San Diego Gets Data Driven Boss

[Rich Gibson <rgibson@pipeline.com>]

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/education/20080119-1400-bn19supe.html#sosd_comments

Grier tabbed as San Diego Unified's new superintendent
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By Helen Gao
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

2:00 p.m. January 19, 2008

Terry Grier, a North Carolina native who has been at the helm of 
seven public school systems throughout the country in the past 23 
years, has been tapped to lead the San Diego Unified School District.

After months of meeting behind closed doors to select a 
superintendent, the school board voted unanimously Saturday to hire 
the 57-year-old educator, who started his career as a biology and 
health-education teacher.

Grier's name has been swirling around as a leading contender for the 
San Diego superintendent's job since he publicly acknowledged in 
early December that he was interviewing for it.

For the past seven years, he has been the head of Guilford County 
Schools, the third largest system in North Carolina with 71,400 
students. Guilford is about half the size of San Diego Unified, the 
second largest district in California with about 135,000 students.

"My colleagues and I are thrilled to welcome Dr. Grier to San Diego," 
board president Katherine Nakamura said in a written statement. "He 
is an innovative educational leader with a strong commitment to 
community outreach and an unparalleled work ethic.

"His focus on data-driven instruction and the use of technology to 
help all students succeed are exactly what we are seeking in a 
superintendent. Beyond that, he is a truly gracious and kind 
individual, who always remembers that people come first and that our 
children come first of all."

California is not a completely unfamiliar place to Grier, who was 
superintendent of the Sacramento City Unified School District in the 
mid- 1990s. He was fired after 18 months by the school board there 
without explanation and later went to court to defend his reputation.

Grier has long since recovered from that setback and is now a star 
educator in North Carolina.

The North Carolina School Boards Association and the Association of 
School Administrators named him Superintendent of the Year in 2007. 
The year before, he was one of three finalists to lead 
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, North Carolina's largest district with 
about 135,000 students.

Under Grier's leadership, Guilford County Schools have made 
significant academic strides. The dropout rate has declined by half 
to 3 percent. The percentage of high school students graduating in 
four years has gone up to about 80 percent from 66 percent. 
Guilford's dropout and graduation rates are now among the best when 
compared to other urban districts in North Carolina.

The number of students taking college-level Advanced Placement exams 
has gone up to 8,393 in 2007 from 2,864 in 2000.

Parents say Grier is the type who is not afraid to shake up the 
status quo and undertake bold initiatives that are controversial.

Guilford is the first school system in North Carolina to pilot a pay 
structure that provides substantial financial incentives for top 
educators to work in low-performing high-poverty schools. Under what 
is dubbed the Mission Possible program, principals and teachers, who 
specialize in certain subjects, such as math and reading, can earn up 
to $18,000 a year in annual incentives.

John Graham, who has two children in Guilford schools, started out as 
one of Grier's harshest critics, but over time, he's become a raving 
fan, he said.

"He's quite a catch. If you don't like change, you are not going to 
like him," Graham said.

Grier succeeds Carl Cohn, a high-profile educator who joined San 
Diego Unified in October 2005 and stepped down at the end of 
December, 18 months before his contract was due to end.