Many longtime ASCD members credit the Association with helping them grow professionally. Art Steller does, too, but he also notes that ASCD has played a crucial role in his personal life. He met his wife, Debbie, at ASCD's Annual Conference in St. Louis in 1981, when both served on a curriculum committee convened at the Conference. "We met the first day of the Conference and spent much of the rest of our time together," recalls Steller. By the following year's Annual Conference, they were married, and they brought their first son, Jonathon, to the Conference the year after that. The following year, new son Matthew was the second Steller boy at the ASCD Conference.
So perhaps it's fitting that Steller, whose professional and personal lives have been tied with ASCD for more than a decade, is ASCD's new President. Steller, who took the helm in March, sees his upcoming year of service as "a way to pay back the Association"as well as to influence education on a large scale.
The desire to bring about a better society through education has motivated Steller since his earliest thoughts of entering the profession. As a teenager, he saw education as "a vehicle for changing society and eliminating negative social conditions." Himself a product of an urban environment, Steller to this day champions the role that education can play in improving the quality of children's lives, especially those living in the cities.
Achieving Goals
Now deputy superintendent of the Boston public schools, Steller has worked in rural, urban, and suburban settings. Hearing him recount his career path, it's obvious Steller is someone who sets ambitious goals and does everything within his power to achieve them. He recalls deciding, at age 17, to be a school superintendent—and to have the job by age 35. "I missed it by three months," he adds.
But his slight tardiness should probably be excused, given the demanding schedule he pursued as he chased his dream. As a teacher of 5th and 8th grades and curriculum coordinator in an Appalachian section of Ohio, Steller also "drove a school bus, coached, and was intramural director," all the while taking a full load of graduate courses at Ohio University. A scant four years after completing his bachelor's degree and beginning to teach, Steller had acquired his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees and had begun his climb through the ranks of school administration. "I always did more than one thing at a time," says Steller, adding wryly, "I was busy."
After serving his first superintendency in Mercer County, W.Va., Steller became superintendent of the Oklahoma City public schools, where he earned a national reputation for his leadership in school improvement. At a time when the average tenure of urban superintendents was less than three years, Steller served as superintendent in Oklahoma City into his eighth year. Again, his unwavering focus on the goal at hand—raising student achievement—helped to accomplish the task. To the extent possible, "we didn't sidetrack ourselves" with political matters, he says. "Our main concern was the instructional program of the district."
Thirty-two Oklahoma City schools were on a state list of low-performing schools (those in the bottom quartile in test scores) when he became superintendent, Steller says. By launching such initiatives as Saturday programs and school effectiveness training, the school district reduced that number to only seven. That was followed with Project Phoenix. The district closed the seven schools, hired completely new staffs handpicked by new principals, and provided enhanced staff development and other resources. Six of the seven were off the state list the following year, Steller says.
Helping Urban Students
As in Oklahoma City, Steller has made improving the odds for urban youngsters a major focus of his new job in Boston. He's currently involved with three major district initiatives: a school-based management plan, an effort to foster "inclusion" in the city schools, and a major overhaul of the district's curriculum.
Not surprisingly, Steller says that improving education in urban settings is the issue about which he's most passionate. "We have to figure out ways to provide a quality education to urban youngsters," he says. "That's the biggest challenge in education right now. If we can't come up with some solutions—ones that work in practice and not just on paper—then we've got serious problems" as society becomes increasingly urbanized.
While some critics suggest that urban schools are incapable of improving, and that vouchers or privatization of school services are needed for inner-city children to receive a top-flight education, Steller bristles at such a notion. "Urban schools can turn it around; they can make a difference with the children in their charge. But change will not come without sacrifice," he says. "What we need are people who care enough to inconvenience themselves, to make that difference. A lot of people will talk about change, but when it comes down to paying more taxes, or working a little harder putting in more hours ... not as many people as we need are willing to do that." Change will only come through the creation of a common vision for school renewal along with a critical mass of people inside and outside urban education systems committed to that vision, he says.
Steller, who serves on ASCD's Urban Education Advisory Board, says that ASCD needs to increase the number of urban educators in ASCD governance and in the membership at large if the Association is to play a stronger role in improving urban education. Soliciting greater involvement of ASCD members is one of three priorities Steller foresees for his year as President. The others are implementing approved changes in ASCD governance and shaping ASCD's development as an international organization.
But Steller is modest in discussing his accomplishments within ASCD or more broadly. In general, he says, he's most proud of the fact that "I've helped others to advance in their own careers and their own skills." Fifteen of the educators he's supervised have served as school superintendents. Within ASCD, he says, poking fun at himself, he'll probably be remembered for his tireless efforts during four years on the Executive Council to have an ASCD podium drape created for ASCD conferences. Once again, he set a goal, followed through doggedly—and achieved what he set out to accomplish.
