Finding Relevancy... in School and in Life.

Don R. Roberts

Don Roberts admits he does not know all the pedagogical rationale, but 30 years of experience as a district superintendent have convinced him of this: "Kids deliver a lot more... when you have high expectations."

That was one of the signature working philosophies Roberts applied to student learning in Fort Worth, Texas, where he recently left the superintendency after seven years.

Roberts is widely credited for transforming the 7,200-student district through some creative programs and extensive school/business partnerships. Many of these reforms are part of the district's Project [C.sup.3] (Community, Corporations, Classrooms), which has given dozens of business leaders the chance to influence the direction of Fort Worth schools as equal partners with school leaders.

"I explained to them that we appreciated their help but that wasn't enough, that I'd commit to them, we'd make significant changes if they would support us and not expect that change to happen next week," Roberts says.

He is especially enamored with a program called Vital Link, which shows middle school students the connection between classroom achievement and workplace success. Of the nearly 4,000 students who have participated since 1991, Roberts says, "They seldom ask, 'Why am I studying this?'"

Under his watch, Fort Worth was selected as the lead district in The College Board's Equity 2000, a national effort to increase substantially the number of disadvantaged youngsters attending college by fostering greater enrollment in algebra, considered a gateway course.

Roberts ensured that teachers had the capacity to raise the students' expectations and support them through completion by developing a summer math institute for professional development. This program offers the mathematics staff new intervention strategies, approaches for using technology, and a multicultural aspect. Nearly 760 teachers voluntarily took the two-week course last summer.

Roberts says he can't understand why more urban school systems haven't devised similar programs. "They're inexpensive, extremely powerful, and extremely positive," he says.

What troubles him more is the overemphasis he sees across the country on using a limited gauge--standardized testing--to measure student success. "A very narrow view of testing is focusing American education on content mastery and world standards, but it's not driving how to apply that knowledge."

Roberts, who was district superintendent in Weston, Ore., Newport News, Va., and Amarillo, Texas, and state superintendent in Arkansas before moving to Fort Worth, hopes to share his expertise on such learning applications in the years ahead. He's not exactly sure how he'll do that once his consulting contract with Fort Worth ends this month. He's been working with his successor, Thomas Tocco, and the school board on budgetary issues.

He has some consulting work lined up with urban superintendents through one of the regional education labs and he remains a trustee of The College Board.

"I need some time to reflect, not just react every minute," says Roberts, 59, noting he will not likely accept another top district post although several interim superintendencies already have been offered.

Gary Manny, president of the Fort Worth school board, says he and his colleagues would have liked Roberts to stay on as their superintendent. He says the board and superintendent parted without animosity or disagreement.

"He needs to revive himself, to get out of the day-to-day turmoil of the superintendency," Manny adds. "He's due for a rest and to enjoy his kids and grandkids."

Community admiration for Roberts was evident in several Fort Worth Star-Telegram editorials, which credited him with making community involvement a byword in the school district and wished the school board luck in finding a worthy successor. "God's busy right now, so you're going to have to settle for second best."