An Advocate of Blunt Speech and Fine Arts.

Phil Raley considers it public education's obligation to do more than dump facts on the brains of youngsters before sending them off to the work world or higher education. He sees a more expansive role, one in which schools graduate well-rounded students who can appreciate their cultural heritage, apply their problem-solving skills in meaningful ways and work cooperatively with people of different skin colors and beliefs.

So the outspokenness of Opelika, Ala.'s long-time superintendent against his state's piling on of one accountability measure after another hasn't much surprised his school administrative colleagues in the Camellia State. They have cheered his brash utterances against what many of them also consider the state board of education's excessive testing requirements.

As a past recipient of his state's Superintendent of the Year honor and an acknowledged authority on applying technology to the classroom, Raley carries considerable respect when he rails against the "pseudo-educational accountability" of gatekeeping devices and regulations heaped upon local schools.

In a no-holds-barred opinion piece for the Alabama School Boards Association's monthly journal last October, Raley asked, "How much instructional time must be captured for schools to demonstrate students have acquired some narrow band of basic skills and are ready to be called 'Alabama educated?"'

Raley has taken special aim at the latest measure to force fact-recall, the Alabama High School Graduation Examination, which he contends will consume up to 15 teaching days a year to administer. The graduation exam, a prerequisite for a diploma effective this spring, joins an existing lineup that includes the Stanford Achievement Test, primary readiness tests, writing assessments and state-provided end-of-course tests.

What especially rankles Raley, who grew up in southern Alabama, is the prospect these state tests will impinge on the very programs that distinguish Opelika's educational program.

Throughout his 30-year career in administration, beginning with his appointment to an elementary principalship in Opelika at age 24, Raley has been committed to providing each student with experiences in the performing arts. Every 3rd-grader, for instance, receives eight weeks of violin instruction and students in all grades attend professional theater productions, such as "Evita," "West Side Story" and "The Diary of Anne Frank," at a $5 million, 1,200-seat performing arts center that became part of renovated Opelika High School in 1988. And for one week every year Opelika hosts a nationally recognized children's book author to meet with students and teachers.

"It's the only opportunity for many of them to see these kinds of artists," says Raley, who was appointed superintendent in 1988. "Some kids come to school because they know they're going to be in chorus or an instrumental class."

Opelika's student population of 4,500 is almost evenly split between whites and blacks, meaning Raley has been especially attentive to engaging the community when he introduces a new program idea. Those efforts begin early when the school district provides the family of every newborn with a goodie bag that includes a future student T-shirt, baby books and parenting guides--an idea Raley says he borrowed from educators in Valdosta, Ga. School officials pledge to visit every family five times before a student starts kindergarten.

The community rewarded such outreach last January by passing a new property tax of six mills. Approved with a 62 percent affirmative vote, it was one of only 12 school tax hikes approved by voters in 62 attempts across Alabama during the past decade. During the three weeks leading up to the vote, Raley made 50 public presentations around the community.

While the superintendent is quick to credit the work of his administrative colleagues, Raley is widely viewed as the inspiration behind his district's initiatives in technology and the arts.

"He's one of the most enthusiastic people I've ever met, whether he's baking bread with the kids or reading stories with them," says Barbara Patton, the mayor in Opelika whose children attended the elementary school where Raley was principal. "He's not an invisible superintendent."

Mark Neighbors, who was hired by Raley as a middle school principal 10 years ago, agrees with that assessment. "Dust doesn't settle on him," he quips.

Jay Goldman is editor of The School Administrator.

BIO STATS: PHIL RALEY

Currently: superintendent, Opelika City Schools, Opelika, Alabama 

Earlier: assistant superintendent, principal and counselor, Opelika City Schools

Age: 53

Greatest Influence on Career: Clyde Zaanot, the superintendent who hired me originally in Opelika and held the job for 30 years before my appointment.

Best Professional Day: The 62 percent affirmative approval of a $1 million-a-year tax increase in January 2000.

Books at Bedside: By the time I am at bedside, it's too late. But I am struggling with Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsch

Biggest Blooper: Allowing the purchase of a primary reading program before sufficient buy-in by teachers--a mistake that took two years to overcome.

A Reason Why I'm an AASA Member: Association with others committed to serving children.