Some Background about Kristi Kahl
and Hill Middle School in Long Beach, CA
I am a local girl who went to school in the same system in which I'm employed
-- the Long Beach Unified School District. I was your typical honor student
with perfect conduct grades until about 10th grade. From there it was all
downhill. I found high school to be completely uninspiring, and I left with
barely a 2.0 grade point average, having been kicked out of at least one
class for having a "bad attitude." I found my inspiration working
at a local submarine shop after school, where I was quickly promoted to
manager. There are days when I wish I could go back and do high school all
over again, but I'm not sure if the outcome would be that much different.
In spite of my low high school GPA, my SAT scores allowed me to enroll in
our local university. But my college years weren't that much different from
high school. I had moved from sandwich shop manager to waitress at a local
dinner house. I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up (but it wasn't
going to be a waitress!), so I followed a friend into Liberal Studies and
decided to become an elementary school teacher.
Teachers hate to hear about people who go into teaching because they didn't
know what else to do, but for me, it's the truth. I finally connected. My
grades improved, and I managed to graduate from our local university with
close to a 3.0. I enrolled in the teacher credential program and vowed to
NEVER receive a grade lower than "A" for the rest of my school
career. To this day, I have kept that promise to myself.
I was hired by my current district as a middle school, 6th grade Humanities
Core teacher -- which meant I taught History/Social Science and English.
It wasn't elementary school, but 6th grade sounded fun. I was not yet credentialed,
but one of our inner-city schools needed a teacher, so I became one of the
first of what would soon become a great wave of teachers teaching on an
"Internship Credential." Thank God I repeated the history class
I failed in college! That first year was a killer, but I stayed at the school
for four years and eventually took on several leadership roles at the site.
After I earned my credential, I went straight into a Masters program and
graduated with a degree in Curriculum and Instruction. I was also ready
for a change, and transferred to another middle school where I taught gifted
and talented students for one year. Compared to my inner-city four years,
this year was a cakewalk. I don't care what anyone else says, it is definitely
easier to teach kids who are already successful in school. Motivating the
ones who aren't doing well is much more challenging. Both are rewarding.
While in the Masters program, I began to love school again like I had in
the elementary and middle grades, so I decided to begin my doctoral program.
It just so happened that one of our Assistant Superintendents was also in
the doctoral program. She became familiar with my work and brought my name
to the attention of the Superintendent. After just five years of teaching,
the Superintendent selected me to work as his Administrative Assistant,
which was a huge promotion.
The job was coordinating our district's middle school reform efforts, working
with 21 schools and a nationally known
foundation in New York. Going straight from the classroom to the Superintendent's
Office was the greatest professional challenge I have faced -- until now!
[NOTE: See this interview with Kristi Kahl,
published during her tenure as coordinator of middle grades reform in the
Long Beach Unified School District.]
It was during these years, working with a variety of leaders, that I decided
I wanted to be a principal. I began to read, and to try to learn from the
principals I considered to be the best. While working for the Superintendent,
I graduated with a doctorate in Educational Leadership, and my dissertation
was on middle school principals' criteria for quality instruction. I also
returned to teach, part-time, in the Masters program from which I had graduated.
Over time, I got very comfortable in my middle school reform position and
began to itch for a new challenge. I was offered a promotion to a management
position in our Human Resources department. A new Assistant Superintendent
was in charge and was revamping the department. I reluctantly agreed to
the position, working on teacher recruitment. It was a great year of experience,
but it also helped me decide I needed to get out of the central office and
into a school. I believed that all of my studying, training and various
work with talented leaders had prepared me well for the principalship. I
managed to convince our Assistant Superintendent for middle schools and
that's how I got where I am today.
Our school system, the Long Beach Unified School District, is one that everyone
is proud to be a part of. It is rare, indeed, to find a large urban system
in which the Superintendent has been in place for over seven consecutive
years, working as a team with a solid Board of Education. From the school
site perspective, we are lucky to be a part of a system that embraced standards-based
reform years before California released their standards. This focus on
standards has allowed us to create a support network for teachers in the
form of standards-based professional development, and a whole host of other
resources to help us accomplish our goal of increasing student achievement.
Hill Classical Middle School is located not far from the campus of Long
Beach State University. Approximately 87% of our student body is bused
in from other, more crowded parts of the district. We have a diverse student
population, and about 50% are considered "English Language Learners"
(Long Beach students and their families speak over 50 different languages!)
Our greatest challenge this year is to become a true "Classical"
middle school. We have defined Classical by saying that all students
will wear uniforms, all students will take 8 classes instead of 7, all students
will take at least one year of foreign language and/or fine arts before
high school, and all students will maintain a grade point average of no
less than 2.0. This means that all students receive 3 "electives"
(including special reading and math classes for those who need them), attending
4 classes every other day on an alternate day block schedule.
By the way, did I mention I got married and had a child during all
of this stuff? Somehow I need to figure out how to be a principal, a wife,
a mother, a friend, (and now, a diarist) all at once. I know this will be
my most challenging year yet, but I think I'm ready. I'll keep you posted.
Read Kristi's first diary entry >>>
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