Grasmick announces she'll retire in June
As schools chief for two decades, she has ushered in numerous reforms

By Liz Bowie, Erica L. Green and Julie Bykowicz, The Baltimore Sun

10:17 PM EDT, March 30, 2011

Maryland school Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick, who used her considerable political acumen to reshape education in the state over the past two decades, announced Wednesday that she will retire from her post this summer.

The unflappable 72-year-old is the longest-serving superintendent in the nation, having survived in her role largely because she was able to get along with governors even when they came into office vowing to force her out, as Martin O'Malley did.

Grasmick will retire June 30 with another year on her contract. The timing was right, she said, because the state's educational system has recently received national accolades and because one of the toughest signature pieces of reform — a teacher evaluation system that factors in student achievement — will be completed in early June.

Robert C. Embry, who presided over the state Board of Education that hired Grasmick in 1991 and is president of the Abell Foundation, called her "tireless, an incredibly hard worker, accessible, open to new ideas, and on the cutting edge of what's going on nationally."

Appointed to usher in a new era of accountability, she has presided over the initiation of statewide testing in grades three through eight, invested in early childhood education and pushed Advanced Placement courses into schools around the state.

The efforts have earned Maryland schools a No. 1 ranking in Education Week for the past three years as well as a No. 1 ranking by the College Board for the state with the highest percentage of graduates who have been successful on AP tests. And last year, Maryland was one of only a dozen states to be awarded a $250 million competitive federal grant, known as Race to the Top.

"We greatly appreciate her unprecedented two decades of service that has produced extraordinary results for the students of Maryland," said James DeGraffenreidt, president of the state school board, which will appoint the next superintendent.

He said the school board will conduct a national search that he expects to be "structured" and "methodical."

At 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, Grasmick stood within a circle of hundreds of staff members on the seventh floor of the state Department of Education to give them the news of her retirement. "I have made a very tough decision," she said, with her voice cracking. Around the room, a number of people, from her high-level staff to secretaries and support staff, stood wet-eyed in line to give her a hug. She was handed a dozen long-stem orange roses.

Unable to slow down the hectic pace of her $195,000-a-year job, she said, she decided that it was time to take a vacation with her husband, Louis Grasmick, and then choose what new venture she might want to pursue at a "more leisurely pace."

A woman who doesn't have an idle speed, Grasmick is known for arriving early to work, dressed impeccably, and staying late. She makes constant appearances at schools around the state, sometimes driving herself 600 miles a week while conducting business on a cellphone attached to the dashboard.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who spearheaded the Race to the Top plan, said through a spokeswoman of Grasmick's retirement: "In an era in which state superintendents change as frequently as every year, Nancy Grasmick has been a consistent voice for reform in Maryland for two decades. Under her leadership, Maryland has been at the forefront of reform and will remain so as it implements its Race to the Top plan."

Grasmick has had a contentious relationship with some of the governors she has served, most recently O'Malley. The rocky relationship can be traced back to when Grasmick had attempted a state takeover of several city schools while O'Malley was mayor of Baltimore; when he was elected governor several years ago, he pressured her to resign.

But observers who have watched Grasmick withstand the tests of politics said her ability to gather different interest groups, from teacher unions to legislators to superintendents, around a single cause has been one of the greatest strengths of her tenure.

"Her ability to survive in that job, given the nature of politics in Maryland, is pretty incredible," said Donald Norris, public policy professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. "She's worked for a couple of governors who didn't like her at all."

Grasmick has remained nearly "untouchable" due to the unwavering support of her state school boards, Norris said, because no matter how vulnerable she seemed, her results were strong.

Education stakeholders around the state said Grasmick's retirement marks the end of a formative era.

"It's one of the decisions that I've been involved in that I'm most proud of — hiring her," Embry said. "She came up through the public schools in Baltimore and through the public education system, so she certainly knew the groundwork before she arrived at that position."

Embry said Grasmick steered the board's vision for Maryland schools. At the time of her hire, the state was moving in the direction of increased academic accountability and testing, and picked a leader who would make the tough decisions to see it through.

"The board wanted to make sure the superintendent was oriented toward outcomes just as much as inputs, and she strongly was and has been," he said.

Grasmick excelled at gathering consensus, particularly among the state's 24 school superintendents, and pointed to that Wednesday as one of her accomplishments.

She praised Andres Alonso's leadership in Baltimore schools, saying that she feels better about leaving her job knowing that he is at the helm of the city system.

A graduate of the Baltimore public school system, Grasmick has expressed enormous frustration over the years with her inability to turn the system around until Alonso was hired as CEO.

But Alonso reversed the credit for the school system's success.

"She has been a hugely important partner in the work," Alonso said. "She embraced the possibilities of the work we were trying to do right away, and it couldn't have moved without her because the work demanded that MSDE be open to innovation in many areas. She has been all about doing the right thing for kids and schools."

Unpopular reforms

Grasmick has managed to push through a series of reforms that were difficult and unpopular. First, she oversaw the beginning of the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program, or MSPAP, which gave Baltimore residents a sense of how poorly their schools were compared to those in the suburbs and provided the impetus for an overhaul of the state's funding formula for schools.

Over the course of a decade, Grasmick then began creating tests for high school students and in 2007 the state board voted to require all high school students take and pass the High School Assessments before graduation. While the requirement was modified at the last minute, many thought it would never pass.

Perhaps her greatest failure was her attempt to seize control of 11 failing Baltimore schools in March 2006. She was the first state superintendent in the country to attempt such a takeover under No Child Left Behind. She contended that it was not a takeover because she would have put the schools in the hands of independent operators, but she miscalculated the degree of anger from then-Mayor O'Malley, and the legislature passed a law that put the move on hold.

The mistake cost her later. As he began his first term as governor, O'Malley butted heads with her and joined Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller and House Speaker Michael E. Busch in urging her to step down. She refused and the state school board, whose members were chosen by Republican former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., reappointed her to a four-year term. Grasmick, once rumored to be a possible running mate for Ehrlich's first gubernatorial match against O'Malley, is described as a conservative Democrat.

And more recently, the two had a difference of opinion over when the state should apply for the Race to the Top funds. While the two have never had a good relationship, they were able to come together and argue their case before a panel of judges for the Race to the Top application this past summer. The governor turned up at a state school board meeting to offer congratulations on the day the state was named a winner.

O'Malley, who has campaigned on Maryland's status as a reform-minded education state, thanked her for her service in a statement Wednesday afternoon.

"Dr. Grasmick has been long-regarded as a champion for many of the progressive reforms we've implemented in Maryland," the governor said.

Superintendents also praised Grasmick as a leader for reforms that have secured educational opportunities and high standards for every student.

Joe A. Hairston, superintendent of Baltimore County schools, called her a "stalwart in education nationally, as well at the state level." He said Grasmick made her mark in Baltimore County by ensuring that the district could equally serve its diverse populations.

"She has been a real champion for ensuring that the underserved child received all that was possible with regard to having access to a quality educational experience here in Baltimore County," Hairston said.

Board surprised

DeGraffenreidt said Grasmick's announcement was a surprise and that the state school board will have to develop a plan for finding her replacement. The state is unusual in that the governor does not have a direct say in who is hired, although he does appoint the members of the school board.

The appointment process has insulated the superintendent from some partisan politics, unlike in other states where political appointees with no education experience come and go with every change in governors. The past two Maryland superintendents have had education backgrounds.

Hairston and Alonso both have contracts set to expire — Alonso's this summer and Hairston's in June 2012. When asked if they were interested in replacing Grasmick, they both jokingly responded.

"First of all: You don't replace a Nancy Grasmick," Hairston said with a chuckle. "Plus I have a full-time job in Baltimore County schools."

"I think it's Joe's job," Alonso joked.

Lawmakers also praised Grasmick. Sen. Joan Carter Conway, chairwoman of the Senate education committee, called her "an icon in education."

But Conway said the news did not come as a complete surprise, given Grasmick's sometimes rocky relationship with O'Malley.

"She can be a little controversial, politically," Conway said, adding that O'Malley "has always wanted to appoint someone to that position."

O'Malley has now appointed all of the state board members, and while his board has questioned Grasmick more frequently, sometimes pushing her to act faster or speed up reforms, they have firmly backed most of her ideas.

"There's been speculation that once the governor was able to appoint a majority of the board, she'd be gone," Norris said. "Nevertheless, I expected her to be around. She's certainly had quite an impact on K-12 education in Maryland — not without controversy — but an incredible impact."

The state superintendent still has a considerable workload to complete before she leaves in June. With multiple projects and a difficult battle yet to be settled with teachers over the evaluation system, Grasmick will be negotiating difficult political waters up to the last minute in her job. She said she expects to still be packing at 11:59 p.m. that day.
 

Copyright © 2011, The Baltimore Sun