Staying Ahead of the Class

When Dale wanted to expand full-day kindergarten, an initiative Domenech began, he gave supervisors a lesson on the benefits of early-childhood education and said many nearby school systems were ahead of Fairfax. Supervisors agreed to support systemwide full-day kindergarten, Connolly said, but expanding the program won't happen as quickly as Dale wanted.

Dale recently visited Westlawn Elementary School, which is testing his idea of a longer work year. He heard from teachers at the Falls Church area school who said they had cut their summers short to learn the latest teaching strategies. They invited kids to come in for reading tests over the summer and knew each child's strengths and weaknesses before the first bell rang.

"From Day One we were teaching kids," math teacher Spencer Jamieson said as colleagues nodded. "It wasn't, 'Where do you find paper for the bulletin board?' "

Dale told teachers that he wants the school to become a national model. "I think this is how we need to change the profession," he said. "If I'm wrong, I'm wrong."

Shaping Tools for Teaching

Dale's push to transform teaching has its roots in his experience as a high school math teacher in the 1970s in his native Washington state. He asked colleagues for guidance but wondered whether he was teaching the right lessons in the best ways.

"I was isolated," he said. "You could really close the door and teach what you thought was best."

Dale has campaigned for the longer teacher work year at conferences and in a book he co-edited, "Creating Successful School Systems: Voices From the University, the Field and the Community." He thinks that teachers need more time for training, sharing ideas and reviewing student test data -- and that they should be paid for it.

Ultimately, he sees it as a way to shrink the achievement gap. But the county's largest teachers union has voiced concern over morale if some teachers get paid for extra time and others don't.

Eventually, Dale wants to restructure high schools to help students explore fields such as engineering, biology and social work. He is also expanding opportunities to earn college credit.

He and his wife, Valerie, have settled in a Reston condominium. He said he hopes to head Fairfax schools until he retires.

"The thing I do well is getting people to work together," Dale said. "We have high aspirations for all kids, and I mean all."