Walking in Circles: The Black Struggle for School Reform by Barbara A. Sizemore (review)

Abstract

Walking in Circles: The Black Struggle for School Reform, by Barbara A. Sizemore. Chicago: Third World Press, 2008, 370 pp., $19.95, paperback. What does it mean to be the leader of school reform in an urban district? What is it like to be a Black female superintendent with passion, have the innate ability to lead, a vision for educating Black children - and not be able to make a sustained impact on the district schools? How does this leader determine the direction, the destination, and begin the journey? What crystallizes the leader's stance and pace? What defines the walking? How does this type of walking touch the soul? And, who does the walker become? To answer these questions, I delved into Walking in Circles: The Black Struggle for School Reform, an epic account of the long journey by the late Barbara A. Sizemore. The book's title, "Walking in Circles," describes what some might call a vicious cycle, a brutal and continuous journey that produced a few improvements while inciting conflicts between community leaders and school administrators. Readers may be familiar with the stories about Barbara, have heard the reports, and have read the news excerpts about Dr. Barbara A. Sizemore. One Washington Post article described her tenure in the District of Columbia (DC) this way: Mrs. Sizemore assumed center stage in an arena that was wracked by social ferment, political battles and court fights during the two decades of civil rights struggles and the District's drive for home rule. The campaign for self -government ended only last year with the city's first elected mayor and Council in more than a century. (Lamb, 2004, p. B06) In DC, Barbara's tenure, like that of the superintendents before and after, mirrors the distasteful relationship between the city's school board and its superintendent. Similarly, Barbara's actions in the community were often a flashpoint for board conflict. Her book reflects her brilliance. In fact, Dr. Sizemore had a reputation of being an extraordinary educator and a courageous advocate for decentralization and community-controlled schools in DC. The embattled Dr. Sizemore made no secret that she was particularly interested in raising the academic achievement of African American students. However, Barbara's educational philosophy and administrative style led to her being terminated by the city's elected school board in 1975. As I completed the book, it became painfully apparent that Dr. Sizemore's legacy had not yet been realized. In the late 1980s, Barbara Sizemore called standardized tests "the new lynching tool" for the aspirations of African Americans and in 1989 stated that "it seems the best way to eliminate tests is to help minorities to pass them." (p. 308). She added, "Tests can then become the diagnostic tools they were meant to be instead of the mechanism for separating winners and losers." (p. 308). Therefore, I was stunned to read the unspeakable. Dr. Sizemore's tenure in DC had been terminated - too soon. Howard University retired professor and one of the leaders of the Center for Inner-City Studies (CICS) at Northeastern Illinois University, Dr. Nancy L. Amez wrote a case study of Dr. Sizemore's tenure and relationship with the school board. In The Besieged School Superintendent," Amez said that Sizemore was ahead of her time (Arnez, 1981). In a 1996 interview Dr. Arnez had with Education Week she stated, concerning Dr. Sizemore, "The fact that she could stand up to authority is one of the things that frightened people (Bradley, 1996) ." In fact, "Her approach to Congress was not one of supplication and of begging. She was just putting forth, in a strong manner, the kinds of things she had in mind to help these non-achieving students achieve (p. 36)." Chapters 1 through 3 help the reader understand Barbara's early beginnings and why she became such a strong pioneer for children. Her writing is clear, crisp, and candid. Chapter 4 shares her experience as a school leader - the struggle, stress, and strain of this work. …