Connecting personally through personnel work.

At the opening convocation in the Kansas City, Kan., Public Schools in fall 2003, the audience of 3,000-plus teachers and other staff inside the city's Memorial Auditorium rose at once to deliver a standing ovation to the superintendent, Ray Daniels, who was about to deliver brief remarks on the state of the local schools.

The moment was spontaneous and genuine and clearly not an act of sentimentality, coining as it did a full year before Daniels would publicly announce this would be his final year on the job before retiring. The deep and widespread affection between school staff and superintendent is unusual in school circles today, but it doesn't come as a surprise to anyone who has watched Daniels in action during a 40-year career that started in the same urban school community as a junior high school English teacher.

Daniels, who turned 63 last month, has a personal connection with many of those teachers because he spent four years as the district's director of personnel and the next 17 years as assistant superintendent for personnel services, meaning in effect he has had a significant hand in hiring almost everyone who's currently on board. Before he moved into the superintendency in 1998, he reckons he could "tell you where that person worked and what he or she did."

During his 17 years as assistant superintendent when he led the district's contract negotiations with the teachers' union, Daniels built an enormous bank of good will and credibility from which he has drawn while insisting on collaboration as a starting point for meaningful change in teaching and learning. He further embellished his stature when he pushed hard for a full-day workshop for 70 classroom teachers as the district was launching its landmark initiative, First Things First. Teachers had largely been shut out of the decision to introduce the program by Daniels' predecessor, who was still on the job but agreed to Daniels' proposal.

"That clinched my confidence in him," concedes Lee Quisenberry, a union field representative with the National Education Association. "There was some risk involved, yet in spite of that, he brought us into the fold."

First Things First, developed by the Philadelphia-based Institute for Research and Reform in Education, strengthens relationships among students and teachers by creating smaller learning communities inside schools, enabling teachers to move with students from grade level to grade level and setting aside a two-hour block every Wednesday for teachers to use for professional learning and data-driven decision making.

The institute's president recently called Daniels "courageous" for bringing the First Things First program to the entire school system within three years rather than a few pilot schools the way most districts do. The Kauffman Foundation provided $15 million over 10 years to implement the reforms.

The initiative has produced some marked results in a 20,000-student school district whose achievement test scores were the near the bottom statewide less than a decade ago. Graduation rates have improved at each of the five high schools, while student performance on statewide math and reading tests has edged the district closer to the results of its suburban neighbors.

Yet Daniels admits the district, faced with $20 million in spending cuts the past three years because of inadequate state support, is "not yet where we want to be." Four of 54 subgroups in his district failed to make adequate yearly progress last spring, all in math.

John Rios, a veteran middle school principal in Kansas City, says the rebound of the district is rather remarkable given the early moments of cynicism of reform-weary teachers and administrators. "He told everyone to be patient ... and here it is."

Rios has known Daniels since his student days at a junior high school where Daniels was the assistant principal in the early 1970s. He remembers Daniels hinting he would hold the superintendent reins for five years at the time of his appointment to the post. "He's set such a legacy and foundation. It would be hard for someone to mess it up," Rios says. "Our best days lie ahead, but I hope they don't forget who laid the foundation."

BIO STATS: Ray Daniels

Currently: superintendent, Kansas City, Kan.

Previously: assistant superintendent for personnel, assistant principal, English teacher, Kansas City, Kan.

Age: 63

Greatest influence on professional career: I grew up in a medium-size Kansas town and graduated from Kansas State University, both of which were almost completely white. I started teaching in a junior high school that was about 70 percent African-American. I learned so much that first year from those students about diversity, culture and the value of living and working in a community with a range of ethnic groups and socioeconomic levels.

Best professional day: Two years ago we saw a jump in reading and math at all levels so significant that I wondered whether it was a fluke. One year later, our research people came to my office to report the gains not only held but we continued to see increases. That was truly memorable.

Books at bedside: The Superintendent's Fieldbook by Nelda Cambron-McCabe, Luvern Cunningham, James Harvey and Robert Koff; and 50 Places to Fly Fish Before You Die by Chris Santella

Biggest blooper: When making $8 million in budget cuts, I recommended to the board we change our transportation for high school students, which resulted in a large number of students no longer having transportation. The change led to significant problems for many students and caused a raucous crowd to show up in protest at a board meeting. Luckily, a large rebate payment from our local utility in August enabled us to restore the bus runs in late September.

A key reason I'm an AASA member: Organizations such as AASA provide services and advocacy for educators to help us with our primary mission, student achievement. The networking and information provided are invaluable.

Jay Goldman is editor of The School Administrator. E-mail: [e-mail]