Linda Murray - Diploma Matters: A Field Guide for College and Career Readiness

Praise for Diploma Matters

The San Jose, California, experience in raising academic expectations for all students at the high school level is a model for others to consider. Under Linda Murray's leadership, San Jose Unified School District instituted significant reforms in graduation requirements, which resulted in improved college readiness. This is a story worth reading, including the specific implications for districts nationwide.

Michael W. Kirst, Emeritus Professor of Education and Business Administration, Stanford University; president, California State Board of Education; author, Political Dynamics Of American Education

After spending more than four decades in the field of education, I have read a multitude of books on transforming schools into places that work for all kids. Many of those books have been good or excellent, but none has had the power and punch of Diploma Matters by Dr. Linda Murray. Linda, who was an extraordinary superintendent, also proves to be a captivating storyteller. The words flow off her pen and onto paper, telling an impressive story of what it takes to get school reform right. Linda tells it like it is, and her untiring support for educating all of the kids is overwhelming. She captures, in a straightforward way, the nuts and bolts of how to do the work of reform. This is a book for practitioners who have seen it all. I've always felt that Linda Murray was an extraordinary educator. Read the book and you will see why.

Peter J. Negroni, senior vice president, College Board

As Mayor of San Jose during Dr. Murray's tenure as Superintendent of San Jose Unified School District, I observed firsthand her commitment to ensuring that underserved, low-income students would be given a chance to go to college. Our shared vision of college readiness for all spurred a strong partnership between the city of San Jose and the school district, and we collaborated throughout the years by providing important supports such as after school homework centers. Our partnership and shared vision continues today as we work together as civic leaders to strengthen the vision of college readiness for the most needy students in our city.

Susan Hammer, former mayor of San Jose; member of the State Board of Education

A practical, real-life approach that is easily replicated is just what the doctor ordered for education systems across the United States. Dr. Murray has created a marvelous recipe for success within these pages, and her well-articulated experiences are a gift to everyone in pursuit of improving outcomes for students.

Mark Walker, managing director of Global Community Affairs, Applied Materials, Incorporated.

This book is a definitive how to' for effective, meaningful, and lasting school reform.

Kathy Burkhard, former president, San Jose Teachers' Association

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Murray, Linda, 1944-Diploma matters: a field guide for college and career readiness / Linda Murray.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-118-00914-7 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-1-118-07732-0 (ebk.)

ISBN 978-1-118-07733-7 (ebk.)

ISBN 978-1-118-07734-4 (ebk.)

1. College preparation programsUnited States. 2. Universities and collegesEntrance requirements. I. Title.

LB2351.2.M87 2011

373dc22

2011014365

Foreword

If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it. Several thousand mostly white teachers of mostly black and brown kids on their feet and cheering as their superintendent called them to action on one of the most audacious district-level policy changes of our time: kids would henceforth take the rigorous academic course sequence heretofore required only of those bound for the elite University of California. Mind you, I said cheering. Not groaning. Not grumbling. Not rolling their eyes or any of the many things that teachers do when their superintendents get what they describe as hare-brained ideas.

Of course, the story didn't begin in that gymnasium. It began over a year earlier when superintendent Linda Murray honestly confronted the growing body of research on the harmful effects of the way we do high school in Americaallowing students too young to know any better to pick and choose their way through high school, often avoiding the challenging courses that would force them to develop the skills and knowledge they would need in the twenty-first century. Indeed, the sad reality in the San Jose Unified School Districtlike almost every other school district in Americawas that adults in the system often exacerbated this problem by choosing who was college material and who wasn't, steering many studentsespecially minority and poor studentsaway from the tougher courses.

Not prone to issuing edicts, Linda carefully built support for the idea of teaching all students the so-called AG curriculum required for admission to California's two public university systems. She started with her school board and with the principals whose job it would be to make this work. But she also engaged the union president very early on. They don't all have to go to a state university, she argued. In fact many will enter community colleges or technical training or go right into the workforce. But they will be prepared , no matter which route they choose.