Columbus City Schools Superintendent Dan Good is set to retire at the end of the 2017 calendar year, following a short tenure guiding the district out of scandal.
“The days of the sage on the stage being in front of the classroom, behind the podium or reading the chapter and answering the questions at the end of the book are not only unnecessary, it’s almost malpractice because students can get information over the internet," Good said in an interview Wednesday on WOSU's All Sides With Ann Fisher.
Four years ago, Good was hired after former superintendent Gene Harris resigned, and helped lead the school district out of a data rigging scandal. Harris stepped down after several school officials changed students’ grades and retroactively withdrew and re-enrolled students who performed poorly on standardized tests.
Good said he focused on turning around the way data was used when he became superintendent.
“Increasing the fidelity of the data, the way we collect it, the way we put it into the repository and extract it, how we represent information with that data,” Good said. “The data that helped us to expand preschool and increase our rating and our graduation results.”
Just weeks after Good was hired, voters overwhelmingly rejected a levy request that would have sharply increased property taxes and changed the auditing structure of the district. It was the first Columbus City Schools levy to fail in more than 20 years. Since then, Columbus voters have gone on to approve more modest levies for the district.
After he leaves, Good said he wants to see Columbus City Schools focus on alternatives to suspension and expulsion that keep students purposefully occupied.
“Let’s consider alternatives to placing kids out of school," Good said. "And those alternatives being available right in the schools.”
Good was the superintendent for Westerville City Schools before coming to Columbus.
