Hiring consultants

For various reasons, people leave the classroom or the school or the district or the state department of education, and for various reasons some of those people then launch themselves as consultants. So far, so good. Free market. Willing seller, willing buyer and so on. However, not all who were once in education at any level good consultants make, and someone who is good at one thing may not be able to guide or to mentor in another. Some "consultants" can actually do real harm.

What prompted this? Well, a few weeks ago I was contacted by a consultant who had just been hired by a group of schools to replace another consultant. C2 is a former colleague; full disclosure, she is someone I once appointed to her first deputy principal position and whom I would summarize as excellent. C1 is someone I know, although not well, who came from the state department of education and whom I would summarize as barely competent, if that.

C1 had been hired to rewrite, recreate and reintroduce the group's reading and writing programs. She was in place for about three years and during that time, almost all the elementary teachers had been replaced, along with many of the middle and high. The degree of voluntariness, coercion or compulsion is unclear. 

So the first result of C1's efforts was the loss of almost all institutional knowledge and history, professional and personal relationships, commitment to the Mission, connections with families and, as the young people say, whatnot.

C1 had fallen into the trap of "retain and retrain" or "replace and recruit". Again, the degree of voluntariness, coersion or compulsion is unclear, however C2 has encountered a group of almost entirely young, new and inexperienced colleagues who need considerable hand-holding in everything, not just in reading and writing. She lost one weekly meeting completely to a discussion on the parking since all present were new hires.

C2 also has a Mission problem. Not only is she trying to introduce "what and why" discussions on reading and writing, but she must also combine these with discussions on the group's Mission which, of course, none of the new hires (almost all elementary and many middle and high teachers) know.

And the students? C2 has been looking at books and at samples from years past, and comparing current high school levels and thus where they were eg in Grade Five with current Grade Five students. Her analysis? Three years' lost instruction and backsliding.

In other words, this earlier "consultant" had damaged the school, affected teachers' professional trajectories and harmed students. I must assume she did not set out to do this, and I can't really blame her, other than to say that she should not have taken on a role which she could so obviously not fulfill. However, I do think the group's academic leadership should at the very least be immediately fired for hiring her and failing to supervise, if not also the level above and below for their collaboration.

I am now consulting to C2. I am sure she will do well, given time, but I am glad I am not in her position. As we positive educators like to say, every day will present her with more opportunities for improvement.

**Please leave comments and queries below.**