School Leadership

Monroe, Lorraine. (1999). Nothing is impossible. New York: Public Affairs.

All too often, the failings of inner-city schools are chronicled in the media, without any celebration of some of the notable successes of educators like Lorraine Monroe. Monroe is the founder of the Frederick Douglass Academy, a public school based in Harlem that boasts the third highest SAT scores in New York City. Take no prisoners, make no excuses, do what it takes, persevere, pray, and only leave when you can no longer believe nothing is impossible, writes Monroe, citing these concepts as the reasons behind her success as a principal.

To live and put these principles into action is easier said than done, of course. However, Monroe's success rate demonstrates how setting low expectations for students creates a self-fulfilling prophesy, while setting high expectations can take everyone (except Monroe) by surprise. When Monroe took the helm at Frederick Douglass, it looked like a crime-ridden, burnt out parody of an inner-city school. Monroe worked to create a magnet school, a truly selective academy designed to prepare students to go to the best colleges in the nation. Strong school leadership is vital in allowing students to do their jobs of learning. Monroe planned every aspect of her public school's curriculum like a battle, including creating an atmosphere of order from day one, founded on 'non-negotiable' rules. Students who failed to meet expectations were immediately targeted and given extra tutoring. Clear benchmarks were set for the school in terms of meeting goals of passing standardized exams and getting students into college. For example, fifteen 7th graders passed the New York high school Regents Exam, thanks, Monroe says, to the stringent goals she made for the math department.

In response to criticisms that she cherry-picked her student body, Monroe is proud -- she says the sense of specialness her students feel about their achievements, is part of the reason her school has succeeded. Monroe speaks passionately about her own anger as a child when she felt that expectations for her own academic success were set too low, thus she refuses to show such prejudice to her own students. A leader must continue to dream, and never doubt, and her students, not knowing that they 'can't' learn French, appreciate the art at the Metropolitan Museum, or receive an acceptance an Ivy League school, fulfill Monroe's faith in their abilities.