By Maria Glod
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 17, 2006; C11
The leader of the region's largest school system marshaled educators across Virginia to challenge a federal testing mandate for immigrant students that he calls unfair. He persuaded Fairfax County officials to move toward full-day kindergarten in all schools. And he launched initiatives to expand the teacher work year and boost the caliber of instruction in classrooms that need it most.
All the while, Fairfax Superintendent Jack D. Dale has forgone the fiery rhetoric of his predecessor in favor of teamwork and consensus. The former math teacher, who is an imposing 6 feet 5 inches tall, has studiously cultivated a low public profile in one of the most demanding education jobs in the nation.
But the spotlight is moving toward Dale midway into his third year, whether he likes it or not, and it might intensify. On Thursday, the School Board is expected to extend his contract, currently set to expire in 2008, for two years.
Parents, educators and public officials say they are watching closely as Dale faces major decisions at the helm of a system with 164,000 students, 187 schools and a $2.1 billion annual budget.
As county supervisors predict the smallest school budget growth in a generation, it is up to Dale to get schools the resources they need. He hopes to make it possible to achieve lofty goals such as having every high school graduate speak a second language and understand connections between world cultures.
He also faces a possible showdown with the federal government over a testing rule for students learning English as a second language that he thinks sets them up for failure. On Monday, Virginia educators lobbied the U.S. Department of Education for more time to develop an alternative English reading test. If federal officials don't relent, Dale said, he's willing to risk sanctions for the school system under the No Child Left Behind law.
Daniel L. Duke, a University of Virginia education professor and author of a history of Fairfax schools, said Dale's quiet approach in his first two years has made him a good fit for the highly regarded system. Rather than splashy overhauls, he said, Fairfax schools need targeted efforts to help struggling students and fresh ways to push the brightest children.
The affluent county has SAT scores and a graduation rate among the highest in the nation for large school systems. Under Dale, participation in Advanced Placement classes has risen overall and among black and Hispanic students.
Enrollment growth has stalled, but there are continual demographic shifts in schools serving immigrant families. State test scores show that many black and Hispanic students lag behind their white and Asian peers, as is the case elsewhere, but gaps are narrowing in some grades.
"Jack is the right person for the time," Duke said. "The major issues are the achievement gap and maintaining success, and those are not issues where his visibility is going to be an issue."
But School Board member Kaye Kory (Mason) predicts that Dale will begin taking stronger public positions. "Fairfax schools could look very different in a year or two," Kory said, "and a lot of it depends on how Jack moves forward."
Creating Space for LearningDale, 57, who makes $266,292 a year, came to Fairfax in 2004 after serving eight years as superintendent of a smaller and less diverse system in Frederick County, Md. The Fairfax School Board was tired of squabbling with county supervisors and picked someone who advocated "the carrot approach instead of the stick approach," said board member Stuart D. Gibson (Hunter Mill).
Dale fulfilled those hopes, gaining a reputation as a down-to-earth boss who asks his staff for feedback, good and bad. To improve instruction, he hired coaches for 25 elementary schools to help teachers design lessons and make sense of student test scores. He instituted frequent, short tests for elementary and middle school students to identify those who need help in reading and math. He created a new position for an assistant superintendent to oversee staff training.
One of Dale's priorities is to put most teachers on a nearly year-round schedule. That's a significant shift from the tradition of having summers off but a move he thinks will result in better-prepared teachers, with a payoff for disadvantaged students.
This year, he began a $2.5 million trial program in 24 schools to put teachers on a contract longer than the usual 10 months. Ultimately, he wants about half of his teachers to work 11 months -- and have some students spend more time in school. Those steps would cost about $25 million a year.
"I'm trying to make a substantive change in the way we do business," Dale said. "What I'm trying to create is the reason all of us went into education: a place to have kids explore their minds and the unknown and the future."
He added: "I tend to operate much more behind the scenes, and that's a style characteristic or a flaw, depending on how you see it. My idea is to have people work as a team, and I think that is much more powerful in any organization."
'A Bit of an Enigma'Dale, who likes to grab his lunch in the administrative office cafeteria, is friendly and engaging in small groups. When he visits elementary schools, he frequently reads aloud a book that his sister wrote about their grandmother. On weekends, he unwinds by flying a single-engine Socata Tampico airplane he keeps in Frederick.
Some parents wonder where the low-key leader wants to take their schools.
"He seems like a very nice man, but I don't really know what he thinks about the issues," said Louise Epstein, an advocate for gifted programs. "Other parents I know also wonder what he really thinks." She called Dale "a bit of an enigma."
Lynn Terhar, a county PTA officer, said test scores show that Dale is "moving things in the right direction." But she said parents await what might happen when belts are tightened.
"This next budget cycle will tell the tale," Terhar said. "That will tell whether his low-key manner will be effective or if he decides he needs to stand up and fight."
Dale's predecessor, Daniel A. Domenech, won credit for programs to help the neediest children but often clashed with politicians over how much money should be spent on education.
Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald E. Connolly (D) said Domenech "exercised the bludgeon in his political dealings with the board, and it worked for a while but wore thin toward the end."
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 TeachingDale'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."
