Big changes in works?

Under the dramatic headline, Big MPS changes may be in works: civic leaders team up with school officials to create long-term strategy, the Journal Sentinel reports on a new effort by MPS, the Greater Milwaukee Committee, and the MTEA. It is not clear exactly what the effort will be doing, but my initial cynical reaction is that this sort of thing has been attempted a number of times before (sometimes with my involvement) but has never been especially successful.

I hope I am wrong.

The broad mandate, to do strategic planning, is not particularly reassuring. That implies months of meetings and uncertainty, leading to a set of mushy consensus goals. At worst, these efforts are aimed at subverting the responsibility of the school board to set policy. I would be much more reassured if the group were to look at specific issues, such as identifying strategies for the bottom-performing schools.