Alex Cherniss' Goals as Superintendent

On June 9, I was privileged to meet with our new Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Alex Cherniss, to discuss his vision for the School District. Dr. Cherniss has a monumental task in front of him. The District’s schools are not highly ranked relative to other Districts in the area. Perhaps even more importantly, the five member Board of Education is, at best, dysfunctional. It is locked into a 3-2 division that has led to a tyranny by slim majority rather than a collaborative group where the views of all are respected. This is particularly regrettable because Mrs. Marcus, one of the minority of two, is the Board member with great experience as an educator and institutional knowledge.

So, we should know more about the man who will confront the challenges. Dr. Cherniss has a Ed.D. in Education from the University of Southern California and, at the tender age (from my vantage point) of 49, has an extraordinary breadth of experience including Beverly Vista math teacher, Principal of Hawthorne and Assistant Superintendent of BHUSD. He then took a position as Chief Financial Officer at the Los Angeles County Office of Education and then Superintendent at San Marino USD, Palos Verdes Peninsula USD and Placentia/Yorba Linda USD.

He comes from an accomplished family that stressed education. The family includes his grandmother who received a degree from UCLA in 1930 at a time when few women attended university and Uncle Harold Cherniss who worked with Robert Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein at the Princeton Institute of Advanced Studies. Dr. Cherniss, like Anne Ostroff, was born in Taipei, Taiwan as his father was working there as an international banker. He points out, however, that Taiwan does not offer “birthright” citizenship so he is a proud United States citizen.

Characteristics, Qualifications and Experience

I asked for his thoughts about his characteristics, qualifications and experience that are well calculated to make his tenure at BHUSD a successful one.

He explained that the role of a principal is like the role of coach and if one can be a successful principal, one can be a successful superintendent. He views his role as one of a coach. A successful superintendent must know what he is talking about, be knowledgeable, be a good listener and communicator and someone who can anticipate issues. What are appropriate additional uses for the Hawthorne School campus? While Dr. Cherniss has an open mind about this, he insists that it must be used for our children.

Should the Permit program be retained, expanded, modified?

He has encouraged all Board of Education members to attend, if they have not already done so, the California School Board Associations Masters in Governance Program.

He believes that the curriculum should attempt to prepare students for jobs of the future while recognizing that is somewhat unknowable. I am certain that he would appreciate your ideas as he confronts the challenges ahead.

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Importance of School Rankings

Dr. Cherniss believes that school relative rankings are important because they are indicative of success in educating students. To improve rankings, one must focus on the work and create a culture of excellence.

Relative rankings of public high schools in California are based on a number of factors including performance on state proficiency tests, performance on Advance Placement exams and graduation rates. The first two drive the results.

The current ranking of BHHS is disappointing. For example, in the most recent report by U.S. News & World Report, BHHS was rated #157 in the “Los Angeles Area” and #344 in the state. By way of comparison, all of the high schools in the districts where Dr. Cherniss served as Superintendent were ranked substantially higher than BHHS. So he knows what success looks like.

Dr. Cherniss’ objective is to achieve 5% year over year improvement on the math and english/reading proficiency exams. This strikes me as very ambitious but high aspirations are commendable.

Individualized Free Tutoring

Dr. Cherniss emphasizes that objective measures such as performance on state proficiency exams and participation and success in AP courses and exams properly drive ratings. Dr. Cherniss understands that there are those who believe incorrectly that our rankings are negatively affected by graduates who attend two year colleges. That metric is not part of the rankings. Because he recognizes the importance of performance on standardized tests, he will work to ensure that there is alignment between curriculum and tests. Further, he plans to provide individualized free tutoring (Individualized Education Program) to all students who are performing at (barely) or below grade level in English or Math. This strikes me as an excellent idea and I only hope that all students who qualify take advantage of this opportunity. Further, if up to me, I would make it mandatory.

Ensuring that Students Take the State Proficiency Exams Seriously

Some have suggested that our students do not take the state proficiency exams seriously. Dr. Cherniss thinks that may be true. Accordingly, he is considering including exam performance as part of students’ grades on certain subjects or, alternatively, including results on these tests as stand-alone grades on report cards.

Other Issues

Other things that Dr. Cherniss is thinking about include: Whether to make mandatory the program for students who are falling behind (Individualized Education Program).

Attraction/Retention of Beverly Hills Residents as Students

One issue that Dr. Cherniss considers important is stemming the flow of some of our residents’ children with high academic potential to private schools. Dr. Cherniss plans to address this by creatively implementing new programs that will not be available elsewhere. The first one is a dual language immersion program for students in Kindergarten through Fifth Grade at our two elementary schools starting this fall. As I understand it, all or most instruction will be done in Spanish. All instruction will be done by teachers who will be certified in both English and Spanish. A Town Hall was held a few days ago to acquaint parents and students with this opportunity.

This program has generated a great deal of enthusiasm. One parent, Dorsa Karric told me: “The enrollment window opened at 8am this morning and I had my son enrolled by 8:03am! I am thrilled our district is now offering this and am floored that such a massive opportunity could be rolled out within months of [the beginning of a] new administration.”