you have to increase the number of kids who are proficient. So you will be listed negatively any year you don’t take that step up.

And the repercussions are?

You send out these letters to parents saying your school is failing. And your kid could be a straight-A student, scoring incredibly well, and you’re still going to get that letter, because they blame that all on the school because all of the kids in the school didn’t meet that percentage.

For instance, let’s say Century High School wasn’t performing, and your child was a senior. Does that come into play when a child is applying for colleges?

No. That’s a really good question, and one that parents probably have. Has zero impact. A college will look at the individual ACT score.

And here’s a weird thing – we get an AYP letter for the district that says some of your schools are failing, and within that school, there are some incredibly successful kids. But at 83 percent you’re still failing.

So therein lies the criticism.

They would say your school is failing because you can’t get that to 85 percent passing – what’s the matter with you? Ironically, at the same time our ACT scores are at or above the national average.

So now what?

What we do in those failing schools is send out those letters. Then we go back. I personally feel really responsible for the kids who aren’t at grade level. And we have to start figuring out why, because there are very few stupid children. These are bright kids. So there has to be something going on in their learning.

Generally it goes back to reading. Seventy-five percent of kids are going to crack the reading code. It’s a code system. And your brain is so smart; you don’t even know it, that it’s code-cracking all the time. Until you run into a really bright kid that can’t crack that code.

We have to figure out a different way of teaching them. And that’s what we’re struggling with. What will work this time? Because this other thing didn’t. So we get a prescription of interventions.

2014 is when 100 percent of the children in the country are supposed to be at perfect grade level.

Right. So that’s not going to happen.

Isn’t going to happen. And many public schools will be made to look bad, when indeed they are not.

Do you lose funding?

You do lose control of some of your funding. You have to spend a certain amount on staff development. Yeah, there are some penalties if you will. At the federal level they realize this logic doesn’t work. It’s a punishment system. It isn’t making better schools. You really can’t measure the worth of a child’s intelligence with one test at one time.

Is our federal government coming up with a different program?

No one is going to tinker with No Child Left Behind until there’s an election. But it will not be re-authorized the way it is. We’ve been told that. It just won’t.

The part I like about No Child Left Behind is that it has really made us focus on that group of kids. I like that. I think we’re responsible for them.

The part I don’t like about it is, it makes your whole school look like a failure when, come on, 85 percent are successful. I think that’s a pretty good success rate. That doesn’t excuse us from working on the other 15 percent – and pretty intently. I think we have some programs that can change outcomes for kids.

-Michelle Farnsworth is a freelance writer for the Great Plains Examiner.

 

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1 Comment

  1. Uselman takes over Bismarck schools at critical time | Real Estate – get edge says:

    [...] Uselman takes over Bismarck schools at critical time This entry was posted in Loan Calculator and tagged curriculum, desk, doctorate, great plains, school year. Bookmark the permalink. ← The Red Sox still have time to recapture what they had – Extra Bases – Red Sox blog [...]

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